When PM Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, the Western media made an assumption- PM Modi is Islamophobic and the Muslims of the country are in danger.
And if you read Western media, you see a strange assertion of authority. Western media thinks it can write anything and get away with it. It can make bizarre claims without backing them up with facts or statistics and act as if it is an authority in itself. This is what the global media has been doing with India for the past eight years.
And the global media keeps pushing this narrative even today. Take a look at The Atlantic report titled, “The Hinduization of India Is Nearly Complete.” It is an exercise in fear-mongering that tends to make outrageous, uncorroborated and strange remarks about Muslims in India.
Reviving the wounds of the Partition
The Atlantic report starts with the flawed reasoning that has become standard in the liberal ecosystem today. It states, “When the British withdrew from the Indian subcontinent in 1947, paving the way for the independence of the newly partitioned nations of India and Pakistan, the Muslims of the region had a choice. They could resettle in Pakistan, where they would be among a Muslim majority, or remain in India, where they would live as a minority in a majority-Hindu but constitutionally secular state.”
The Atlantic seems to mistake the Partition as some sort of a population exchange carried out on the basis of convenience. However, it was a violent division of India that displaced millions from both sides of the border.
Anyhow, to bring up the issue of Partition and suggest that Muslims in India perhaps made the wrong choice is a gross miscalculation of how the two countries turned out. While India’s demography has titled towards minorities, Pakistan has wiped out its minorities. By even suggesting that joining Pakistan might have been a better option, The Atlantic is whitewashing the crimes committed by the Pakistani State.
Senseless allegations
The Atlantic story also makes some rather bizarre allegations. It states, for instance, ” “A raft of new laws has reached into their daily lives to interfere with the religious garments they wear, the food they eat, where and how they worship, and even whom they marry.”
Now, which country is The Atlantic talking about? And which laws are these that The Atlantic talking about?
If it is all about misinterpreting innocuous laws tested on the anvil of Constitutional principles, we don’t really have anything to say. Laws governing religion in India apply to all, irrespective of religion and religious beliefs. So, if this is all that the liberal ecosystem has to complain about, it is quite clear that the entire campaign is plain and simple fear-mongering to paint a supposedly draconian image.
So, this is what it is about
Interestingly, The Atlantic story also talks about PM Narendra Modi and his “Hindutva credentials”. So, this is what it is really about.
The entire point of the story boils down to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is all about slandering him and the concern shown by global media about Indian Muslims is just a flimsy excuse.
The global media continues to exaggerate and misrepresent India’s internal events. It is quite convenient for the West to write pulp fiction about India. Yet, things are nothing like what the West says on the ground level. India, therefore, needs to guard against such mischievous attempts.