NEW DELHI: In an interview with Edward Gargan of the New York Times, India noted journalist, author and historian Kushwant Singh expresses frustration and disgust with Hindu fundamentalist. Kushwant Singh, a favorite of the Hindu press because of his santi Sikh and pro Hindu writings has undergone a change of heart after the recent spate of violence in India in which thousands of Muslims were Killed and the retaliatory bomb explosions in which hundreds of people got killed.
“Hindu resurgence has been coming since 1947 onwards” says Kushwant Singh, “it was inevitable, and Independence was Hindu resurgence.” The massacre of Muslims in the wake of the Ayodhya incident was only an expression of the resurgent Hinduism. Anything India has to be Hindu or linked with Hindu culture for it to be national. Hindu revivalism seeks to enforce Hinduism on everyone in India and express aggressive opposition to any other faith or culture, with the rise of the BJP and its sister organizations, rabid fundamentalism is the order of the day.
The Congress (I) has been a party to these developments because of its weak kneed response to the attack launched by the BJP opposition, The Congress itself dominated by Hindus silently supports the rise of Hindu fundamentalists and by its policies has tried to profit from these developments, ‘This was evident from the way the Prime Minister Rao allowed the Babri Mosque to be destroyed and later used that excuse to dismiss the BJP governments in the States of UP, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal.
Kushwant Singh is sick of it all and says, “I see the breakup of the country, Khalistan, Kashmir, you have the Chastain north east. They are really going to destroy the country.”
He compares the discrimination policy of India’s fundamentalists Hindus to that of the Nazis during World War line Germany, “I saw.
Hiver’s Germany, The discrimination was out and out there.” Writing about Kushwant Singh, New York Times says, “Even routine daily habits have been affected by the ground swell of identification with all that is Hindu. Now for the first time Singh is beginning to lose some of his friends, people who approve of resurgent Hinduism. Of a well-known editor who is now an impassioned, articulate defender of Hindu fundamentalism, Mr. Singh says he doesn’t feel like going to his house anymore.”
The growth of Hindu fundamentalism has been a steady one, the Hindus think it is now their turn to take it out on the Muslims and other minorities, Having been under Muslim domination for hundreds of years, they feel they have been wronged too long and blame others for all things going wrong. According w Kushwant Singh, “For India this is a watershed,” And he sees the breakup of India in the days ahead.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 16, 1993
