Wait for the genocide
Below is the full text of a speech I delivered on December 4, 2020 to a American audience in a private online event. I find it relevant even today, hence resharing.
Assalam Alaykum,
I'm thankful to the (organisation’s name) for initiating a discussion on an issue that not only demands our immediate attention but also calls for an appropriate response. Also, I'm thankful to them for inviting me to share my understanding of the situation here in India.
Without taking any more time, I shall begin with what I have to say. At the risk of coming off as unprepared, lacking conviction of what I am about to say...I have written down a speech. I did that for two reasons. One, that English is not my first language. It is the language I write in. So that. And secondly, and more importantly, because I am living in a country where any part of my speech may be misquoted, misrepresented, or even distorted to carry out propaganda against me in particular and the Muslims in general. My dear friend, with whom I share not just the spirit of resistance but also my name, Sharjeel Imam, has been slapped with sedition charges for making a call for chakka jam or road blockage. He is languishing in jail since the last week of January. A part of his speech was taken out of context and misrepresented by the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party's propaganda machinery. I do not want that to happen. Therefore, the written speech. Initially, I decided not to give a title to this speech, but now I have decided to call it
"Wait for the genocide"
Ever since I was invited to deliver this talk, I have been asking myself…why have I been invited. Many more important and experienced leaders can contribute much more to this discussion than I can. I am not a leader in any capacity. Nobody follows me and I lead none. I think they only invited me because I went to jail, I told myself. Going to jail has somehow given a little legitimacy to my words. 'An artist is of no importance. Only what he creates is important', said William Faulkner once. I wonder if William Faulkner knows that this kind of understanding doesn't work in politics, despite many calling politics an art. In politics, art is of no value, only the artist, that is, the politician is. I have come to this conclusion after consciously observing the Indian polity for several years.
Take, for example, our supreme leader, Narendra Modi. He is God for many. All of our slogans of equality and brotherhood are overshadowed by the chants of his name as soon as he takes the podium. No wonder he doesn't take press conferences. The ones who are to ask questions would be chanting his name in devotion instead of questioning him as they're doing now. So, Modi, the artist is indeed the most important man in this country. Everybody, lovers, and haters alike want to know him more. Nobody focuses on his art. His art, I argue, is the genocide Muslims of India are staring at. His art is our destruction.
I am previously discouraged from using the word 'genocide' while discussing the situation in India, especially in the context of Muslims. I exaggerate too much, I am often told. What I fail to understand is the standard or scale that is used to label a given situation, or any given situation, in our case - the situation of Indian Muslims as genocidal. What all should have happened before we can call a situation genocidal? Is it after Muslims are being stripped-off their citizenship merely because of their religion? Is it after members of the Muslim community are particularly targeted and attacked and killed and burnt down to ashes in a pogrom that was designed and implemented by the state machinery who was supposed to save us, with the help of neighbors who were supposed to..well..be neighbors, as we saw in Delhi, this February? Is it after we see Muslims being killed on a day-to-day basis, sometimes because of their eating preferences, sometimes because they were accused of stealing something, and sometimes because members of the other, the more powerful and "the in majority" community felt like killing someone? Is it after we have established through speeches and conduct that the members of the government, our elected representatives, indulge in promoting and even rewarding those who participate in such killings? Or maybe when a member of the government goes on air in an interview to say that Muslims do not have equal citizenship rights in this country? Or the construction of dozens of detention centers? I genuinely want to know where do we draw a line here…who gets to decide what situation is genocidal.
Sometimes I feel we can only come to a reasonable conclusion when the situation is over. When countless lives have been lost, hundreds of thousands have been permanently damaged, when all of it is over. Maybe then... someone would quote statistics of the destruction to conclude that "Yes, the situation was indeed seriously dangerous..it was indeed genocidal."
I was reading about the Rwanda genocide which was the worst genocide of the 20th century. One important piece of information I learned and found relevant to our situation was that when the situation in Rwanda was deteriorating, it was seen as tension. Later, when the violence first started, it was seen as 'civil unrest' and later as 'civil war'. It was only after thousands of people were killed, did the world say, 'Hey! That was a genocide'. We've developed, I believe, this tendency to overlook and at times deny the possibilities of genocide when its groundwork is being laid. After the destruction, we are sad and charged with emotions, and we announce 'Never Again'.
As good a slogan, this 'Never Again' sounds like, I am not going to use it. I have my own slogan. It's called - Wait for the genocide. Prof George Andreopuolos of John J College of Criminal Justice in New York gave us the dictionary definition of genocide. He said genocide is the intentional and systematic destruction of a group of people belonging to a particular ethnicity, colour, religion, or nationality. If that is what genocide is, I guess, I only have to convince you that the destruction of Indian Muslims is both intentional and systematic. Shall I?
Before I begin with trying to convince you that the destruction of Indian Muslims is both intentional and systematic, I have to say something to the American viewers. I know you had a hard time with Trump in office, but I find it very problematic when you try to compare Trump for America with Modi for India. You called Trump a fascist, which he was to in some sense, but that doesn't make him anything like Modi. Trump was a billionaire turned politician who had this weird and unpredictable way of working. Even the Republicans at times were skeptical of him. He has been voted out of office now. America's fascism is over. Modi is nothing like that. He rose from being a foot soldier of a militant, supremacist, right-wing fascist organization called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or the RSS to becoming the Prime Minister of India. If that sounds familiar to Nazi Germany, it is because it is. The RSS's literature is inspired by them. The RSS's salute is inspired by them. The RSS's dress is inspired by them. With Modi out of power, which is very unlikely, Fascism is not going to die. There is always someone else from within the RSS to replace him when his time is over. And I must also remind that RSS had huge influence in the previous governments as well.
Having that said, I do not think I have to present before you some hidden or unknown facts to convince you that the destruction of Indian Muslims is intentional. It is a part of RSS's plan. Its forefathers have dreamed of an India, which is a Hindu nation, with no Muslims and Christians in it. It's ideologue, MS Golwalkar, whom our Prime Minister and his followers fondly call Guruji said and I quote, "Foreign races must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race or may stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment - not even citizens' rights". This is mainstream RSS founded in 1925. There is nothing new here.
It should not be any surprise that RSS's political wing BJP that rules India now has brought the Citizenship Amendment Act or the CAA. In whatever language they try to sugarcoat this bill, it should be viewed as what it is - an attempt to disqualify Muslims from their membership in the Indian society as the RSS has always wanted. For a moment, think of all the lynching that have happened since Modi took power. Think of Mohammad Akhlaque who was dragged from inside his home, beaten to death mercilessly by his neighbors, his fellow villagers on allegations that he consumed beef. If that wasn't enough, after his death, India debated and NIA investigated our most important concern - whether or not was the meat kept in Akhlaque's refrigerator beef. The meat was later found out to be goat, but even if it was the sacred cow, does that justify such a killing? Now think of Tabrez, who was tied to a pole, being beaten by a crowd of Hindu men while others made videos of the incident. Tabrez is seen crying, begging, folding hands, and apologizing. The video soon became viral on the internet. Later, another viral video of Modi, our favorite artist, saying something stupid came in, and we forgot Tabrez. Now, know that these men who roam around killing people do not just get to walk free of the crime they commit, they also get privileges and rewards from the government representatives which includes but not limited to first row seats in Prime Minister's rallies, getting Twitter follow back from the Prime Minister, garlanded by other subordinate ministers...and if you die without any of such rewards, your dead body may well be draped in Tiranga for your so patriotic act.
The RSS with its cadres and BJP's power has completely radicalised the majority of Hindu society. The frequent lynching, the frequent attacks on mosques are the byproducts of the radicalisation process. I do not need to convince you that the destruction of Muslims is intentional. They boast of it, are proud of it. Last year, in an election rally, BJP lawmaker Ranjeet Srivastava openly said and I quote, "If you want to destroy Muslims, vote for BJP". Do I really need to say anything else?
As for the question of systematic destruction, first, viewers must know that RSS has successfully made its way into all the organs of the state. It is in the veins of the state so much so that even textbooks of school children reflect RSS's ideas. Take, for example, BJP's most favourite freedom fighter namely Savarkar who now features as someone "whose contributions to the cause of independence cannot be put in words" in every school textbook from class 8 to 12. Savarkar, by the way, is the founder of the supremacist Hindutva ideology who not only has zero contribution to the independence movement but also worked for the British regime. Similarly, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, the ruling BJP government changed the syllabus, or in their words, "Indianized" the syllabus which meant removing "Akbar and his legacy and replacing it with Maharana Pratap's heroic deeds".
The systematic destruction of Muslims can also be viewed by just taking a glance at Muslim representation in state institutions such as the judiciary, police, army. Take the case of UP - the biggest state in terms of population with almost 20% Muslim population where Muslim representation in the police is a little over 2% in the entire police force. I am not going to go into much detail here, one can always read Paul Brass, Steve Wilkinson or Omar Khalidi for in-depth understanding on that; but there is one thing I would like to mention. And that is Muslim's economic development which has remained stagnant, and at times, decreased drastically over the years. There has been the systematic destruction of businesses where Muslims were doing good, either directly by well-planned riots or in more subtle ways through government policies. Take, for example, the leather industry of Kanpur - one of the biggest in the world and dominated almost completely by Muslims. As soon as BJP came to power, the companies were asked to shift the location of their factories to a different place. The reason given was the pollution these factories caused to the holy waters of the Ganga river. As much as the reason given seems noble, I can safely say that other factories such as soap and detergent factories that pollute the river much more than leather factories were not asked to shift, simply because they were run by Hindus. Now, shifting a factory to a different location demands too much money. Many factories who couldn't afford the relocation, simply died, thereby leaving thousands of Muslims unemployed, forcing them to go into the unorganized sector as laborers or daily wagers. The government crushed the leather industry. Now a new hub of leather industry is growing in a city located in the southern part of India, is owned by upper-caste Hindus, which I am sure is not polluting any water.
That said, the biggest achievement of RSS is not damaging Muslim businesses, or Indianizing education as they call it, but delegitimising Muslims as members of Indian society. Muslims are forced to live in fear, where the fear is constant in terms of its presence and growing in terms of intensity. The Hindutva symbolism is taking over India and our Hindu majority has accepted it comfortably. The infamous, illegal destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 by RSS members was criticized by the opposition parties, and also by a large section of Hindu society. The case of destruction, and also the land on which the Masjid stood was in court. In November last year, the court gifted the land to the Hindu party. In its judgment, the Supreme Court noted that there was no evidence of a Temple beneath the Masjid, the act of putting idols inside the Masjid was illegal, the decision to allow Hindu party to pray in the Masjid compound was illegal, the destruction above all was illegal but we're going to give the temple to the Hindu side. This time, there was no opposition or even criticism from opposition parties. Instead, they were bragging about their contribution to it. It later turned into a credit war where everybody was fighting to take credit for the proposed Mandir that would be constructed in the place where the Masjid once stood. Even our so-called allies were asking Muslims to get over it, move on with it. That is the biggest achievement of the RSS. It has completely Hinduised Indian society. That is the systematic destruction of Muslims from the public imagination. With no support from the government, and constant policing, criminalisation, dehumanisation, attacks, and vilification, the Muslims of India have nothing left fighting for except their citizenship which too is in question now with the Citizenship Amendment Act. And if Muslims protest, it is just another opportunity for the government to criminalize, kill, and torture Muslims as it is happening now. I mentioned my friend Sharjeel Imam earlier. He is in jail for calling for a chakka jam. How could he? How could Asif Iqbal Tanha, another friend of mine, quote Iqbal and Azad in his speeches and try to defend his citizenship rights? Asif Bhai is also in prison on Terror laws. So is Khalid Bhai, and others.
But it's not genocidal yet, I'd be told. Perhaps, we should wait for it to actually happen. The leading public intellectuals of this country who write op-eds and columns in leading English dailies in their flowery English once used to praise Modi. They legitimised him as a PM candidate. Now, they're saying it was a mistake. They are calling him a fascist now. But how do you fight a fascist? You don't. You just wait for the genocide.
Sharjeel Usmani
4th December, 2020
Shaheen Bagh