In the past, the kings used force against those who would question them on any issue. During the period of Chandragupta Maurya the then king Dhananand did the same, he even tried to kill Chanakya, the wise man of the period.

It is said that king Ashoka killed 100,000 people during the Kalinga war. When foreign invaders came to India they took no mercy on people. Mughals used force as well as diplomacy to control this region. Later on they declared themselves to be Indians and stayed back here and got assimilated in the Indian society and Indian culture. But the British imperialism was different; they overpowered India through diplomacy and force. They plundered our wealth and took everything to England and enriched themselves at the cost of our people. List of their violent oppression of our freedom fighters is very long.

After independence, to build a nation based on democratic principles was a big challenge which was however met with successfully. Every citizen of the country belonging to any religion, caste or gender was given equal rights in the constitution. Not only that, those who were oppressed since ages were given special privileges. As a result despite shortcomings many from them could be uplifted to an extent. This led to reduction in discrimination in the society and increased harmony. But the situation is again getting worse and there is all out effort to minimise and destroy these achievements.

A narrow thinking is being imposed and there is dissolute effort to build a monolithic society in the name of nationalism. Those who attempt this forget that all those countries who assimilated others have progressed while those which were built on sectarian principles lagged behind.

Presently we find that to fulfil their nefarious designs such forces are targeting the minorities and sending out misleading information on the religious conversions. Young people aspiring for love and affection are being refrained and for pursuance of this, acts like ‘love jihad’ have been enacted. Gangs are being promoted for such acts who indulge in violence with prudence. It is being propagated that Muslims are anti-nationals and they should be thrown out and sent to Pakistan. Many of them have been arrested on frivolous charges and put in jails for long.

Farmers protests are being labelled as being run and led by the Khalistanis. Several conspiracies are being hatched against this movement. Recently when son of the minister of state for Home affairs Ajay Mishra allegedely killed the farmers under his vehicle at Lakhimpur Kheri, his father tried to belittle the crime by saying that these farmers belong to Babbar Khalsa.

Mob lynching, hitherto unknown in this country, is occurring on one pretext or the other. Most of the time, such events go unnoticed by the police as well as the judiciary. Many times the victims have been made accused. Such forces have been emboldened by the backing of the state which is all out to suppress people’s movements. Nazi mind set is apparent from the recent statement by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat in an interview to Times Now which justifies and promotes lynching.

There is now a very subtle effort to spread communal venom amongst Hindus. But it is now becoming clear that Hindus too are their target. Those who question them are labelled as anti-nationals and targeted. Many have been put to jail by terming them as urban Naxals . Kalburgi, Dabholkar, Gauri Lankesh and Govind Pansare were all Hindus, but they were eliminated by the forces of Hindutva. Police inspector Subodh Kumar who was killed by the mob at Bulandshahr too was a Hindu. Manish Kumar, a businessman from Kanpur who was killed by the surcharged police with violence at Gorakhpur was also a Hindu. Recently violence against film maker Prakash Jha and his team members, all Hindus, in Madhya Pradesh is a reflection of their hate against anyone who questions them. All this is being done to silence the voice of peace, love, brother/sisterhood and harmony in the society among the people of same community. The same happened during the period of terrorist violence in Punjab or is happening in Jammy and Kashmir.

Violent mind set can breed serious outcome. People or organisations with such mind set first of all kill and threaten people from their own community so as to make them shut. This has been witnessed in Somalia where nearly 800000 people died during Tribal warfare between Tutsi and Hutu tribes. Neighbours killed neighbours, friends killed friends, even husbands killed their wives saying that otherwise they will be eliminated by the mob from their own tribe. The same happened in Jammu and Kashmir or in Punjab in 1980s during the period of terrorism. At the time of partition in 1947, 2500000 Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs all were killed. During the 2nd world war, the perpetrators and the victims of war both were killed. In fact nothing is achieved through violence. King Ashoka realised this; he adopted and spread Buddhism thinking it a religion of peace.

There is need to increase mass movements against the concept of violence. India’s freedom struggle has essentially been non-violent. There are several issues like the health education employment etc which must be raised effectively to counter these communalists. Movement has also to be built and strengthened for reforms in police as well as the judiciary so that they are not misused. Health is the biggest victim in the event of violence. People are injured, displaced and several lose their life. The madness of communal frenzy which promotes violence has to be countered by collective effort. There is no other way to save the human rights of all. (IPA Service)