The Nazis and India's Hindutva, united in hate

Indian author Rahman Abbas at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin (photo: private)

Award-winning Indian author Rahman Abbas spent time in Europe last year researching "the Holocaust and the future of minorities in India and Pakistan". To mark VE Day on 8 May, he discusses India's alarming shift towards Hindutva nationalism with Dominik Muller

By Dominik Müller

You are a member of India's secular Muslim minority. With phrases like "corona jihad" circulating freely, how threatening do you find the current situation?

It is extremely dangerous because it plays into the hands of the racist right-wing forces. Hindutva nationalism is vilifying the minority as the cause of all ills. The international community has witnessed how Hindutva nationalism used terms like "love jihad" to spread hatred against the Muslim minority in India. This politically motivated hate resulted in mob lynchings taking place on the streets in broad daylight. It was normalised by systematic negative campaigning. The "corona jihad" can be seen as an extension of the same campaign, carried out by social and mainstream media and politicians belonging to the governing Bharatiya Janata party. The consequences are visible throughout Indian society: Hindus are refusing to buy vegetables and groceries from Muslim vendors, doctors are refusing to treat Muslim patients, and so on.

What has been the aim of your research in Europe?

The research grant was provided for my next novel. I have visited numerous places in Europe with a view to understanding the growth of Nazism, how it affected German society and how Nazi ideology resulted in the mass killings and genocide of Jews, Communists, political opponents, Sinti, Roma, the handicapped and others. In India, Muslim, Dalits, Christian and tribal people already experience discrimination, exclusion and oppression at the hands of right-wing extremists or Hindu Supremacist forces, while in Pakistan it is the Hindu and Shia minorities who are threatened by Islamists. I wanted to study and identify the socio-political milieu, the ideologies, and the failure to denounce what was happening as the background to the Holocaust in Germany and Europe. I wanted to discover the key lessons from Germany's Nazi past, in order to make people of the Indian subcontinent aware of the tendencies and traits of fascism.

My analysis of the last two decades in which fundamentalism has increased on the subcontinent, as well as my investigation of various religious-political organisations in both India and Pakistan, provides sufficient evidence to point to the danger of possible genocide. The current period is very similar to the first phase of Nazi ascent in Germany.

How similar are current political developments in India to the situation in Germany under the Nazis at the beginning of the last century?

Nazism was a racist and supremacist ideology. Its adherents used nationalism and the demonisation of their political opponents as puppets to secure their own rise to power. The National Socialists spread the idea that the Aryan race was supreme, that it should rule over all others. The Nazis exploited all means at their disposal to malign the Jews and many others, but Jews in particular were tagged as traitors to German interests. In 1935 the Nuremberg Laws revoked the citizenship and fundamental rights of Jews, Adolf Hitler having already declared a national boycott of Jewish businesses in 1933.

India is seeing similar developments, with anti-Muslim propaganda unleashed by Hindutva nationalists resulting in the Citizenship Amendment Act, which was passed by the Indian parliament last December. The act offers citizenship to immigrants from three countries – Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan – as long as they are not Muslims. Furthermore, they are asking people living in India to furnish multiple documents including birth certificates of parents or grandparents to support their citizenship – only to exclude Muslims. The government has already erected detention camps in Assam. These are all clear indications of its hidden agenda, demonstrating just how far India and its government have already been penetrated by the ideology of Hindu supremacy.

Hindutva nationalism has flourished thanks to the hate fomented against Muslims, Christians, Dalits, homosexuals and others. This hate has been spread by government-controlled media with the purpose of demonising them. Nowadays, even educated members of these demonised communities find it very difficult to get jobs in the private sector. It is almost impossible for Muslim politicians to win an election; their numbers are decreasing constantly in state assemblies and the national parliament. Muslim leaders are constantly accused of being anti-Hindu and that is also fuelling negative sentiment towards the community.

Man throws a Molotov cocktail at a mosque in Delhi (photo: Reuters/D. Siddiqui) — Islamophobia boils over: the North Delhi riots began on 23 February 2020 and were mainly caused by Hindu mobs attacking Muslims. Fifty three people were killed, two-thirds of whom were Muslims, in the capital's deadliest Hindu-Muslim riot since 1950. The properties destroyed were disproportionately Muslim-owned and included four mosques, which were set ablaze by rioters. By the end of February, many Muslims had left the affected neighbourhoods. Delhi police were criticised for being slow to react and there were reports of some officers joining in the violence against Muslim residents

So what is the difference between National Socialism and the situation in India today?

The world has changed since the Nazi regime. Many people around the globe are aware of the inhuman, cruel ideas it was based upon. Furthermore India is surrounded by Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It would be practically impossible for the Hindutva leadership to realise extermination camps here. Yet, using the citizenship laws and other related legislation as a pretext, they could arguably put a lot of Muslims behind bars. "Communal riots" are the preferred method of Hindutva nationalists when it comes to decimating Muslims. These "riots" – as propagated by government-controlled media –are however more akin to "pogroms". Numerous independent media sources have revealed that the Hindutva-inspired rioters enjoyed the backing of state police and government institutions. Our region is home to the most poorly educated people in the world. They are like cattle: politicians with an axe to grind can seduce them into killing their neighbours and fellow citizens in the name of religion, race, and nationalism.

Big business in Germany supported the rise of Hitler and the National Socialists. Was this an aspect you explored during your research?

It wasn't part of my research. But business and strategic alliances are naturally an important factor. They can determine how the future takes shape. Indian business tycoons have already adopted a pro-Hindutva stance.

Interview conducted by Dominik Muller

Bombay-based author Rahman Abbas writes in Urdu and was awarded India's highest literary accolade – the Sahitya Akademi Award – in 2018 for his novel "Rohzin". At the end of last year he came to Europe on a Robert Bosch Foundation and Literarisches Colloquium Berlin research grant, visiting Dachau concentration camp, the documentation centre and Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg, Sachsenhausen concentration camp and the Auschwitz Birkenau extermination camp in Poland.