The recent tragic death of the brilliant PhD Student Rohith Vemula at Hydrabad University has sparked list of protests and outrage from across India. In his suicide note Rohith was angry that the government who he alleged had stopped paying him his fellowship of 25,000 rupees per month and that he had subsequently expelled him from the hostel along with five other members of the Ambedkar Students Association. Since his death many activists and intellectuals have have alleged that Rohith’s death is symptomatic of the ongoing legacy of discrimination and violence against Dalits.
Though some will disagree with his actions, there is no doubt that he used his death as a form of protest against the direction of travel of India, especially since the BJP came to power. His words resonate not the normal emotions one may associate with somebody about to take his onw life, but of a person with life and vitality but extreme frustration. The following extract from his suicide capture the essence of his thoughts about the present state of India.
“I loved science, stars, nature, but then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs coloured. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt.”
The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of stardust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living.
So how have the RSS/BJP authorities responded to the many protests against a system that so powerfully shattered the dreams of one student who has expressed the concerns of millions. On the 1st of Feb a video has surface which documents Delhi Police personnel brutally beating up demonstrators protesting against the injustices leading to Rohith’s death outside the RSS office.
Police use of violence is a common site on the street of India, but what seems to be different in this case is remnant of the tactics developed by Nazi SS in Germany. As reported in the Huffngton Post of 1.2.16, it is alleged that that uniformed Delhi police were working in tandem with plain clothed men who were allegedly RSS supporters and not police. The video was uploaded on YouTube by Sanghapali Aruna Kornana, and he offers the following description of the incident:
“The Delhi police opened lathi charge on the students who were peacefully marching towards the RSS office in New Delhi…They beat many of the students very brutally till they bled. Some Rss goons too joined in beating the students who were let free by the police. When I was taking video of the police lathi charging the students I noticed one of this RSS goons throwing a blue colour rod on the students…I shouted from behind and saw the police picking him up…When I asked the police to catch him, that person held my hand and dragged me….When I screamed out loud, to my utter shock one of the policeman rather than rescuing me, he hit my camera with all his might. Shame on the BJP government and it’s RSS agenda. Down with Hindu Fascism…”
The unleashing of Hindu right wing fascist violence like this has been brewing for over the past 70 years since the partition of India. It is part of an ongoing project to construct a Indian National Identity based on a false promise that there was once a unified Indian nation as revealed by the mythical texts of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Though the likes of Gandhi and Nehru are held up as passionate advocates of a ‘secular’ India in opposition to a theocratic Pakistan, in reality they sowed the seeds for Hindutva. The baton was carried by Indira Gandhi and the Congress, but most shamefully the Left in their misplaced support for Gandhi because she was aligned with the Soviet Union. And so, as the writer Perry Anderson has highlighted in his book the Indian Ideology, it is both the Congress and the Marxist Leninist left became apologies for both the idea of Hindutva and state terrorism from the early 1980’s onwards, particularly against the religious minorities of India.
And so the solution to India’s problems, is to reject the idea of Hindutva which if gone unchecked could lead to Fascism, but work towards a decentralised conception of Bharat where the national identity is build not on a single narrative but on a truly multicultural, multi lingual, multi religious dynamic federal union of states. This is a very moderate and democratic demand and the ones that oppose this are the real fundamentalists, terrorists and anti-national elements.
As glorious history of Sikhi shows, Sikhs have always fought to unify people, to promote mutual co-operation and human rights and human dignity. We cannot escape this burden of history because we are defined by these high ideals, To abandon these is to abandon our very essence, our ideology, creed, mission and ultimately our living Guru the Guru Granth Sahib ji, which should really be the true constitution of India and indeed the whole work.
That is not because it belongs to the Sikhs, but because it is a gift from Guru Arjan Dev ji to humanity. It is a charter of International Human co-operation and rights that surpasses anything else, including the current UN charter. It was Guru Gobind SIngh Ji that placed the burden of ensuring the principles enshrined in the Guru Granth Sahib ji are never compromised onto the Khalsa and it is for this reason that the Khalsa has had to endure so much over the years. But we stand tall and firm and we will fight against the Hindutva tyranny through ideas, persuasion, love, humility and if necessary when ALL other means are exhausted, defensive force and action as well.
So today, all Indians who reject the Hindutva Mythology, who reject the criminality of the RSS and their friendly, like the Badal Drugs Mafia in Punjab need to stand together and relaunch the freedom and independence struggle.
We also need to discuss also farmer Suicides.
Caused by the complete sense of hopelessness engendered by the Badal Punjab and Central (Mis)Government.
Tens of thousands of farmer suicide widows of Punjab join all others of the world to say: “We want justice, not charity”. What they mean is that their husband had a right to life, which was taken away because of social injustice against farmers who struggle to pay for the cost of farming because of poor prices for their produce and high cost of loans to buy seeds, fertilisers etc. In a bid to put food on their table, United Sikhs started the Rescue a Family (RAF) project in 2010 after they came to know about the plight of farmer suicide widows in Punjab through the Baba Nanak Educational Society (BNES), who provided details of the farmer suicide widows. Today they – NOT the Punjab Government – provide a monthly pension of 1000rs to 150 farmer suicide widows from 40 villages in Punjab, on the condition that they continue to send their children to school. “We need more sponsors to continue our efforts to help more farmer suicide widows so that their children may receive an education and not drop out of school to work in the fields,” said Mejindarpal Kaur, RAF Project Director, who personally meets the families. In May 2015, the RAF travelled to Sangrur to meet the widows accompanied by one their donors, Pinderpal Singh from Bangkok, who wanted to meet the families to hear their problems and offer moral support. The RAF pensions are sponsored by donors from India, the UK, Thailand, Singapore, Canada, USA and Switzerland. Nothing from either Punjab or Central Indian Government who are presumably sanguine if Sikhs just die and their dependants are left suffering.
Ramayana and Mahabharata are true as is Guru Granth Sahib.
Badal is a Good King of Punjab.
RSS is a fine organization .
There is no Tyraany by Hinduvta forces.
All people live in India in peace and harmony.with each other.
‘RSS HARINDER’ (not his real name) is very well known for posting anti-Sikh propaganda on this website and has made this provocative and offensive comments repeatedly in postings which I have had to correct but to which he can never offer any defence. I am pasting my responses for the benefit of Sikhs he seeks to mislead.
1) ‘Ramayana and Mahabharata are true as is Guru Granth Sahib’. Ramayana and Mahabharat being historical fact – LOL – what evidence you got? Where is fossil record, anatomical, physiological, archaeological substantiation for existence of multi headed, multi limbed demons and talking flying monkey kings? You want to believe such delusion fine, it is your right as Hindu, but have the same decency you would have in not expressing such ridiculous assertions on Sikh website as you would in presence of educated Westerners. Dalits are safe until they try to convert to Christianity and then you bring out Ghar Wapsi intimidation and laws saying they must ask for state permission to convert – when they protest on street the police join RSS thugs in beating them – that is all on record. The Ramayana and Mahabharata are holy books to Hindus and I am perfectly willing to afford them respect because they are held in reverence by adherents of Hinduism and may give those adherents some spiritual connection to the divine. The respect Sikhs have for them as ‘holy books’ is NOT because we believe in them or subscribe to the tenants they contain (which can often be diametrically opposed to Sikh teaching e.g. the institutionalised caste system is to a Sikh a complete anathema but to a Hindu perfectly acceptable). This is vital for you to understand as you have shown in previous posts that you equate Guru Granth Sahib just with the ‘holy book’ status of Ramayana et al when Sikhs do NOT regard the Guru Granth Sahib as just some ‘holy book’ but treat as our living eternal Guru. The compositions of Guru Granth Sahib are all very well historically attributed and verifiable (by Moghul Court and European sources as well as Sikh) in contrast to the epic fictional poems of Ramayana and Mahabharat. Hindus today living in the west don’t try to talk of ‘Truth’ of Ramayana and MahaBharat out of the universal ridicule such pagan beliefs would elicit there. When Indians too are equally well educated they also will quietly consign such notions into the cultural cupboard. I suppose that is why your Hinduvta friends are so militant to prevent Dalits from converting to Christianity which teaches in 1 Corinthians 13:11 ‘When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways’.
2)’Badal is good King of Punjab’. He is supposed to be elected Chief Minister serving the interests of Punjabi people not a monarch to rule the people and serving his own family’s financial best interests which is a very Brahmanical way of thinking. Punjab was bread basket of India now it is on the verge of bankruptcy (whilst its BJP stooges the Badals have engorged and enriched themselves to the point where they are running out of Swiss banks to deposit their spoils from monopolies, patronage and alleged involvement in drug trafficking), its ground water is heavily polluted (not just by pesticides but by uranium when the PUnjab does not even possess a single nuclear power plant) which correlates with a proportional rise in both infant mortality, genetic abnormalities and disabilities in newborns, the State has the highest rate both of female infanticide and drug addiction in India (the latter is particularly galling when you consider the border with Pakistan is the most heavily defended) and to top it all Sikh scriptures are being torn in the streets of the Sikh homeland and when Sikhs protest they are in turn shot dead by police officers who are in turn absolved of any culpability by Badal. Not to mention the massive migration of Sikh youth out of the country and his complete antipathy of raising the issue of human rights violations against Sikhs whether that be SIkh political prisoners or even raising the issue of banned turbans in France when the French president comes to Chandigarh.
3)’RSS is a fine organisation’. Former Maharastraa Inspector General of Police S M Mushrif termed the BJP’s ideological mentor RSS as India’s top terrorist organisation in November 2015. He claims that RSS activists have been indicted in at least 13 terror cases across India. “RSS activists have been charge sheeted in at least 13 cases of terror acts in which RDX explosives has been used. IF organisations like Bajrang Dal are taken into account then the number of such cases goes up to 17””, said Mushrif.“The RSS is India’s number one terrorist organisation, there is no doubt on this” said Mushrif, referring to the 2007 Mecca Masjid bombing in Hyderabad, the 2006 and 2008 Malegaon blasts in Maharashtra and the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings among others. “The RSS as a terror organisation has nopthing to do with political power. IT is immaterial which party is in power. It is the system that is working, it’s the Brahminical system. And when I say Brahminical, it doesn’t mean the Brahmin, it’s the mentality, the attitude to dominate and oppress” he said.
4) ‘There is no tyranny by Hinduvta forces’. Tell that with a straight face to Sikhs, Christians (being raped and having churches attacked), Muslims and Dalits living in India. Dalits are the target of Ghar Wapsi programme and being told they need Government permission to change their religion (to Christianity) in some states in India.
5)’All people live in India in peace and harmony.with each other’. Yeah and the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 and the extra judicial kidnappings, torture, rape and murder of Sikhs that followed it never happened either. Neither did Gujrat riots or Ayodha or the rape of nuns and burning of churches, etc.
RSS Harinder is a paid propagandist for the Hinduvta mafia and poses on this website as a Sikh to drip-feed delusions and outright lies which are causing immeasurable harm to India’s dignity and honour. We have serious problems in this country and need to address them with honesty not denial so that justice can be given to every Indian citizen not just those who are willing to take the Hinduvta yoke.
It is shame that we lost such a brilliant brain and nothing will ever be change in Great India. We have great quality forgettable/erasable memory cards in our brains.