Rise in racism, anti-immigrant sentiment in the world: Native's claim on country on the basis of majority's race, religion and skin colour

[In view of the recent anti-immigration sentiment in United States and other countries, this article has been written. Ten points, an explanation in this form for easy understanding.

By Shams Ur Rehman Alavi 

1. People have no control over own birth and one can be born anywhere as it is not a baby's choice. Sadly, parents' race, religion, country or skin colour, faith, determines a lot. 

2. A White Christian in Europe or UK, too is born in his home, and he or she has no control over own birth either. But later in life, the person feels he or she owns entire country & casually tells 'other' that latter doesn't belong to them. 

3. Even a right-wing Hindu in India casually asks a Muslim whose ancestors lived here for 1,000 years, to 'go', 'leave', as if the former owns entire land in India and can even decide who should live here or be expelled.

3 (ii) This is a strange sense of entitlement! Humans are indeed weird species. I or you can decide who will enter our house but such megalomania that all land, entire nation is my or my community's property and anyone who is 'different' can be otherized and discriminated with?

4. The sickening audacity that 'I belong' here & a belief that I can decide, tell others to 'leave', judge others, issue diktat on the basis of my skin tone or faith is extremely difficult to understand. One must remember that Whites in US are also European immigrants' descendants, not the natives.

5, Interestingly, even if someone is a first generation immigrant, but due to complexion or ideology, faith or race, he can pass judgment on a local living for ages, and otherize him/her...!!! 

6. If the issue is analyzed, then we realize that Media has played a dirty role in dividing society, terming 'outsiders' for every issue, which in turn emboldens people to spread hate, racism, xenophobia. It influenced people the wrong way. 

7. It's shameful majoritarianism, everywhere. In Gulf region, many regions now have 75-85% outsiders and millions of Christians, Hindus live, without any such discrimination. There is no restriction or bias on the basis of culture, faith or food.

 8. In some cities and countries in West Asia, locals are less than 25% or just 15%, but they are not insecure or hateful. Compared to past, the immigration system is more relaxed and diverse communities live in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Doha, Kuwait, Sharjah etc.

9. But, in Europe and US, even 2-3% minorities are seen as 'others' and anger, jealousy, insecurity is visible. The psychological fear, hysteria and the anger over immigrants' arrival as if it's an 'invasion' is bizarre.

10. A serious discourse is needed. Western countries that have in the past, enslaved countries in the East, Asia and Africa, or took steps that caused migration and arrival of refugees, all these aspects can no longer be ignored.

Middle-class' anger over loan waiver to farmers and 'we pay taxes' syndrome

'Our tax money' or 'We pay taxes' is the line heard so much that it is almost sickening now in India.

Everybody who earns a few lakhs or even crores, feel they are all middle-class and are doing a great favour to the country by paying taxes.

And, when there is a farm waiver, just see the anger, as if it is our money that is being misused.

If agriculture sector is in crisis or there is a major drought, government will have to act, just like it does in case of failing industry.

But when industry fails after getting land at throw away prices and rebates without even generation too many jobs or a public sector undertaking needs bailout package, there is no such anger.

Those 'thousands of crores' aren't visible to you? Or the thousands of crores gifted to foreign countries like Maldives or Mauritius. Is it because people managing them and those who fail them, are 'like us'--the urban people, not the rural folk!

I am going to start it from the very basic. Just look at this photograph. Almost everybody in my Facebook friendlist is lucky not to be born in such a poor family.

Who'll correct this injustice that you were born in a well-to-do family, rather than being born in a shanty? No one can. It was not our effort but pure luck that we started well in life early.

Yes, you've huge privilege if you pay tax. You claim to love your country, you are a patriot. Okay, you are privileged, so you feel paying tax is also an 'ehsan' [favour] on your country?

Think again, this is patriotism? This is the love for your own people--the countrymen? No outrage on malnutrition deaths, children dying because of hunger but angry over Tax. Sense of entitlement!

When people are patriots or humane, they're indebted to country,  pay back to the nation, help the poor overcome the divide. Here, the same class that controls everything, f**ks up industry, business, then supports bailout packages or free land or loans, gets upset over farm loan waiver

No, we'll selfishly cry despite our privileges. You spend as much on dinner in a hotel that is sufficient for these families to run the household for month. Yet, fat-bellied class feels the pinch, most. Yes there is corruption, all funds don't reach but what is not flawed around?

Kis pe ehsaan kar rahe ho be, tax de kar? Apne desh pe?

If 10,000 farmers commit suicide in a year, and a loan waiver saves a few thousand lives out of them--a few thousand human beings saved, even then it is something huge that you attain for the nation.

And, please don't bring BJP-Congress argument in it. Just that we should keep our morals, be sensitive, less selfish and try to understand the woes of the farmer. Remember, the grains we all need to fill our bellies don't come out of software. They are the result of farmers' hard labour.

So be kind and less arrogant---SRA.

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Eminent author Ashok Kumar Pandey says that the middle-class takes great pride in paying taxes, feels that it's their tax money that runs the country.

"Major part of tax incomes are spent on infrastructure building in cities where the middle-class lives. It is this class that uses the roads, parks, metro, power, library, universities, sanitation,the most. So either it is the engines that run on heavily subsidised fuels or the money paid on his security."

"Farmer lives in villages that have bad roads, no sanitation, lack of drinking water, poor health services, hardly any security, even has no role in fixing the prices of crops that he grows", writes Pandey in a long Facebook post.

"No one wants to take loan, farmer doesn't get right amount for his crop, even insurance schemes are flawed, he is forced into a competition with subsidized international market and if in this situation, he is suffers and gets some relief in the form of loan waiver, it is his right", he further mentions. 

Muslims raise 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' slogan, write it with their blood in Gwalior

MIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi's speech and later former MP Javed Akhtar's response to it, had led to a heated debate over chanting 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' recently.

Muslims in Gwalior gathered at the Phool Bagh chauraha, and wrote Bharat Mata ki Jai, with their blood.

They said that Owaisi can't be allowed to hijack the Muslim voice and he can't speak for Indian Muslims.

Local Muslims from different sections including activists, those associated with religious organisation, mosques, dargahs, waqf bodies trusts and political parties including Congress were present.

The organisers said that love towards motherland is an intrinsic part of Islamic belief and no one can take away this right from them.

They raised patriotic slogans including 'Madr-e-watan zindabad' [Long live the motherland] and Hindustan Zindabad. There were speeches also on the occasion.

Ironically, Vande Mataram or Bharat Mata Ki Jai are used as 'tests of patriotism'.

The fact is that millions of Muslims, schoolchildren, daily chant the slogan.

For everyone who refuses to chant the slogan when forced to say it, there are innumerable Muslims who chant it voluntarily.

The expression of patriotism is through deeds, not through sloganeering alone.

Unfortunately, Indian Muslims are made to go through these tests time and again, which upsets them.

So this is also another side of the picture. The report published in a local Hindi newspaper is also put up here.

Great Game of Right-wing: Testing patriotism of Indian Muslims, keeping them under constant attack, fascism getting mainstream in India

Congress and BJP came together to get legislator Waris Pathan expelled from Assembly.

Millions of Muslims including schoolchildren daily chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. 

The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen [MIM] leader had said that he won't say 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'.

But who gives someone a right to decide that they are more patriot and to put others to this patriotism test.

How many other countries have such tests for their own country men? Vande Mataram, Bharat Mata ki Jay, and at times, Saraswati Vandana?

Both parties are two sides of same coin, no difference. Everyone is free to say, 'Jai Hind', 'Jai Bharat' or 'Hindustan Zindabad'.

Right-wing strategy to keep Muslims cornered, defensive

Great RSS' game. Raise an issue, someone in a huge country will react. If Muslims react its trouble.--they'll be blamed, termed 'less patriot' If don't react, then threshold affected for later, as something of a higher degree will be forced because the precedent is there that earlier it was enforced and none one had any problem. 

Being silent is no option either because you are pushed to wall further.

Today, Bharat Mata. Then, a month later, 'Desh mein rahna hoga, Vande Matram kahna hoga'. A month later it'll be 'Suya Namaskar'. Then, beef issue will be raised. Subsequently, 'bhojan mantra' in angan-wadis, then 'Saraswati Vandana' in school, then Yoga, then Gita lessons in school, then something else. 

Defaming Muslims is part of permanent, continuous strategy towards Hindu Rashtra

Throughout the year, this continues and the result is Muslims are DEFAMED, this creates image of 'the other, anti-national, bad apples'. Defaming hurts most, it leads to heightened communalism in society, trouble in getting jobs, houses.

This defamation and constant attacks, affect Muslims psychologically. It breaks them. It hurts confidence. That's the aim too. RSS projects are on all round, in every sector. Socially, politically, everywhere Muslim has to be targeted, weakened.

How to get out of this cycle? RSS, its innumerable arms, branches, have no dearth of ideas and ways to create controversies, keep up this pressure on the community. It’s so easy, for them.

Someone may say, 'Bharat mata ki Jai', but coercion is not tolerable. Patriotism test can't be forced on anyone.

No one has this right, sorry.

Why RSS' Bharat Mata doesn't have national flag in hand?

Journalist and former India Today managing editor, Dilip C Mandal, has asked why the Bharat Mata portrayed in photographs on all the RSS websites doesn't have the national flag in her hand?

"Why she is holding the Saffron flag?", he asks in his Facebook posts. Mandal says that this patriotism is suspect as there is no tricolour and the Ashok Chakra is also missing.

Indians celebrate Republic day but Hindu Mahasabha observe Black Day: Who is patriot, who is fake nationalist?

While Indians, irrespective of their religious and political affiliations, celebrated Republic Day, there are people who observed January 26 as 'Black Day'.

The ultra right-wing Hindu Mahasabha leaders took out a protest rally.

They said that they considered Gantantra Diwas as Black Day [Kaala Diwas] and raised black flags.

The Mahasabha leaders said that they didn't have faith in Indian constitution.

The major newspapers reported how the Mahasabha leaders held the protest in Meerut.

Meerut is a communally sensitive town in Western UP, which is close to Delhi.

Strangely, despite the provocation, no case was registered in this regard.

The policemen who are generally quite swift in filing FIR, didn't slap them with case of sedition.

The Hindu Mahasabha is known to be an open supporter of right-wing extremist Nathuram Godse, who had killed Mahatma Gandhi, and was sentenced to death for the crime.

LINKS:

1. Hindu group observes Republic day as 'black day' [Times of India]

2. Hindu Mahasabha observes R-day as black day [The Hindu]
3. News of Hindu Mahasabha function in Hindi, photo [UP-UK Live, Hindi]

Pride for national days, symbols, flag: The self-styled 'rashtravadis' stand exposed

The self-styled nationalist brigade readily terms others as 'anti-national.

However, the truth is that Muslims who are always on target and are asked to prove patriotism, foist national flag even in Madarsas and on Mosque premises.

Even, on Haj pilgrimate, Indian contingents are seen holding the flag with pride. That's the love for tricolour.

However, the fake nationalists are exposed as they secretly love 'Saffron flag' and it is well-known that right-wing groups avoid hoisting the national flag.

More photos about Republic Day celebration at Madarsas, Darul Ulooms [seminaries] across India

1. Photos of R day celebration in Indian madarsas, seminaries
2. More pictures of Republic day celebrations at Madarsas

From pro-Vande Mataram to opposing compulsory singing: Why a section of Muslims were against the song and opposed it?

This article was written in 2006. Since then, many times the song has led to controversy. A large number of Muslims have no objection to it but some non-Muslims who are aware of history also oppose it. Reasons for opposition are here:

INDSCRIBE

Once every couple of years the controversy over singing Vande Matram erupts and I remember how I had supported the song in my school days and how my views changed later. [It's not about turning a fundamentalist with age].

I was a good student of Sanskrit, learnt scores of shlokas and was quite interested in its grammar. Hence, I felt that the song does not exactly mean worship and could be sung.

I had a heated debate with many elderly family members then and I always felt that there was no problem in singing it.

The translation of the song makes wonderful reading. The Urdu translation which can be understood by many more Indians than the original words is even more nice to ears.

And after reading the sick novel of Bankim Chandra Chatterji, I still don't have objection to anybody singing it but forcing it, NO. In fact, it was a non-Muslim Bengali friend who had told me about the nature of this novel.

I am no less patriotic than any Indian irrespective of their faith and my ancestors have also done their bit towards strengthening the composite culture and unity of this country. My great grandfather has praised Lord Krishna and Prophet Muhammad in the same breath and patriotism has been part of my Imaan.

I need not give any clarification on that. But if any body has delusions of having a patriotism-meter with which he can test my love towards my motherland, then I don't give this right to anybody, sorry, you would be frustrated.

Bankim Chandra wrote a treacherous novel and anybody who has ever read it will never defend it or the song. The novel is disgusting and its shameful that an Indian wrote it. We have had great Hindu nationalists from the revivalist Vivekananda and a strong Arya Samaji like Pt Ram Prasad Bismil, who held Ashfaq as his younger brother.

Their letters and account of those years can bring tears to our eyes. They all saw Hindus and Muslims as One People, One Race. From 1857 to 1870, more than ONE LAKH Hindus and Muslims were executed by British.

Each day hundreds were sent to gallows in Delhi alone. And Chatterjee makes a mockery of all that. The characters..Jivananad, Bhavanand, Mahendra and Satyananda are all fake...'Jahaan woh musalmaan ka gaaon dekhte use aag ke havaale kar dete' [wherever they found a Muslim village they would set it afire, kill all].

Read the translation in Hindi if you don't know Bangla and the novel is full of words like Mlechhca, Haramkhor, Suar about ordinary Muslims. The killing of Muslims is the aim and arrival of British is their hour of glory. What kind of a revolution is this?

An intense hate of Muslims coupled with an admiration for the WHITE RACE or what? That was why leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose opposed the song. This novel and the song is a betrayal to all that our martyrs and freedom fighters stood for.

Even the two stanzas that are not controversial mean something else in context of the novel. And even if we ignore historical aspect of the song and this novel that kills the dream of millions of freedom fighters and the idea of India itself, I see another design in forcing the song to be sung.

I am proud national of a proud nation. I will surely protest, If I turn evasive things are forced one after other on me. Already the names of all Muslim freedom fighters have been forgotten. The poor Maulana Azad also lost his place this August 15.

The RSS and its sister organisations have already succeeded in many of their plans. They have maligned the Muslims as fundamentalists and terrorists, demonised the madarsas and got us from 30% in jobs to 1% but still we are being APPEASED.

If Vande Mataram is not opposed, then compulsory Saraswati Vandana is the next to come. Just a few years back the NDA government had tried to do that. And then Puja is also not far away. What's the problem?

It may be just a circular in Delhi but when it goes to small government schools in rural areas it becomes more of a norm. I remember my teachers in school just not accepting any argument without even reading a line of the novel or understanding Sanskrit.

Things are happening fast. The agenda is at work. Babri Masjid was demolished. The right-wing leaders who had gone to Spain to see how Muslims were eliminated there got it replicated in Gujarat. Muslims have been a target of their campaign as Fifth Columnists.

And the secular parties, intellectuals are silent. Do the journalists who debate on such a issue and keep sermonising us that it was the song of independence movement have the credibility to speak on the subject without reading the book and knowing that it served to defeat our unity.

I was surprised to see the reaction of Sabyasachi Mukerjee, who has written a whole book on Vande Mataram, feign ignorance about its religious context and the anti-national message of Anand Math besides giving a sort of clean-chit to song and wondering why the fuss over it. In BJP-ruled states the madarsas have been directed to publicly render the song.

When 800 farmers commit suicide in Vidarbha alone without a whimper owing to debt and it doesn't become an issue but the Vande Mataram becomes an issue, I must marvel at the way the Sangh is functioning like a monstrous hydra across the political, social, journalistic and other spectra.

But this country can't be allowed to be hijacked by people who have a parochial agenda, who want to turn India like states of Middle East or our failed neighbours where no debate is possible.

Innumerable Hindu brothers will always come forward to defend our right not be forced to sing Vande Matram, I know. They are seeing the trap laid for all of us. I am hopeful the voices would emerge from all nook and corner. This is the beauty of this country.

I don't want confrontation but sometimes if you don't speak and pour your heart out, you are pushed to wall. Read more on here to find why even the two stanzas that are termed as 'should not be objectionable' mean something else.

It is not correct to say that Muslims are anti-Vande Mataram. A section feels that it should not be made compulsory and shouldn't be used as a test of patriotism. That's all. We know its our national song. It has a place along side the national anthem.

In fact, majority of Muslim students voluntarily and happily sing it. Some do oppose it and in a mature democracy there should be a scope for disagreement also. Shouldn't there be? 

For how long Muslims in India will be put to humiliation through such tests on their LOYALTY and Patriotism. I request you to read the novel before making any comment. I assure you you will be disgusted.