Ramachandran
The passing of the Citizenship Amendment Bill ( CAB ) has stirred up a hornet's nest,with the Lutyen's media or the pseudo secularist Hindu media anchors and intellectuals pleading for the rescue of Indian Muslims.The Indian Muslims will be secure as ever;the bill concerns only the refugees.It affects only the refugees from the Muslim majority neighbouring countries of India.
The so called secular intellectuals allege that the bill is a move to convert India into a Hindu rashtra.Since there are several Muslim and Christian countries in the world,I find no fault even if India becomes a lone Hindu country.A hindu country will be beacon of hope for all the distressed people in the world,with its innate wisdom and inner life.Hinduism is a philosophy that propounds advaita,or non dualism,which doesn't even differentiate man from God.But all the monolithic philosophies that have a single God are by nature autocratic and has only offered dictators,Marxism included.Hinduism,by nature is pluralistic and democratic.Democracy is ingrained in it,and hence Sri Rama asked Bharata,when he visited him in the forest,whether he is not looking after the Charvakas.They were the materialists or Marxists of that age.It is a philosphy which doesn't harbour enmity towards its own enemies.It welcomed refugees from Muslims and Parsis to Jews.
Unfortunately,History tells us that the guests in course of time,usurped the hindus and became rulers of this country and hence Marx said,India's history is the history of conquerers,and it never had a rich past.He was ignorant of India's past.India has a rich tradition of administration in the Maurya,Gupta and Satavahana periods.Since we were a self reliant tradition,we had no room for Alexanders.We taught Alexander the hollowness of conquests.
If North India was marauded by the Muslims,Kerala was in the brink of becoming a Muslim country,during Hyderali and his son,Tipu Sultan.Both attacked the hindu kings and their subjects,and they had to flee from Malabar to Kochi and Travancore.If the British had not defeated Tipu on time,Malabar would have become a Muslim country.Tipu had sworn to convert all hindus.Malabar had seen the worst face of Islam from 1836 to 1921 in the Mappila revolts.They had even flayed alive hindus,apart from from forced conversions,genocides and mass rapes.islam had never been tolerant.
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| Arthasasthra manuscript |
The CAB legislation applies to those who were “forced or compelled to seek shelter in India due to persecution on the ground of religion”. It aims to protect such people from proceedings of illegal migration. The cut-off date for citizenship is December 31, 2014, which means the applicant should have entered India on or before that date. Indian citizenship, under present law, is given either to those born in India or if they have resided in the country for a minimum of 11 years. The Bill also proposes to incorporate a sub-section (d) to Section 7, providing for cancellation of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) registration where the OCI card-holder has violated any provision of the Citizenship Act or any other law in force.
Centre says these minority groups have come escaping persecution in Muslim-majority nations.The Ahmedia Muslim sect and even Shias face discrimination in Pakistan. Rohingya Muslims and Hindus face persecution in neighbouring Burma, and Hindu and Christian Tamils in neighbouring Sri Lanka. The government responds that Muslims can seek refuge in Islamic nations. the Bill would not have been necessary if the Congress did not agree to Partition on the basis of religion. Only the Muslim League and the Hindu Right advocated the two nation theory of Hindu and Muslim nations, which led to Partition.The Communist Party of India supported creation of Pakistan.The CPI ( M ) 20th party congress in Kozhikode in 2012,in a resolution had asked the centre to protect the hindus who had fled from Pakistan.In 2013,Manmohan Singh,Rajyasabha member from Assam had pleaded for the refugee hindus.
There is an official organization amongst countries that identify as being predominantly Muslim.This alliance is called the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC for short. Since its start in 1969, the OIC is comprised of fifty-seven countries.The Muslim countries in Asia are:Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan,Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives,Occupied Palestinian Territory Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.Hindus in all these countries have made them richer.
There is a chorus in the so called secular media that India will be isolated in the world arena if the CAB becomes a law.This apprehension is misplaced,since all the leading countries of the world have experienced the atrocities committed in the name of Islam,and common civil code is the rule in such countries.India too needs a common civil code,as advocated by E M S,in the wake of the Shah Bano case verdict.If it makes India a hindu nation,Indians should be proud.
( The writer is a senior journalist and academic)
