Nepal Sounds an Alarm for South Asia
On September 2, angry mobs stormed into Jama Masjid, the main mosque of Katmandu, the picturesque capital of the Himalayan state of Nepal. Shouting "Down with Islam", they set furniture and carpets on fire and tore the enshrined Quran to shreds before leaving the place to the police. Not many of them might have heard the applause from certain quarters in neighboring India.
The assault on the mosque climaxed two and a half days of anti-Islamic violence in the tourist paradise that had known nothing like this before. And it came a day after the release of three Indian hostages in Iraq, leading to contrasting scenes of relief and rejoicing in their country.
The anger and agony in Nepal added to the rejoicing in the quarters mentioned before. Exulted Praveen Togadia, the ebullient leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the VHP (World Hindu Council): "The abductors were forced to release the Indian hostages after the violent protests in Nepal over the killing of the subjects of the Hindu kingdom."
The VHP has been in the forefront of the fascist pogrom against the Muslim minority in the State of Gujarat, which shocked India and the world in the early months of 2002. Togadia, it may be added, has been the strident voice of the VHP, along with his mentor Ashok Singhal, on Gujarat and its grim message for the country's minorities.
Singhal was no silent onlooker either as protests rocked Katmandu. He called upon the Hindus of India and Nepal to unite against the common enemy, "jihadi Islam". Clear, if unstated, was the corollary that they had a common ally in the crusaders in illegal occupation of Iraq.
Singhal also hastened to pen an epistle to King Gyanendra of Nepal, who was making a pathetic plea to his people against minority-bashing. "The world must clearly understand the morbid language of the Islamic jihadis", wrote the VHP ideologue, who had upheld the Gujarat massacre as a golden example for the Hindus everywhere to emulate. A little more, in a moment, about the Indian's loyalty to the Nepalese king.
To revert to Katmandu, meanwhile, the crowds had started pouring into the city's winding streets soon after an Iraqi group announced on August 31 that it had killed 12 Nepalese hostages. A chilling videotape the group sent television channels showed its hooded men beheading one of the hostages and shooting others in the neck or the head. It was poor comfort that the pictures, showing only the victims' backs, provided no immediate confirmation. There was no escaping the terrible truth.
The recruiters in job rackets had told the doomed dozen - cooks and cleaners - that they were going to Jordan. The three Indian truck-drivers thought they were going to work in Kuwait. All of them ended up in strife-torn Iraq - and in abductors' hideouts. They were similar as victims of poverty and of a savagely unjust war. The VHP and its far-Right political camp, however, prefer to stress their religious identity.
The crowds in Katmandu had started by attacking the offices of the employment agencies, the Saudi Arabian Airlines and the Qatar Airways. At some unidentified point, however, the local minority became the quarry. The Christians, a smaller minority than the four per cent Muslim population, found itself attacked, too. Father Justin Lapcha, the Nepalese priest of the Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Katmandu, told a news agency on September 1 that the Christians could not leave their parishes surrounded by mobs.
There is no reliable news about how they are faring now. For the Muslims, certainly, normalcy has not returned. For the first ever time, perhaps, Katmandu's mosques went without their Friday prayers, the highlight of their weekly activities, on September 3.
Nepal's simmering tensions are great news to India's far Right that has not spared its Christian minority, either. It might have been happier, if the trouble in Katmandu had spilled over the border. Conditions, however, now exist for it to build a broader campaign of hate. Years of work to forge an India-Nepal platform for 'Hindu-nationalist' fascism may yield some results at last.
An important part of this work has consisted in promotion of the idea of a 'Hindu kingdom' and a 'Hindu king' beyond nation-state boundaries. VHP leaders, including Singhal, have called upon all Hindus to own allegiance to the King of Nepal and upon the latter to lead them. These are the same staunch patriots who have always been accusing the Indian Muslims, Christians and Communists of "extra-territorial loyalty"!
Prospects of peace in South Asia can only recede further if a 'Hindu' fascism in India and Nepal emerges as a counter to 'Islamic fundamentalism' in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
A freelance journalist and a peace activist of India, J. Sri Raman is the author of Flashpoint (Common Courage Press, USA). He is a regular contributor to t r u t h o u t.
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The assault on the mosque climaxed two and a half days of anti-Islamic violence in the tourist paradise that had known nothing like this before. And it came a day after the release of three Indian hostages in Iraq, leading to contrasting scenes of relief and rejoicing in their country.
The anger and agony in Nepal added to the rejoicing in the quarters mentioned before. Exulted Praveen Togadia, the ebullient leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the VHP (World Hindu Council): "The abductors were forced to release the Indian hostages after the violent protests in Nepal over the killing of the subjects of the Hindu kingdom."
The VHP has been in the forefront of the fascist pogrom against the Muslim minority in the State of Gujarat, which shocked India and the world in the early months of 2002. Togadia, it may be added, has been the strident voice of the VHP, along with his mentor Ashok Singhal, on Gujarat and its grim message for the country's minorities.
Singhal was no silent onlooker either as protests rocked Katmandu. He called upon the Hindus of India and Nepal to unite against the common enemy, "jihadi Islam". Clear, if unstated, was the corollary that they had a common ally in the crusaders in illegal occupation of Iraq.
Singhal also hastened to pen an epistle to King Gyanendra of Nepal, who was making a pathetic plea to his people against minority-bashing. "The world must clearly understand the morbid language of the Islamic jihadis", wrote the VHP ideologue, who had upheld the Gujarat massacre as a golden example for the Hindus everywhere to emulate. A little more, in a moment, about the Indian's loyalty to the Nepalese king.
To revert to Katmandu, meanwhile, the crowds had started pouring into the city's winding streets soon after an Iraqi group announced on August 31 that it had killed 12 Nepalese hostages. A chilling videotape the group sent television channels showed its hooded men beheading one of the hostages and shooting others in the neck or the head. It was poor comfort that the pictures, showing only the victims' backs, provided no immediate confirmation. There was no escaping the terrible truth.
The recruiters in job rackets had told the doomed dozen - cooks and cleaners - that they were going to Jordan. The three Indian truck-drivers thought they were going to work in Kuwait. All of them ended up in strife-torn Iraq - and in abductors' hideouts. They were similar as victims of poverty and of a savagely unjust war. The VHP and its far-Right political camp, however, prefer to stress their religious identity.
The crowds in Katmandu had started by attacking the offices of the employment agencies, the Saudi Arabian Airlines and the Qatar Airways. At some unidentified point, however, the local minority became the quarry. The Christians, a smaller minority than the four per cent Muslim population, found itself attacked, too. Father Justin Lapcha, the Nepalese priest of the Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Katmandu, told a news agency on September 1 that the Christians could not leave their parishes surrounded by mobs.
There is no reliable news about how they are faring now. For the Muslims, certainly, normalcy has not returned. For the first ever time, perhaps, Katmandu's mosques went without their Friday prayers, the highlight of their weekly activities, on September 3.
Nepal's simmering tensions are great news to India's far Right that has not spared its Christian minority, either. It might have been happier, if the trouble in Katmandu had spilled over the border. Conditions, however, now exist for it to build a broader campaign of hate. Years of work to forge an India-Nepal platform for 'Hindu-nationalist' fascism may yield some results at last.
An important part of this work has consisted in promotion of the idea of a 'Hindu kingdom' and a 'Hindu king' beyond nation-state boundaries. VHP leaders, including Singhal, have called upon all Hindus to own allegiance to the King of Nepal and upon the latter to lead them. These are the same staunch patriots who have always been accusing the Indian Muslims, Christians and Communists of "extra-territorial loyalty"!
Prospects of peace in South Asia can only recede further if a 'Hindu' fascism in India and Nepal emerges as a counter to 'Islamic fundamentalism' in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
A freelance journalist and a peace activist of India, J. Sri Raman is the author of Flashpoint (Common Courage Press, USA). He is a regular contributor to t r u t h o u t.
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posted by R7 | 9/05/2004 10:33:00 PM
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