Research Paper
Saffronisation Intriguing
The Rise of Islamophobia
By: Ayesha Waheed
Saffronisation of India had brought nothing but religious
disharmony, anti-secularist approaches, racism, gender
discrimination, extremism and unequal distribution of rights
among the people of India. Historically, Saffronisation or
Hindutva was a harmless theology of Hindus, meant to be
their way of life. But later it became the main basis of segre-
gation of Hindus from all other minorities in India. Hindutva
is now claimed to be the ideology of the most supreme
nation “Hindus” in India, as this state is a Hindu majority.
Since the last century, Hindutva believers have enhanced
their pessimist, violent and extremist influence on the
national political, economical, social and cultural spheres.
“They want a theocratic state,’’ said B.N. Srikrishna, a
former judge on India’s Supreme Court. “This is pushing the
country to the brink, to the brink of chaos.” “This is how
waves of communal violence start in the country,” he added.
BJP alliance with RSS is utterly determined with the escala-
tion of the ideology of saffronisation, which is Hindutva, a
polarized phenomena of nationalism. Prime Minister Naren-
Edit By: Altaf Hussain Wani
dra Modi, the Butcher of Gujarat, oftenly launches his
campaign in the name of extremism. To exterminate other
minorities particularly muslims from India, is the only
agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and
Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP).They believe in the extremist
approaches but on the front line, they have accumulated
liberal, powerful and moderate people to surge racist and
fascist saffronisation ideology in Hindus, as a national
strategy, in a so called secular democratic state. Muslim
artists, activists, academicians, journalists, political and
social leaders and human rights defenders are at the verge
of execution due to these extremist policies. They are falsely
accused of spreading anti-national sentiments among
muslims of India, thus arrested under Public safety act, a
recognized draconian law by Amnesty International India.
Sceptically, if the future of India continues to be in the hands
of extremist governments, then there would be no time left
in the destruction of democratic status of the Republic of
India.
Gettleman, Jeffrey, and Maria Abi-habib. “As Protests Rage on Citizenship Bill,
Is India Becoming a Hindu Nation?” The New York Times. The New York Times,
December 16, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/world/asia/in-
dia-citizenship-protests.html.
Chandna, Himani, Rama Lakshmi, Amrita Chowdhury, and Neelam Pandey.
“Human Rights Activists Angry with Gates Foundation Award to 'Butcher of
Gujarat' Modi.” ThePrint, September 8, 2019.
“Tyranny of a 'Lawless Law'.” : DETENTION WITHOUT CHARGE OR TRIAL
UNDER THE J&K PUBLIC SAFETY ACT. Accessed May 2, 2020. https://am-
nesty.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Tyranny-of-A-Lawless-Law.pdf.
It is to be noted that as a conventional member of Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, Narendra Modi is elected and
appointed as a prime minister of a secular democratic state,
where RSS does not believe in democratic decentralisation
of power and empowerment of the masses based on
citizenship rights. The democratic and secular Republic of
India is about to loosen its righteous status under the rise of
Modi’s Hindutva. The idea of saffronisation is now habitually
consuming the constitutional and multicultural values of
India. The hegemonic pandits and saffrons having extreme
violent tendencies, under the ideology of Hindutva, are
exploiting the minorities in India in the name of nationalism.
In this respect, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat stated on October
8, 2019: “Bharat is Hindu Rashtra and all Bharatiyas are
Hindus.”
Due to the Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Register
of Citizens (NRC), and the communalised National Popula-
tion Register, Indian muslims are facing intense chaos
because of the intended demographic change in the regions
of India. After the application of CSS and the NRC amend-
ments, there were daily mass protests occurring across
India, causing hundreds of casualties and injuries of
muslims, since December 15, 2019. The new wave of
Hindutva had restated the scenario of independence 1947,
an event which had caused the most hazardous migration in
the subcontinent. Now, in the times of the year 2020, Hindu
fundamentalist outfits such as BJP, RSS VHP, Bajrang Dal
and Shiv Sena, including other similar parties, have been
promoting religious and ethnic chauvinism in India—also by
propagating Hindutva Ideology. As Yogi Adityanath Hindu, a
priest and BJP Member Parliament (2007 & 2009) said: “If
one Hindu is killed, we won’t go to the police, we will kill ten
Muslims”. They are instigating hatred for muslims among
Hindus in India. They have propelled the muslims to leave
their country by burning their properties, including their
vehicles and mosques.
The north eastern states, such as Assam, along the Bangla-
desh border, had to produce their documentary proof that
they or their ancestors lived in India since 1971. They are in
dreadful condition because around 33 million people of
Assam, a mix of muslim, hindus and christian, failed to
prove their citizenship test and now fearing statelessness.
Nayak, Bhabani Shankar. “Decoding Hindutva Politics and Its Perils in India.”
Countercurrents. Countercurrents.org, April 25, 2020. https://countercur-
rents.org/2020/04/decoding-hindutva-politics-and-its-perils-in-india.
Press Trust of India. “'Bharat Is Hindu Rashtra and All Bharatiyas Are Hindus':
RSS Chief Bhagwat.” Business Standard. Business-Standard, October 8,
2019. https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-sto-
ries/rss-firm-on-bharat-being-hindu-rashtra-bhagwat-119100800279_1.html.
The way many Indian muslims of other regions also fear
about being asked to produce old birth certificates or
property deeds necessary to prove citizenship. Freedom of
speech and right to protest are one of the basic fundamental
rights, declared by United Nations, and also provided by the
state constitution, but still after the CAA amendment, when
muslim students, journalists and intellectuals rose their
voices for their rights, they were thrashed to their last breath
by the Indian military troops, on the orders of Narendra
Modi. These security forces brutally handled those innocent
students by beating them with wooden poles, dragging
them away and sending scores to the hospital. This Indian
police had been seen launching live ammunitions and tear
gas canisters to disperse the protestors of their own state.
The vacuous saffrons are continuously detaining innocent
muslim youth by labelling them as terrorists. The list
includes Masrat Zahra-a photojournalist, Umer Khalid- a
student leader, student activists-Safoora Zargar and Meeran
Haider, the journalists Gowhar Geelani and Peerzada Ashiq
and many more. The only crime of these people was to raise
their voice against this injustice.
Moreover, Indian government has not even been transparent
to their own citizens. In February, 2020, India’s Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting, under the influence of R.S.S.
and Bharatiya Janata Party, blocked a few television news
stations for 48 hours because they aired the news of the
mob attack on Muslims in New Delhi, which also magnified
the broader unrest in the country. The freedom of press has
been deliberately breached in a so-called Democratic
Secular India. This crucial step of Indian government ignited
the pessimist analytical approach of the media, according to
which, Modi is practicing limited democracy in India. Since
2014, when Modi came into power, he has tried to restrict
and control the media. He cultivated the media to portray
his personality as a religiously-tolerant national saviour and
hide his anti-racist and extremist aura on the front page. In
addition to this, Modi’s government had pressured the
media owners to fire journalists who had skeptically
criticized his policies. Nonetheless, the continous strangling
of the press by Indian government led to the discreditation
and harassment of these independent journalists. Formerly,
these media personnels got rewarded due to their critical
approach, but during Modi tenure, these all are the main
scapegoats. They are frightened of being labeled as anti-
Gettleman, Jeffrey, and Maria Abi-habib. “As Protests Rage on Citizenship
Bill, Is India Becoming a Hindu Nation?” The New York Times. The New York
Times, December 16, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/world/a-
sia/india-citizenship-protests.html.
national by the government. He also imposed high restric-
tions on foreign journalists for travelling to the Indian
Occupied Kashmir, so they could not reveal Indian govern-
ment’s heinous acts on Kahmiri muslims.
Mr. Modi is well known for his role as the Muslim massacre
in Gujrat 2002. Hindu extremists under the Narendra Modi
regime have started preplanned violence against Muslims in
Gujarat. In Gujarat Riots 790 Muslims died, 2500 left injured
and 223 missing (A micro-sociology of violence Berenschot
ward 11th June 2014). He was called “Butcher of Gujarat” in
the main newspapers of India. This could not be forgotten
that Modi, during 2002, when he was chief minister of
Gujarat State, deliberately manipulated tv news channels to
not to air the religiously driven violent Muslim genocide in
Gujarat, by his own government. It is now understood that
India's ranking on the Reporters Without Borders press
freedom index is 140 out of 180. Modi wants the world to
see through his lens, that’s why he is projecting India as
MahaBharat (Great India) and himself as a peaceful, secular
and generous leader, regardless of his strategies and acts to
exterminate minorities, particularly Muslims, in India.
Politics is indeed an art, but a cruel one. Where the whole
world is batteling with COVID-19, Indian government is
grabbing Covid-19 as an opportunity to kick out 200 million
Muslim population from India. Initially, they amended the
New Citizenship Act and now, they have introduced the new
Kashmiri Domicile law. It is, nonetheless, an extermination
of muslims from India. Thus, BJP made a strategic move by
blaming muslim community for deliberately spreading the
virus. This anti muslim strategy brought a huge chaos, as
this boosted up the hatred sentiments for muslims, all over
India. Indian government left no stone unturned to malign
the muslim community in all the regions of India. Kashmiri
muslims are already in lockdown for more than eight
months. The barbaric intentions of Indian ruling government
is not limited to radicalize muslim minority only, but they
even terrorize the other minorities in India too, such as
Dalits were also inculpated of spreading this virus. The
question aroused in public that why particularly would
muslims do this, so the anti muslims authorities specially
RSS, propagated that muslims wanted to destabilize the
country and kill Hindus.
During this Covid-19 lockdown, Narendra Modi, Prime
Minister of the so-called secular state of India, decided to
address Hindus only, by urging them to pray according to
hindu rituals to get rid of coronavirus. From the very
beginning, his national policies are segregating muslims
from the entire nation, regardless that muslims are the
second largest community in India, covering almost 14.6%
of India’s population. The repercussions of such policies led
towards hindu’s unwelcoming behaviour towards muslims.
Vegetable vendors were asked for proof of their religious
affiliation. Such policies definitely are evident to suppress
muslims’s identity as Indian muslims. In addition to these
demonic acts, Hindu extremists blamed muslims for the
spread of coronavirus. The muslims have been treated
brutally since the politicization of COVID-19 by India.. They
have accused certain muslim political party in New Delhi to
arrange a congregation, purposely to spread coronavirus
among hindus, but they might have taken those congrega-
tions on a lighter note which are surely arranged by
themselves.
The so called secular Indian government ordered all the
hospitals to segregate muslim patients from Hindu patients.
The doctors are not paying attention to muslim patients,
under the instructions of government. Such policies tended
other formal and informal sectors to marginalize them too,
thus mostly muslims lost their jobs recently. These incidents
led Hindu extremists to circulate the Islamophobic hashtags
on social media. Furthermore, they made fake videos to
spread the ambiguity about the spread of coronavirus due to
muslims. They had labeled it as #CoronaJihad, and falsely
linked it to Indian muslims’ hatred towards Hindus and their
intention to kill them through spreading this virus. Such
conspiracies ignites every national hindu to fight for his
nation by killing and targeting these innocent muslims.
These muslims are rather to be called terrorists by Indian
government, no matter what, they have to prove their loyalty
towards Indians at each and every moment.
Fortini, Amanda, Jeet Thayil, Nellie Hermann, Carina Del, and Valle Schordke.
“Pandemic Journal.” Pandemic Journal, April 13, 2020. https://www.ny-
books.com/daily/2020/04/29/pandemic-journal-april-13-20/.
“Muslim Population in India.” Muslim Population in India - Total Muslims in
India. Accessed April 29, 2020. https://www.indiaonlinepages.com/popula-
tion/muslim-population-in-india.html.
Shaukat, Sajjad, and Zaheerul Hassan. “The Guise of Coronavirus, India's
Undeclared War against the Indian Muslims.” KashmirWatch, April 25, 2020.
http://kashmirwatch.com/guise-coronavirus-indias-unde-
clared-war-indian-muslims/.
ibid
This is not the first time that Hindu right wing parties
induced communalism in the nation, in the name of Hindut-
va. Communal riots have been manifested amongst the
nation as an Indian tradition. Hindus extremist parties
believed in totalitarianism and majoritarianism, which led
them to demonstrate supremacy over the other minorities in
India. They have propagated the scenario of spread of
coronavirus through muslims, to increase Islamophobia and
to reduce the sight of the outer world from Indian national
political blunders.
They have left no stone unturned in maligning muslims on
every possible platform, whether national or international.
These frustrated maniac Saffrons are threatening genocide
and ethnic cleansing against muslims, so they would leave
the so called secular state of India. It is, nonetheless, a
dehumanization of whole muslim population of India.
Congressman André Carson of Indiana's 7th District
condemned the Indian government’s brutal policies in Indian
Occupied Kashmir. He urged them to pull out from IOK and
provide them with ease during Covid-19 lockdown instead
of snatching their basic rights too. The Organization of
Islamic Cooperation’s Independent Permanent Human
Rights Commission (IPHRC) also criticized the Indian
government for their harsh policies regarding muslims in
India. They urged the Narendra Modi’s government to
overlook the rising tendencies of Islamophobic campaigns
in India, arranged by RSS, BJP and other Hindu Right wing
organizations. These extremists are deliberately defaming
Indian muslims by blaming them for the spread of Coronavi-
rus. OIC showed their concern towards these muslims
amidst the COVID-19 breakout. Arundhiti Roy, a political
activist, revealed that Indian government is actually prepar-
ing for the genocial approach for gettng rid of muslim
minority in India. She explained how Indian government is
managing to use covid-19, as a weapon to malign muslims
in India. In addition to that, Saudi scholar Abidi Zahrani
Carson, André. “My Heart Remains with the People of #Kashmir during This
Challenging Time. The Draconian Restrictions Placed upon Them by PM Modi
Are Not Only Taking Away Their Basic Human Rights, but Also Making It More
Difficult to Protect against #COVID19. These Unjust Restrictions Must End!”
Twitter. Twitter, April 25, 2020. https://twitter.com/RepAndreCarson/sta-
tus/1254109318779207681.
Oic-Iphrc. “1/2 #OIC-IPHRC Condemns the Unrelenting Vicious #Islamopho-
bic Campaign in #India Maligning Muslims for Spread of #COVID-19 as Well as
Their Negative Profiling in Media Subjecting Them to Discrimination & Violence
with Impunity.” Twitter. Twitter, April 19, 2020. https://twit-
t e r . c o m / O I C _ I P H R C / s t a -
tus/1251826155939926017?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed&ref_url
=https://www.geo.tv/latest/283787-oic-urges-modi-govt-to-take-urgent-steps
-to-stop-growing-tide-of-islamophobia-in-india.
Deutsche Welle. “Novelist Arundhati Roy Claims Pandemic Exposes India's
'Crisis of Hatred against Muslims': DW: 19.04.2020.” DW.COM. Accessed May
6, 2020. https://www.dw.com/en/arundhati-roy-claims-coronavirus-expos-
es-indias-crisis-of-hatred-against-muslims/a-53167812.
also condemned Indian government for spreading hatred
against muslims. He emphasized on the immediate transfer
of such extremist Indians to India, who are temporarily
residing in the Gulf states. Furthermore, he added that they
have been treating them free of cost while these Hindutva
Terrorists gangs are committing crimes against Muslims
citizens.
Categorically, Pakistan on the other side, condemned these
horrible actions and policies of Indian government. About
456 ceasefire violations by Indian army, using heavy
Basement, Rubani Center,
Allah Wali Market, Street 33, F-8/1,
Islamabad-Pakistan.
kiirnpo
artillery, across LOC, have been recorded since February 26,
2020, when covid-19 broke out worldwide. Human rights
defenders across the world should approach the Interna-
tional Human Rights organizations to intervene in India in
such a homicidal crisis. The International Court of Justice
must sanction India for the violation of basic human rights
under the conventions of International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination , Interna-
tional Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
Degrading Treatment or Punishment and International
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance. Moreover, it is suggested that ICC should
investigate these heinous crimes against muslims, occuring
in India. Furthermore, the UN and the International commu-
nity must take steps to prevent India from changing the
demography and distinct identity of occupied Jammu and
Kashmir. The so-called progressive and liberal India must be
exposed on all of the front forums, so the world could know
the meaning of democracy and justice.
‫ينارهزلا‬ ‫م‬/ ‫يديبع‬. “ https://twitter.com/ZahraniAbidi/sta-
tus/1249421877052878848?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed&ref_url
=https://www.geo.tv/latest/283787-oic-urges-modi-govt-to-take-urgent-steps
-to-stop-growing-tide-of-islamophobia-in-india.
Reporter, The Newspaper's Staff. “Indian Army Using People of Held Kashmir
as Human Shields: ISPR.” DAWN.COM, April 25, 2020. https://ww-
w.dawn.com/news/1552086/indian-army-using-peo-
ple-of-held-kashmir-as-human-shields-ispr.
“International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimina-
tion.” OHCHR. Accessed May 4, 2020. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Profession-
alInterest/Pages/CERD.aspx.
“International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.” OHCHR.
Accessed May 4, 2020. https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/-
cescr.aspx.
“COMMITTEE ON ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES.” OHCHR. Accessed May
4, 2020.
tionCED.aspx.
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CED/Pages/Conven-
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