Imagine you construct your house and buy several belongings with your hard-earned money. However, one day suddenly, your neighbor living next to you asks you to leave your home and property. They start an armed uprising against you, and they do so simply because they hate your religious identity. They hate that you worship idols and put tilak on your head. They throw three options to you- either you convert, flee or die.
Something similar is the tale of Kashmir files that has become a trendy issue in the nation. People are surprised to know how millions of Hindus were forced to become a refugee in their own country. Even thousands of them were massacred just because they were Hindus, and they followed a different faith system in so-called secular India. Yes, this happened in secular India in the 1990s in Kashmir, but it took more than decades for people of India to know this reality and that too with the help of the movie ‘Kashmir files.’
This tragic story reached you late because an ecosystem that governed this nation with our votes for years worked tirelessly to whitewash and hide the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus. They advanced the narrative that just because Hindus are large in numbers in India than any other community, Hindus can’t be oppressed, and so-called minorities can’t oppress them. Taking the same agenda forward, they smeared the riots of Gujarat in 2002 as anti-Muslim riots despite the fact that in Godhara, Hindus were burnt alive by Islamists that triggered Gujarat riots.
But do you think that Kashmir files are the last tragedy of Hindus, and it won’t repeat ever? The answer is yes and no, both. It depends on how electorally and socially we keep Islamists under check. Assam, for example, has a Muslim population of nearly 40%, and if you examine, you will find that most of them are Bangladeshi hardliners, Muslims, not moderates. Several Assam districts now have an overwhelmingly Muslim population, and Hindus are the minority in these districts.
You will be surprised to know that not only Kashmiri Pandits are refugees in their own nation. The Bodo Hindus in Assam also share a similar plight. After the 2012 riots in Kokrajhar and adjoining areas unleashed upon Hindus by Bangladesh-origin Muslim Islamists, they were displaced for their homes. Till today thousands of Bodo Hindus dwell in refugee camps in Assam. They have left behind their properties and house to prevent getting them butchered by Islamists.
Can you connect a similar story of Kashmiri Pandits and Bodo Hindus in Assam? If yes, you will learn a similar reason behind it, and the reason is demography. Wherever the population of Hardliner Muslims or Islamists crosses a certain threshold, the identity of Hindus comes under crisis.
Not only Bodo Hindus but many Vashnavite Hindus also faced the same, and till today their prayer halls and worship places are encroached by Islamists. These occurrences in Assam are short trailers when the Muslim population is near 40%, not even half in Assam. This 40% is an alarm for the demography of Assam, but yet, the people of Assam are in a better place to save their demography, and not all is lost.
The native Hindus Assam over the last few years have shown this electorally, and despite having a sizable Muslim population, Hindus have voted those in power who care about the identity of Hindus. Traditionally in Assam, Muslims as voters have always voted unitedly for their identity, but now Hindus in Assam are also united in showing their electoral choice for those who openly talk about their identity. For Assam to not become another Kashmir, this electoral pattern will have to persist for years to come to undo the demographic crevasses that were done for decades.
In short, for the lion to show its presence in the jungle, it will have to keep roaring, or else other animals will take control of the jungle. Assam and its Hindu voters and society will have to show this roar electorally and socially by staying united. After all, what matters is demography and your numbers in a particular region.
By- Suranjann G Dutta
