Modi, Hindutva & Kashmir
Listen on this week's podcast
“India’s democracy is being systematically disassembled,” says renowned writer and activist Arundhati Roy. She adds, “Any kind of dissent is just smashed with an iron fist.” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party openly espouse Hindutva, a racist ideology rooted in a mythical past and fueled by magical thinking. It’s a supremacist doctrine that privileges and elevates one group, Hindus, over all others. Its animus toward Muslims is particularly acute but Christians and other minorities also incur its wrath. Hindutva nationalists want to dominate Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state. The Himalayan region has endured decades of occupation by hundreds of thousands of Indian troops. There is resistance. Tens of thousands of Kashmiris are dead and missing. Human rights violations are routine. Yet the Kashmiri quest for azadi, freedom, continues.
Speaker
Mohamad Junaid
Mohamad Junaid grew up in Kashmir in the 1990s and witnessed the rise of resistance against Indian rule. He has written on Kashmir in various newspapers and magazines and is a contributor to Until My Freedom Has Come, Of Occupation and Resistance and Kashmiri Futures. He teaches at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
From John in Canada –
Thanks David. I was not sufficiently aware of what’s happening in Kashmir.
From a listener in New York –
Thank you for your interview with Mohamad Junaid on Modi, Hindutva & Kashmir. It expanded my view of the machinations of settler-colonialism, and the international character of imperialism, especially along “religious” lines.
Rafiq Kathwari –
David,
I read Junaid’s interview and highlighted many perceptive comments, particularly about how the Hindutva ideology is using hatred to try to keep India united, I remembered: “Coerced unification of opinion leads only to the unanimity of the graveyard.” Justice Robert Jackson, chief lawyer at the Nuremberg Trials.
From a listener in New York –
I listened to Mohamad Junaid on WBAI New York today. Your discussion of the situation in Kashmir was unusually insightful and clear. Thank you.
From a listener in OR –
The interview with Mohamad Junaid was excellent and, as usual (not fawning here, I promise), I learned as much from your questions as from his answers—you always prepare so well for these sessions. He mentioned twice the part of Hindutva philosophy: that of Hindus playing the victim while confident in their superiority. I never knew that and it certainly helps explain Hindu nationalists’ close ties with Zionist Israel. I also appreciate Mohamad’s optimism and persistent call for continued resistance.
Thanks again.