By Soroor Ahmed / The Wire
Several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bigwigs, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claim repeatedly that India is a “Vishwaguru” (teacher to the world). But Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat recently accused Muslims of practising a “boisterous rhetoric of supremacy”, advising them to abandon it.
But if India has really become a global leader, why should Muslims – who constitute 15% of the country’s population – abandon this rhetoric? is this an exercise that is only reserved for the majority Hindu community? Another related question is, are Indian Muslims really indulging in “boisterous rhetoric of supremacy”? By all indicators of development, they are way behind the majority Hindu community.
Before Independence, when India had more than 25% Muslim population, there may have been some Muslim leaders who had a superiority complex. But their numbers were small and all of them would have crossed over to live in Pakistan.
Before Independence, there might have been some takers of the RSS’s view of Muslim superiority. But it seems that in the last 75 years, the organisation has learnt nothing. They are still engaged in Hindu-Muslim polarisation in secular India.
It seems that the RSS and its chief have not come out from the pre-Independence mindset. They do not seem to realise that by claiming that Muslims are indulging in the rhetoric of supremacy, they are unconsciously exposing their own inferiority complex.
The Sangh parivar appears to be a confused lot. They claim that Hindu civilisation is the Vishwaguru, but at the same time say that Muslims indulge in the rhetoric of supremacy. By instilling a feeling in the mind of the majority community that Muslims are superior – when the case is not so – Bhagwat and other Sangh leaders are doing a disservice to Hindus. They must understand that psychology plays a crucial role in the development of any community or nation.
This story was originally published in thewire.in . Read the full story here