Only by admitting what actually happened in Malabar and Kashmir, we can take the first step towards negotiation and conflict resolution
Representational image of riots. Image courtesy News18
In common parlance, we use many words and phrases interchangeably but when we use these words as societal jargon, they have a specific context and meaning. For example, the much synonymously used words are riots, a violent uprising, massacres, genocide, pogroms, ethnic cleansing, etc. But we need to define them before we expand and explain them. Riots are violent fights between two or more groups where both groups suffer. A pogrom is a violent riot aimed at the massacre or persecution of an ethnic or religious group, with an active or passive role of the state authorities. A massacre is a killing of many defenceless victims perpetrated by a group. Ethnic cleansing is an umbrella term that refers to efforts to make a particular area ethnically uniform through forceful exodus, mass killings or both.
Genocide is an intentional action to destroy a people (which may be a racial, ethnic, national, or religious group) in whole or in part. Genocide includes not only persecution of individuals of a group but also includes cultural genocide which is aimed at destroying their very culture and attacking the insignia of their culture and religion. Genocide has a pattern which may include the following:
The targeted people are generally minority in that geographical area. At the first instance, a minority bogey is seeded in an imperceptible way, brewed and snowballed into a hate for minority on communal/racial lines.
It starts with a hate-mongering against a particular ethnic-group. Artificial fears are created in the minds and one group is pitted against the other.
It is not only physical massacre or ‘pogrom’ of the persecuted but also a systemic and well planned cabal to annihilate the very existence of the group.
The underlying thesis of genocide is to destroy the culture and the way of life so as to annihilate the targeted group as an ethnic-being from the area.
It is not only attacking them and killing them but killing their ‘very ideas of life’ which may contain their belief system, their religion, their places of worships. Physical violence includes looting their properties, raping their women, converting them and destroying their ideology and the way of life.
It may also include cultural genocide which includes not only destroying their ideas but replacing them with the ideas of the perpetrators of genocide.
The role of state authorities may vary from being indifferent to providing tacit support or sometimes direct involvement.
Now, let us discuss the two forgotten genocides of the 20th century Indian history. Though the term genocide came in vogue after the genocide of Jews by the Hitler-led fascist regime, India has witnessed genocides both prior and post the Jewish genocide of the 1940s. While the Jews never made their sufferings forgotten from the collective conscious memory of their minds; the genocides committed in India have not been allowed to be part of national consciousness and even attempts were made to be erased from our history.
There have been two genocides in the 20th century which have many things in common; follow the same pattern and the same mindset of the prosecutors and the same modus oprendi.
Two orgotten enocides of 20thCentury
The first genocide was the Moplah riots, which occurred in August 1921. The other was the Kashmir genocide (1989-91). Thankfully, the Kashmir genocide got its due share in historical events by the recent Bollywood blockbuster film called The Kashmir-Files, the Moplah genocide remained obscure in the annals of Indian history. Interestingly, the time lapse between these two genocides is 70 years, the pattern and trajectory of events of these two genocides remain the same.
Both these genocides were targeted against Hindus who happened to be in minority in both these states. In both the cases, the perpetrators were Muslims led by the Muslim fanatics and tacitly supported by the common Muslim-people. Both were committed in the name of religion and aimed at coercively converting people.
A concerted attempt was made to attack Hindus in Moplah. The first direct result of the appeasement of Muslims by converting the Non-Cooperation Movement into the Khilafat movement was paying immediate dividends. In the case of Kashmir, it was the result of the appeasement of Islamists by the successive governments both at state and national level. In both the genocides, the first stage of the pogrom was to create a minority bogey. In both the cases, Hindus were projected as infidels and a communal call to ethnically cleanse the land from the Hindus were given.
In both the cases, Muslim mobs killed Hindus, looted their properties, raped their women, and desecrated their places of worship. Also there were forcible conversions of Hindus. Further, mosques played a big role in instigating the masses to go for the kill. In Kashmir, 1,381 Hindus were killed and more than 1.40 lakh were evicted. In the case of Moplah, at least 10 thousand Hindus were killed and 1 lakh were evicted.
In Kerala, the Hindus were landowners. In Kashmir also, Hindus were at economic-social good positions.
The most interesting part of the two genocides is the attempt to whitewash these events. The Moplah genocide have been termed ‘riots’ to reduce its intensity by the Maculayan-Nehurvian-Leftist historians. It was projected as a class struggle wherein the Hindu landlords were projected as exploiters vis-?-vis the poor Muslim peasantry. In the case of Kashmir genocide, the term ‘coined’ was ‘Hindu exodus’ by the Left-liberals. One journalist even claimed that this genocide and exodus took place because Hindus were “entrenched and privileged-class”.
The duty of a historian is not to sanitise the past. Only by admitting what actually happened in the past, we can move towards negotiation and conflict resolution. It is a time to admit the historical follies and start rapprochement.
The writer is an independent columnist. Views expressed are personal.
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