India took more than a thousand years to arrive at the conclusion of living in peace in a multi-cultural environment. From being just a Hindu/Buddhist region, it slowly began to accept the followers of other creed as equal humans. Muslim invaders that followed European plunderers, starting with Alexander the Great in 326 BC, brought to India or Bharat a sense of culture and humanism.
This is not to suggest that Hinduism was devoid of humanism; its teachings of peaceful coexistence were altered into developing an attitude of militancy towards all those who were outside their own creed. The damning caste system that still ails Indian society has been a curse upon the downtrodden and remains the greatest obstacle in unifying India. The lower castes are abhorred still. The Muslim rulers taught India about the universal brotherhood of man, with no distinction of colour, religion, creed, caste or language.
Islam hence continues to be the growing religion in India and other parts of the world. The Mughals assimilated thoroughly into the socio-economic body of the locals to the extent by the time of Jehangir’s ascension to the throne the Mughals had almost lost their links with Central Asia in all aspects of everyday living.
If after centuries, the right mixture between essentially five dominant and powerful civilisations took place, it was Gandhi and Nehru in the modern history who brought out and kept alive the concept of Ahimsa (mon-violence) and peaceful coexistence, closest to the political thought and philosophy of India.
Following Independence, both stood resolutely against ethnic cleansing of Muslims who remained back in India. In fact they stood as a China Wall against the atrocities that the RSS (the ideological fountainhead of BJP) was unleashing upon the Muslims.
An RSS die-hard activist, Nathuram Godse, took Gandhi out with a few bullets that he lavishly pumped into his frail body only because he spoke in favour of minorities, and in particular, Muslims. The pristine soul of the country they had so passionately conceived and architectured today lies in tatters due to the BJP (RSS) government mindset led by the Butcher of Gujarat (Narendra Modi).
Modi’s ascent to power started from nowhere. As a teenager he joined as an enthusiastic worker of the RSS. In 1987, he joined BJP. He was catapulted into being chief minister of Gujarat in 2001. He remained its chief minister till 2014. It was then New Delhi that beckoned him. A small mention about the state of characteristics of the Gujarat state is necessary for creating the perspective to the contents of this piece.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (a Bania Hindu) was born in Gujarat. His roots were entrenched in Gujarati culture, where all the diverse communities shared a common understanding and mixed up freely. Jinnah’s (a Muslim) parents had migrated to Karachi. Nusserwanjee (a Parsi) too was born in Gujarat. Later, he went on to build up the Tata business and industrial empire.
As a spice to this piece, Bollywood is crowded with Gujarati natives, the most prominent being Mahesh Bhatt whose father was a Gujarati Hindu and mother a Gujarati Muslim; their famous offspring is Alya Bhatt (married into the Kapoor clan), she has an elder sister, who is named as “Shaheen”. There are over six million Muslims living in Gujarat. All the communities lived in peace and harmony until Modi arrived on the scene.
As Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi, who professed to be an ardent disciple of another communalist Gujarati, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, who was the home minister in Nehru’s cabinet, began a rampage against the Muslims living in Gujarat.
The carnage carried out in 2002 under his orders led to merciless genocidal killings of over 2000 Muslims. Innocent men, women and children were knifed to death. The zealots were inhuman, they tore open the wombs of pregnant Muslim women. Modi was formally christened by the Western media aptly, as “Butcher of Gujarat”. He stands charged guilty in the chronicles of history for presiding genocidal killings.
Standing tall upon the Everest of hatred and racial communalism, Modi became Prime minister in 2014 and has craftily managed a third term in the elections of 2024. In teenage years he became member of RSS and by 1987 had joined BJP. Modi represents a militant mindset— a behaviour that is directly repugnant to the higher ideals of humanistic standards.
He continues to preside over the division and soft bleeding of Indian union. Economic growth is holding it together; otherwise, none can deny the separatist movements breeding in the cauldrons of distrust towards New Delhi by the seven sister states of North East India and many south Indian states too. It is a matter of time only when the implosion will necessarily happen, all due to the political philosophy being pursued by Narendra Modi, along with his ardent ally, the equally reprehensible character, Amit Shah the home minister. The duo makes for standing out as champions of blood-sucking politicians of the sub-continent.
Modi is currently fighting a fledgling electoral battle in the heavily populated province of Behar. The elections to the 243-seat legislative assembly have begun. Rajdeep Sardesai, the renowned journalist from India, in his recent vlog called the Behar elections as “vote kharidu elections” (loot sale of votes). In a fair election BJP and allies might lose to the opposition led by the son of Lalu Prashad Yadav.
The Yadav votes and the Muslim votes together are a formidable challenge. The women (mahila) vote is critical alongside the vote of the youth. It can turn tables to become the casting vote. The chief minister recently has started to “not steal but purchase” the votes. Mahilas are being given rupees 10,000; a bonus, if one may call it, is being dished out to every woman under the guise of economic support.
If votes are not looted or purchased, most likely Narendra Modi will lose the elections. And should that possibility happen, the dawn of Modi’s undoing will begin. Behar is a litmus test, and will damage the position of BJP at the centre. The next Lok Sabha elections may see the end of Modi. The opposition leader Tejasvi has the task to get 41-43 percent votes of the electorate.
Personally, as a student of history and politics, it is my view that regardless of the results of the current elections in Behar, Modi’s undoing began in May this year when he indulged in a cross burden adventurism against Pakistan. The setback caused by that limited engagement has not only wounded beyond repair his repute, ego and respect, but has led the rest of the world to ridicule him at the drop of the hat.
Initially, he was refused visa by both the UK and USA; then the Canadian premier Justin Trudeau belittled Modi by refusing to meet. President Donald Trump does it incessantly by revising upwards the number of Indian aircrafts (Rafale) that were downed by Pakistan. It seems that President Trump relishes the idea of rubbing salt deeply into Modi’s wounds that obstinately refuse to heal up.
The popular poster boy of world media, the mayor-elect of New York, Zohran Mamdani in an inter- action had drawn comparison between Benjamin Netanyahu “The Butcher of Gaza” with “The Butcher of Gujarat” — he blended and bundled them together as “ war criminals” , who must be brought to justice.
Dirk Collier, the author of fictionalised history of “The Great Mughals and Their India” concludes his prologue to the book in the following words, “Linguistically, culturally as well as ethnically, the Mughals who came after Babar no longer resembled their Central Asian ancestors: India had forever changed their faces, hearts and souls. Just like, whether one likes it or not, they have forever changed the face, heart and soul of India”. Modi, a poor student of history, is engaged in reversing history. Failure looms.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The writer is Senior Banker & Freelance Contributor