Global voices are monitoring and critiquing human rights violations in India and the rise of Hindutva. We present here fortnightly highlights of what a range of actors – from UN experts and civil society groups to international media and parliamentarians of many countries – are saying about the state of India’s democracy.
Read the fortnightly round-up for July 15-30, 2024.
International media reports
Zeteo, US, July 15
Fatima Bhutto describes the $ 600 million, celebrity-studded wedding of Anant Ambani, the son of the richest man in India, as “shameless” in flaunting “hideous wealth in one of the most unequal countries in the world”. Bhutto equates the Ambanis to the “human embodiment of India’s dark confluence of money and right-wing Hindu extremism” grown under Narendra Modi’s rule. Anant was blessed by the head of the Rashtriya Swavamsevak Sangh (RSS), the leading “quasi-fascist paramilitary organisation” of Hindu nationalist organisations.
Vittles Magazine, UK/India, July 15
Sara Ather writes about the far-reaching implications of housing discrimination faced by Indian Muslims, extending to “surveillance” and a constant “system of ghettoisation”. Food preferences provide cover for dominant-caste Hindu landlords to “demonise” meat-eating communities and refuse homes to Indian Muslims, as well as “enforce hierarchies and control the movement of Indian Muslims”, across caste and class.
Complaints about “strange-smelling food and unhygienic living conditions” result in Muslims feeling “both endangered and degraded”, paying more to rent, or buy in “mixed localities” and selling for less. Ather writes that while exclusion has long existed, the last decade of “far-right Hindu nationalism” has “brought practices of discrimination into the mainstream”. The targeting of meat sale and consumption shows a “broader, more sinister agenda”. While mob lynchings “justifiably capture headlines”, “the more insidious ways these developments infiltrate the daily lives of Muslims remain largely underexplored”.
Financial Times, UK, July 16
Benjamin Parkins chronicles the Narendra Modi government’s strategy of growing “control” to “rein in” foreign tech companies in India. The failure of Indian tech start-up, Koo, revealed the inability of Indian tech to “replace US social media companies in India”, but even this is not the troubling part. Modi’s approach is described by Udbhav Tiwari, director of global product policy at Mozilla, as “an attempt to create a ‘fourth path’ for regulating the internet”.
The state is expanding its control over tech companies through information technology and other laws that are, in official terms, intended to better regulate social media and prevent tech monopolies from forming. But the guise of greater consumer protection or regulation may be giving way to an “erosion of checks and balances”, “with broad powers for the state to police online speech in ways critics say resembles neighbouring China more than fellow democracies”.
The Washington Post, US, July 17
Bilal Qureshi reviews Indian Muslim writer Zara Chowdhary’s book The Lucky Ones, a memoir. He describes as “her survivor’s song” the recounting of her family living through the communal violence in Gujarat 2002. Chowdhary’s story revolves around their eighth-floor balcony “overlooking the city of Ahmedabad”, in the apartment where she and her family were trapped for months. The book is “a fierce critique of Modi’s India” but also “a requiem for, and reclamation of, her family’s secular India”.
NZZ, Switzerland, July 17
Andreas Babst’s portrait of Arnab Goswami calls him “perhaps the most hated – and most loved – journalist in the world” due to his millions of Indian viewers tracing Goswami’s self-narrative as an “outsider” who climbed his way up. Babst describes his style of “feel the news” according to which “news must trigger emotions, anger, joy, the stronger the better”. Goswami paved the way to bombastic Indian TV news inventing the “cacophony of tiles, banners, graphics and dramatic music” that marks it. Veteran journalist Ravish Kumar calls Goswami “the game changer. The first to become shameless” and shelve “everything which is called journalism”. Riding what he calls “the power of nationalism”, Goswami’s preferred targets are the political opposition or “people he calls anti-national: intellectuals who advocate a more moderate, less religious-nationalist India”. Babst describes nationalism in the “new India” as one which “no longer unites but excludes”. With millions of viewers, Goswami’s opinions circulate widely and “coincide almost perfectly with the government line of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Hindu nationalism of his BJP party”.
Religion News, US, July 19
Rasheed Ahmed, the Executive Director of the Indian American Muslim Council, writes on a “frightening new chapter in the burgeoning love affair between the U.S. right and Hindu nationalists”, marked by Ram Madhav’s participation at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this month. Madhav is the current national executive of the RSS, India’s central Hindu nationalist organisation. Ahmed says Madhav “whitewashed the Hindu nationalist movement” and “falsely claimed” that all Indians share in the movement’s “vision”. This despite an estimated two anti-Christian attacks per day; banning of interfaith marriages, and attacks on churches in India. Ahmed warns that “Conservatives committed to religious freedom should not listen to Madhav for even a moment”.
Nonetheless, the American and Indian right-wing alliance have a growing relationship, collaborating to appoint Steve Bannon (currently in prison for the January 6th Capitol riots), as the head of the Republican Hindu Coalition in 2019. Or the Hindu Republican caucus denouncing critics of Hindu nationalism. In light of this alliance, Ahmed calls for a strengthening of national ties between those who “defend the values of tolerance and pluralism advocated by the founders of India and the U.S. alike”.
World Politics Review, July 19
Paul Poast writes about how India may not have what it takes to be a “great power”. While its economy is huge, “potentially moving from the world’s fifth-largest to third-largest” in the next few years, India is “unlikely to grow fast enough to become a high-income country” and will remain a “relatively poor country”. Internally, India has been “plagued by conflict and violence among various ethnic and religious groups” often fomented by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
Despite India’s “diplomatic ambitions” it seems “disinterested in becoming embroiled in the disputes that consume the other major powers”. Poast concludes that India “remains a sleeping giant, and there’s no guarantee it will ever awaken.”
Nikkei Asia, July 28,2024
Charukesi Ramadurai writes about censorship faced by Indian stand-up comics. The threat of comedy that “speaks truth to power” is amplified because it reaches the youth, who are “almost half of India’s population”. Comedians who question the government “are harassed, abused, trolled and threatened in various ways, both online and in real life”. Comics who still dare to express dissent are learning “to be more clever about the way they do it”. However, vulnerabilities are heightened by comics’ gender and religious identities and threats to family members.
Experts say
Amnesty International published new testimonies from Manipur on July 16 which reveal that the BJP-led central government and Manipur state government are still “missing-in-action”, more than 400 days since the start of the ethnic violence in the state. Amnesty condemned the central and state governments as having “utterly failed to end the violence and displacement and protect human rights”. The testimonies of Kuki and other hill tribe communities point to the impunity of vigilante groups, the failure of the police to protect victims, the silencing of journalists, activists, and influencers; and the dire condition of relief camps. Amnesty International called upon the authorities to ensure the rights of all displaced persons including “voluntarily return to their homes and rebuild their lives by ensuring safe resettlement”.
A research article published on 19 July by a pan-country group of academics and researchers, found a high rate of decline in life expectancy “at birth” between 2019 and 2020 in India, due to COVID-19. They found that “mortality increased in almost all age groups, most prominently among the youngest and older age groups”.. The article estimates excess deaths 8 times higher than the official figures in India, and 1.5 times the World Health Organization’s figures. COVID-19 exacerbated life expectancy disparities faced by women as well as marginalised caste and religious groups. Children were also more vulnerable. The study highlights the importance of focusing on inequality when measuring mortality.
Marxism Today, spoke on July 20 to Professor GN Saibaba, scholar and human rights activist, about his imprisonment for over 8 years under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and other laws. Introduced as someone who sees Adivasi struggles as “intimately tied to the struggles of the people around the world”, Professor Saibaba spoke about Palestine and solidarities. He shared that his wife sent him protests and appeals from Palestinian activists demanding his release, when he was in prison. He spoke emphatically about how “the problem of the people of Palestine is the problem of people everywhere in the world”, and while Palestine is in uproar, “we cannot solve all other problems in the world”. Despite the “appalling” intensity of the attack, “all the governments are integrated into kind of this world level of fascism” and it seems they want to “finish off Palestinian people.” Interconnected global struggles were reflected in the lines of a poem, called “Resurrection”, that he wrote in prison and was read out:
“Child Christ has moved
away from Bethlehem
to Bastar or Palestine
or Kashmir or perhaps
returned to Africa.
Historians are in search
of his Footprints.”
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation released the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 report this month, reporting that India is home to 194.6 million undernourished people – the highest in any country in the world. More than half of India’s population is unable to afford a ‘healthy diet’. The prevalence of low birth weight is 27.4%, also the highest in the world. Wasting (low weight for one’s height) in children under five years is 18.7% in India, the highest in South Asia. Wasting is considered to be the worst of all forms of malnutrition in children. 53% of women in India are anaemic – the highest in South Asia and also among the highest in the world.
Following its review of India’s fourth periodic report on implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on July 16, the UN Human Rights Committee issued its findings on India (and six other countries) on July 25, containing its main concerns and recommendations. The Committee raised concerns of “discrimination and violence against minority groups, including religious minorities” and other marginalised groups. It flagged the decades-long “application of counter-terrorism legislation in “disturbed areas” which has led to “widespread and grave human rights violations”. It urged India to adopt comprehensive legislation prohibiting discrimination; and comply with its obligations under the ICCPR that counter-terrorism measures are used only when strictly necessary and subject to judicial review.
A group of organisations – Foundation The London Story, InSAF India, India Justice Project with the London Mining Network and the grassroots Forum against Corporatization and Militarization – made a submission to the UN Human Rights Committee as part of India’s ICCPR review. . The report presents evidence of human rights violations against Adivasis in Chhattisgarh state, especially extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, indiscriminate aerial bombings, and more, all in violation of India’s obligations under the ICCPR. The Committee’s findings on India explicitly mention human rights violations in Chhattisgarh.
Indian Diaspora and other Civil Society Groups
SACRED, the South Asian American Coalition to Renew Democratic Acts, organised an event in Chicago on July 13 at which they announced that a multi-faith group of South Asian American elected officials were taking the Illinois Nonviolence Pledge, supported by Tushar Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson. The Pledge is a commitment to reject election campaign funds and political support from far-right, Hindu supremacist groups such as Illinois based Republican Hindu Coalition (RHC). The Pledge has particular resonance in Illinois, home to one of the largest South Asian populations in the country. The event was addressed by several Senators, including Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, the first Indian-American woman in the US House of Representatives. Senator Villivalam, the first South Asian American elected to the Illinois State Senate, also spoke at the event. He said, “In my role, I have, unfortunately, seen and have worked against extremist, right wing elements that promote hateful rhetoric and discriminatory policies. I am more than proud to take this pledge.”
South Asia Solidarity group, UK, held the first webinar on July 21 in their new series “to understand, resist and expose one of the world’s most dangerous billionaires: Indian businessman Gautam Adani”. The discussion between Paranjoy Guha Thakurta (journalist, documentary filmmaker) and Ravi Nair (investigative journalist) focused on how exactly Adani acquired his immense wealth. Thakurta traced the “truly mind-boggling” scope of Adani operations, from coal, seaports, airports, infrastructure for grain storage, military drones, to real estate and media, concluding that “the Adani Group has entered the lives of every Indian in some way or other”. Nair described the benefits accruing to Adani from the Modi government in the form of changed rules and regulations especially with respect to taxation. In 2014, the year that the BJP came into power, the Adani Group’s “total market capitalization was just 7.8 billion dollars. And in 2020 September Adani Group’s total market capitalisation was $ 262 billion – in just ten years!”
12Ummah, an advocacy journalism initiative about Muslims and minorities in India by the diaspora based in USA, Germany & Middle East, produced a short video this month, drawing parallels between the directive issued by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government requiring eateries along the route of the Kawaria pilgrimage to display their names with Adolf Hitler’s 1933 Judenboykott campaign targeting Jewish businesses in Germany. The campaign “involved police officers, placing labels marked with the star of David on shop owned by Jews.” The purpose was not only to “economically boycott” Jewish establishments but also to fan “hatred against Jews”. The video links this with the UP government move in that it seeks to “identify the religion of business owners by their names”.
The Periyar Ambedkar Thoughts Circle of Australia (PATCA), a group which seeks to counter casteism, racism and discrimination against Indigenous Australians organized its inaugural event on July 28. In his welcome remarks, Dr. Haroon Kasim, the Vice President, called for the need to acknowledge the struggles of caste oppressed communities and for action to build a just society. It was shared that PATCA is creating an online caste discrimination register to capture the lived experiences of caste-oppressed communities, providing data to advocate for including caste in Australia’s anti-racism legislation and policy—an effort that could be the first of its kind in the world. Former Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon also spoke at the event and said that “the widespread official recognition that racism is simply unacceptable” gave her hope for the anti-casteism movement. Based on experience within the Greens Party, Rhiannon suggested a “focus on raising awareness” and representation of caste oppressed communities in forums related to multiculturalism and services. Schools in Sydney where the Vishva Hindu Parishad of Australia (VHPA), a Hindu right-wing organisation, is allowed to teach, must be prevented from promoting casteism.
Read the previous round-up here.
