Hindus Massacred in Myanmar shows how Religious Persecution is Practiced in Muslim Dominant Regions

– Salil Gewali

A profuse amount of tears that certain people shed for only a certain community makes us more apprehensive than appreciative. Yes, this group of people just remains silent at the suffering of certain others – even though it is against the call of humanity. And, some others just pretentiously show a token of concern just to hide from the public what they truly are.

Many intellectuals almost lost their sanity and began to beat their breasts when the BJP, only to make good their election manifesto, proposed to give shelters to the "aggrieved Hindus" of Bangladesh. It was a humane act keeping in view the fact that Hindus have for ages been inhumanely tortured and murdered by the majority in other countries.

The sharp decline in the population in the past few decades reveals that there must have been hard religious persecution against the Hindu in Bangladesh. But very sadly, the Hindus massacred in our immediate neighbouring state usually never evoke a bit of sympathy of our leaders, nor of so-called elites, and the media.

Many such instances of the persecution not even get mentioned in the Indian news media. We only get to hear that sad news from the far-off BBC, 'The Guardian' or 'Huffington Post', or from our FB friends abroad.

Tulsi Gibbered, the US member of the Democratic Party, raised this issue of religious prosecution in Bangladesh too many times but it was not considered newsworthy or discussed at all by the mainstream media of India.

Behold, this very group with devious agenda now rather want to welcome Rohingyas of Myanmar to India. Some are even pretentiously digging into the magnanimity of Hindu ethos and proudly quote Swami Vivekananda, "The Rohingyas conundrum" (ST, 28th Sept). Some others insidiously play the part of propagandists through their regular letters and articles to drive home the point.

No wonder, for some political leaders the mass exodus of Rohingyas from the Rakhine province of Myanmar has come as a windfall. So, they are rolling out the red-carpet and providing the citizenship underhand. Indeed, it's always one's greatness to soothe one's painful sore. India has poured out its kindness on our Tibetan refugees for which they always express their heartfelt gratitude in return.

But this time with Rohingyas I am quite sceptical. Instead of gratitude, we might receive a barrage of bullets in due course of time. Many pockets of West Bengal have already witnessed such instances of ingratitude.

But our fellow friend from Kolkata never discusses that. Can one guarantees that those Rohingyas, who are responsible for Hindus massacred in Rakhine also abducted and forced many to convert at a gunpoint, will not be the cause of nightmares for Indians in future? Three mass graves of Hindus in Rakhine gave a new turn to the sorrowful saga of deported refugees from Myanmar? This sacred land of India has long been battered by many subversive forces, from outside and within.

I am afraid, these large cohorts of writers or propagandists are now finding reasons and means under the sky to gloss over the criminalities of radicalized Rohingyas.

I further argue, how we could close the eyes of the sensibility that the people whose hands are stained with the blood of the Hindus Massacred in Rakhine, and the psyche overwhelmed with the hatred for others will not pose a serious security threat to India?

True, had it not been "indoctrination of hate" against others, as unearthed and noticed in several instances across the world already, the issue of refugees' resettlement would have been pretty different, and charitably pleasant too, be it Rohingyan or Syrian… The naive and heartlessly deported population would have obeyed "their own instinct" and would have "loved their neighbors" in gratitude who offered them shelters – irrespective of faiths and nationalities of the benevolent!

One does not disagree that this world is "one home" in which we all should live together as the children of one Almighty. This is the very fundamental basis of India's ethos and one of its principle spiritual teachings. So, in view of the distress of our fellow brothers, how badly one wishes that we citizens of this planet hummed in one rhyme that we have "several paths" to one Almighty. Then this Earth would have looked like a lush landscape with varied colors of peaceful peoples living in perfect harmony. But, this never has happened. What's too lamentable is that in this age of advanced science each individual faith still claims its "exclusivity" to reach the doorway to heaven.

The rational approaches to God are just pooh-poohed. Has this "exclusivity to meet God" through "ONLY ONE PATH" not taken the toll on the whole edifice of the humanity? Has it not literally demolished the possibility of the peaceful co-existence and mutual respect?

Thus, now one just become too apprehensive even if we want to exercise our magnanimity because the religions themselves are playing a foul game. Lastly, the history warns us that the genuine show of compassion and love has unmistakably met with enmity, intolerance, and bloodshed. Shall we still import trouble and bring misery to the people here?

Salil Gewali is a well-known writer and author of 'Great minds on India'. Twitter @SGewali