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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 6-Nov-2008
"Hindutva" terrorist violence against Muslims shocks Indians

Web Log - November, 2008

"Hindutva" terrorist violence against Muslims shocks Indians

A terrorist network linked to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi is threatening widespread anti-Muslim violence in India.

There was a suicide bombing in Malegaon in India on September 29, 2008, and Muslim Jihadists were immediately suspected.

However, Indians are now shocked to learn that evidence is pointing to a widespread terror network, a Hindu Hindutva group that seeks revenge against Muslims.

Even worse, this terrorist group has links to India's major opposition party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This party also has suspected links to Hindu violence in Kashmir, as I wrote about three months ago.

The Hindu nationalist "Hindutva" movement began officially in 1923, led by terrorist Veer Savarkar (Vinayak Damodar Savarkar), mostly as a movement against British colonization.

By the 1940s, the Indian independence movement was being led by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi is considered the founder of India, while Muhammad Ali Jinnah is the founder of Pakistan. The two men had met during WW II to plan for the coexistence of the two nations when the time was right. Savarkar and other Hindu extremists were infuriated that Gandhi was even meeting with Jinnah.

Of course, the planning of Gandhi and Jinnah didn't produce the desired results. After Britain allowed Partition to go forward in 1947 (partitioning the Indian subcontinent into the independent nations of India and Pakistan), there was a huge, bloody, genocidal war between Hindus and Muslims.

The forced migration of 14 million people and the killing of perhaps a million more makes the 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent into two countries, separating Muslims from Hindus, one of the largest mass migrations in history.

Gandhi himself was assassinated in 1948. Savarkar was acquitted of participating, even though he was associated with the nationalist Congress Party, whose members were found to be responsible.

The assassination of Gandhi caused a big backlash against violence and nationalism in Indian society. This often happens after a crisis war, as people realize in horror all the atrocities that were committed. However, those feelings are missing from generations of people born after the crisis war, and by the 1980s the nationalist, pro-Hindutva BJP party was opposing Muslim jihadi movements.

Now, 60 years after Gandhi's death, the two sides are appearing as terrorist groups. Muslim Jihadists have been recognized for years, and various suicide bombings in India were always assumed to be caused by various Jihadist groups. But the sudden realization that that radical Hindu groups may also be conducting suicide bombings targeting Muslims is shaking India's secular society.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, a re-fighting of the massively genocidal war following the 1947 Partition is coming with absolute certainty. Both India and Pakistan are becoming increasingly polarized between moderate and extremist groups, and this polarization extends to Afghanistan, where Nato and American forces are slowly but surely being drawn deeper into the conflict.

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, as well as more frequent updates on this subject, see the Afghanistan, Pakistan and India thread of the Generational Dynamics forum.) (6-Nov-2008) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 6-Nov-2008 "Hindutva" terrorist violence against Muslims shocks Indians

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 6-Nov-2008
"Hindutva" terrorist violence against Muslims shocks Indians