<![CDATA[Christchurch shootings: why would some Indian Hindus celebrate the death of Muslims?]>

Alibava, from Kerala in India, was one of dozens slain that day, when a lone man armed with a semi-automatic weapon rampaged through Al Noor and the nearby Linwood mosque, massacring 50 worshippers in an attack he live-streamed on the internet.

Al Noor Mosque, Christchurch, New Zealand. Photo: Reuters

The Christchurch attack proclaimed the arrival of white supremacist violence, half a world away from its roots. White nationalists have claimed lives in the United States, Canada, Norway and other European countries. Ethnic Indians " including Hindus and Sikhs " have been among the targets. Indians of every religion in the United States have also been among the main victims of the Trump Administration's decision to tighten the rules on H1-B visas, to pander to the nativists in his electoral base.

India's Hindu majority appears to have no reason to support white supremacists " other than a shared hatred of Muslims.

Just like white nationalists, Hindu nationalists have been scapegoating Muslims as a way to rally support among their base. Indeed, Hindu nationalists are far more experienced at cultivating Islamophobia. They have been at it since the birth of their movement a century ago. The campaign has gone into overdrive in the India of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

For the most part, Indian history has also been laced with examples of a syncretic Hindu-Muslim culture birthing its own unique genres of music, dance, cuisine and even forms of worship.

Hindu fundamentalists in celebrate the destruction of the 16th Century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, 1992. Photo: AFP

On January 30, 1947, Nathuram Godse, a lifelong member of the Rashtriya Swayansewak Sangh (RSS) " the wellspring of right-wing nationalism in India and the ideological parent of the present-day Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) " pumped bullets into Mahatma Gandhi's body for being too tolerant towards Muslims in the aftermath of India's partition. Gandhi had fasted for multiple days urging Hindus and Muslims to stop savaging each other and his idea of India, perpetuated by first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, centred around a secular, pluralistic society with equal rights for all. "It was Gandhi's assassination that stunned the country into feelings of peaceful coexistence and it seemed then that the issue [of communalism] had been resolved," said the human rights activist Harsh Mander.

"The RSS with their views of a Hindu nation were relegated into the shadows but within them another idea of India persisted."

Apart from a few scattered acts of violence across the country, it wasn't until 1992 that communal fever began to resonate nationally. A campaign for the "reconstruction" of the Ram Temple at the disputed site of Ayodhya, was launched by the nascent BJP. In the narrative of the RSS, the temple was allegedly torn down by the Muslim Mughal emperor Babur in the 16th century and the Babri mosque was established in its place.

The mosque that stood at what is considered the birthplace of Lord Rama was desecrated by an unruly mob as law enforcement officials ran for their lives.

"The demolition of the mosque was the turning point where this alternative idea of India has its first moment of glory," said Mander.

Widespread communal violence, including riots in Mumbai, broke out across the country in 1992 and 1993, killing at least 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.

Indian Hindu and Muslim activists clash in New Delhi on an anniversary of the razing of The Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. Photo: AFP

The Srikrishna Commission, convened to probe the violence, highlighted the anti-minority bias in the police force and said there were 31 policemen who participated in riots and looting.

Today, one of the most emotive issues for the Modi government is the call for the speedy construction of the Ram Temple. The clamour gets only louder as the general elections inch closer.

In the wake of the riots, India first witnessed the awnings of terrorism with the Bombay bomb blasts said to have been organised by Dawood Ibrahim, a Muslim honcho of an international crime syndicate then operating out of Bombay.

A victim of a train blast lies on the floor of a hospital in Mumbai in 2006. More than 100 people were killed in seven bomb explosions at rail stations and on trains in India's financial hub. Photo: Reuters

"It is a shame that instead of looking inwards at Indian Muslims and their unique history in India, the Indian media started copy-pasting the American media's rising narrative on Islamophobia," he added.

In 2002, Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat which saw widespread communal riots that resulted in over 1,000 deaths, mostly of Muslims. Modi was charged with complicity in the riots " which, by many accounts, was called an orchestrated pogrom against Muslims " for not doing enough to contain the violence. In 2012 the Supreme Court of India exonerated Modi but the United States and many Western nations had banned his entry for a questionable human rights record " though they rethought this stance when he was elected prime minister in 2014 with an overwhelming majority, among the first in a growing list of democratically elected right-wing populist leaders around the world.

In the past five years, India has seen a sharp rise in incidents of communal violence in recent times. "With the coming of Modi, people know they can get away with violence, and are more vocally Islamophobic on social media," said Huda.

Divisive: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: TNS

Much of this muscular right-wingism is organic and lynchings of minorities, most of whom are Muslims have taken centre stage. "Hate lynching is something we've only seen in India in this moment of history," said Mander. "It is in a sense our unique cruelty. Its closest parallels are lynchings of African Americans in the US."

According to social activist Shabnam Hashmi, the Islamophobia has broadened to encompass growing hatred and intolerance towards anybody who questions the government. Artists, intellectuals and journalists are branded anti-national and attacked and trolled mercilessly. Hashmi cited the recent killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh by the Hindu right-wingers as an example. "We have a semi-fascist regime which is moving towards a situation where all democratic structures are compromised " universities, judiciary, economic institutions etc," she said, adding that the last 10 years had "converted me into a Muslim woman in the public eye", when in reality she is "a hard-core atheist".

Kavitha Lankesh is consoled by a relative as the body of her sister Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh is brought to the Ravindra Kalakshetra cultural centre in Bangalore. Photo: AFP

For Mander, his 27 trips across the country through his flagship project, the 'Karwan-e-Mohabbat' [Caravan of Love] have been eye-opening in revealing the growing chasm in Indian society.

"I see extreme cruelty, not just killing but killing with extreme cruelty " gouging off peoples' eyes, slashing off genitals and so on, coupled with the performative nature of the video camera pointed at them by the perpetrators of lynchings," he said.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.