It is the final part of the essay series ‘Decoding the Communal Fallacies Between Two Identities’. In the previous parts, we have analyzed multiple concerns that have been a reason for ill-boding between the two communities and found that on the scale of rationality, each discord seems to fall short. In this part, we will try to analyze the role of mainstream media in escalating this divide. From time to time, how mainstream media has overblown this split, many times, using narrative explicitly intended to exploit this communal divide by demonizing the collective Muslim Culture through purported prophecies of annihilation, merely, for the sake of TRP. To have a lucid insight of well thought over strategems, instigated by religious hardliners to enrage the gullible Hindu minds you should read the complete essay series.
An intense fear has been insinuated in the mind of gullible Hindu masses since the last few years through the mainstream media revelation of a Muslims conspiracy to annihilate India through the conquest: “Ghazwa-e-Hind“, a prophecy which finds its mentions in the Hadiths- a set of sayings by Prophet Mohammad, second-most holy text in Islam, after Qur’an. The prophecy demands that every Muslim must sacrifice their life and wealth in the holy jihad against infidels.
These demonizing media highlights have aggravated radical Hindu furore, insinuating the belief that this ideology of Islam has driven various Muslim invaders throughout centuries to plunder and commit horrors upon the Hindu population and, this vicious scheme can only be crushed through staunch policies towards Muslims. To escape this appalling fate from being repeated, the Hindus must realize that the onus of tolerance has to be surrendered and Muslims should be treated as downgraded citizens of India. Now let us examine these conceptions in the balance of rationality and logic.
Let us start with the Hadiths on Ghazwa-e-Hind: “The Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him) said – ‘Allah has saved two groups of my Ummah from the hellfire; the group that will invade Al-Hind (the subcontinent) and the group that will be with Eesa (Jesus), the son of Mariam.’ Quoting the narration of Abu Hurairah [the narrator of over 5,000 hadiths] – ‘The Messenger of Allah promised us the conquest of Al-Hind (the subcontinent). If I am able to join it, I will spend on it my wealth and my life. If I am killed, I will be the best of martyrs, and if I return, I will be Abu Hurairah, the freed one (i.e. from hellfire).
To comprehend this prophecy, we must understand how the Hadiths are composed and conserved. A Hadith comprises two parts – the matn (text) and the isnad (chain of the narrator). While A text may seem logical and reasonable, but, for a Hadith to be acceptable, the isnad needs to be authentic along with credible narrators. The companion of the prophet would always refer to him while quoting him, and their successors (Tabi’un) also followed this trend. Some of them mentioned the companions of the prophet in the Hadiths, while few omitted the intermediary sources – such Hadiths are called Mursal (loose).
Most of the erudite Muslim scholars put forward polemical declarations that there are more than a few Hadiths, mentioning Ghazwa-e-Hind and its virtues, but the credibility of the chain of narrators is highly contentious and relies upon persons who are deemed obscure in the authentic collection of Hadith. The narrator has a crucial role in how the Hadiths travel down centuries.
Apart from the faulty chain of narrators of the Ghazwa-e-Hind, Hadith, it is essential to note that the Hadith is always interpreted according to the geographical dimension of the time when they were told, but during that time there was no existence of India. Instead, it may refer to the Basrah, currently in Iraq because of some statement of blessed companions of The Prophet, used to say: “We interpret Hind as Basrah.”. It’s highly likely that the wars mentioned in the Hadith are referring to the wars fought against Iran during the early period of Islam.
If we further examine the so-called “prophecy”, we find that it has been popularised by the mainstream media of India and Pakistan, during the last couple of years, with a blatant agenda of striking the naïve audience’s communal insecurities. The futile debates over Primetime, erroneously speculating the various impacts of this hellacious prophecy have not only enraged the already conservative mind-set of a radical Hindu but, have also been a medium to divert the attention from relevant issues impacting ordinary citizens. What’s more troublesome is that this kind of demonizing propagandas not only questions but also insults the nationalism of a devout Indian Muslim.
In conclusion to this essay series, I must say that, from all these inciting radical beliefs to their careful analysis, we can deduce that an atmosphere of Hindu supremacy is being impelled by the hard-core Hindutva ideologist. The last six years of the Modi Government have been a pinnacle in the upsurge of this extremism with the RSS being a pivot in the propagation of these fallacies, deviously trying to cloak the essence of Hinduism with Hindutva. Hinduism is a way of life while the word Hindutva is a political ideology with an attitude hostile to all persons practising any religion other than Hinduism.
To understand the true essence of Hinduism, there is no better individual than Swami Vivekananda. His intense desire to know God was paralleled by his intense compassion for his country. Even the RSS considers “Vivekananda as the Gita of RSS”. Therefore, before submitting to a blind allegiance towards the ideology of Hindu radical movements, one must understand Religion through the lens of Swami Vivekananda: “We want to lead mankind to the place where there is neither the Vedas nor the Bible nor the Quran; yet this has to be done by harmonizing the Vedas, the Bible, and the Quran. Mankind ought to be taught that religions are but the varied expressions of the Religion, which is Oneness, so that each may choose the path that suits him best.”
After all, God doesn’t need our protection; it is God that protects us.
Also Read:
Decoding the Communal Fallacies Between two Identities-I
Decoding the Communal Fallacies Between two Identities-II
Decoding the Communal Fallacies Between two Identities-III
Decoding the Communal Fallacies Between two Identities-IV
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