Islamophobia has taken 'most lethal form' in India: Noam Chomsky

WASHINGTON – Renowned scholar Noam Chomsky has said that Islamophobia has taken a “most lethal form” in India, turning some 250 million Indian Muslims into a “persecuted minority”.

Chomsky expressed these views in a video message to a webinar organised by Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) on Thursday, a Washington-based advocacy organization.

“The pathology of Islamophobia is growing throughout the West — It is taking its most lethal form in India,” said Chomsky, who is also Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Apart from Chomsky, several other academics and activists took part in the webinar on “Worsening Hate Speech and Violence in India.”

Chomsky also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right wing Hindu nationalist regime had sharply escalated the “crimes” in Kashmir.

“The crimes in Kashmir have a long history,” he said, adding that the state was now a “brutally occupied territory and its military control in some ways is similar to occupied Palestine.”

The situation in South Asia, Chomsky said, was painful in particular not because of what is happening but because of what is not happening. There was, however, hope and opportunities to solve South Asian torment but not for long, he added.

Annapurna Menon, an Indian author and lecturer at the University of Westminster, urged the International community to focus on the status of press freedom in India as under the BJP government, the situation has become a cause of concern.

“The situation on ground is extremely alarming as 4 journalists have already been killed in 2022, simply for doing their job,” Ms Menon said, adding journalists, especially women, have been exposed to all kinds of reprisals including harassment, illegal detention, police violence and sedition charges.

“The situation in Indian Kashmir is even dire, where the journalists routinely face police questioning, ban on reporting, suspension of internet services and financial constraints in line with BJP’s recent ‘media policy’ . The family of award-winning Srinagar-based photojournalist Masrat Zahra, was subjected to harassment and intimidation by the Indian Police as crackdown on the press in Indian-occupied Kashmir continues to escalate.

Fahad Shah, a renowned Kashmiri journalist who is the founder and editor of ‘‘The Kashmir Walla’’, was arrested recently by the police in Pulwama under terrorism and sedition laws, Ms. Menon pointed out. Similarly, Sajjad Gul, another journalist of ‘‘The Kashmir Walla’’, was also arrested in the beginning of February 2022.

The BJP government had adopted law and policies that systematically discriminate religious minorities and other groups and it also stigmatizes its critics, the HRW official said. the government enacted ‘Citizenship Act’ to target the minorities, particularly Indian Muslims.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Tiktok, Sifton said, had failed to control hatred spread through their platforms.

Harsh Mander, a former Indian civil servant and human rights activist, said that while Mahatma Gandhi upheld the principles of non-violence, the Hindu supremacist ideology is being currently been propagated by Indian leaders.