By Dr Majid khan
Hindutva is on the rise globally, especially since 2014, when Modi came into power in India. Subsequently, after this, we have seen Hindutva is one of India’s largest export to the entire world by the Modi regime. During the last few weeks, people in United Kingdom have seen Hindutva’s fruits (brutality) and its stern consequences on the streets.
According to local sources, the tension between Hindu and Muslim young people in Leicester has been continuous for around five months. A native of Leicester, Riaz Khan, a teacher and -community clarified that in May a Hindu group of around 25 individuals set upon a Muslim fellow and battered him. Earlier to that, there had been all sorts going on—people threatening Muslim families and denying to scatter. During that entire time, the police did nothing. However, the boiling point came when the right-wing Hindu group, a follower of Hindutva, march to the Muslim community area.
On September 17, there were a few hundred of them marching from Loughborough Street to Green Lane Road. By the time they have to be North Evington, they were veiled up and chanting anti-Muslim slogans and “Jai Sri Ram” – presently a Hindu patriot war cry – and assaulting Muslims. Usually the strong brand of Hindu pride and chauvinism that Hindu patriots have continuously tried to. During the whole of that 2.5 mile march, which was completely illegal, the police did nothing. They had six officers strolling nearby the marchers, but afterwards, top police officers here claimed they knew nothing about it.
When it got to the Muslim majority area of North Evington, Riaz says around 40 mainly Muslim men came onto the street to protect their locality. A small number of local Hindus joined them, saying the marchers didn’t represent them. Before this in August after India’s win against Pakistan in a cricket match, a Hindu group walked through the streets chanting “Death to Pakistan” before attacking a Sikh man. There were similar reports after a second cricket match between the two countries that India lost.
Leicestershire police said that they are trying their best to control further escalation in the town and other cities. In total 47 people have been arrested so far for offences in relation to unrest. Some of those arrested were from out of the city, including some people from Birmingham.
Fahim Kayani, a leader of the British Muslim community argued that Muslims are not involved, nor a party to these incidents. The Muslim community is the victim of this broad daylight attack and the Hindutva goons have clearly said in their rally that the Muslims should leave the country. “We have been warning the British authorities of the menace that is Hindutva and now it is happening in broad daylight, this is a brutal attack on harmony which is part and parcel of British fabric where countless people from across continents, from different races and religions, have settled here. The Hindutva thugs have to be brought to justice so as it serves as a deterrent against any possible future intention of the RSS, the BJP and their affiliates in the UK,” said Kayani.
Amrit Wilson, an activist with South Asia Solidarity Group, highlighted that the recent incidents of hostility against Muslims are not surprising, given the fact that Leicester has long been an important base for the RSS. Wilson pointed out “Islamophobia circulates via family and community WhatsApp groups and spills over onto the street from time to time. What has happened is the arrival of coachloads of RSS supporters from outside Leicester”.
Hindutva is not new in the UK, its nurseries were there already, nurtured by RSS goons. In 2014, undercover footage broadcast on ITV showed an HSS summer training camp in the UK in which Hindu children were taught that “Islam is the world’s worst religion”, “the number of good Muslims can be counted on fingers”, and that “destroying Hindu history was a secret Christian conspiracy”.
In the film, it was shown that Children were also taught martial arts and engaged in military-style marching parades. Another event in the same year in this connection we saw, when former Home Secretary Priti Patel congratulated HSS for inviting the current General Secretary of RSS to the UK in an event entitled “RSS: A Vision in Action – a new Dawn”. Her letter also confirmed his “influential” role over Modi describing him as “one of the primary points of advice to the BJP senior leadership.”
HSS summer camp in UK and RSS training camp in India.
The footage from ITV prompted an investigation by the Charity Commission in which it emerged that unaired footage showed a speaker at the camp confirming the umbilical links between RSS and HSS, stating “they are both the same, only thing is that here [in the UK] we cannot call RSS as RSS so we call it HSS”.
What is HSS? The overseas wing of the RSS is the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS). Ramesh Subramaniam, a Mumbai coordinator of RSS’, explains, “RSS doesn’t call it RSS overseas as it’s not on Indian soil. They call it HSS as they believe it unites Hindus worldwide.”
Solicitor Fahad Ansari pointed out that despite the damning evidence, the Charity Commission, then under William Shawcross, cleared HSS of formal ties with RSS. Incredibly there appeared to have been no interventions by the government’s counter-extremism unit Prevent. Incidentally, as Home Secretary in 2021, Patel controversially appointed Shawcross as the new Independent Reviewer of Prevent. This is also a matter of fact that former Home Secretary Priti Patel openly supports the fascist ideology of Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS).
Now it’s clear to everyone, the right-wing ideology of Hindutva is thriving rapidly within some elements of Britain. This new poison has entered the bloodstream of some of Britain’s most multicultural inner cities. It can cause hatred and division—and may even kill. Recent incidents in Leicester should serve as a wake-up call for the authorities. Hindutva is now a threat to democratic principles, equality and human rights everywhere and it should be handled with iron hands.
(Dr Majid Khan is a PhD Scholar of media, from Australia. He writes on Image building, Psychological warfare, Image Warfare and Propaganda).
