OPINION | Politics Of Fear Has Been Deeply Entrenched In The Social Fabric

Indian Muslims are living their most horrible yet defining moment in post-Partition history: doomed if they don바카라�t resist the threat to their existence and damned if they assert their identity in the grotesque secular-Hindutva political chessboard. Given the trajectory of events in past six years, we can say 바카라�Allah o Akbar바카라� is to the Indian State what philosophy, centuries ago, was to Catholic Europe바카라�a blasphemy! Being Muslim in India is a blasphemy for which one could be put to death with impunity.

Philosophy eventually acquired the place of the white moon, second only to the shining sun, and came to shape modern Europe바카라�s destiny. Will the white moon rise over Muslims or will they be consumed by the darkness India has descended into? Well, if the iconic images of Jamia Millia Islamia바카라�s protesting female Muslim students and their incisive clarity on the subversion of Muslim politics in the post-colonial Indian imagination conveys anything, this is indeed the beginning of a new dawn.

The brutal state aggression on students of Jamia and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on December 15 came barely a few hours after PM Modi바카라�s election speech in Jharkhand, in which he said, 바카라�You can recognise protesters from their clothes.바카라� The 바카라�topi and burqa바카라�, visible sartorial signifiers of a specific religious community바카라�Muslims바카라�in light of Modi바카라�s statement is a telling message to the majority of Indians and the state forces that the protesting community is pre-identified. And how do you deal with such a community? Given the nature of the ruling dispensation, repeating history suits it best. A heartless modus operandi, tried and tested in the 바카라�Gujarat carnage바카라�, was put to test. The vicious public display of police storming two Muslim-minority universities, firing tear-gas shells for hours, with mainstream media at the State바카라�s disposal to fabricate narratives, signals the new normal in Hindu India.

A recent study argues that the police perceive Muslims as criminals who deserve dehumanising, even vigilante, punishment. Amid such a hostile mapping of Muslims, police violence is not aimed at quelling protests, but to instill fear in the hearts and minds of the protesting community. Fear psychosis is the USP of the BJP-led government, and the politics of fear has been deeply entrenched in the social fabric. At its receiving end are Muslims. The deafening silence of Muslims in the public domain for the past six years, despite mob lynchings, criminalisation of triple talaq and the Babri Masjid verdict, reflects how perverse the Indian polity and its institutions have become for Muslims.

Dissent is a universal right, and also guaranteed by the Constitution of India바카라�except that, on an operational level, it바카라�s forbidden fruit. Why is it that students in JNU, Delhi University or other universities in India, do not get to face state terror of the kind unleashed on Jamia and AMU? Jamia and AMU are viewed through their Muslim minority character, and vilified as hubs of terrorists. There is a word for this: Islamophobia바카라�i.e. anti-Muslim racism. The coming of age of a new generation of Muslims, who consciously assert their identity in the public sphere and are unwilling to submit to dehumanising treatment by the State, brings to light how the deeply structural and pervasive Islamophobia in India unfolds. This explains why within 48 hours of police barbarism, three Muslim universities (Jamia, AMU and Nadwa in Lucknow) were forced to close down, unlike what happened during protest demonstrations after the JNU sedition row in 2016.

The students from Jamia and AMU led the protest demonstrations against the amended citizenship act because it poses an existential threat to their larger community. Parading of students and viral videos showing the police vandalising university property and damaging private vehicles reflect how the State wants only total submission from the second-class citizens of this country and won바카라�t care about their properties when it comes to enforcing its writ. On the other hand, the growing protest demonstrations by Muslim students despite facing lethal state terror indicates that they are done with the process of internalising fear, which was initiated by the Congress, as well as with the politics of patronisation by the privileged.

(Shahid Lone Doctoral fellow at Jamia Millia islamia University, Delhi. Views are personal.)