Arundhati Roy's article on Genocide - some comments

My response to the article Listening To Grasshoppers by Arundhati Roy in Outlook Magazine, 4-Feb-08 issue.

That was a long and frustrating article by the erudite Arundhati Roy in a crisp and gripping language. But I wish the article also contained more truthfulness, honesty, neutrality, non-suppression of already known material and other such qualities as well.

It starts with her repeating the totally discredited theory of Nazi-ness of Hindutva based on 2-3 quotes from the obsolete and disowned “We, our nationhood defined” by Guru Golwalkar of the 1940s fame. These quotes were analyzed in-depth by Dr. Koenrad Elst in a detailed essay “Was Guru Golwalkar a Nazi?” in his book “The Saffron Swastika” and found echoing just the popular sentiments of the prevailing time and nothing more.. In fact the Communist praise at that time, for Hitler and Nazis would far outnumber these 3 quotes and will fill up a year worth of Outlook Issues! Will Ms. Arundhati call the CPI-M formed in the “mould of Nazis”, when there is a far stronger case for that??

Her listing of various RSS outfits among extension plans of its “evil ideology” will only evoke ridicule. The organizations like Vidya Bharati and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram have been cited as glaring examples of selfless services even by the adversaries of RSS!

She goes all over the world to evoke heart rendering tales of genocide and destruction – from Ottoman Empire to 15th century butchering of Native Americans by the armies of Columbus to Africa to Australia. Very Good. Admirable.

But she miraculously forgets everything about the centuries of genocide that happened in her own country, her own backyard. The genocide of Hindus at the hands of Muslim aggressors and invaders. A genocide invoked by Will Durant in his “Story of Civilizations” in such strong words - “"...the Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex order and freedom can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without and multiplying from within." A genocide, the very thought of which makes V.S.Naipaul call India as “wounded civilization”.

Let’s pardon the lady for her memory lapse about the medieval history. A good half of her article is devoted to the 2002 Gujarat riots (I seriously pity her struggling hard to fit the official UN “definition” of genocide to these grievous incidents), while she mentions the bigger, 1984 genocide of Sikhs by Congress goons in passing.. Great. But, what about the genocide and large scale displacement of Hindus of Kashmir valley that took place in between these 2 incidents? According to the official govt. figures there are about 5 lakh Hindus displaced from the Kashmir valley since 1990. An undisputed act of ethnic cleansing punctuated by the mass murders of Sangrampora, Jagatsingpura, Wandhama and Nandimarg (2003). The lady does not utter a single word about this. Her only usage of the word “Hindu” is to denote murderers and perpetrators of crimes.

Arundhati, is your heart so harsh, is your intellect so numb, and is your loyalty so dubious that you do not remember to mention even one event in history where Hindus are the victims?

Towards the end of the essay, you say, “Perhaps these many million Constraining Ghosts of the Past wonder what advice Gandhi would have given the Indians of the Americas, the slaves of Africa, the Tasmanians, the Herero, the Hottentots, the Armenians, the Jews of Germany, the Muslims of Gujarat…”

Don’t the Hindu victims of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kashmir, Fuji and other places even merit as one of the many items in such a customary list?

What have the Hindus done to you, Arundhati?