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10/22/2007: "India's Psychological Warfare on Minorities and lack of Academic Resistance"

India's Psychological Warfare on Minorities and lack of Academic Resistance

October 21, 2007:

It is not a coincidence that every minority region under Indian rule whether it is Kashmir or Tripura is facing the threat of demographic change. Tripura is the most extreme victim of this enforced altering of demographics where the indigenous Borok are now a mere 30% of their ancestral homeland whereas in 1947 the Indian-Bengali population in Tripura was minuscule if non-existent. Because India has an enormous poverty and homeless stricken population it is too easy for the GOI to shift large numbers of their poor people into the minority and occupied regions under the false pretence of 'economic migration' and to make fabricated claims that the poor Indian migrants are 'integral' to the economy of these regions. We hear the word "integral" used all too frequently by the Indians; Kashmir is an "integral" part of India, Bihrai or Bengali migrants are "integral" to the economies of Punjab or Assam and so on. This is all apart of India’s psychological warfare against the minorities it has subjugated. One has to wonder is there anything of Indian origin not considered to be integral to the existence and survival of the non-Indian and non-Hindu peoples living on the fringe of the Indian mainland like the Nagas, Boros etc or outside the orbit of the Hindu civilization like the Sikhs of Punjab and the Muslims of Kashmir?

Evidently none of what India claims to be integral to itself or integral to the survival and prosperity of the homelands of smaller nations it occupies is in fact, true. No one would ever question whether a place like Gujarat or some Patna, Bihar is integral to India or not. If such a question ever did arise it wouldn’t even be met with a serious response let alone the type of insecure and shaken adamancy of "integralness" to India one hears from Indians when the relationship between India and Kashmir or India and Arunachal Pradesh is questioned. So an Indian would never need to declare that Mumbai is an "integral part of India", why? Because Mumbai IS India, as much as any Calcutta or Lucknow is. It would be an idiotic assertion to make. So then what is the logic behind Indian politicians and ‘journalists’ making such statements when it comes to Kashmir being "integral" to India or the Sikhs being "integral" to the Hindus if all of this was true? Frankly there wouldn’t be any logic to make such blanket statements if they were true. Therefore when an Indian does officially declare something to be "integral" to India we can safely assume he (or she) is lying

After all should blurting out adamant statements that something is integral to India or that Indians are integral to something make Kashmiris or Boro's feel special now (considering that Biharis or UPites are never bestowed the ‘honour’ of being integral to India) or is it a clear indication of India's insecurity towards those who it occupies and tries to forcibly assimilate?

We often hear the present regime in Iran lash out at the Western media and Western governments for what it calls "psychological warfare" against the Islamic Republic (and even the broader Iranian nation itself). But for a long time now there have been (though often muted) voices from India's suppressed and occupied nationalities of the “psychological warfare” they are enduring from the Indian state and right-wing Hindu nationalists in the Indian media. The oldest of these challenges to Brahmanical psychological warfare has come from the Sikhs who have borne the brunt of this assault ever since the fall of their Kingdom to the British Empire in the 19th century. But with the forcible military annexation and annexation under duress of independent nations such as the Nagas, Manipuris and Kashmiris into post-independent India the targets of India’s psychological warfare have grown as have the challenges to Indian-Hindu hegemony come in from new quarters, but to no real success on the intellectual front.

The conflicts minority peoples and nations are engaged in with India is as much intellectual and psychological as they are political and physical. But increasingly it appears as though the intellectual fight against India is becoming the sole domain of political and revolutionary factions, legitimate academics seem almost absent from the fight. Perhaps most academics would rather remain a-political but then where is the justice in leaving the psychological warfare of the Indian state unanswered?

There was a time and a century not too long ago when the driving force and spark that ignited successful revolutions and resistance movements was lit in large part by academics and political thinkers rather than actual politicians. Perhaps it is time for those resisting the onslaught of the Indian state to ponder why this key component of any successful revolutionary or liberation movement has drifted into obscurity whether it be in Kashmir, Nagalim, Boroland or Khalistan.

In the Punjab state the Dal Khalsa is planning a 2-day ''Punjab Jagao March' from October 31st to November 1st under the theme of 'Punjab for Punjabis'. During the march the Dal Khalsa will be addressing the issue of the "chanakya mind of the Delhi rulers", primarily in relation to the "dilution of the Sikh majority in Punjab because of migration from other states" which has been "engineered" by Delhi according to a recent Dal Khalsa statement. For many years now the Punjab's leading English-daily, the Tribune (under the control of biased right-wing Hindu nationalists) has been reporting that the migrant labourers to Punjab are "integral" to the economy of the state, and by implication, "integral" to the prosperity of the Sikh's and their homeland of Khalistan. So for this the Dal Khalsa must be congratulated for undertaking this latest overt challenge against this one aspect of the psychological warfare of the Indian state. However, addressing these "lies" from a political podium is all well and good, but has the Dal Khalsa attempted to have the "lies" addressed from an academic platform too? For any lasting and successful intellectual campaign the Dal Khalsa must question where does the true credibility in attacking the "changing demographics of Punjab" issue lie? Is it through the mouthpiece of the political factions, or through that of the academics?

Time will only tell.

A. Soni
Hertfordshire, UK