A single lie may not damage a society, but an unending stream of thousands has a cumulative effect, and history has shown us how dangerous that can be.
The Israeli and Indian nations share a great deal in their modern histories. Both were forged in the crucible of British colonialism. In ruling both, colonial officials employed “divide and conquer”: setting tribes or religious groups against one another to maintain inter-group conflict, which prevented them from uniting against a common colonial enemy.
After World War II, Britain reeled from the enormous costs of war. Europe was devastated. Economies were battered. As a result, the Empire divested its colonies. This British withdrawal led to war and mass expulsion in Israel’s case (1948) and inter-religious slaughter in India’s (1947).
Millions of Hindus and Muslims were expelled from their homelands during Partition, and in many cases forced to relocate to a country they’d never known.
While in Israel, a million indigenous Palestinian residents were ethnically cleansed from 400 villages, most of which remain abandoned to this day. They fled to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza, becoming permanent refugees in countries they’d never known.
To this day most have not been granted citizenship, nor successfully integrated.
From secularism…
Despite the inter-religious bloodshed preceding statehood, secular socialist governments took power in India (Congress) and Israel (Labor). India’s foreign policy championed the non-aligned movement, which was, in turn, sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. It made alliances with the Soviet Union, which provided much of its military hardware. The Russians also were the chief superpower ally of the Arab states and provided much of their weaponry.
Israel, on the other hand, looked to the west for its economic and military support. Above all the US, and to a lesser degree Europe, became its guarantor and protector. Much of this alignment was dictated by the Cold War rivalry between the Soviet Union and this country.
The Labor Party elite which governed uninterruptedly from 1948 to 1977, was overwhelmingly composed of Ashkenazi Jews originally from Eastern Europe. Arab Jews (Mizrahim) were viewed as uncivilised compared to their European brethren, though were one small step higher on the social scale than Israeli Palestinians.
…to religious nationalism
In 1977, the winds of change swept the secular, socialist Labor Party from its three-decade domination of political life. The right-wing Likud, largely on the strength of Mizrahi resentment at decades of racism and abuse by Labor, came to power for the first time since the state’s founding.
In India, the Congress Party never faced serious opposition until the 1980s. Then, a new Hindu nationalist party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), arose from an anti-Muslim paramilitary movement, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It maintained a mystical belief in the racial supremacy of the Hindu nation that was modeled on German and Italian fascism.
The BJP was founded in 1980. One of its most promising regional leaders was Narendra Modi, the provincial governor of Gujarat. In 2002, after local Muslims set fire to a train filled with Hindu travelers, Gujarat’s Hindus took revenge. They rampaged for days through Muslim neighborhoods, nearly 1,000 died in the carnage. Modi was barely heard from or seen – until the worst was over. He refused to denounce the slaughter and denied any responsibility for it. Modi was also denied a visa to the US in 2005 and had his business/tourist visa revoked for severe violations of religious freedom – the only man to date who has been subject to that particular violation.
In any case, Modi rode this wave of anti-Muslim fervor to national prominence. In 2014, he toppled the Congress government, which had ruled the country almost uninterrupted for over six decades. Once in power, he repeated the Gujarat strategy. Through avoiding outright Islamophobic provocations and speaking of an India that was home to Muslims and Hindus alike, his policies and laws passed proved otherwise.
Occupation and annexation
In 2019, Modi rescinded the semi-autonomous status of Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir and declared martial law. Indian forces invaded, arresting tens of thousands of political dissidents who support independence from India. Thus, commencing a reign of terror which continues to this day.
The next step could be full annexation into India proper. This would provoke furious resistance from Pakistan, which has its own claim to the territory and sees itself as a defender of its Muslim inhabitants.
Similarly, in Israel, right-wing parties have ruled almost without interruption from 1977. They employed creeping Palestinian land and resource appropriation leading to de facto annexation of the West Bank. In this apartheid system, Jewish settlers are full citizens and Palestinians, persona non grata.
Israel and India increasingly view themselves facing a common Muslim enemy. For Israel, the enemy is ‘Islamist’ groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and countries like Iran. In India, it is the Pakistani ‘jihadi’ threat and the rising Kashmiri protest movement. Both Israel and India have substantial Muslim minority communities which the religious majorities (Jews and Hindus) view as a threat to their dominance.
These commonalities have thrown these two countries into each other’s arms. Modi and Netanyahu have become brothers of sorts. In the past year, they exchanged visits to each other’s countries, marking the first visit of an Indian premier to Israel and the first visit of the Israeli PM to India. It was a bromance founded on Islamophobia.
The relationship also led to increasingly close military and intelligence ties. Israel, which has a thriving arms export industry, has been the leading provider for India’s military needs. Up to half of Israel’s overall arms sales go to India.
A tale of two lobbies
Both Israel and India maintain powerful US lobbies to advance their respective interests. Given the religious extremism of the ruling parties in each nation, the domestic lobbies reflect the same Islamophobia. Scores of domestic pro-Israel organisations offer tens of millions in support of Israel’s settler colonies. Others offer political cover for Islamophobia, including the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, StandWithUs, Middle East Forum and others.
Even more consequential is funding provided to these groups by pro-Israel billionaire Islamophobes like Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.
American Hindus have torn a page from the American Jewish community, building a network of thinktanks, foundations, and lobbying groups which promote Hindutva values. Among them are the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), the Dharma Civilization Foundation (DCF), and Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation (RSS).
The HAF “educates the public about Hindus and Hinduism and advocates…policies…that ensure the well-being of all people…”
But for the advocacy group, promotion of Hinduism goes hand-in-hand with the fight against Islam and Muslims.
In fact, it announced a $75-million lawsuit against four Indian-American organisations who had asked the US Small Business Administration to investigate HAF’s receipt of $400,000 in Covid-19 relief funds. The press release from the Coalition to Stop Genocide in India said:
