User:Kautilya3/Hindutva terror

Hindutva terror (sometimes called "saffron terror") refers to the terrorist acts committed by organisations believing in extremist Hindutva ideology. The majority of the victims in these incidents were Indian Muslims, even though, in one instance, Nepali Christians were affected.

Terrorist events

The first man that indulged in terrorist activities from the Hindutva ideology is believed to be the murdered RSS pracharak (full-time worker) Sunil Joshi. He was a district pracharak for Mhow in 1999 and got involved in terrorist activities in reaction to the wave of Islamist attacks in the early 2000s. In 2002, he orchetrasted a failed bomb blast against Hindu temples to provoke communal riots.

Wider participation by the Hindutva activists came to light with the accidental blast in a private bomb-making establishment in Nanded, Maharashtra, in April 2006, killing two and injuring three others. Police discovered that the two individuals that died in the blast belonged to the Bajrang Dal, a militant Hindutva organisation allied to the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The bombs were apparently intended to be detonated in mosques. Further, the plan was to make it appear as if other Muslims were behind the bombings. The motive was to sow diaffection, widen sectarian divisions, and discredit Muslims so as to divert attention from their own activities. The local police as well as the national investigators (belonging to the CBI) failed to follow the leads to a wider conspiracy. Subsequently, the civil rights groups Secular Citizen's Forum and People's Union for Civil Liberties produced a report with photographic evidence to expose the Bajrang Dal's operations. They also warned of an imminent attack by Hindutva militants.

While the activists in Nanded died a fateful death, those in Malegaon, also in Maharashtra, succeeded. In September 2006, they detonated bombs outside a crowded mosque after Friday prayers, resulting in 37 fatalities and 125 injuries. The police arrested Muslims alone for these Malegaon blasts, despite the fact that the victims were all Muslims and the bicycles on which the bombs were placed bore Hindu names. A string of other bombings followed with similar results. Police investigations have targeted innocent Muslims by the scores. They were arrested, tortured, forced to confess for crimes, and put through farcial trials.

It was not until after another blast was perpetrated in Malegaon in September 2008 that the Hindutva terror network was unearthed, through the efforts of Maharashtra's anti-terrorism squad (ATS) headed by Hemant Karkare. Nine activists were arrested including Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, a former leader of the RSS-BJP student wing (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad), and Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, a serving Army officer. Since then, wide spread links with terrorist cells in various parts of India as well as Nepal have been established. The known activities of the terror network include:

• training camp in the use of gelatin sticks (Pune, Maharashtra, 2000)
• training camp in handling weapons and making bombs (Bhonsala Military School, Nasik, Maharashtra, 2001)
• a series of bomb attacks on mosques and madrasas (Saharanpur, UP, 2002)
• firearms training camp (Bhopal, MP, 2002)
• bombs planted at a Muslim gathering (Bhopal, 2002)
• manufacture and use of bombs in the Gujarat carnage (2002)
• weapons training camp for women (Kanpur, UP, 2003)
• bombing of mosque (Parbhani, Maharashtra, 2003)
• bombing of madrasa and mosque (Purna, Maharashtra, 2004)
• bombing of mosque (Jalna, Maharashtra, 2004)
• Nanded I: accidental blast while handling explosives (Nanded, Maharashtra, 2006)
• Malegaon I - deadly bombing of a Muslim festival (Malegaon, Maharashtra, 2006)
• Samjhauta Express bombing - deadly bombing of the India-Pakistan train (Haryana, 2007)
• Mecca Masjid bombing (Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, 2007)
• Ajmer Sharif Dargah blast (Ajmer, Rajasthan, 2007)
• detonators delivered to Muslim merchants (Wardha, Maharashtra, 2007)
• Nanded II - another accidental blast (Nanded, Maharashtra, 2007)
• bomb planted outside mosque (Pen Highway, Maharashtra, 2007)
• explosion at New Bus Stand (Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu, 2008)
• bomb attack on RSS office (Tenkasi, 2008)
• explosion at auditorium (Thane, Maharashtra, 2008)
• bomb discovered and defused at auditorium (Vashi, Maharashtra, 2008)
• bomb at cinema (Panvel, Maharashtra, 2008)
• accidental explosion (Kanpur, 2008)
• live bomb recovered from Belgaum-Hubli road (Karnataka, 2008)
• bomb blast at court (Hubli, Karnataka, 2008)
• Malegaon II - bombing of marketplace (Malegaon, Maharashtra, 2008)
• Modasa blast - bomb blast in marketplace (Modasa, Gujarat, 2008)
• low-intensity blast (Kanpur, 2008)
• bombing of church (Lalitpur, Nepal, 2009)
• explosion at Margao (Goa, 2009)
• live bomb defused (Sancole, Goa, 2009)
• bomb blast at primary health centre (Kanpur, 2010)

Few Hindutva activists have yet been convicted. Several have been arrested for brief periods and released. Many Muslims continue to be held, despite all the evidence pointing to Hindutva groups.

Motivations

Since early 2000s, India has been the target of frequent Islamist attacks. At fairly regular intervals of about six months, India faced either commando operations or bombings in cities and small towns. The government initially blamed these acts on the neighbouring countries. The local Muslim participants were believed to have been sympathisers that might have provided information, but not active propagators. In about 2006, it became clear that there were home-grown groups such as the Indian Mujahedeen that were taking initiative for the attacks themselves. Examples include the 2005 Delhi bombings, Jaipur bombings and the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts.

Disgruntled cadres of the Sangh Parivar, who found the mainstream organisations insufficiently active in retaliating to these attacks, joined new militias, which turned into terrorist groups with the main aim of taking revenge on Indian Muslims. The groups found and made connections with militancy-minded Hindu religious figures (Swamis, Sadhvis and Mahants) and retired and, also serving, Army officers, who raised funding and provided training with arms and explosives.

The structure of the network

The Hindutva activists arrested for terrorist acts fall into four categories:

• serving and retired army officers, especially those working with the Bhonsala Military School,
• ascetics (sadhus, sadhvis and mahants) affiliated to the Sangh Parivar groups,
• activists of the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal, and
• members of new extremist groups Abhinav Bharat, Rashtriya Jagaran Manch and Akhand Hindustan Morcha, made up of former cadres of the Sangh Parivar.

Lt. Col. Purohit and a retired officer Major Ramesh Upadhyay belong to the first group. Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Swami Amritanand (alias Dayanand Pandey and Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi, also called the "Shankaracharya of Jammu and Kashmir") and other swamis fall into the second camp. Naresh Rajkondwar and Himanshu Phanse, who were killed in the accidental Nanded-I blast, fall into the third group. Sameer Kulkarni (Abhinav Bharat), Pragya Thakur (Rashtriya Jagaran Manch), former BJP Member of Parliament B. L. Sharma (Akhand Bharat) and their colleagues belong to the fourth camp. Christophe Jaffrelot calls this last group "Savarkarites" because they profess the ideology of "militarise Hindudom" propagated by V. D. Savarkar. Abhinav Bharat (for "Modern India") is indeed a name borrowed from one of Savarkar's armed militant organisations, founded in 1905 and wound up in 1952. Savarkar's daughter-in-law Himani Savarkar was chosen by them to head the organisation.

According to the Maharashtra ATS, Lt. Col. Purohit was one of the main driving forces of the Hindu nationalist organisation Abhinav Bharat and a key actor of the Malegaon blast in 2008. He met Pragya Thakur in Bhopal in April 2008 where they plotted to take "revenge against Muslims" by exploding a bomb in a thickly populated area in Malegaon. He agreed to provide the explosives and Pragya Thakur took responsibility for providing men. Purohit is said to have stolen 60 kg. of RDX while he was posted in Jammu and Kashmir in 2006. Ramachandra Kalsangra and Sandip Dange, belonging to Abhinav Bharat, planted the bombs.

Himani Savarkar, V. D. Savarkar's daughter-in-law, also got involved with Abhinav Bharat in April 2008. She was elected as its President in a meeting in Bhopal, which was attended by Sameer Kulkarni, Abhinav Bharat's founder, as well as Swami Amritanand, Pragya Thakur, Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Lt. Col. Purohit. However, other testimonies have said that Lt. Col. Purohit founded Abhinav Bharat Trust two years earlier with 16 people in Raigarh. Initially, some of the participants objected to the use of violence. Swami Amritanand showed them videos of violence committed by Kashmiri Muslims against Hindus to motivate them.

Indresh Kumar, a member of the executive committee of the RSS, is also said to have played a key role in the formation of Abhinav Bharat. He was "instrumental in carrying out these actions" (Modasa blasts of July 2008) according to Purohit.

In an interview with Outlook, Purohit has claimed that he had infiltrated Abhinav Bharat as part of the army intelligence work and informed his superiors, Major Bhagirath Dey, the Jabalpur-based intelligence officer, and Col. Vinay Panchpore, the commanding officer of the soutern liaison unit. However, he did not hide the fact that he believed in the Hindutva ideology and said, "having a particular ideology does not make me a terrorist or anti-national." Scholars have wondered why the Army handed him over to the ATS so readily if he was merely carrying out his intelligence duties.

The Bhonsala Military School (BMS) in Nasik was founded by B. S. Moonje, a militant Hindu Mahasabha leader and Savarkar's associate, in the 1930s and is very much a part of the Savarkarite "militarise Hindudom" ideology. In independent India, it serves as a preparatory school for students aspiring to join the military, and many of its graduates move on to the National Defence Academy for higher education in military training before becoming officers. The School opened a branch campus in Nagpur in 1996. Both the Nasik and Nagpur have apparently taken part in imparting training to Hindutva militants between 1973 and 1988, conducted by Major P. B. Kulkarni, who had been associated with the RSS since 1935. Purohit said during a meeting in Faridabad, "Whatever I have said today is in fact taken care of by the officers sitting there. The entire school is in my hands." Major Ramesh Upadhyay admitted that he took part in meetings with Pragya Thakur and her accomplices in the Nasik BMS premises to plan the Malegaon blast. Upadhyay is also known to be the "Working President" of Abhinav Bharat, while Himani Sarkar is the President.

A number of the activists involved in the terrorist bombings are "disillusioned" Sangh Parivar cadres. Sadhvi Pragya Thakur was a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for a decade and campaigned for the BJP, before becoming an ascetic. Sameer Kulkarni, who initiated the Madhya Pradesh branch of Abhinav Bharat, was an RSS worker. B. L. Sharma, who founded another militant outfit called Akhand Hindustan Manch, was an RSS worker since 1940 and was seconded to the BJP during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. He won the Lok Sabha seat in east Delhi in 1991 and 1996, but resigned his seat and BJP membership in 1997. Sharma did not believe in BJP and its party politics any more, but he also did not believe in democracy either. He believed that a military coup and some violent shock to awaken the people were needed.

Ideology

Abhinav Bharat's declared programme is to resist Islamist terrorism by emulating it. This strategy of stigmatisation coupled with emulation has been a favourite reportoire of Hindu nationalism. But, Abhinav Bharat sees the RSS focused on a long-term agenda while, in its view, urgent actions are needed. According to Purohit, the vision of the founders of the RSS has been lost with the present leadership, eventually having led to its "downfall." He aspires to make Abhinav Bharat the new Sangh by attracting the best people [of the RSS]. He has respect for the VHP due to the "serious leadership of Praveen Togadia", but believes it was forced to tone down its ideology by the rest of the Parivar. He hopes to attract the VHP people in a big way to Abhinav Bharat. He and the other Abhinav Bharat leaders want to "unify Buddhist and Hindu nations" (Cambodia, Thailand, Bharat, Nepal, Bhutan, Japan and Korea) to "fight Islamic and Christian invasions." They denounce the "cultural diversity" of India and make a strong plea for "a singular cultural binding."

Abhinav Bharat has drafted a constitution for India which provides for "free exchanges of views" but eventually the leader takes a suitable decision which "shall be followed at all the levels without questioning the authority." It will be a Presidential system with "one party rule." Any Hindu on earth will be deemed to be an honorary member of this organisation. The organisation will be militarised with every member carrying knowledge of weapons. It will have an "academy of indoctrination," which will provide courses for the prospective members, at the end of which the prospective members will be tested and only that pass will be finally admitted.

(to be continued)