“There was a siege going on; it had been going on for a long time, 

but the besieged themselves were the last to take notice of it”.  

- Paula Fox

India’s civilisational identity is in grave peril. We are a civilization in retreat, both geographically and demographically. Barely 1200 years ago Afghanistan and Pakistan were part of the great Hindu civilization which extended from Bactria, Afghanistan, Seistan in Iran and Sindh up to Indonesia.

Since the defeat of Afghanistan’s ruler Jaipal Shahiya in 980 AD by Subuktagin, Hindu civilization has been in retreat, while Islam has been in fast forward mode. Incidentally, when Hsuan-Tsang visited the capital of Shahiya rulers, Kapisa (60 kms north of the present city of Kabul), the Kshatriya king was Shahi Khingala. The Shahiya rulers of Afghanistan were traditional warriors and traced heir descent from king Janamejaya of Mahabharata fame, as mentioned by Cunningham in his famous tome, Coins of  Medieval India. They were also known as Janjua Rajputs.

After the defeat of Jaipal Shahiya and the subsequent defeat of his son Anandpala in the battle of Chach at the hands of Mahmud Ghaznavi, the fortunes of the Hindus of the sub-continent suffered a steep decline. Soon they were pushed to the margins of history and during the last thousand years every geopolitical change in the sub-continent has been for the worse for Hindus.  

Skipping the period of Islamic rule over Hindustan, we notice how Partition in 1947 led to the gruesome massacre of lakhs of Hindus and Sikhs. It led to ignominious ethnic cleansing of Hindus from West Punjab. In that biggest and fastest mass migration of human beings recorded in history, on a rough count nearly 72,49,000 Hindus and Sikhs migrated from West Pakistan to India. Millions of helpless Hindus and Sikhs, mostly poor and indigent, left behind in remote areas, were forced to convert to Islam. The result was that the population of Hindus and Sikhs which was nearly 24% before Partition in West Pakistan has drastically declined to merely 1% at present. 

Within a few decades of that mammoth retreat of Hindus from their ancient homeland in north-western India, Muslims staged a sordid ethnic cleansing of Hindus from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The same story of barbaric ethnic cleansing of Hindus and Buddhists was repeated in the wake of the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. Though the oppressed Bangladeshi Muslims were rescued from the clutches of Pakistan’s Punjabi overlords with the blood, sweat and valour of the Indian army, that good deed was soon forgotten by ungrateful Bangladeshis who started writing a bloody chapter of persecution of the Hindu and Buddhist minorities, forcing them to abandon home and hearth. Population figures reveal the truth loudly and clearly - the percentage of Hindus which constituted nearly 29% of that region in 1947 has plummeted to less than 8%.                          

Till 1989, Hindus, mostly Kashmiri Pandits, lived peacefully in the Kashmir Valley. Then relentless killings and ethnic cleansing by jihadis forced the flight of Hindus and Sikhs from this sylvan paradise also. Ultimately, nearly 4 lakh Hindus fled the Valley. Simultaneously there has been fast paced ethnic cleansing of Hindus from Doda district of Jammu region.

Census 1991 records that Hindus comprised nearly 60% of the population of Doda district, but by Census 2001 this declined to a stark 40% - in just one decade! And in the past five years alone, a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing of Hindus from the border districts of Assam and West Bengal caused by the aggressive infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims has been going on. Due to this massive influx, as many as seven districts of Assam and four districts of West Bengal have become Muslim-majority.  

Mr. Bibhuti Bhusan Nandy, retired senior RAW officer, in an article titled ‘Secular Claims, A Marxist Blend of Duplicity and Deception’ (The Statesman, New Delhi, 21 January 2005), wrote that due to criminal and subversive activities of illegal immigrants, the original Hindu inhabitants of border districts are moving out “in droves” after selling their houses and lands to Muslims at throwaway prices. He pointed out that a few years ago in Nadia district of West Bengal, nearly 60% of agricultural land was owned by Hindus. But in the last few years Muslims acquired 60% of the agricultural land in that sensitive border district.  

Census 2001 revealed  that in six important districts of  Assam - Bongaigaon, Kokhrajhar, Dhubri, Barapeta, Nalbari and Darrang - the decadal growth rate of Hindus was abysmally low, the lowest growth of 2.3 percent recorded in the sensitive Bongaigaon district perilously close to northeastern India’s “chicken-neck” area. A very large number of Hindu families have left that strategic area due to relentless infiltration of aggressive Bangladeshi Muslims. A huge security threat looms large across Bongaigaon district.

The situation in Marxist-ruled Tripura is equally bad, but neither the State government nor the Central Government have done anything to stem the tide of Hindu retreat from the border districts of West Bengal and Assam. The stark decimation of  Hindu identity from the border areas of  Assam, West Bengal and other eastern States, graphically depicted by Mayank Jain in his documentary ‘Bangla Crescent’ has to be seen to be believed.

Not unexpectedly, there has been a sharp increase in jihadi attacks on Hindu temples, including ambushing and targeting of unarmed pilgrims going to Amarnath and Vaishnodevi. There have been repetitive bomb attacks on Hindu festivals. Hundreds of temples across the country are security protected so much so that even young children accompanying their parents and grandparents ask awkward questions about the presence of uniformed policemen at these places of worship. All Hindu festivals are celebrated under the threat of attacks by jihadis. These are clear pointers to the rising crescendo of a jihad being waged against the Hindu identity of India.

Shortly after the attack on the New York Twin Towers on 11 September 2001, a proclamation on Al Jazeera television in October 2001 said henceforth jihad will also be waged against ‘Hindu India’ for occupation of Kashmir and the so-called oppression of  Muslims. Within two months, a group of Pakistan-trained jihadis (including Afzal Guru, SAR Geelani and others) attacked the Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001. The avowed goal of jihadi warriors has ever been to attack the faith of the Hindu masses by destroying their resolve to fight back, as ordained in their scriptures and duly explained by Brigadier SK Malik of the Pakistan army in his tome, The Quranic Concept of War.

Unfortunately the germane fact that a regular jihad is being waged against Hindus of India has been concealed by the political leadership and English media. A great hype has been built around the bogus concepts of ‘India Poised’ and ‘India Rising’, ignoring the plight of millions of Hindus being pushed away from India’s shrinking borders. “Run, Hindu, run for dear life” is the refrain chanted by jihadis in Kashmir as well as across border districts of eastern India.

The gullible Hindu middle class has been charmed by lullabies of great economic progress, broadcast from multiple bandstands of the sham-secular media. Truth, however, is otherwise. No one speaks about the danger posed to our economy and political system by unremitting jihad. 

It is time Hindus stopped smelling the coffee and realized they are living from one bomb blast to another explosion. It is time to get used to the smell of gunpowder playing havoc with innocent lives in the cities and towns – Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Surat…

Most Hindus do not realize even now that we are a civilization in retreat, and that we have been retreating for more than 1200 years. The most pathetic aspect of this grim story is that the pace of Hindu retreat has gathered momentum after independence. This should be a matter of grave concern to Hindus.

Hindus must understand that what we are facing today is not mere ‘terrorism’. It is jihad, the permanent war of Islam against infidels; the same savage jihad which ravaged our motherland for nearly 1000 years from 711 AD onwards after Muhammad bin Qasim overran Sindh and carried out a massive manslaughter and plunder of hapless Hindus and Buddhists. 

Once again the dice is heavily loaded against India’s Hindu identity, sandwiched as we are between the two jihadi factories of Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is introspection time for Hindu leaders, opinion-makers and our comatose masses. Blessed by Ma Saraswati, Hindus have a high Intelligence Quotient and equally high Knowledge Quotient and Spiritual Quotient.

Sadly, Hindus have also acquired somehow a very high Fear Quotient, caused by centuries of slavery, repetitive overdoses of non-violence and the abject tolerance of tyranny. As a result, their Valour Quotient, “Shaurya”, has plummeted. There is a pressing need to restart the old custom of Shastra Pujan, and more importantly, to remind Hindus of the message of the Bhagwad Gita. An in-depth ‘samvad’ on the subject is the need of the hour.    

The author is retd. Inspector General of Police, Arunachal Pradesh