UK progressive South Asians came together on the evening of India’s Republic Day, in a moving candlelit protest in remembrance of victims of Hindutva supremacist forces in mob lynchings, murders and assassinations, with protesters holding large photographs including those of Junaid Khan, Pehlu Khan, Pastor Sultan Masih, Zafar Hussein, Otara Bibi, Afrazul Khan. They also highlighted the assassination of Gauri Lankesh for courageously exposing the Hindu Right’s activities and the mysterious death of Justice Loya.
Less than a week ago UK’s progressive South Asian organisations and Dalit groups had marched in their thousands to hand in a memorandum to President Kovind only to be allegedly told that their letter was not to be accepted under orders from the Indian government. Today, on 26 January, South Asia Solidarity Group and the SOAS India Society said, in their statement:
‘The Indian government may not want to see our letter but the Modi government has nowhere to hide because the world is watching its crimes against its own people.’
The protest’s main demands were:
- that the killers and attackers and propagators of hate be brought to justice;
- the Constitution be protected and upheld, the BJP must not be allowed to pursue its avowed project of replacing Ambedkar’s Constitution and its principles with the Manusmriti; and
- that the many political prisoners like severely disabled Professor G.N. Saibaba, Dalit leader Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan and the young Kashmiri photojournalist Kamran Yousuf be immediately released and the fake charges against them be dropped.
Nirmala Rajasingham on behalf of South Asia Solidarity Group said: “We stand with the many, many Indians who are rising in grief and rage against the horrific violence choreographed by the Hindu (read Hindutva) supremacist Modi regime and its openly fascist parent organisation the RSS. Here in the UK too these Hindu (read Hindutva) organisations are spreading their casteist venom and virulent Islamophobia. We will continue to confront them as we pledge to resist India’s descent into a Republic of Fear.”
Rutuja Deshmukh of SOAS India Society said, “From the lynchings of Muslims in the name of the cow, to the attack on a school bus over a film, and Justice Loya’ s mysterious death, there are more than enough reasons to conclude that the Indian state is turning into a fascist regime sooner than anyone imagined. It is our duty as responsible citizens to resist this advent of fascism.”
Satpal Muman of the Dr Ambedkar Memorial Committee of Great Britain which also supported the vigil said: “We are deeply concerned about the horrific attacks on Dalits which have escalated vastly under the Modi regime, about the hatred and violence against minorities and on all those who simply speak the truth. We cannot stand by while the democratic fabric of India is being threatened by the rise of Hindu (read Hindutva) supremacy.”
Also present at the vigil was Imran Dawood who had witnessed the murder of his family members who were visiting Gujarat on holiday from the UK, during the Gujarat massacres of 2002, while Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
South Asia Solidarity Group is an anti-imperialist, anti-racist organisation based in Britain.