Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi completed his three day historic and much acclaimed visit to the United States of America on the evening June 23rd, 2023.

In an attempt to drive an agenda of #Islamophobia , former President Barak Hussain Obama in an interview with CNN International said,

“I think it is true that if the president meets with Prime Minister Modi, then the protection of the Muslim minority in a majority-Hindu India, that’s something worth mentioning,” AND “If I had a conversation with Prime Minister Modi, who I know well, part of my argument would be that if you do not protect the rights of ethnic minorities in India, that there is a strong possibility at some point that India starts pulling apart,”. 

While Obama was largely ignored, as expected it gave a fill-up to some sections of media to somehow portray a negative image. Few portals have exposed Obama’s double-speak and hypocrisy and his track record of cause untold human suffering the world-over .

However, it is time for us to set the narrative right on who is a minority in a country as vast as Bharat & the historical context.

During the Constituent Assembly discussion, Sardar Patel had this to say about the Muslims on the subject of minority.

A minority that could force the partition of the country is not a minority at all. Why do you think that you are a minority. If you are a strong, well-knit and well-organised minority, why do you want to claim safeguards, why do you want to claim privileges. It was all right when there was a third party: But that is all over. That dream is a mad dream and it should be forgotten altogether excerpts from a speech Sardar Patel made in the Constituent Assembly

It is another matter that his views were ignored by the later leaders. We now have a situation where in Hindus are in a minority in nine states and UT’s Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur and yet the Hindu cannot even establish and administer educational institutions of their choice in these States. Even in cases where Hindus are lower than 10%, they are still officially treated as the majority !

As per a report by Dainik Bhaskar, Hindus are a minority in 102 districts of the 775 Districts in the country. Some other organisations have put this figure at 200 districts. The situation is alarming. Unlike the followers of the Abrahamic faiths, most faiths that come under the Hindu pantheon are unorganised. Where the Hindus are in a minority, this translates to major challenges at grassroots esp when there are situations of aggression. Strangely, even here the Hindus are treated as the majority and tagged with practising “majoritarism” .

Supreme Court on Minorities :

The Supreme Court on July 18, 2022 said “Minority status of religious and linguistic communities is “State-dependent.” The court indicated that a religious or linguistic community which is a minority in a particular State can inherently claim protection and the right to administer and run its own educational institutions under Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution. 

Senior advocate Arvind Datar for Sri Devkinandan Thakur making his submissions in the case said that Hindus residing in certain States were unable to exercise their rights under Articles 29 and 30 in the absence of a specific notification declaring them a minority. This has not happened since then and could be a starting point for various stakeholders in States and Union Territories to take appropriate steps including social and political awakening on the subject.

In addition, data of aggression – rioting- intolerance and so on needs to be mapped to demographics upto the district- taluka / mandal level. The narrative of putting the Hindus in dock has to be once and for all busted.

This article was first published in AriseBharat.