Reply #52: India is a secular Hindu-majority country with a Muslim president [View All]

[the_outsider]

150 million Muslims, more than any other country except Indonesia, live all over India and they are totally integrated into Indian culture and life. Hindus and Muslims have been living together in India for 700 years without exterminating or proselytizing each other.

The question of "racism" is moot as Indian Hindus and Muslims are the same race. Hindus have been living in India for about 5000 years. Some of them decided to convert (there were some forced conversion as well) to Islam in the last 700 years (currently about 15% of Indian population ), but that does not change their "race", culture or Indian-ness. Indian central government did not endorse the killing of Muslims. The government that ruled the state of Gujrat did less than enough to stop the riot in time, but they never endorsed or supported the killings. The BJP government that was in power during that time lost the next national election and that incidence was one of the biggest factors in their loss even though they were doing well on the economic front.

The Godhra incident you referred to was triggered by Muslim mobs burning a train of Hindu pilgrims. Such communal incidents have happened in Indian history from time to time, but phrases like "Indian pogroms", "institutional racism", "religious hatred" are extreme generalizations at best and offensive at worst. The situation is far from perfect, but the rest of the world, middle east in particular, can learn a few tricks about tolerance and secular co-existence from the Indians.