Aligarh: Noted historian Irfan Habib said Wednesday it would be wrong to look upon the recent outburst of public sentiments against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act as merely a ‘Muslim outrage’ as it would ultimately impact all and the ‘idea of India as a modern state’.
Commenting on the police action against the protesters in different parts of the country, Habib said “Even in colonial period we had not witnessed such suppression of dissent.”
Habib pointed out that people are getting increasingly concerned over such attempts to crush dissent because the right to protest is the essence of a democratic society. Habib stressed that ‘all over the country a large number of Hindus and other communities are participating in this protest’.
Habid said it would of course suit the ruling dispensation ‘if this protest is viewed merely through the prism of a Hindu – Muslim issue’. The eminent historian said ‘this struggle is about India and about the future of democracy’.
Habib said some recent policies introduced by the Narendra Modi government are merely the manifestation of a ‘long term project of the Hindutva movement’ which rests largely on policy of ‘suppressing dissent and protest’.
The octogenarian professor said what is happening in India today is unfortunately just a replica of what had been taking place in neighbouring Pakistan after the partition.
Explaining the roots of the seemingly sudden outbreak of public outrage on the CAA, Habib pointed out that resentment amongst Muslims have been brewing for quite some time. However this angst has only surfaced during the past few days because it is only now that they perceive that the Hindu Rashtra business is becoming serious as seen by the enactment of some recent ‘legislative and administrative steps’. “These are all components of a major Hindu Rashtra project envisioned in 1937,” alleged the historian.
PTI