Indian Citizenship for Bangladeshi Hindu Refugees?

 

Indian Citizenship for Bangladeshi Hindu Refugees?

 Shrikant G. Talageri

 

How long does it take for a citizen of another country to get citizenship in India?

According to google, when asked the question "how many years of residence in India qualify for citizenship?":

"Foreigners may become Indian citizens by naturalisation after residing in the country for at least 12 years and renouncing any previous nationalities". Another source says the time period is 11 years.

 

Today, Hindus are again being massacred in Bangladesh, after the ignominious expulsion of Sheikh Hasina. If any Bangladeshi today manages to escape from Bangladesh alive and enters as a refugee into India and continues to remain here and this fact of his residence here is noted in official records, he will be able to get citizenship sometime in 2036 at the earliest regardless of whether he is a Hindu or a Muslim or the follower of any other religion, both as per pre-2014 laws and post-2014 ones.

 

In 2014, the BJP brought in a C.A.A. (Citizenship Amendment Act) to "fast-track" the citizenship of Hindu-etc. (i.e. non-Muslim) refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan entering India due to persecution in those countries. The Act was not passed in 2014. It was later passed on December 11 2019. As per this bill (both as conceived in 2014 and amended in 2019), a Bangladeshi Hindu who enters India today in 2024 as a refugee will still not be eligible for citizenship until 2035 or 2036, since the waiting period has been reduced from 11 or 12 years to 5 years only for those who had already entered India before 31 December 2014! Even without this amendment, it would have taken exactly the same period (of 11 or 12 years) for anyone (Hindu, Muslim, or anything else) entering India after 2014 to acquire Indian citizenship.

It may be noted that the BJP was in full control of its decisions for 10 years from 2014 to 2024. It was not dependent on the assent of any ally (supporting party), and certainly the sweeping way in which the BJP government has been taking controversial decisions from 2014 onwards (starting with demonetization and going on to large-scale attacks on opposition parties using state weapons like the ED, CBI and IT department to split parties and engineer defections and even to decide which faction of any split opposition party should retain its original name and electoral symbol) does not indicate that it was ever prevented from doing what it really wanted to do out of fear of lok-laaj or criticism. Clearly it never wanted to provide any support to Hindu refugees being persecuted in foreign countries.

 

Today the BJP has the excuse that it is prevented from doing things for Hindus because of pressure from secular allies. It did not have that excuse for 10 years from 2014-2024, and did not even feel the need to make a pretence of wanting to do anything for Hindus during those 10 years. Now that it has that excuse once more (as it did before 2014), it is back to its pre-2014 games of pretending to be wanting to do things for Hindus, secure in the knowledge that failure to be able to do so is already automatically excused!! And, of course coming up with lame-duck measures (like the C.A.A.) even on the issues on which they now want to pretend to be keen to do something. So we see (or so I am told) a lame-duck attempt to show that they want to do something about the waqf issue which has been brought to the attention of literate Hindus after Anand Ranganathan's recent book, by introducing (or pretending to want to introduce) half-baked and ineffective amendments to the waqf laws.

 

Is the BJP solely responsible for turning Hindu issues into a sick joke? It must be remembered that all its treacheries and backstabbing of Hindus from 2014-2024 were fully defended, supported, whitewashed and justified by millions of bhakts − ranging from Hindu intellectuals to common Hindu voters − who thought (or rather pretended to think) that a 1000-year Reich of uncontrolled BJP rule had commenced in 2014 and so there was plenty of time (forever, in fact) and no hurry to do all these "Hindu" things which could be done at some time in future if at all. They egged the BJP on, by word, gesture and action, to continue in its treacheries and backstabbing with assurances that they were on the right track.

 

Today, a section of Hindu intellectuals has started an online petition asking that something be done about the persecuted Hindus in Bangladesh. And what is that "something" that the petition wants done? Here in the words of the petition itself"

"We, the undersigned, urge the Indian Parliament to

Pass a unanimous resolution in recognition of the ongoing violence against Hindus in Bangladesh, and to condemn this wave of communal violence. 

Work with international bodies, such as the United Nations, to pressure the Bangladeshi authorities to take concrete steps to protect their Hindu minority and hold perpetrators accountable (https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1152811).  

Advocate for providing humanitarian assistance and asylum options for Hindus fleeing persecution in Bangladesh. 

It is imperative that we act now to prevent further atrocities and support the fundamental human rights of the Hindu community in Bangladesh. Your support can make a significant difference in mobilizing international action and ensuring that these vulnerable populations receive the protection they need."

This petition still does not demand that Hindus persecuted in any country (whether Bangladesh in the present circumstances or any other) be given full rights to get asylum and citizenship in India in the same manner as any Jew persecuted in any other country (or perhaps even without any prerequisite of persecution) has the right to get asylum and citizenship in Israel.

And it wants the Indian Parliament to "advocate" (Muslim and Christian countries?) to provide "asylum options" for these fleeing Hindus!

 

The Kashmiri Hindus who fled Kashmir during and after the late eighties and the Meitei Hindus who have been laid siege in Manipur never had the happy circumstance of such online petitions in their favor (of course there was no "online" in the 1900s, but there were no offline petitions either)! Perhaps the Kashmiri Hindus would still have been living in Kashmir today in full freedom and happiness and in full possession of their lands and homes, and the Meitei Hindus would also have acquired ST status like other non-Hindu inhabitants of Manipur, if Hindu intellectuals all over India had only taken the trouble to bring such petitions to urge the Indian Parliament and the United Nations to give justice to them!

If the Indian Parliament (i.e. the Secularists and leftists in that august body) and the United Nations (i.e. the Muslim and Christian countries) cold-shoulder this present petition (already those in Parliament demanding that Rohingyas be given Indian citizenship are either silent or vocal against allowing Bangladeshi Hindus into India, and the western media is busy justifying the massacres of Hindus in Bangladesh as "revenge" for Hindu atrocities!), then of course they (i.e. the non-BJP members of Parliament, and the United Nations) will be responsible for the fate of the Bangladeshi Hindus. The BJP and Hindu intellectuals will have done their best and will have no responsibility in the matter!!

Appropriately it was Marx (or at least I think it was) who wrote "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce". The cycle of tragedies, i.e. of Islamic invasions, Islamic rule and Partition ended in 1947. Now there are only farces being re-enacted all over India. Again and again.      

 

Attacking Hindu icons who "betray" the BJP

 

Attacking Hindu icons who "betray" the BJP

Shrikant G. Talageri

 

The latest trend in the BJP journals seems to be to attack Hindus icons who speak out against the BJP (or even fail to utter magic mantras to make the BJP cross 400 seats) and to call them betrayers. Indiafacts recently published an article lambasting the RSS for having "betrayed" the BJP by somehow being responsible for not helping them cross 400 seats. Now, as only to be expected, Hindu seers who criticize the BJP or say anything inconvenient to the BJP are under attack:

https://swarajyamag.com/newsletters/shankaracharya-or-a-power-broker

Naturally logic has little role in this "all Hindu icons who do not support the BJP are traitors" campaign. Note the following gems in this article:

 

1. "it is time Hindus radically think about dismantling old structures and build new structures of Dharma based on the principles of true Sanatana Dharma".

That is, now organizations like the RSS and Hindu schools of seers and sages do not represent Hinduism. They are "old structures" (like the old temples in Varanasi which were demolished to create an elite-tourist-friendly slick modern ambience) that have to be "demolished". Now Modi ji and the BJP represent the "new structures of Dharma based on the principles of true Sanatana Dharma".

 

2. "Dharmacharyas today are seen aligning with the wealthy and powerful, rather than championing Dharma and justice.

From attending lavish events to endorsing casteism, these Dharmacharyas seem to stray from their spiritual duties."

Modi ji, the BJP leaders and the Dharmacharyas who support them are of course known for their frugal lifestyles (like the ex-CM of Tripura of the CPM, Manik Sarkar), and for policies and activities which show a strict refusal to be "seen aligning with the wealthy and powerful, rather than championing Dharma and justice" or to be seen "attending lavish events" or to be seen "endorsing casteism"!!!! One doesn't know whether to laugh or to cry!

 

3. "Past Dharmacharyas like Samartha Ramadas, Thirunavukarasar, and Thirumazhisai Azhwar stood firm in their principles, refusing wealth and power in favour of Dharma…. The current ones fail to live up to this legacy and appear more like power brokers than spiritual guides."

Isn't this insulting to Yogi Adityanath, not to mention all the sadhus, seers and spiritual leaders who have spoken out in support of the Ayodhya movement and the BJP or Hindu politics in the past?

 

4. " Case in Point: Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati said Uddhav Thackeray was betrayed. However, if ever there was a betrayal, it was the ideals of a father (Balasaheb Thackeray) betrayed by the son (Uddhav).

·         Hasn't Uddhav Thackeray betrayed his late father by aligning with Congress dynast who abuses Veer Savarkar in the vilest terms?

·         Hasn't Uddhav Thackeray betrayed Balasaheb by joining Sharad Pawar who lied about the Mumbai bomb blasts, adding a Hindu angle to it?

It appears Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati's conscience did not even feel a slight pang at this betrayal."

This raises or ignores several points.

1. During and after the Emergency, Bal Thackeray was the only political leader in the whole of India (apart from the CPI) who supported Indira Gandhi when everyone (from the RSS and Jan Sangh to the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Shahi Iman to the CPM and Naxalites apart from every Socialist party and groups of Congressmen) were ranged against her.

2. Of course Uddhav Thackeray has betrayed Hindutva (but the writer only feels a "pang" at his aligning with the Congress against the BJP). But the BJP has betrayed Hindutva on a much deeper and grander and more irreversible scale.

3. It was the BJP which first tried to align with Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra and even engineered a midnight coup where Ajit Pawar was sworn in a deputy CM (on the understanding that the entire NCP including Sharad Pawar would also be a part of the alliance). Then the Shiv Sena finalized its alliance with Sharad Pawar (although talks were already in progress).

4. Savarkar is remembered by the BJP only during elections, or in anti-Congress contexts. Otherwise, while Mulayam Singh Yadav, the butcher of karsewaks in Ayodhya, was given a Padma Vibhushan by the BJP (alongwith other pioneers of casteist politics who were given Bharat Ratnas and Padma Vibhushan awards), Savarkar was not considered worthy even of the lowest padma award, the Padma Shri.

5. One of the persons who released the book on "Hindu terror" was the then Congressman Kripa Shankar Singh who was given a Lok Sabha seat by the BJP in the recent elections.

The writer of the article "did not even feel a slight pang at this/these betrayal(s)."

 

5. "Saraswati, a self-styled Shankaracharya (whose status is court-stayed)…"

Not supporting the BJP raises all sorts of pseudo-legal issues (with the ED and I-tax authorities to do the follow-up?). There are many court cases involving the status of Hindu priests and seers all over the country.

This is what wikipedia on "Jyotir math" has to say about the status of  Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati:

"After the death of Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, who was the Shankracharya of Dwarka Sharada Math, Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati was made the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath.^[16] His coronation was endorsed by Sringeri and Dwarka peeth shankaracharyas. Supreme Court stopped his coronation as the new shankaracharya after an affidavit was filed by Puri Shankaracharya.^[17] However many akharas including Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad and sadhus have not accepted his appointment as the new shankaracharya".

I suppose the Sringeri and Dwarka peeth Shankaracharyas should also have their status questioned in court for endorsing a "self-styled" charlatan who praises or supports rivals of the BJP?  

 

6. "A civilisation needs religion to sustain itself. Religion needs institutions to sustain itself. These institutions, to empower themselves, need political and financial patronage, which comes from the wealthy and powerful in that society."

This is rich coming from a person who is castigating Hindu seers for supporting rivals of the BJP!! The BJP throughout its ten-year tenure absolutely refused to empower Hindi temples and religious and other (educational, etc.) institutions by the simple act of giving them mere equality with Muslim and Christian mosques/churches and religious and other (educational, etc.) institutions, by absolutely and categorically refusing to extend the scope of articles 25-30 of the Constitution to Hindus (something which even Syed Shahabuddin of the BMAC had been willing, and wanted, to do). The BJP thought that their 1000-year Reich had started and they would be in absolute power forever, and they did not want Hindu temples and religious and other (educational, etc.) institutions "to empower themselves" like the Muslim and Christian ones are already empowered, but to be at the permanent mercy of "political and financial patronage, which comes from the wealthy and powerful in that society".

All this is just the beginning of the "Hindutva" crackdown on Hindutva.

 

 

Review of Konkani Film "Tarpaṇa": The Importance of Valuing Family Members before it is Too Late

 

Review of Konkani Film "Tarpaṇa": The Importance of Valuing Family Members before it is Too Late

 Shrikant G. Talageri

 

A few days ago (June 16th) was apparently "(International) Fathers' Day". It was also the day that a Konkani film, in the Konkani of coastal Karnataka, was shown to a house-full audience of Konkani speakers at the second-floor screen at Nakshatra Mall in Dadar (Mumbai), which dealt with the theme of father-son relations. The name of the film was Tarpaṇa; a word which I confess was new to me, but after seeing the film and then checking up on google I find that it means "that offering  which satisfies (the departed soul)".

The two other earlier Konkani films which in my opinion were really great were the 2017 film "Juze" and, long before it, the 1969 film "Mojem Gorcan". Both were in the dialects of Goa, but both were completely different from each other: Juze was a superbly-made (what at one time would have been called an) "art film", and won well-deserved international awards. The older film "Mojem Gorcan" was a hilarious comedy (though the story-line was of course a time-worn one with different versions in Hindi and Marathi, and probably other regional languages as well, down the years) which was shown long ago on Doordarshan (in the good old black-and-white and pre-cable-TV days): strangely there seems to be no copy of this old film (I believe just the fifth Konkani film to ever be made) available anywhere, and few people even in the world of Goan (and specifically Goan Christian) Konkani film world seem to even have heard of it! The film Tarpaṇa, which is the subject of my article, is not just in a different dialect and represents a different area and culture, but is again, in its theme and story, completely different from the other two.

[I must also refer here to a superb Marathi film directed by Bipin Nadkarni, a CSB film director: the film Uttarāyaṇa, released in 2004, twenty years ago. This film I count among the absolutely best Marathi films I have ever seen. the director is the son of a very eminent Konkani drama writer, V.P. Nadkarni. Sadly, no-one before the present film (Tarpaṇa)  seems to have seen fit to make a full-fledged film in the GSB or CSB Konkani dialects of coastal Karnataka!]   

 

To begin with, what is specially endearing about this new film Tarpaṇa is that it is probably the first proper full-fledged film to be made in a dialect of coastal Karnataka, and specifically in the prominent GSB dialect of what we still refer to as "South Kanara". I am a Chitrapur Saraswat, and have written much-read articles before on the Chitrapur Saraswat (CSB) community as well as language. But, to a Chitrapur Saraswat, the GSB dialects and culture of coastal Karnataka are as dear to the heart as our own CSB dialects, and I have repeatedly pointed this out in my earlier articles on the CSB community and language. And this became clear from the ecstatic and super-enthusiastic responses of the (mainly CSB) audience in the packed hall at Dadar (Mumbai) on 16/6/2024.

The film has four main characters: a father, mother, son and daughter-in-law. Interestingly, the actors who played the parents are both CSBs (Sanjay Savkur and Meera Naimpally) and the son and daughter-in-law (Anuj Nayak and Madhura Shenoy) are GSBs. All of them of course speak in the most delightful and idiomatic SK-GSB dialect. A most perfect union of the Konkani speakers of Karnataka. About the actors, I must specially mention that the father (Sanjay Savkur) stayed in South Mumbai in the centre of Mumbai CSB activities, in Talmakiwadi, before he emigrated to the USA several decades ago (and now stays in Chicago, I believe). He was also a school classmate of my own younger brother (also Sanjay) and a good friend of my brother-in-law, and his mother was a good friend of my own mother. Needless to say, he was a familiar figure (to CSBs staying in South Mumbai, though from a period of time some decades ago).

To me, a special surprise was the son (Anuj Nayak). According to me, Crime Patrol (on Sony TV) is probably the greatest serial ever made − and the serial was also a subject of an article by me in 2022 when it was banned for a period of time due to a controversial depiction of a crime event − and Anuj Nayak plays the character of an Inspector in a very large number of parts (perhaps more than 500 parts) of the serial, which seems to have ended in 2023. I have a massive number of parts of the serial (more than 2700), and I watch at least 2 parts of it almost five days a week along with a friend who is also a great fan of it. The inspector played by Anuj Nayak was always one of my favorite inspectors in the serial, and I had often wondered which part of India the actor belonged to without being able to arrive at any conclusion (many of the other inspectors are known from other Marathi or Hindi serials). When I first received the intimation of the film show in Dadar on 16-6-2024, I was thrilled to know he was a Konkani-speaker.

Apart from, and even without any connection to, all these above personal and "communal" predilections on my part, the film Tarpaṇa was a masterpiece and a ground-breaking film in many other ways:

1. All the main persons associated with the making of the film, including the super-talented writer-director Devdas Nayak and the actors (every single one of whom left nothing wanting in their performance) were first-timers, and they were geographically located in different parts of the globe, but managed to get together and complete this film to perfection in just 15 days.

2. The film presents the ambience and atmosphere of a South Kanara village (I believe in or around Mulky near Mangalore) to perfection: the family atmosphere, the gossipy village atmosphere in temples and hotels, cultural glimpses (Yakshagana, temple bhajans, village childrens' competitions, etc.), and many other things which transport us right into the heart of rural South Kanara (of which I only knew from the reminiscences of my mother who spent her childhood till almost the age of twenty in Mangalore).

3. But above all things was the theme of the film. It was not a romance, a crime thriller, a comedy film, a political film, a religious film, or even a family drama in the usual sense of the term. The main theme was the relationship between a father and a son, and the main moral (if I may call it that) or social message it gave, in a number of different ways, was that life is too short to spend in personal ego-problems when it comes to relations between parents and children − in the particular case of this film, of course, it was between a father and son since (as the film specifically pointed out) the importance of a mother's love is the theme of countless stories, but the importance of a father's love (for so many obvious reasons) is not so very universally appreciated. In this film, the estranged father (in the home village) and son (settled in Bangalore) have not been on speaking terms for a number of years due to an altercation and misunderstanding which neither of them (and particularly the son) tried to amend out of egotism. and just when they have decided to patch up, it is too late! As the film makes very, very clear, nothing in the world is more important than one's parents, and a life (or a part of life) spent in ignoring this truth can lead to irreversible tragedy. I find this film unique in the fact that the entire film (like no other film before) seems to have been made with one and only one purpose: to hammer in this truth. As the film tells us (and indeed as the son himself tells a friend in a hotel conversation in the film), the son in this film has made a fatal mistake in his relations with his father and it is too late for him to make amends; but those people who do have parents living should learn from this and not make similar mistakes, and should give all the possible time, love and respect to their parents when they are still alive and not live to regret not having done so until it is too late.

This is a very personal message to all individuals: not a message about "larger" issues involving things like "nation", "religion", "ideology", "the future of mankind",  etc., but a plain and simple message about basic family relationships which are really much more important than these "larger" issues. For this I sincerely salute the writer-director of this film, Devdas Nayak, from the bottom of my heart.   

[I wrote earlier about the serial Crime Patrol. In so many parts of this serial one sees countless cases of what can only be described as monster parents: parents who neglect, ill-treat, abandon or even torture their children; fathers who regularly molest their own daughters and mothers who turn a blind eye to it; parents who sell off their own children into slavery and prostitution, etc. There is no doubt there are such monster parents in this world, just as there are (in even greater numbers) monster children. But monster parents are neither really the nature nor the norm. This film is about normal families, and is naturally meant to be seen and understood, and its lessons imbibed, by normal people living in normal families, and not by children having monster parents].

In my opinion, there may or may not be Gods, but the two Real Gods (or I should say, the Real God and Real Goddess) in everyone's life are their parents (and by extension grandparents).

I lost my father in 2002 and my mother in 2012. They have left an unfillable void in my life which remains to this day. Their last few years were spent in illnesses and physical suffering. We (I and my brother and sister) did everything we could for them, and indeed most of our acquaintances and relatives can bear testimony to this. Or so I generally think. But then countless "small" things bring to my mind countless "small" incidents and occasions when unthinkingly (or selfishly) I may have been so engrossed in my own personal problems or activities that I did not pay enough attention to their (expressed or unexpressed) needs or wishes, or did (or said) what I shouldn't have or failed to do (or say) what I should have. These countless "small" things in retrospect, do not seem so "small". They seem enormous. Which is why while the persons whom I loathe most are those who ill-treat (or ill-treated) their parents; the persons whom I consider truly great (whatever my other personal or ideological differences with them) are those who truly have nothing to regret in their relationships with their parents. I personally fall in neither of these two categories.

All these thoughts came (not for the first time) flooding into my mind while I watched this film. And the truth is there was not a single dry eye in the theatre after the conclusion of the film. But will people learn the lessons taught by this film? I can only hope so, even if that hope comes with a heavy fistful of salt.

In my opinion, this film deserves every award that it can get, and should also be dubbed and/or subtitled in as many languages as possible. On a lesser (but more immediately relevant) note, every Konkani speaker should definitely make it a point to see this film. And, as many of the speakers who spoke after the screening of the film pointed out, hopefully this film will inspire many more people to make films in Konkani and (I must chauvinistically add) especially in our GSB and CSB Konkani dialects of coastal Karnataka.