YUMNA KHAN
IndianMuslims: Responding to Violent Identity Severance with Faith
G
enocide Watch has warned with great severity of an impending genocide against Muslims in India perpetuated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) (Aljazeera). Thus, I want to use this space to dismantle the argument that I see employed by Muslims and Non-Muslims alike: atrocity against Muslims stems from religious differences. That logic is disingenuous to India’s social makeup as the largest pluralistic society on the planet with the second largest group of Muslims within a country (Majumdar). There are intricate linkages between faith and citizenship that
13 | THE MUSLIM VOICE: EPHEMERAL | APRIL 2023
have been welded for generations that are being challenged during this time. Muslims are trying to assert their identity within a national constitution that is now eroding the free practice of religion and they are met with sickening violence. The right-wing belief of the extremist paramilitary group, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has filtered down into pop culture and sprung new cells in support (South Asia Scholar Activist Collective; Frayer and Khan). Songs and dance that celebrate the purification of Hindustan by expunging Muslims from the country are integrated as a cultural practice neighbourhoods gather to partake in. Hindutva pop songs like those of Sandeep Acharya define Muslims as “tenants” in India who must be exiled, and are evidence of an ideology that asserts Hindu supremacy in place of a