OPINION | ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ Is Being Normalised: Are We Witnessing the Inception of ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’?

Protests by Islamists in Hyderabad’s old city area continued unceasingly, threatening a riot over Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader T Raja Singh’s alleged derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed. Singh was arrested on Tuesday, but released on bail later. The BJP has suspended Raja Singh and given him 10 days to explain why he should not be expelled from the party.

Syed Abdahu Kashaf, former AIMIM IT cell head, sparked outrage on Monday with his aggressive ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ sloganeering against Singh outside the South Zone DCP office in Hyderabad. Kashaf, who claims to be a political strategist, led a large protest with hundreds demanding harsh punishment for Singh for allegedly making disparaging remarks about the Prophet. Kashaf was recorded flagrantly raising the virulently perilous slogan — ‘Gustak E Rasool ki ek he saza, sar tan se juda’ (Go ahead and behead) — with the irate crowd. As far as lip service goes, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi condemned the incendiary calls for beheading that dominated the streets of Hyderabad.

‘Gustakh-e-Rasool ki ek hee saza sar tan se juda…sar tan se juda’. This dictum is, perhaps now, a common part of small talk at barber shops, coolers at corporate events, kitty parties, and, of course, social media. To add a little perspective, this adage was coined as a slogan to be used while exterminating people in the name of Islam under the garb of blasphemy by Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), an Islamist terror outfit based in Pakistan.

Today, Muslims in India are either silent on the grisly beheadings of Hindus carried out by radical extremist Muslims or they openly condone them. In July, a BJYM leader, Praveen Nettaru, was brutally hacked to death with an axe by three Jihadis as he returned home after closing his shop in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district. His open support for Nupur Sharma in a social media post is the reason! Kanaiyalal Teli’s ghastly beheadings and Umesh Kolhe’s murders were facilitated by their “good Muslim friends” for bestowing their virtual support on Nupur on social media. The irony is that this is all very much like in the cases of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits.

Belying the popular discourse of the contrived and concocted narrative — “The way she has ignited emotions across the country, this lady is single-handedly responsible for what is happening,” as per the observation of Justice Surya Kant — the Islamic tyranny in Bharat dates back to the mediaeval era.

No, it didn’t start with Nupur Sharma, and it was never about what she quoted from the Islamist texts —Zakir Naik and hordes of Islamists have been affirming the veracity of her words since long; rather, it is rather a fourteen-century-old cacodemon that continues to haunt and hunt inquisitive humans who dwell in Islamic literature and seek genuine answers, only to be lynched, raped, and beheaded in the name of blasphemy by Islamists.

Kamlesh Tiwari was gruesomely murdered by Islamist terrorists for a cartoon. Kishan Bharwad, a young and promising Hindu man, was shot dead by Islamists Shabbir and Imtiaz in the Modhwala area of Dhandhuka in January this year for claiming that his God is supreme, similar to what loudspeakers at mosques announce five times a day. Harsha, an industrious youth from Karnataka’s Shivamogga, was stabbed to death by his own Muslim employees. And this isn’t a mere 2022 phenomenon—in fact, the modern history of pre-independent India observed killings of Hindus by Islamists as early as 1929, when Mahashay Rajpal was stabbed eight times before dying by Ilm Ud Din, a 19-year-old carpenter for refusing to disclose the name of the author of a book that Muslims believed to be blasphemous. But when a so-called comedian named Munawar Faruqui’s intolerant ‘jokes’ on Hinduism are merely criticised, a victim card is printed and shoved down our throats by almost every media outlet.

Often, Sar Tan Se Juda is justified as a slogan of retaliation or fear by Muslim politicians, but this ghastly act is supported collectively by all Muslims through financial weapons like halal food products. Yes, for those who aren’t aware, halal certificates are provided by Jamiat Ulama-E-Hind, the same body that pays for the legal fees of terrorists that assassinated Kamlesh Tiwari and countless unsuspecting Hindus. In fact, Hindus are made to sponsor their own beheadings by forcing almost every food and beverage company to be halal-certified. Unlike GoI’s FSSAI, it is a part of the parallel establishment that bypasses the Indian state, like the Waqf board.

And this is not limited to India either. For, Islamic jihad has become a menace to humanity as a whole. Salman Rushdie narrowly escaped assassination in 2022 by a 24-year-old pro-Iran Islamist named Hadi Mata—he wasn’t even born when the calls for assassinating Salman were made, but he indeed executed a dastardly attack on the 75-year-old author—for a book that was published in 1988 and, later on, forbidden by many states globally—for the book didn’t do well with the Islamic throng.

Be it the 2020 decapitation of Samuel Paty, a high school teacher in France, or the torching of Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana of Sri Lanka, residing in Pakistan, killing non-Muslims in the name of blasphemy is normal for “radical” Muslims around the world. The sad reality of today’s India is that all non-Muslims, especially Hindus, aren’t protected by the Constitution of India. Be it the courts or our fellow Muslim citizens, they try to justify ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ as a valid response to Hindus exercising their freedom of speech or what one would reframe as merely quoting what is taught by Islamic scholars around the globe or in the Madrassas. These perpetrators are being shielded by Muslims that claim to carry the Constitution in their arm and the Taliban in their heart while their idea of India, where Hindus are marginalised, subjugated, and ethnically cleansed, continues to triumph. As an ordinary Hindu youth facing the wrath and havoc wreaked by Islamists, the time has come to reflect and introspect for a better future for our descendants.

Are Hindus really free to live in India after 75 years of Independence? In today’s world, this Constitution has failed me and a hundred crore Hindu citizens by being used as a shield by the Muslim community to bargain with Hindus. A community is blatantly absolving execution, the ISIS style, and rioting as a reaction to an action without a modicum of compunction for the brutality and vandalism their ilk is perpetuating.

Are we nearing the much-dreaded Ghazwa-e-Hind?

Yuvraj Pokharna is an independent journalist and columnist. Yuvraj Pokharna is a columnist and social activist. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not represent the stand of this publication.

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