Garda Ghista

The Gujarat Genocide: a Case Study in Fundamentalist Cleansing Garda Ghista

In February 2002, Hindu fundamentalists carried out a genocidal ethnic cleansing of Muslims in the state of Gujarat, India. The genocide was conducted in a pre-planned collusion with the police and the BJP state government of Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Between 2,000 and 5,000 Muslims were slaughtered, and more than 150,000 rendered homeless and destitute. Human rights investigators, despite having visited Kosovo and Afghanistan, were unprepared for the horrors they found in Gujarat. To date, the victims have seen no real justice, and the perpetrators continue to boast of Gujarat as a laboratory for the rest of India. With passion and hope, this book documents the Nazi, fascist origins of Hindu fundamentalism; the ongoing propagation of hatred towards Muslims and Christians in the educational system; the continuing economic boycott of Muslims in Gujarat; the legal grounds for prosecuting the BJP leaders for genocide; and the campaign of horrifically violent rape against Muslim women. The depths of sexual violence in Gujarat demand that the Hindustan of Hindu fundamentalism be renamed as Rapistan. With the rise of Jewish and Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East and Christian fundamentalism in the US, the Gujarat genocide looms large in a scenario of global fundamentalist wars. It is a story that reverberates in every corner of the globe where the wolves of religious fundamentalism howl at the gates of power. How are we to face this juggernaut of religious fascism, manifest in all religions? This book is not merely a case study in communalist cleansing, but a Neo-humanistic spark of liberation from the cycle of hatred. Building on Shrii Prabhat Sarkar's vision of all Indians and indeed all of humanity as one people, as well as his mystical humanism, the book lays forth a strategy to combat nationalism and fundamentalism with neohumanist education.