Hindus in Hindu Rashtra (Eighth- Class Citizens and Victims of State- Sanctioned Apartheid)

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To those who claim we are now living in a totalitarian Hindu Rashtra, one must ask: What kind of a Hindu Rashtra is this where a billion-strong Hindus have been, through our parliament, courts, education system and our Constitution, reduced to not just second-class but, rather, eighth-class citizens? What kind of a Hindu Rashtra is this where Durga pooja and Garba celebrations are stoned with impunity, where a sitting prime minister claims minorities have the first right to resources? What kind of a Hindu Rashtra is this where Hindus are forced to be refugees in their own land, where one can settle 40,000 Rohingya Muslims but not 700,000 Kashmiri Hindus. the land's original inhabitants; where the judiciary says it is too late to prosecute those who raped, murdered and ethnically cleansed Hindus? What kind of a Hindu Rashtra is this where Hindu temples are exclusively controlled by the State and Hindus must beg for Waqf land to celebrate their festivals? What kind of a Hindu Rashtra is this where the Right to Education Act discriminates only against Hindus and their schools, forcing thousands of them to shut down? What kind of a Hindu Rashtra is this where brutal tyrants like Aurangzeb and Tipu are eulogised through State-sponsored publications, naming of roads and organising of festivals? What kind of a Hindu Rashtra is this where a law was about to be enacted through which only the Hindus would have been held guilty in a communal riot even if they were in a minority, for example, in Kashmir? What kind of a Hindu Rashtra is this where court judgments like the Sabarimala and legislative enactments like the Hindu Code Bill purport to reform only Hindu religious practices but dare not touch practices of other religions, and if they do, the decisions are promptly reversed, like in the Shah Bano case? What kind of a Hindu Rashtra is this where The Places of Worship Act continues to deny Hindus their legitimate right to correct historical injustices, while the Waqf Act gives overarching powers to Muslims to declare a 1,500-year-old Hindu temple to be on Islamic land when Islam is only 1,300 years old? If this is how a Hindu is rewarded in a Hindu Rashtra, he'd much rather be in a Muslim Rashtra because then at least there'd be no pretence of equality-a Kafir will get what he deserves.

In this searing commentary. Anand Ranganathan shreds to smithereens once and for all the guilt-tripping, self- loathing fake narrative Hindus have been duped with since Independence. There is no pretence or political correctness here, only unvarnished truth that the Hindus are living under State-sanctioned apartheid.

Anand Ranganathan is a scientist and an author. He has written four novels: The Land of the Wilted Rose (Rupa, 2012), For Love and Honour (Bloomsbury, 2015), The Rat Eater (Bloomsbury, 2019; co-authored) and Souffle (Penguin, 2023). His forthcoming book is India's Forgotten Scientists (Penguin, 2023; co-authored). Hindus in Hindu Rashtra is his first non- fiction book.

For has not allowed the followers of its indigenous Bharatiya faith systems-the Hindus-the right to hold grievances, much less air them. After all, we are told, Hindus are in the majority, so what possible grievances could we have? Despite the bloody partition of our sacred geography- Bharat-on avowedly religious lines in 1947, Hindus are told that being in the majority is sin enough, which requires constant and unequivocal expressions of contrition in every sphere to reassure some minorities (those who identify themselves with Islamic invaders, settler colonisers and Christian European colonisers) of their safety and dignity.