NEW DELHI \u2014 Seventy years after independence, India\u2019s Muslim population has begun to fear that the dark fantasies of the Muslims led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League in the 1930s and 1940s \u2014 who fought for the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan as a homeland for the subcontinent\u2019s Muslims \u2014 could well be coming true.<\/p>\n
The Muslim League, a party established by Muslim landlords and the educated middle class, claimed that it alone had the right to represent Muslims and their interests. This brought it into conflict with the Indian National Congress of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, who argued that they represented all Indians.<\/p>\n
In 1936-7, the British decided to conduct elections to 11 provincial legislatures. A large measure of administrative powers was to be transferred to the governments thus elected. The Congress, the League and a slew of provincial parties participated in the polls. Despite its claim of representing Muslims\u2019 aspirations, the Muslim League polled less than 5 percent of their votes, which inspired fantasies and fears.<\/p>\n
The League began to argue that the Hindu majority of undivided India would swamp Muslims and suppress their religion and culture. As evidence, the League pointed to Hindu-Muslim riots in the northern states of Bihar and the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), both ruled by the Congress, as an ominous portent. They argued that the movement to ban the slaughter of cows, led by an assortment of religious leaders, Hindu nationalist groups and some members of the Congress, was aimed at subverting Muslim culture. Unlike Muslims, Christians, Jews and animists, a segment of Hindus worship the cow and don\u2019t eat its meat.<\/p>\n
In 1937, Congress adopted as the national song of India some verses from \u201cVande Mataram,\u201d or \u201cI praise you, Mother,\u201d a poem written in the 1870s by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, a Bengali poet and novelist, as an ode to the Hindu goddess Durga. The League objected to its singing as it depicted India as Mother Goddess, which the League construed to promote idolatry, anathema to Muslims.<\/p>\n
Over the last three years, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party government, some of the League\u2019s fears in the 1930s and \u201940s have returned to haunt India\u2019s Muslims \u2014 who acount for 172 million of India\u2019s 1.3 billion citizens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Punishment for cow slaughter, which is proscribed in most states of India, has become more severe. A conviction can lead to sentences ranging from five years to life imprisonment.<\/p>\n
The foot soldiers of Mr. Modi\u2019s party and its affiliates have run aggressive campaigns demanding that, apart from giving up beef, India\u2019s Muslims must not date or marry Hindu girls or women. They should reconvert to Hinduism, the B.J.P. and like-minded others say, because their ancestors were Hindus who were forcibly converted by medieval Muslim rulers. They must sing \u201cVande Mataram,\u201d the national song, these proponents say, to prove their loyalty to India, and their children must perform yoga in schools to show respect for India\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n
Since some medieval Muslim kings demolished temples to build mosques, the B.J.P. and affiliates say, Muslims in modern, democratic India should voluntarily hand over various mosques and shrines to the Hindus.<\/p>\n
The most alarming trend has been the lynching of Muslims suspected of possessing beef, for ferrying home cattle purchased legitimately from cattle markets elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The markers of Muslim identity \u2014 beards, skullcaps and head scarves \u2014 invite frowns, even violence, in India. On a late June afternoon, Junaid Khan, a 15-year-old Muslim boy, was stabbed<\/a> to death on a train near New Delhi. Mr. Khan was traveling with his older brother and two friends. They were identified as Muslim because of their clothes and skullcaps. After an argument over a train seat, their fellow passengers threw religious slurs at them, killed Mr. Khan and injured the other boys.<\/p>\n Hindu nationalists haven\u2019t forgiven Muslims for the partition of India, but their fury is a little misguided.<\/p>\n