Assam Elections 2021- A battle of Hindutva to protect Assam’s Indic civilization.

                                      

  India's 5000 years old civilization exists today even after having a history of suffering extended and unmerciful invasions. If our left historians are to believe, it is a reality today because of Hinduism's tolerant nature. Though Hinduism and its culture have indeed had a history of tolerance and inclusiveness, our left historians often intentionally will not tell you that we also have the account of resisting and struggling with invaders. If there was no resistance to the invading powers, perhaps our Indic civilization would not have existed today.  This is where Hindutva comes to picture, which suggests resistance to intolerant ideas and guarding the dharmic essence of our ancient civilization.

  In modern-day, the same Hindutva resistance is needed to preserve one's culture and civilization. In Assam, almost everyone considers the prominent Ahom commander Lachit Borphukan as an icon who fought Islamic invasions and arrested Assam from Mughal invaders' clutches. But his valorous act has been mischievously divorced from our history books because the story of Lachit is an exact representation of Hindutva. For long, our media tried to peddle the narrative that Hindutva is aggressive, intolerant and communal, which has no connection to Hinduism. 

  They sold us the notion of "Ahimsa Parmo Dharma," which means non-violence is the ultimate Dharma but never told us about “Dharma Himsa Tathaiva Cha”, which implies that sometimes violence is needed to defend the same Dharma and humanity from evil forces. This is what Hindutva stands for, and our Assamese society has always fought to preserve the Dharmic culture of Assam from invasions.

    Hindutva is not merely violence which left historians and a section of media try to define but it is also about debating and putting arguments against any such belief which challenges our Indic civilization. Great scholars like Sankracharya debated across the nation to protect our civilization which is also an act of Hindutva.

    Assam is all set to witness assembly polls next year, and the central issue still remains is the issue of illegal immigrants who are altering the demography of Assam at a faster pace. Here, it is essential to focus mostly on Muslim immigrants because the demographic alteration points primarily towards Muslim immigrants. 11 districts in Assam are Muslim majority today, which is a fact, and the culture they have is alien to Assamese culture and is exclusive in nature, which rejects diversity. There is nothing communal about this, and this is a plain fact which media will often brush under the carpet in the name of secularism. The Assamese identity is a sub identity of the larger Indic civilization identity based on Dharma's essence. To preserve Assam's culture, it is of utmost importance to protect the status of Assam under Indic identity. If Assam loses its Indic identity, then how can Assamese culture co-exist under the dominant position of those identities which are exclusive and reject diversity?

   This is something which anti-CAA force in Assam often ignores because they are sold on the idea that Hindus are alien to Assam, which in reality, they are not. Hindus are the driving energy of Assamese culture because Hindu culture accepts diversity at all levels no matter what language they speak or write. Still, they quickly adopt any culture which is associated with Indic identity. They do not change anyone's culture, unlike Abrahamic faiths. Assam's anti-CAA protests by some vested class posed a threat to Assam's culture instead of preserving them. These protestors want the government to take away the citizenship of those Hindus who entered Assam between 1971-2014. They are already staying in Assam and are in more scattered numbers, and they embraced Assam's culture instead of changing the demography because Hindus belong to Indic civilization. But can we say the same for non-indic faiths? At least, the demography of Assam doesn't reflect this perception as true.

   Most Muslim immigrants have already managed to make it into the list of NRC, unlike Hindus. All thanks to the policies of the previous government, which gave them political patronage for years. Now, suppose these Hindus of NRC are deprived of their citizenship and voting rights. In that case, Assam will face a demographic invasion of Muslim immigrants, and they will have the political powers, not the Assamese who represent Assamese and Indic culture. The Assam polls will be a Hindutva test where voters are expected to vote on Hindutva's spirit to resist demographic invasions of non-indic faiths, which pose a threat to Assam and its vibrant culture. It is also interesting to note here that both former prime minister of Pakistan and founder of Bangladesh, Majibur Rahman, in their books mentioned Assam as unfinished business of Pakistan and Bangladesh, which they believed can be finished with demographic invasion in Assam. 

   Assam has fast forward moved to this track for years, but this was halted after BJP clinched power in Assam. To prevent any demographic invasion, we need Hindutva Assamese warriors like Lachit Borphukan and this election. Every voter who loves Indic civilization and Assam will have to be in the role of Lachit Borphukan with a Hindutva spirit.