(MENAFN- Caribbean News Now) 
Born in Guyana, Raymond Chickrie was a teacher in the New York City public school system and has also taught in the Middle East.
By Ray Chickrie
The respect for one's natural rights like religious freedom and freedom of association in the Caribbean are protected. There is no written or unwritten law that stratify us into permanent ranks in society. We are free to choose our names and our religion; who we associate with and marry. In some places this is not possible. But in Modi's India a skewed understanding of the caste system has led to growing intolerance of minorities.
This is no secret. In 2002, the world watched the Gujrat genocide of Muslims under the former chief minister of that state and now prime minister of India, Narendra Modi.
Hence, the communal relations in India have had repercussions in the Hindu and Muslim Caribbean communities.
The CIA has classified the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, and two Sangh Parivar groups as militant outfits of the RSSIn 2002, the militant wing of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh (RSS) saffron-clad vigilantes set on fire the Muslim Ghettos of Gujrat and if that did not kill the Muslims fast enough, those who tried to escape were hacked. Women were raped and children slaughtered not even the pregnant women were spared. The police and Modi's state government turned a blind eye to this terror.
However, the subject was well covered by human rights groups and Modi was banned from entering the US due to his inaction to save the Muslims. And since then the RSS became infamous for Hindutva terrorism.
Naturally, social cohesion in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname with large Hindu and Musilm population has in the past and apparently the future, will be affected by events in India.
Basically, Modi's Hindutva nationalist politics of turning India into a Hindu republic will affect communal harmony in these Caribbean countries where Christians, Hindus and Muslims coexist cordially and peacefully since their arrival in 1834 from Northern India.
This is why a commentary by former Guyanese parliamentarian and political commentator Ralph Ramkaran, in Guyana's Stabroek News, (SN) on May 26, caught my attention.
'Despite disastrous economic policies resulting mainly in the failure to improve the economy for the poor and reduce unemployment, which was one of his main promises,' Narendra Modi did well in national elections. This despite the fact that 'half of India's population is under 25 and two-thirds are under 35," Ralph Ramkaran said.
So why did Modi do well at the polls? Ramkaran concluded that, 'It means that India's youth have been seduced by the BJP's policies of hate against Muslims, lower castes, the 'elites' and the BJP's subversion of the judiciary, the free press, the elections commission and other institutions.'
I agree with Ramkaran when he said, 'India has much influence in Guyana because of religious and cultural factors and Guyana has traditionally had close relations with India. Hopefully, the BJP's strong promotion of Hindu 'values' does not influence Guyanese into ideas that are resistant to the forms of unity that are necessary for Guyana to move forward.'
It comes as no surprise that the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) flagged several Indian fascist groups, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, and two Sangh Parivar groups with RSS links as militant organisations. These militant groups form a parallel army of thugs and vigilantes who have sprung up all over India to bully, intimidate and kill Muslims, Christians, Dalits, women and children.
Countries like Suriname where Hindus forced a boycott on Musilms for cow killing and other communal issues should never be repeated. Just like in India in the 1920s and which continues today, 'the Shuddi movement of converting Muslims and Christians 'back to their original faith, Hinduism' took place in Suriname from 1927 to 1949 and it led to Hindu/Muslim divide there.
The Muslims brought their grievances to the queen of the Netherlands and the situation was tempered eventually. This information can be found in newspaper archives in Suriname and various publications such as; Autobiography of an Indentured Labourer- Munshi Rahman Khan which was translated by Kathinka Kerkhoff, Indentured Muslims in the diaspora: Identity and Belonging by Maurits S. Hassankhan, et al, and other publications.
In a country with rampant casteism, female marginalization, illiteracy and wretched poverty; stratified by race, caste, religion, regionalism, languages and economic disparity, it doesn't take much to light the flames of communism. Modi's nationalist Hindutva remaking of India is frightening. He won a landslide victory because of this dirty politics of using communal politics in this campaign.
Clearly, Modi's local politics will affect India's ties with the global community and its campaign for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. However, that may be hard to achieve now that his politics is becoming more and more like the right-wing nationalists' movements across Europe and the United States. Ironically, it's the same very people, the so-called 'Aryans' that imposed a caste system that has stratified India by colour. The black Indians fall at the bottom of the caste system and are condemned to a life of hell on earth. So India on the UNSC will tow the line of nationalists voices.
Modi turned his back on the Non-Aligned Movement and decolonization. He has dumped the Palestinian and the Iranians and joined the radical Sunni axis. It was the Sunni Gulf Sheikdoms and kingdoms that voted against India at the OIC. Iran always had strong civilizational ties with India. Several times Modi voted against pro-Palestine resolutions at the UN and also voted against Iran at the UN. Modi should be reminded that it's the Wahabi doctrine from Saudi Arabia that has radicalized South Asia. These are his new 'buddies.'
Can India be trusted to defend, champion and protect the interest of 'Third World' countries at the UN Security Council?
The US State Department recently reported that more and more under Narendra Modi's India, minority rights are being violated. Religious freedom is becoming less and less in India. Ongoing campaign of harassment, violence and intimidation of non-Hindus, lower-caste Hindu, and Christians, whose churches have been vandalized in Delhi and the central state of Madhya Pradesh, are suffering from Modi's silence to the plight of his countrymen living under this Hindutva terror.
The US report said that "There were reports of religiously motivated killings, assaults, riots, discrimination, vandalism, and actions restricting the right of individuals to practice their religious beliefs," the report said. "Authorities often failed to prosecute perpetrators of ‘cow vigilante' attacks, which included killings, mob violence, and intimidation."
The State Department report blames 'the government's allowance and encouragement of mob violence against religious minorities'. The 'campaign of violence' involves intimidation and harassment against non-Hindu and lower-caste Hindu minorities.
'Mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against minority communities, especially Muslims, continued throughout the year amid rumours that victims had traded or killed cows for beef,' it notes.
Recently, Indian police arrested 11 people belonging to Hindu vigilante groups for lynching of a Muslim man who later died of his wounds in police custody. A 10-minute video shows Tabrez Ansari, 24, in Jharkhand, a state where many Caribbean Idnians ancestors hail from. He was tied to a pole beaten for over six hours and forced to shout
"Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Hanuman" (Hail Lord Ram/Hanuman). This is the common slogan all over and especially North India used by Hindu far-right groups and especially in the Brahmin belt.
Commenting on this recent incident, Hyderabad member of parliament (MP), Asaduddin Owaisi, summarizes succinctly why Muslims are being targeted. 'Incidents of mob lynching aren't going to stop because BJP and RSS have increased a sense of hatred against Muslims. They've successfully created a mindset where Muslims are seen as terrorists, anti-nationals and cow slaughters,' said the Hyderabad MP.
In Kashmir there is no freedom of movement and New Delhi continues to strip away the state's autonomous status. For a decade now the valley of Kashmir has been under lockdown and locals have been denied internet, freedom of movement, and mobile phone services.
India has imposed two laws that have been instrumental in the torture, disappearance, rape and brutality of the Kashmiri people. In July 2015, the New York Times editorial called on India to 'end the abuse of the Kashmiris by the Indian military." The Times cited the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which provides immunity to Indian soldiers for basically any action, and the Public Safety Act (PSA), which is used to imprison people without due process. Amnesty International calls the PSA a 'lawless law' and has been campaigning for its revocation. Since New Delthi can't break the will of the Kashmiris, Modi is now using an Israeli model.
They will change constitutional land laws to populate the valley with non-Muslims, and this is why Modi appointed minister Amit Shah, a hardline Hindu nationalist to work on this project.
The RSS presence in the Caribbean is happening with the opening of RSS ideological institutions in the region, and this will grow with the rise of Modi. This could have lasting repercussions for our region over time.
The governments of Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad which have received significant economic and financial aid from India, have remained silent. However, Guyana will be a petroleum and gas producing country and will depend less on India. Yet an Indian government in Guyana or Trinidad may not condemn the rise of Hindutva nationalism across India.
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