Hundreds of Rohingya refugee families from Burma now live in temporary homes across the city of Jammu |
BY INDIA NEW ENGLAND
NEWS
MAY 1, 2017
By Jay Prabhakar
The Rohingya people
are native to Myanmar. They practice Islam and, presumably for that reason, are
treated as subhuman by the ultra-nationalist Buddhist junta. The government of
Myanmar has been using systematic rape and other gruesome methods to torment
this minority. By some measures, this is the most persecuted people in the
world right now.
With dwindling
options, these poor souls are running for their lives to Bangladesh, a country
just as impoverished as Myanmar and one that doesn’t want them either. The
local Bangladeshis are beginning to revolt against these refugees, claiming
they are taking away local jobs. Sound familiar? Businesses that are developing
the as-yet pristine beaches along the Bay of Bengal, want the government to get
rid of these “annoyances”, so that they can get on with the business of making
the beaches a global tourist destination.
Recently, a Rohingya
village, in an act of desperation, mounted an attack on a police station. The
government retaliated mercilessly, separating the women from the men and
children and gang-raping the women for hours. When the villagers eventually
fled to the Bangladesh border, they were assaulted by more troops. Women who
put up any protest were brutally killed as an example to the rest, who then
mutely suffered the humiliation meted out to them by the Burmese soldiers for a
second time.
Balkanization is
rampant around the world, fuelled by the unsustainable increase in Humankind’s
population. As our numbers grow, the relative size of the economic pie shrinks.
People look at anyone who are not like themselves, as threats. They see their
jobs taken by these “others” and, perhaps justifiably, want them gone.
Such thinking is
evident in India. Bangaloreans distrust the Biharis, who come there for
construction jobs. Mumbai is for Mumbaiyyas – drive out the “Southies”. Similar
sentiments flourish in the rest of the country. PM Narendra Modi’s appointment
of Aditya Nath Yogi as the CM of UP is perhaps a preview of India’s formal
swivel towards sectarianism, away from secularism. This despite the fact that
the preamble to the Indian constitution includes the word “Secular”.
We in the US have
become inured to the background “noise” of such abuses around the world. We
have “crisis fatigue”, we claim. Our current president was elected on a
platform of self-interest and isolationism. America First is still the slogan.
America’s refusal to accept our share of the world’s unfortunate –
notwithstanding the words at the base of Lady Liberty – has set a bad example
for the rest of the world. Strong-men (and women) of all stripe are coming out
of the woodwork, across the globe.
One of the guiding
tenets of Hinduism – whose proponents staunchly proclaim that it is a
Philosophy, not a Religion – is inclusivity. The adoption of Savarkar’s
“Hindutva” by the BJP has made India overtly nationalistic and proud of it,
comparable to the US’s recent blatant xenophobia.
India shares a
substantial border with Myanmar. She aspires to be a dominant power in her
neighborhood. Wouldn’t it be a shining example for all of Southeast Asia and
perhaps the world, if India were to step up to the plate and address this
horrendous inhumanity? Perhaps accept a few thousand of these hapless souls
into our warm Hindu hearts, even though they are Muslim? Of course, they must
be carefully vetted and there will be logistical issues. India has done this
before, with the Tibetans. It seems imperative that India must do something for
the Rohingya, if only to re-introduce the world to the meaning of compassion.
(Jay
Prabhakar is a consultant in robotics and automation and is the president of
Bedford Controls, Inc. He lives in New Hampshire.)