Modi’s lesson from Israel: Demolish Muslim homes, erase their history

The Hindu far-right’s actions in Nuh, in India’s Haryana, echo Israel’s policies of trying to delete histories and legacies of the Palestinian people.

• Somdeep Sen, Associate Professor of International Development Studies at Roskilde University

Al Jazeera, 4 Sep 2023

A bulldozer demolishes a Muslim-owned property in Nuh, Haryana, India after violence in the district in early August [Md Meharban/ Al Jazeera]

In early August, the world watched in horror as authorities in the northern Indian state of Haryana demolished more than 300 Muslim-owned homes and businesses in Nuh – the only Muslim-majority district in the state.

Hindu right-wing groups in Haryana followed up the violence with calls to boycott Muslim businesses and for Hindu-owned businesses to fire Muslim employees. Before the demolition drive, clashes broke out between Hindu and Muslim groups in Nuh when a procession led by the far-right Hindu organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad reached the district.

What we are witnessing is undoubtedly a consequence of the hateful rhetoric encouraged under the current Hindu nationalist regime.

Yet, the large-scale destruction of Muslim homes and properties in parts of the country like Nuh, where the community has lived for centuries, points to something even more sinister: a concerted effort to erase all evidence of Muslim presence and heritage in the country.

Is it paranoid to worry that this, in turn, could be a first step to triggering a full-fledged genocide?

Learning from Israel

Over the years, under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, we have seen India increasingly cosying up to Israel. And the Hindu right has been explicit in its aspiration to emulate Israel’s approach to Palestinians.

Specifically, they appear to be inspired by Israel’s effort to systematically erase Palestinian history, legacy and culture from the landscape. They are inspired by the way more than 530 Palestinian villages were systematically destroyed during and after the Nakba of 1948, as well as the way Palestinian homes continue to be demolished across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem to make way for Israeli settlements considered illegal under international law.

Much like Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport stands adamantly on the remains of Palestinian communities forced from their homes, a new temple to the Hindu god Ram has been built over the debris of the historic Babri Masjid mosque in India, destroyed in December 1992 by extremists gathered by Modi’s party.

There’s more that they probably want to pick up from Israel, such as the way Israeli museum exhibits insistently refused to mention Palestinians or acknowledge Palestinian existence as a distinct national community.

How about laws like Israel’s that deny Palestinians even the right to mourn the loss of ancestral homes and land or seek to reclaim them? This includes Amendment 40 to the Budget Foundations Law that criminalises the commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba.