“Final” solution?

Shujaat Wasty
Oct 5, 2004
Review of Rakesh Sharma’s documentary, Final Solution

“They’ve finished generations.” – Gujarati Muslim woman, survivor of the 2002 genocide

With the seating capacity not being more than 250, the De Seve Cinema theatre at Concordia University was filled to capacity on September 26, 2004 for the showing of Rakesh Sharma’s “Final Solution”, organized by the South Asian Research Centre (CERAS), Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema of Concordia University, and Teesri Duniya Theatre. The movie is a study of the politics of in , examining the Hindu Extremist movement, a look at their ideology and methodology, and the genocide they conducted in . It won Best Documentary & Critic’s Choice at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, as well as the Wolfgang Staudte Award & Special Jury Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The film demonstrated numerous parallels with what happened, and is continuing to happen in and elsewhere; both on the sub-continent as well as internationally. Please be sure to read the articles and reports listed at the end of this article for details and references.

The film actually shown was a shortened version: 145 minutes (close to 2.5 hours) is by no means something that would be considered “short”, however it is a relative statement to the original being over 4 hours! It was divided into four main parts:

Part 1, Pride and Genocide, dealt with the genocidal violence against Muslims in in February 2002 and its immediate aftermath. It probes the patterns of pre-planned violence by right-wing Hindu cadres which was state-supported and sponsored. Many of the happenings are well-documented in NGO fact-finding reports as well as human group reports such as Amnesty International and Human Watch; instances such as the horrifying method of killing, the sexual violence, the targeting of , etc.

But to witness the direct involvement of institutionalized members of society such as the police was incredibly infuriating…and scary. Policemen, those that are there to protect and serve the civilian populace regardless of their backgrounds, were in front of the Hindu mobs in an organized , firing at helpless Muslims, deliberately leading Muslims begging to be spared towards the mobs, actively joining in on the raping, burning and looting.

This is something that is not novel to the region. Throughout Pakistani history, the police (which even today happens to be mostly homogeneously recruited from Punjab – all over the country), were consistently brutal in their treatment of even the most peaceful of protestors in cities like , Dhaka, Hyderabad, Quetta – essentially, any locality outside of Punjab. They had no qualms of indiscriminately spraying people with real bullets in those areas, whereas their behaviour was significantly less cruel in , Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, and other areas in Punjab.

Another notable time was during the early 1990’s, when the Rangers (paramilitary force also predominantly Punjab) and city police committed mass genocide against Mohajirs (those who migrated from post-partition) in . Their comportment was similar to the police in , in the sense that they were conducting arbitrary arrests, looting, torture and murder. Many Mohajir were castrated, stripped naked, hogtied and raped, violated anally with foreign objects, and had their knees drilled. Thousands were arrested, tortured and killed; over 14,000 are still “missing”. Countless were molested.

Even in wartime, there are certain working groups that remain neutral as they are based on goodwill and humanity, such as doctors and nurses. However, the film showed that even doctors and medical staff at hospitals purposely let injured Muslim victims die slowly, agonizingly. There truly wasn’t even an atom’s weight of humanity left.

Part 2, The Terror Trail, reconstructed through eyewitness accounts the attack on Gulbarg (Ahmedabad) and acts of barbaric violence against Muslim at Eral and Delol/Kalol (Panchmahals) even as Chief Minister Narendra Modi (one of the leading organizers of the genocide) traversed the state on his Gaurav Yatra (campaign trail). Muslims explained how they hid in the fields from the Hindu mobs for 2 to 3 days, without or water, drinking their own urine to survive. Some survivors and relatives of victims also spoke of what they experienced, what they saw; no matter how many times you see this or read about it, you cannot help but feel an overwhelming rush of emotions.

Additionally, Hindus were also interviewed, including some that had committed the heinous crimes (but were roaming about freely). Most of the interviewees denied that any killings had occurred, any rapes, any type of genocide. Some even justified their enmity by stating complaints on Muslim men who marry Hindu and bear them Muslim , and other Hindutva rhetoric.

As well, the film also showed how the Indian were implicated with the happenings. Many outlets stoked the fires of hatred towards Muslims by publishing and propagating false reports. There was a blatant violation of journalistic protocols and abuse of freedom of speech by promoting hatred and encouraging acts of violence.

The film also touched upon the sociological problem of cases of unmarried girls not being filed since people may not want to marry the victims.

This is also similar to at various times from the 1950’s to 80’s, when Pathan mobs ruthlessly massacred Mohajirs by burning entire areas of dwellings to the ground, and thus sparked - each time - civil strife between the two ethnic groups. In early 1990’s & Hyderabad, as part of the genocide, the Rangers would arrest members of wanted Mohajir and subject them to horrendous suffering. Some Pakistani outlets went with the line of labeling Mohajir civilians as terrorists, traitors to the nation, the MQM party as rebels, Indian agents and enemies of the state.

Part 3, the Mandate, documented the poll campaign during the Assembly in in late 2002. It recorded in detail the of the Godhra incident by the extremist propaganda machinery for electoral gains. It also shed light on the Hindutva ideology, and how they are taking advantage of the ongoing global holocaust of Muslims with the statement “not all Muslims are terrorists…but all terrorists are Muslims.”

The Hindu extremist rallies were a combination of pro-Hindu slogans and anti- chants. Promises were made of a day coming soon when they would rule in , in , and in Islamabad. Other promises included splitting into forty pieces, and conducting the genocide again (there is factual evidence of this in the states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Orissa, Hyderabad). They also made warnings that Muslims and Christians were joining forces to try to “Islamicize” and “Christianize” the nation, so Hindus must take up arms to defend their , their land, and their culture.

The film showed how Hindu terrorist groups are progressing and making preparations in a very organized manner; recruiting followers all over with massive rallies and passionate speeches, physical and weaponry training, etc.

The slogans and chants were similar to those abuses commonly directed at Mohajirs, with one difference. In , Hindu fundamentalists refer to Muslims as “Miyans” and “Babur ki aulaad” ( of Babur, the Mughal emperor), terrorists, traitors to the nation, and Pakistanis. In , Punjabis ethnocentric extremists refer to Mohajirs as “Bhaiyas” and “Rajiv ki aulaad” ( of Rajiv – a disparaging title meaning that they are Hindus), terrorists, traitors to the nation, and Indians.

Moreover, just as the Hindu terrorist attackers shrieked “Jai Shri Ram” during and after their attacks on Muslims, Punjabi Rangers and police chanted “Allahu Akbar” after their raids left bullet-riddled corpses of Mohajir civilians in their homes and on the streets.

The film illustrated great irony with the fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used pure Urdu words (as opposed to Hindi) as part of electoral campaign songs, which themselves were bite-offs from popular Bollywood ones - many written and composed by Muslims. The itself is the product of Muslim arts.

Part 4, and Despair, studied the situation after the storm and its impact on Hindus and Muslims’ ghettoisation, the call for economic boycott of Muslims and continuing acts of violence more than a year after the carnage.

An ironical aspect of this type of thinking is that one of the principal sources of Indian pride and culture on the international-level is their film industry. Bollywood is a multi-billion dollar industry that is continuing to grow in popularity throughout the world. Most of the popular actors happen to be Muslim (at least by name), as well as the composers, lyricists, etc. If the already-proclaimed Hindu call for boycott of all with Muslims in it came into effect, Bollywood would completely crumble.

On top of that, the is mainly North Indian, thus, as explained earlier, it is wholly influenced by the Muslim that ruled for hundreds of years. It was these same Muslims under whom the arts, culture, and of flourished, so the Indian tourism industry remains almost entirely dependent on the era of Muslim rule.

One Hindu leader gave the parable that Muslims in were like a disease. He proclaimed that since they are in minority (150 million vs. 850 million), Muslims should be like “little brothers” and live in humility and show respect to their Hindu “older brothers”.

This attitude is identical to that of Punjabis in , who are approximately 72 million in number (48% of the ), towards the other groups in , particularly Mohajirs and Baloch. Virtually every Pakistani has systematically oppressed non-Punjabis in one way or another, socially, politically, economically, physically. The economic suppression has been occurring since the time of Pakistani Ayub Khan, who began the abuse of as a colony to construct the “paradise” of Islamabad. To this day, the bulk of the revenue of the country is generated through (around 78% of total income), yet is mostly poured into Islamabad and other cities in Punjab.

One aspect of the genocide that was lacking from the movie was what really happened at Godhra, since Hindu fundamentalists use that incident constantly as justification for the genocide. Forensic reports and fact-finding missions are uncovering the truth and there is overwhelming evidence that Muslims were falsely accused of torching the Godhra train, it was a pre-planned incident to give premise to the genocide. This is an old tactic that the Indian secret service, RAW, has done before, one also utilized by the Russians with their ongoing genocide of Chechens (Moscow apartment buildings bombed, blamed on Chechens), Zionists and Neo-conservatives (with the horrifying attacks on the World Center 9/11, blamed on Muslims).

Nevertheless, in all fairness to Mr. Sharma, realization towards conclusive evidence only started trickling out in 2003, whereas he had already begun filming before then.

A definite criticism would be of the over usage of the term “” to illustrate what happened in . There is a tremendous amount of information and ample proof that clearly demonstrates that what happened was genocide, and nothing less.

Overall, the film was excellent. It was very educational to see a detailed view on the Hindutva movement, exposing their whole fascist ideology, their deep affinity of the Nazis, and their feeding off the same terrorist ideology employed by the likes of the United States, Britain, Israel, Russia, , France, Italy, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Australia, and those by the Serbs at various points throughout history. The presentation of the Indian electoral process and dirty political manipulations was also unique and rewarding. This was a much better film in satisfying its purpose in comparison to other , including Michael Moore’s recent popular documentary, “Fahrenheit 9/11”.

One important fact that was reinforced by this film was the grave error of partition. The fact remains that the creation of the Muslim League Indian political party in 1906 in turn resulted in the creation of Hindu Mahasabha, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Jansangh (Hindu extremist parties). The making of instilled a permanent enmity in the hearts of many non-Muslim Indians towards Muslims and , as well as stoked the ethnic problems within (leading to the humiliating split up of the country in and other problems experienced until today).

’s formation further strengthened the entire Hindutva movement, yet even then, these terrorist combined did not have more than a handful of MPs in the Indian Parliament until 1986. The issue of the Babri mosque provided them with a political grip to fan the hatred and swing the Hindu voters to vote for the BJP (which is actually a coalition of many Hindu extremist ).

This entire process has eventually led to the despicable atrocities in , the horrifying murders, the gang-rapes, the burning. As the movie noted, over 270 mosques, Islamic institutions and shrines of Muslim saints were destroyed in alone. Over 200,000 Gujarati Muslims are now homeless, refugees in their own country.

It is quite obvious that had not been split up, it would not have experienced such a rampant growth of Hindu . A strong Muslim minority of over 35%, combined with other groups (Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, etc.) would have maintained the traditional, relatively fine balance of the Indian .

Nonetheless, reality is now, and the most chilling fact is, as one Hindu terrorist insinuated in the film, this is only the beginning; this “lab” will be conducted elsewhere and all over . The Muslims and the rest of world reacted with complacency with the genocide in Bosnia & Herzegovina, thus the result was the genocide in Kosova a few years later. The same attitude in Rwanda resulted in millions being sickeningly massacred, as well as Chechnya, where 28% of the Chechen has been gruesomely murdered…and . Continued passive reaction will lead to more of these genocides by fascist forces across …and around the world…



Quotes:

Ashok Singhal, the international working president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, a nationalist Hindu organization), is reported to have said on 11 October 2002 that "what happened in will happen in the whole of the country", while on 3 September he reportedly termed the recent massacres in a "successful experiment which will be repeated all over the country". (source: Amnesty International)

Not all Muslims are terrorists…but all terrorists are Muslims… - Hindu extremist leader (source: Final Solution film)

And this, about the future of in the event of a : "The next time there is a , will survive, but will no longer exist"- Hindu leader Sadhvi Rithambara at a speech in the Ganesh Temple, Flushing, Queens, New York (translated from Hindi)

Narendra Modi [chief minister of ] you have fucked the mother of [Muslims]
The volcano which was inactive for years has erupted
It has burnt the arse of [Muslims] and made them dance nude
We have untied the penises which were tied till now
Without castor oil in the arse we have made them cry . . . .
Wake up Hindus, there are still [Muslims] alive around you
Learn from Panvad village where their mother was fucked
She was fucked standing while she kept shouting
She enjoyed the uncircumcised penis
With a Hindu the Hindus have the power to annihilate [Muslims]
Kick them in the arse to drive them out of not only villages and
Cities but also the country. [The word rendered "Muslims" (miyas) is a word meaning "mister" that is standardly used to refer to Muslims.]
- being circulated during the carnage (source: Dissent Magazine)

When partners in any venture feel they are being shortchanged and their counterparts are insensitive to their needs, the process of dissolution of the union starts. In its own defence, the major partner then proceeds to blame the others for a lack of ’patriotism’, ’the last refuge of a scoundrel’ - Samuel Johnson



Further online reading:
On :
How Has The Massacre Affected Minority ? - The Survivors Speak
Fact-Finding Report By A ’s Panel - Sponsored By Citizen’s Initiative, Ahmedabad
http://www.msu.edu/~swamyraj/guj/survivorsspeak.h tm

State Participation and Complicity in Violence in
Human Watch Report
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002//
Carnage 2002
A Report To the Nation by An Independent Fact Finding Mission: Dr. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, S.P.Shukla, K.S. Subramanian and Achin Vanaik
http://www.outlookindia.com/specialfeaturem.asp?fodn ame=20020411&fname=chenoy&sid=1

What happened in Godhra, ?
by Sound Vision Staff Writer
http://www.soundvision.com/info//godhra.asp



On Hindu Fundamentalism:

Know Your Hindu Fundamentalism (listing and description of various Hindu terrorist groups)
http://www.dalitstan.org/journal/politics/hindutva/ what.html

Bitterfact (information about what really happened at Godhra, pictures, much more)
http://bitterfact.tripod.com//

Al-Khilafah
http://www.alkh ilafah.info/massacres//hindufundamentalists.htm

Geno cide in - The International Community Looks Away
Article for Dissent Magazine by Martha C. Nussbaum
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/menutest/articles/s u03/nussbaum.htm
Resurrection of Hindu Fundamentalism
Article for Information Times by Syed Adeeb
http://www.dalitstan.org/mughalstan/qatl/1378/resofhf u.html

Saffron Terror
Article for Frontline by Praveen Swami
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1906/19060080.htm

The Asymmetries of Communalism
http://stopfundinghate.org/actions/press/030403 .htm


On :

Human Crisis in
Amnesty International Report
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA330011996 ?open&of=ENG-2S4

and Regional Aspirations in
Article for Insight by Dr. Sudhir K. Singh
http://www.jammu-.com/insights/insight2002 0101d.html

No English, No Future: in
Research report by Ahmar Mahboob
http://www.baloch2000.org/culture//mahboob.htm

Baloch Voice
http://www.balochvoice.com/

Page
http://www.karachipage.com/


Other:

Oris sa: A in the Making
Report by Angana Chatterji
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles9/Chatterji _Orissa.htm

Hindu and Orissa: as other
Article for Sabrang by Angana Chatterji
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2004/mar04/srep ort1.html