India's Muslims seek to counter Hindu nationalism

Indian Muslims pray at a mosque

From Correspondent John Raedler

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Though India's Muslim minority boasts an estimated 120 million people -- more than any Arab nation and almost as many as in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan -- it feels more threatened than ever before.

The recent growth in popularity of the ruling Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), frightens many Muslims, who believe the BJP wants to dilute their religious identity.

"The overwhelming majority of Muslims are both apprehensive and, in fact, terrified or traumatized by the BJP," said political scientist Imtiaz Ahmed.

Some analysts say this fear has grown in recent years because the BJP pushes a politics based on the ethnicity and religion of Hinduism, inspiring Hindus but scaring Muslims.

To illustrate their concern, Muslims have only to look back to 1992, when Hindu radicals razed a 16th-century mosque, sparking widespread Hindu-Muslim riots that left more than 3,000 people dead.

Hindu radicals in 1992 attack and destroy the Babri Masjid (mosque) at Ayodhya. The incident provoked Hindu-Muslim riots in several cities.

Every year, the anniversary of that attack remains tense, with Indian troops often being deployed to prevent renewed violence.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee says he is committed to protecting all Indians equally, regardless of religion. But he has not convinced all Muslims.

"They want to suppress the Muslim community as a whole in India; they want to Indianize Muslims," said one Muslim.

"Mr. Vajpayee is a good leader," another says. "But the hard-liners in his party won't let him do what he wants to do."

To counter the powerful BJP, some Muslims talk of joining with India's lower castes to form a so-called coalition of the alienated.

Such a merger, they suggest, could become powerful enough to transform India both politically and socially.