By P P Jaseem
On the occasion of the 78th anniversaries of India’s and Pakistan’s independence from British colonial rule, South Asian diaspora groups staged a protest in London, highlighting the targeting of Bengali Muslims.
Dozens of activists from the South Asia Solidarity Group and other diaspora organisations gathered at the bust of Rabindranath Tagore in Gordon Square, London, with poems and songs of resistance.
“Despite being Indian citizens, Bengali Muslims are facing detention, torture, home demolitions and even deportation to Bangladesh. Bengali-speaking communities have effectively been criminalised for being working-class migrants,” the press release stated.
“We are here to confront the truth that colonial rule did not end in 1947 — it simply changed hands from foreign rulers to local elites, who have built their states on the foundations of division, otherisation, and violence,” it added.
The demonstrators sang revolutionary songs and voiced solidarity not only with Indian Muslims, Dalits, and Christians, but also with the people of Gaza and Sudan. The repertoire included works by Tagore, Sukanta Bhattacharya’s Abaak Prithibi, Pakistani revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and Ather Zia.
Protesters denounced the Hindutva regime in India for attacks on minorities, the revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir, efforts to replace India’s constitution with the Brahmanical Manusmriti, and the demolition of Muslim and Dalit homes with bulldozers supplied by UK corporation JCB. They also condemned the persecution of Bengali Muslims.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.
