Hindutva, Bloodlust, and Israel

Why do so many Indians so feverishly support Israel?

By now, everyone has come across the swarm of Indians, including those in the diaspora, screeching and screaming for Israel, becoming hyperventilated with joy as Israel bombs Gaza civilians, saying the Gazans deserve everything they're getting and more – more bloodshed and death are deserved. Why is this happening? To answer this I must return to a question a friend of mine recently asked me, 'Why do you care so much that Indian Hindus support Israel, but not that Pakistani Muslims support Palestine?' The answer to this question is key in answering the former. The Pakistanis support Palestine for the simple reason that Palestinians are also Muslim, and hence they have a brotherhood with the Palestinians as members of the Ummah. So, why do Indians support Israel with such fervor? Is there a shared religion? No. Is Hinduism like Evangelicalism with some metaphysical connection to the land of Israel? No. Has there been a long and shared history between Israel and India? Not anything of any significance. India has actually been a longtime supporter of Palestine post-British independence. Perhaps the Jewish and Hindu communities have some deep bond twisted in history? Once again, no. Jewish people have existed in India throughout history, but they have been a tiny minority in the vast land of South Asia, unseen and unknown by the majority of Hindus throughout history, having a peak population of 30,000 in the 1950s and now only numbering 5000 in 2023 after most immigrated to Israel.

So, where does this support for Israel come from? Bloodlust – bloodlust for Muslims, a desire to cleanse India of its Muslim population for whom they blame many of India's ills. For Indian Hindutvadis, Israel is the shining city on the hill that has successfully genocided a portion of its Muslim population, and for that, they should be praised. When the Hindutvadi raises the slogan of Israel in India, they're yelling, shouting at the Muslims, 'This is going to be you one day. One day, you're going to be in a Gaza.' A BJP lawmaker from Karnataka noted that India 'may face the situation that Israel is confronting today.' Narendra Modi was rewarded the position of Prime Minister and hailed as a hero for his direct role in the 2002 Gujarat pogrom that killed 2000+ Muslims. His party, the BJP, has no Muslim members of parliament, even though Muslims make up 14% of India's population. Not even a sellout they could buy out, to at least put an about-face when it comes to representation, like Republicans do in America. But then again, this would go directly against their message that they are the party solely of the Hindus, not of the 'other,' not of the Muslims. The majority of these Hindutvadis know nothing about Israel; ask them about the Nakba, or who Rabbi Kahane is, or Itamar Ben-Gvir, and they'll have no answer. They only know that they smell Muslim blood, and this is all they need to know.

One question that needs to be answered, though, is who exactly these online Hindutva fanatics are. Are these fanatics the Dalits of India? Are they the hordes of lower castes in India currently living a life of abject poverty, malnourishment, and destitution? No, they do not come from any of these categories. To answer this question is also to answer "Who is a Hindu?" As the Indian Marxist philosopher Divya Dwivedi has explained, India has historically not been a majority Hindu country, and the concept of a Hindu majority is simply a "hoax." Far from Hindus being a majority, the Shudra and Dalit (who together make up almost 90% of the Indian population) have never been considered Hindus by the real Hindus, the Dvija. The Dvija are the three holy, twice-born castes, allowed to wear the sacred thread that distinguishes them as Hindus from everyone else. They are the Brahmin (the priest), the Kshatriya (the nobility), and the Vaishya (the merchant/landlord). These castes were allowed to participate in the reading and listening of the Vedas, while others were threatened with punishment for even attempting to do so. Through the immutable hierarchy created by Hinduism, these castes plundered the most powerful positions and resources for themselves in society, all the while telling hundreds of millions of Dalits and Shudras that the gods had created them to be the Dvijas' servants. With the fear of the gods in mind and the sword of the ruling class to back up these claims, the Dalits and Shudras served. However, this system is incredibly difficult to fully implement in a 20th/21st-century democracy, especially in a nation where Christian and Muslim proselytizers now offered equality before God. If the Dalit and Shudra converted to Christianity or Islam, the Dvija would lose immense power and prestige in society; they would lose their servants. Hence, contemporary Hindutva was formulated. Even Dalits and Shudras were now proclaimed to be just as Hindu as the Dvija; they were now a brotherhood, and it just so happens that the Dvija would be the leadership leading this brotherhood. This Dvija-led brotherhood, with its newfound fangs, then turned toward the Muslims, who they said had come into India and heavily plundered from the Dvija what had been "rightly" theirs, plundered from the Dvija their Shudra and Dalit servants through emancipation. So, with a blood cry, the Dvija leads the call for the genocide of the Muslims, in the streets of India and online on Twitter.