Certain overzealous scholars, media professionals, and others have hastily drawn parallels between the experiences of African Americans in the Jim Crow Era in the United States and Muslims in India under Narendra Modi.
In the United States, both white and black populations are not indigenous. The ancestors of most white individuals immigrated from Europe and the UK following the discovery of America in 1492, while the ancestors of black individuals were forcibly brought from Africa to be sold as enslaved people in the USA during the 17th and 18th centuries. Predominantly, whites were Christians, and over time, most African Americans also adopted the same faith. Neither whites nor blacks can stake a claim to being the original inhabitants of the United States. In contrast, in India, both Hindus and Muslims are native to the land, sharing a common heritage and ethnicity. The ancestors of Indian Muslims converted to Islam during the Mughal rule for various reasons, with mass conversions occurring under oppressive rulers like Aurangzeb.
In the United States, both Whites and Blacks uphold the same constitution, placing it above their religious beliefs. This ensures a unified civil code for all in America and a common law of the land. Their loyalty to the nation is paramount and supersedes all else. Regrettably, in India, while everyone accepts the same constitution, there are instances when Muslims prioritize their religion over it when it is convenient for them. A number of them demand to be governed by Sharia laws as opposed to the law of the land with a uniform civil code. For many Muslims, loyalty to their religion takes precedence over the nation. As harsh as it may seem, this has been the reality.
In the United States, African Americans were subjected to slavery by Whites for centuries and deprived of fundamental human rights. They lived their lives at the discretion of their White owners. Has there been a similar occurrence in India’s 5000-year-plus history? If anything, it was the Hindu majority that experienced oppression during the Mughal and British rule, with some of their rights being infringed upon for centuries.
When the United States gained independence in 1776, it was a fusion of various states. In contrast, when India achieved independence in 1947, the country was partitioned into two nations: a Muslim-majority Pakistan and a Hindu-majority India. The newly independent India embraced Muslims who chose to remain in the land of their forefathers. Their population has since increased, unlike the dwindling numbers of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
African Americans in the United States do not receive political, financial, or moral support from other predominantly Black nations worldwide. This is because African American citizens have faith in their country and reject any external interference. There is no concept of a global Black brotherhood to which American Blacks subscribe. However, Indian Muslims have sought and received political, financial, and moral support from numerous Islamic nations worldwide. A number of them openly invite foreign intervention for perceived grievances, as they would like Indian Muslims to be part of the global Islamic brotherhood that advocates the spread of Islam. If this adversely affects their nation, India, it does not seem to concern them.
African Americans were involuntarily transported across the Atlantic and enslaved. They remained in bondage for several centuries, and even after the abolition of slavery, they continued to face discrimination. For over a thousand years, until 1765, Muslims in India were rulers and conquerors, not enslaved people. Hindus were the subjects of a profitable slave trade that stretched from India to Tashkent, Samarkand, and Baghdad. The comparison of the situation of Indian Muslims to that of African Americans is so evidently illogical that it is surprising anyone could have conceived it.