Thread by @kikumbhar

There's many non-factual elements here as @sarayupani has pointed out, & many lazy assumptions as @Shehla_Rashid's brave timeline shows.

But it is clear that there r several folks who think this way. So here's my two cents on this phenomenon of privileged Hindu savior complex.

When a person or a group around us is being oppressed, most of us speak out and protest not to do THEM a favor, but bcz we find the act of oppression abhorrent & an assault on basic human values. We r sending a message more to the oppressor than the oppressed..

Yes it's imp for the oppressed to know they're not alone, but it is also imp for the oppressor to know that they ARE alone, that we do not support their actions and ideas. And in that sense, when we privileged speak up (whether for Muslims or other oppressed groups)...

...we actually do a big favor to ourselves in d first place. Oppressors with power r serial bigots, & if one crime goes unpunished they go ahead wit one more & then yet another, & it isnt long before they'r oppressing most of us. So we'r basically working to protect ourselves too

Also imp to remember that support for the oppressed is a solidarity based on universal, basic human values, & not on any special ideal characteristics of the oppressed. This support, therefore, depends more on the context & less on the groups or persons involved..

Thus, the oppressed in one setting can be oppressors in another. I will, eg, oppose the targeting of Indian dalits or christians by a US-based NRI sanghi, but if the same NRI is manhandled by d US police here, my solidarity will without doubt be with that oppressed NRI.

Not bcz i like them or identify with them, but bcz i think that is my responsibility as a member of the human community (the community to which ppl ideally should show their greatest allegiance, much ahead of religion & nationality).

Besides, I find police brutality abhorrent, wheth in the US or in India. I wud better like me & my loved ones to live in a society where such oppression is not normalized or encouraged, or considered "too political" & thus implicitly allowed to happen. So i'll always call it out.

So speakin out against sanghis when they oppress muslims doesnt need to be bragged about. Lets do it bcz those ideas & actions violate basic human values, & not as a favor to any1. Same applies to callin out bigoted muslims who also violate such values. Many are doin that too.

In the end, would like to draw people's attention to this response by Sarayu Pani, which corrects some of the highly erroneous and problematic assumptions some people have on these issues

https://twitter.com/sarayupani/status/1404801957106159622