Thread by @gauravsabnis

More Indians need to say this and say this explicitly. The Pakistani nation-state has done a lot of horrible cruel things over the years, split in 2 itself, has many dark dark issues.

But what's happening in India right now is a whole other level of mainstream hate-mongering.

https://twitter.com/RoyaneEliz/status/1475079178697551875

Sanghis are not "talibanizing India" or "worse than Pakistan" or "more cruel than Saudi Arabia".

What Sanghis are doing is sanghism. OG sanghism. RSS, HMS have been around for much longer than the Taliban or Pak ISI or JeM/LeT.

#HaridwarHateAssembly is Hindutva's essence

Criticizing sanghi barbarism by drawing parallels to Islamofascists implies that somehow, sanghism is still a "lite" kind of extremism. Nope, it's pretty original in its own barbarism, bigotry, violence, misogyny, greed, everything. Listen to #HaridwarHateAssembly speeches.

The other day when people were denouncing the anti Christian and anti Christmas attacks, some lazy byju grad type bhakts were like "why don't you first ask Muslim countries to lift their Christmas bans??"

They genuinely think Muslim countries "ban" Christmas. 🙄🙄

The sanghi mentality is basically this. They love their brahminical supremacy, patriarchy, orthodoxy, incel-glamorization. And they genuinely think that no matter what evil they want to do, Muslims & Christians are already doing it, so it's their turn.

That's the essence of RSS.

So if you're like, hey, isn't it horrible that someone was beheaded, they will be like "what about when Daniel pearl was beheaded in Pakistan?"
When you're like why are Yati types free, they will be like "what about when Bin Laden lived in Pakistan?"

Pakistan is the Trump card.

So they assume that literally every single evil thing they do is okay, because either Muslims or Christians or Communists or Chinese have done it all before. Even when no one else has done it before.

Who burns Santa effigies? 🙄🙄

But dear Hindu brethren of mine, it is not the same old same old ab meri baari thing. Sanghis are seriously doing shit that was not considered acceptable even in the darkest days of the pakistani chaos or even the sri Lankan civil war. This is historic fascism being spread!

Bhakt-Lite types are trying to make excuses for the spike of my anti Christmas and anti Christian attacks in India in recent weeks somehow assuming that Christmas celebrations are targeted and attacked in all if not Most Muslim countries (NOT!). So bajrang dal is cool for them.

Until Modi years, even Ind-Pak cricket matches were not a friction point in the diaspora. I still remember 2007, when us Ind & Pak grad students consoled each other after those simultaneous shock exits from the world cup.

Good times.

https://twitter.com/Dharmaatica/status/1475467199607230464?s=20

Any South Asian who's lived in the US for a couple of decades will confirm this. Ind-Pak matches were always a chill thing in Desi US diaspora. Until Modi became PM and they've suddenly become crazy tense. And the tension all comes from the Indian side.

When I was a teenager in 1996, we laughed at reports that some Pakistanis shot their TVs with Kalashnikov rifles, angry at India's win in the World Cup quarter final.

Today Pakistanis read in amazement as Indians are ARRESTED for supposedly celebrating a Pak win.

Oh yes, remember the Bay Area Hindus group getting outraged that Apna Bazar in California sells beef samosas?

That is all on Indians.

Until Modi, US South Asian diaspora was very much aman ki asha type chill. Finding commonalities not differences.

https://twitter.com/Maila_Kameez/status/1475474474145402882?s=20

The rapid Facebook/WhatsApp-led hindutvization of the Indian diaspora is one of those things they will be writing retrospective longforms about in 2035, and they will most likely cite Twitter threads like this one from 2021 to say, some people saw it coming.

There was nothing "cosy" about it. And no one denies underlying prejudices. But the normalization of explicitly expressing bigotry, in the mainstream, proudly, cockily?

That's a new level. If you wanna ignore it saying "world always sucked" your call

https://twitter.com/Zallion/status/1475474507833876486?s=20

I don't really get what these people who are like "oh reality was always like this" hope to achieve by attacking people actually speaking out against bigots.

So what's the endgame? We should all just stop calling out bigotry cos people got away with bigotry in the past?

The world is divided between people who want to stop it from getting destroyed

And those who hope to get bonus points for predicting its destruction in advance before everyone else got in on the bandwagon of predicting the destruction of the world like the posers they are.