A genocide ignored

A culture of impunity created over the years, backed by religious fanaticism, led to the genocide in Kashmir.

- DHRUV C. KATOCH

Write and philosopher George Santayana in his monumental work in five volumes, The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress, observed, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” We tend to forget the past when history is either not recorded or is deliberately distorted. The history of the sub-continent is replete with such examples, the inquisition in Goa carried out by the Portuguese in the 16th century being just one example. But suffice for now to note just a few instances from the last century.

The period 20 August 1921-1922 witnessed the massacre of over 10,000 Hindus in the Malabar region of Kerala by the Mapilla Muslims of Kerala. The killings were brutal and gruesome and exemplified the worst form of ethnic cleansing. Rather than receiving condemnation, later day historians sought to justify the same in the name of social justice. Textbooks today speak of this dark period as nothing more than a series of riots by peasants against the landowners, leaving out the obvious religious indoctrination, which led people to commit barbaric acts in the name of religion.