Comparing Nazi Laws Against German Jews with Indian Laws Against Indian Muslims
Legally Defining the Enemy & Weaponizing the Legal System
The Nazis promulgated discriminatory laws against the Jews for almost a decade before they began operating concentration and extermination camps. The Nuremberg Laws[40] were designed to instill and maintain racial segregation. The German Third Reich enacted two laws,[41] namely the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. Using these laws, Germany aimed to reverse the citizenship of many of its citizens. The state would decide who was and who was not a citizen, based on a narrow racial criterion.
The Reich Citizenship Law to Exclude German Jews
The Citizenship Law redefined German citizenship to exclude people of “non-German blood.” Citizenship was acquired by the state granting one a certificate, and only a confirmed, certified citizen was entitled to political rights and protection of the state. Anyone who had 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents would not be eligible for citizenship regardless if they identified as Jewish or not. The intent of the law was to purge Germany of Jewish bloodline. The result was increased isolation of Jewish communities, thereby making them easy targets of scapegoating.
“Only a national comrade can be a citizen. Only someone of German blood, regardless of faith, can be a citizen. Therefore, no Jew can be a citizen.”
Hitler’s 25-point program for the Nazi party
English translation of a Nazi chart explaining the pseudo-scientific racial categories established by the 1935 Nuremberg Laws. White circles identify ancestors of “pure” German blood while black circles identify Jewish ancestry.
India’s Citizenship Denial Laws Target Indian Muslims
Due to lack of documentation amongst significant numbers of people living in India, proving one’s citizenship is not an easy task. This is especially true for those living in rural India-about 70% of the population. Many have lived in an area for decades without official papers. In the year 2000, only 56% of Indian children had their birth registered[42].
Taking advantage of this situation, the BJP-RSS regime created a scheme based on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and a proposed nationwide National Registry of Citizens (NRC). They are ominous echoes of the Reich Citizenship law. These specifically exclude Indian Muslims if they cannot come up with historic documents to prove their citizenship.
The National Registry of Citizens proposes that all citizens of India must prove their citizenship in order to continue to be citizens. If an Indian citizen cannot produce a required set of documents, he or she is subject to detention. Any non-Muslim, however, could then be fasttracked back into citizenship under the CAA, while Indian Muslims would be denied that path.
Figure 4
1.9 Million have Lost Citizenship in Assam, Many in Detention Camps as New Camps are Being Built
1.9 Million Indians have lost citizenship in Assam, India. Many are in detention camps. New detention camps are also being built. Assam is also the state that was chosen for the first application of the National Registry of Citizens. It resulted in 1.9 million losing their citizenship. What turned out to be a surprise for the BJP-RSS regime was that only 486,000 were Muslims. This is where the religious test of fast-tracking Hindus to citizenship will help. It leaves only Indian Muslims to be detained and deported. New detention camps are also being built in different parts of the country.
Citizenship Laws and the Nazification of India: https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/citizenship-laws-and-the-nazification-of-india (accessed 2021-10-21)
“They [Muslims] thought they can increase their population and capture the country. But Modi ji and Amit Shah have brought this law and smashed their dream. I urge them not to step back but go forward with NRC…”
Swami Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, a Hindutva religious leader of the largest organization of Hindu monks (the Juna Akhara), and supporter of Prime Minister Modi
“They [Muslims] thought they can increase their population and capture the country. But Modi ji and Amit Shah have brought this law and smashed their dream. I urge them not to step back but go forward with NRC…”The Nazi Law for the Protection of German Blood from Jews
While the Citizenship law sought to purge Germany of ancestral Jewish bloodlines, a Purity Law extended that idea of a pure German volk for future generations.
Designed for the protection and preservation of “German blood and honor,” the Purity Law banned marriage and extramarital relations between Jewish individuals and those of “German blood.” Those found violating the law were to be punished with prison sentences and hard labor. The main objective of the Purity law was to prevent “race defilement” of German women and German girls to ensure the survival of the “pure” German volk.
While the law was ostensibly gender-neutral, the underlying panic about Jewish men targeting Aryan women is clear in how the law specifically prevented Jewish individuals from employing female Germans under the age of 45 in their households, as well as the propaganda that surrounded the enactment of the law.
“Nazis Against Relationships Between Jews and non-Jews”
Why does the Jew instigate the German woman to race defilement, systematically and on a mass scale?…What are the consequences of race defilement for the German Nation?
This is a 1935 poster by Der Stürmer newspaper. Note how a Jew is depicted. Image Credit: Deutsches Historisches Museum
India’s “Love Jihad” Laws to Protect Hindu Girls
Much as the Nazis did about Jews, India has Islamophobic conspiracy theories of Muslim domination through procreation. While instances of interfaith marriages in India between Muslim men and Hindu women are only around 3%, there is a constant portrayal of interfaith marriages as “anti-national.”[43] The pejorative term “love-jihad” is often used to describe inter-religious relationships. The narrative behind the term is that Muslim men lure Hindu women[44] into marrying them and convert them to Islam, thereby putting Hindus in danger[45]. Although this propaganda[46] has been found false many times over the years, it persisted to the level that now there are laws[47] about it. In Nov. 2020, the most populated Indian state—Uttar Pradesh—enacted the Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, otherwise known as the “love jihad” law. This law prohibits the marriage of a Hindu woman to a Muslim man, punishable with ten years of imprisonment and an annulment of the marriage. Similar legislation has been enacted in the BJP ruled states of Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh and is proposed in two other BJP ruled states. The BJP-RSS militias beat up interfaith couples[48] and sometimes kill them, while the police arrest interfaith couples to enforce the so-called laws.
Inspired by the mainstream acceptance of the love Jihad conspiracy theory, RSS is encouraging a “Reverse Love Jihad”[49] which involves kidnapping Muslim girls and forcefully marrying them to Hindu men. In just one district out of 741 in India, the district police registered 389 cases of under-age girls as missing or kidnapped. By controlling women’s marriages, the RSS thus aims to enforce Hindu supremacy by keeping Hindu blood “pure.”
The Nazi Ban on Kosher Slaughter
On April 21, 1933, Nazi Germany enacted a law that had the effect of outlawing kosher slaughter in the country[50]. While the law did not actually mention Jewish people or shechita (kosher slaughter), it did prohibit the killing of animals for food if they had not first been stunned or anaesthetized. Because Kosher slaughter requires that the animal be conscious at the time it is killed, it no longer conformed to the law. This was another way Jewish life was attacked by the Nazi government.
The Indian Campaign Against Halal
In a similar fashion, the BJP-RSS regime is attacking the India meat and leather industry, as a proxy for undermining Muslim dietary needs. As Muslims are perceived as prominent in the Indian meat and leather industry, attacking the industry is thought of as a way to attack Muslims. An Indian ban on transporting cattle[51] except for agricultural purposes is killing the industry and making Muslims jobless. In just one state, 50,000 meat shops were closed[52]. Muslims—in respect of Hindu feelings that cows are sacred—do not consume beef and have replaced buffalo meat as a staple of the Muslim diet. However, even that meat is now difficult to obtain. While the laws make the life of halal consumers difficult, the BJP-RSS militias routinely attack Muslims transporting cattle for dairy farming. They also lynch Muslims falsely accused of consuming beef. In one instance a police officer who tried to stop a cow-related lynching was himself murdered[53].
50,000 Muslim Owned Butcher Shops Were Closed.
Washington Post
The BJP-RSS affiliated Hindutva organizations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Council) and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (Hindu People’s Awakening Committee) have been calling for the boycott of all halal-certified products. These organizations resort to spreading fear in the Hindu community by falsely stating that “this is the economic expansionism of Islam” and that funds procured may be used for Islamic terrorism. They also label halal slaughter[54] as being a cruel form of slaughter, similar to the way Hitler prohibited kosher slaughter[55] as a form of animal cruelty.
Muslim butchers and cattle traders are routinely attacked[56][57], and in some cases, the victims themselves have been charged with a crime. Muslim restaurants have faced boycotts and have also been targets of mob attacks[58].
In November 2021, a smear campaign against halal products was launched by right-wing Hindutva organizations which claimed that Muslims spit in their food to make it halal. A series of videos labelled #ThookJihad[59] (“thook” means spit) went viral on social media during the covid-19 pandemic, accusing Muslims of spreading the virus through their spit. The propaganda portrayed it as a sinister conspiracy by Muslims against Hindus. This propaganda adversely affected thousands of Muslim-owned businesses who started receiving calls to ensure “spit-free food” or even faced total boycott.
[40] The Nuremberg Laws; https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-6/nuremberg-laws (accessed 2022-02-04)
[41] How the Nazis Were Inspired by Jim Crow; https://www.history.com/news/how-the-nazis-were-inspired-by-jim-crow (accessed 2022-02-04)
[42] https://www.indiaspend.com/birth-certificates-are-citizenship-proof-govt-says-but-38-under-5-children-dont-have-one (accessed 2022-02-26)
[43] IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada: “India: Situation of inter-religious and inter-caste couples, including treatment by society and authorities; situation of children from such marriages (2017-May 2019) [IND106276.E]”, Document #2010389 – ecoi.net; https://www.ecoi.net/en/document/2010389.html (accessed 2021-12-19)
[44] Hindu Women, Muslim Men: Love Jihad and Conversions; https://www.jstor.org/stable/25663907 (accessed 2022-2-4)
[45] India’s ‘love jihad’ laws: Another attempt to subjugate Muslims; https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/1/15/indias-love-jihad-laws-another-attempt-to-subjugate-muslims (accessed 2021-12-19)
[46] https://www.epw.in/journal/2009/51/commentary/hindu-women-muslim-men-love-jihad-and-conversions.html (accessed 2021-12-19)
[47] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nia-ends-kerala-probe-says-there-s-love-but-no-jihad/story-wlpWR7BMNcdJHkb1MUso4J.html (accessed 2021-12-19)
[48] https://www.npr.org/2021/10/10/1041105988/india-muslim-hindu-interfaith-wedding-conversion (accessed 2022-2-27)
[49] https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-reverse-love-jihad-surfaces-in-up-2290453 (accessed 2022-2-27)
[50] 1933: Nazi Germany outlaws kosher slaughter, Jewish World; https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-1933-nazis-outlaw-kosher-slaughter-1.5437764 (accessed 2021-10-21)
[51] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-politics-meat/indias-muslim-meat-traders-plan-legal-action-over-new-rules-idUSKBN18N0KT (accessed 2022-2-27)
[52] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/cows-are-sacred-to-indias-hindu-majority-for-muslims-who-trade-cattle-that-means-growing-trouble/2018/07/15/9e4d7a50-591a-11e8-9889-07bcc1327f4b_story.html (accessed 2022-2-27)
[53] https://www.news18.com/news/india/inspector-killed-in-bulandhshahr-was-one-of-the-most-important-witness-in-aklaqlynching-case-1961941.html (accessed 2022-2-27)
[54] Stop this Halal Invasion in India. Hindus must boycott all Halal certified products & items; https://hinduexistence.org/2020/03/05/stop-this-halal-invasion-in-india-hindus-must-boycott-all-halal-certified-products-items/ (accessed 2021-10-21)
[55] Money from Halal certification may be directed towards Islamic terrorism: VHP President Alok Kumar; https://www.newsintervention.com/money-from-halal-certification-may-be-directed-towards-islamic-terrorism-vhp-president-alok-kumar/ (accessed 2021-10-21)
[56] Muslim meat trader attacked in UP; Police file FIR against him; https://thewire.in/communalism/muslim-meat-trader-attackedin-up-police-file-fir-against-him (accessed 2021-12-19)
[57] Muslim man in India attacked with hammer; https://www.dawn.com/news/1572347 (accessed 2021-12-19)
[58] ‘Shown their place’: Muslim livelihoods under attack in India; https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/27/india-muslims-livelihoods-islamophobia-hindu-groups (accessed 2021-12-19)
[59] ‘Thook Jihad’ Is the Latest Weapon in Hindutva’s Arsenal of Islamophobia; https://thewire.in/communalism/thook-jihad-is-the-latest-weapon-in-hindutvas-arsenal-of-islamophobia (accessed 2021-12-06)