The real "Hitler-Style tactics" is not any specific historical injustice, it is the promotion of tribalism and nationalism, dividing people up into "us" (who have been wronged) and "them" (who did the wrong, and therefore deserve to be punished as a group) on the basis of race, religion, etc.
The opposite of Hitlerism is not Jews getting revenge on the Germans, it is liberalism. There is no room for whataboutism, because liberalism is not about showing how "they" are more evil than "us", because there is no "us" and "them".
My grandmom managed to escape from Bangladesh violence, smuggled hidden amongst cattle.
I don't see how that justifies fascist and Hindu supremacist policies in India.
Treatment of Kashmiri pandits is a favorite talking point of the Hindu right. They are remarkably silent about other violent and forced population movement brought about by Hindus upon Hindus. Bengalis evicted violently from Assam did not spend time collectively moping about it but built their life somewhere else.
So talking about the harms of ethnic cleansing is moping in your book? This is an attitude I constantly see among Indian liberals. They ignore all the injustices inflicted on Hindus. Would you consider talking about the Holocaust as moping?
Hindu right talks about Kashmiri Pandits because nobody else does. Can you tell me why we must keep silent about their ethnic cleansing?
> Can you tell me why we must keep silent about their ethnic cleansing?
I cannot because I have not asked anyone to be silent about it. What I find 'moping' is refusal to move on by people who have the wherewithal to do so. Bengalis (my family included) have been persecuted with violence in many places [East Pakistan, Assam, Bihar for example]. I don't see them doing the analogue of Kashmiri pandits.
> Would you consider talking about the Holocaust as moping?
I certainly take issues with portraying Jewish holocaust as something special, and placing that as a talking point that lies above other genocides. I say this in spite of a handmade Anne Frank poster that hangs in my room.
The place where I went to school in the US the local right wing Jewish community raised a big fuss when another community showcased a violent and lethal part of their history using a symbolic display of shoes. Their claim was that genocide and such symbolic displays are an exclusive right that they own. This I totally reject.
After Mumbai 26/11 happened, I went to attend a vigil mourning the death of Jewish people killed in the terror attack. I was quite disappointed by the rhetoric displayed there. Not a word was said about Indian people who were killed in the attack. It was all about how Jewish people have been hounded everywhere. The implication being India is also such a place. This is particularly ironic because Jewish immigrants have enjoyed the greatest goodwill for centuries in India. You would know that Jewish settlements in India go far back in time than European settlements and that anti-Jewish narrative is an European thing that has no counterpart in India.
I generally dislike the narrative 'I am a victimized helpless snowflake who did nobody no wrong' whenever anyone plays that less than truthfully.
Bring the history to light, get reparations when applicable, and move on when one is in a position to do so.
> So it's galling to me when you accuse Hindus of Hitler style tactics when they're the real victims of it.
Stop thinking in terms of "X are the real victims", "Y are the real aggressors". It leads to a never-ending cycle of hatred and violence. Everyone is human, everyone deserves protection, and everyone is capable of doing good and evil at different times and in different places.
GP didn't say "all Hindus" and they definitely didn't say "Hindus outside India", which is who you're talking about.
Your ancestors experienced "persecution of a minority" in their homelands, and that's what GP is also referring to. It is always wrong, no matter who the persecutor is and who the minority is. But it's possible for people of Group A to be the minority in one place and the persecutor in another. Sometimes it's the same individuals, because they want revenge. But often it's people saying "Well what we're doing isn't so bad, did you hear they do X bad thing to our people in other countries?" These are destructive patterns of thought - they corrode societies and nations. Focus on making the place where you live positive, happy, and peaceful instead of pointing fingers.
This comment thread is about India, so GP was talking about persecution of minorities there.
You're wrong in thinking that just because a community is a minority they must be subject to persecution there. That's not necessarily true. If that was the case then Muslim population in India wouldn't have gone up from 9% to 14%. Also Hindus are a majority in India but still Hindus of Indian Kashmir were ethnically cleansed.
Also why should the treatment of Hindu minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh shouldn't be up for discussion? All of these are part of the same historical narrative. Just because Muslims created a separate country and expelled most Hindus from there doesn't mean we should stop talking about it.
