Indian NSA Doval Urges Young Hindus to Take Revenge on Muslims

by Riaz Haq

Jan 14

In a recent speech to young Hindus in New Delhi, the Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval urged his audience to "avenge history". He talked about the looting and destruction of Hindu temples and many centuries humiliation suffered by Indians. Though he did not specifically say it, there was no doubt in the minds of his audience that he was talking about invaders like Mahmud of Ghazni, an Afghan Muslim ruler, who is said to have destroyed a Hindu temple in Somnath.

Indian Prime Minister Modi (Left) with NSA Ajit Doval

Anti-Muslim rhetoric like Doval’s has made Indian Muslims fear for their lives. It has also put India among top countries with greatest likelihood of mass atrocities, and raised security concerns among India’s neighbors. In its latest warning, the US Holocaust Museum has put three countries scoring higher than India. Myanmar holds the top spot, followed by Chad and Sudan. However, many high-ranking nations including Myanmar and Sudan are already dealing with ongoing mass killings, making India’s position particularly noteworthy as a potential new flashpoint.

For those interested in real history, it is important to understand that eminent Hindu Indian historian Romila Thapar has rejected the Hindu-Muslim framing of the destruction of Somnath. In her book "Somatha", she challenges the simplified story of purely Hindu victims and Muslim invaders, focusing on local Indian sources such as inscriptions, merchant biographies and court epics to reconstruct events. Other sources indicate that several Hindus, including Hindu generals, were part of Ghaznavi's army.  Some sources also cite that Arab Muslim traders who had settled in Gujarat during the 8th and 9th century died to protect the Somnath temple against Ghaznavi's Army.

Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, demonized by Hindu Nationalists, employed several high-ranking Hindu generals, most notably Raja Jai Singh I (of Amber) and Maharaja Jaswant Singh (of Marwar), who served as powerful mansabdars (military commanders) and held significant administrative posts, commanding large forces and participating in key campaigns against rivals like Shivaji Maharaj and Dara Shikoh. 

Shivaji Maharaj, held by the Hindu Nationalists as an icon of Hindu resistance against Muslims, was crowned as the king despite opposition from local Brahmins. He had several Muslim generals in his army. In fact, he employed people of all castes and religions, including Muslims.

Hindu kings often attacked and looted temples built by other Hindu kings for the wealth stored inside the idols. Just three years before Ghaznavi's raid on Somnath in 1022,  a general under Rajendra I, Maharaja of the Chola empire (848–1279) marched 1,600 kilometers north from the Cholas’ royal capital of Tanjavur. Chola warriors defeated Mahipala, maharaja of the Pala empire (c.750–1161), who was the dominant power in India’s easternmost region of Bengal. The Chola's celebrated their victory by carrying off a bronze image of the deity Shiva, which they seized from a royal temple that Mahipala had patronized. In the course of this long campaign, the invaders also took from the Kalinga Raja of Orissa images of Bhairava, Bhairavi and Kali. These, together with precious gems looted from the Pala king, were taken down to the Chola capital as war booty.  This raises the question: Why is Mahmud Ghaznavi demonized but not Rajendra Chola's plunder of Hindu temples?

The real history contradicts Doval's assertion that Hindus have never invaded others, ignoring the fact that an unprecedented number of people were killed in the Kalinga massacre by emperor Ashoka. He also did not mention how the Buddhist and Jain temples were destroyed and Hindu temples built on  their ruins. nor did he acknowledge the long-running and ongoing oppression of Hindus  by Hindus in the name of caste. 

Ajit Doval does not appear to be a serious man worthy of holding the sensitive office of India's national security advisor. He has no sense of history, nor does he understand how damaging his speech is for a diverse country like India. By parroting the divisive Hindutva narrative, Doval has alienated not only Indian Muslims but also India's neighbors. He is a total failure. India's failed national security policy is hurting India and Indians more than anyone else. 

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  • Riaz Haq

    India Is the 3rd Largest Economy, So Why Does It Still Feel Weak? | The Quint

    https://youtu.be/jx7JP0oU57A?si=rFanZkyQ0fanv1zx

    India just posted a stunning 8.2% GDP growth number. At the same time, the rupee slid sharply and interest rates were cut.
    Economists argued. Politicians celebrated. Twitter exploded.
    But here’s the uncomfortable question: do these numbers actually reflect economic strength?
    This video breaks down why GDP, the number we obsess over the most, is a deeply imperfect measure. It’s an estimate, not a hard fact. It can rise even when real lives don’t improve. And it often distracts us from what actually matters.
    Instead of debating whether GDP is ‘real’ or ‘cooked’, this conversation looks at something more tangible: economic muscle. Not slogans. Not rankings. Real capacity.
    Things like:
    – How much countries invest in AI infrastructure
    – Industrial automation and robots
    – Data centres and ports
    – Steel production
    – Stock markets and global companies
    When India is compared not to the US or China, but to its real peers — Japan, Germany, the UK, and South Korea — a more honest picture emerges.
    India is clearly entering the game. In some areas, it’s doing impressively well. In others, it’s still far behind. And simply overtaking countries in GDP size doesn’t automatically make India stronger, richer, or more resilient.
    This video isn’t about optimism or pessimism.
    It’s about realism.

    From exposing misinformation to delivering impactful human rights reporting, our newsroom has relentlessly pursued stories that drive change. We remain committed to asking the tough questions — and we'd love for you to be a part of our journey.

    -------------

    Christopher Clary
    @clary_co
    I've tried to think a bit about the meaning of Modi's Naya Bharat branding effort and wound up with some overlapping conclusions with Dhume. Here is an excerpt from a forthcoming academic article, entitled "Hindu Nationalism, Akhand Bharat, and Foreign Perceptions of India."

    https://x.com/clary_co/status/2012345251781099817?s=20

    ---------------


    Sadanand Dhume
    @dhume
    Over more than a decade, India has cultivated a self-congratulatory tone in foreign policy—basically the opposite of hide your strength, bide your time—but a series of brutal reality checks over the past year has exposed the limits of Indian economic, technological, and military power.
    Shouting $4T economy at the top of your lungs every five minutes means little when you face a hostile $20T economy at your doorstep, and a $30T superpower with only one question: What have you done for me lately?
    Personally, I doubt that the hubris can be dialed down. It has become too deeply entwined with domestic politics. Nobody is going to win an election by saying, “actually, you know what, nobody sees us as Vishwaguru. India is a middle power in a rough neighborhood, and in some ways less secure than it was three decades ago.”

    https://x.com/dhume/status/2012171714872918154?s=20

    Jan 16

  • Riaz Haq

    @muzamil_45

    We are seeing that Pakistan’s importance in the world is increasing.
    Now, people are not talking negatively about Pakistan, but positively.

    For Pakistan, words like “net security provider” (security provider) and “peace guarantor” (guarantor of peace) are now being used, which is a major change.


    https://x.com/muzamil_45/status/2014674184962797727?s=61&t=mgTx...

    Jan 23

  • Riaz Haq

    Social media platforms spread hate music in India despite policy violations, new report says | PBS News

    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/social-media-platforms-spread-ha...

    Yogi Adityanath's face fills the screen before a single lyric is sung. The Hindu monk-turned-politician, who governs India's most populous state, is pictured as dramatic music swells beneath images of cows, saffron flags and Hindu nationalist iconography. Then comes the threat.

    In "Gau Mata" ("Mother Cow") posted on YouTube, singer Biru Kataria warns India's Muslims that anyone who slaughters a cow will be hunted down, burned alive and cut to pieces. The song repeatedly uses the slur "katwein," a derogatory reference to circumcision, to describe Muslims.

    Adityanath is among the most recognizable faces of India's Hindu nationalist movement. He has championed aggressive cow-protection policies as cow vigilantism, where mobs attack people they accuse of slaughtering cows, considered sacred by Hindus, has been linked to the killings and lynchings of dozens of Muslims. Today, multiple versions of this track remain available on YouTube, and it has been used to create more than 40,000 Instagram reels.

    In India, music engineered to dehumanize religious minorities reaches hundreds of millions of listeners, delivered by big tech companies across popular social media platforms. Known as Hindutva pop, or H-Pop, the genre is rooted in Hindu nationalist ideology, a far-right supremacist belief that India is fundamentally a Hindu nation whose culture, politics and public life should be defined by its Hindu majority. Across hundreds of songs, India's Muslims and Christians are portrayed as enemies, invaders, traitors, demographic threats and legitimate targets of violence.

    A new report by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a Washington-based research organization, argues that this ecosystem of hate music is being hosted, amplified and monetized by four of the world's largest digital platforms: YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and Meta.

    The report, "Profiting From Hate Music," documents what researchers describe as the first comprehensive mapping of hate music across India's digital landscape. It identifies 523 songs that promote hatred, dehumanization, conspiracy theories or violence against religious minorities, primarily Muslims and Christians, in violation of platforms' content policies.

    To test how and whether platforms were enforcing their rules on hateful or violent content, researchers reported a sample of 225 songs using the companies' own moderation systems. Only 18 were removed. More than 90% percent of flagged songs stayed online.

    "Even after reporting the content, most of it is still up after six or seven months, and it's not only up, it's still running advertisements," said Tavishi Ahluwalia, a researcher specializing in digital harms and extremism who worked with CSOH on the report.

    Nearly half of the songs analyzed by researchers contained direct threats of violence or explicit incitement against religious minorities, a large number of them (104) hosted by YouTube.


    https://www.csohate.org/2026/06/15/profiting-from-hate-music/

    11 hours ago