In an exclusive interview with The Australia Today, Associate Professor with The University of Sydney, Salvatore Babones, spoke about his latest report ‘Unholy Alliance: Inside the Campaign to Pry India from the West’.
Prof Babones said that international Christian missionaries align with international Islamists strategically to build a negative narrative against India because they view the Indian state and more broadly Hindu society as a shared opponent. However, he emphasised that it is not Indian Muslims or Indian Christians who are part of this agenda.
WATCH VIDEO: Prof Salvatore Babones discussing the ‘unholy alliance’ against India with Dr Amit Sarwal and Pallavi Jain
According to a Pew survey cited by Prof Babones, 98% of Indian Christian and 97% of Indian Muslim respondents said that they are free to practice their religion in India today.
The same survey also asked their respondents how important it was for them to respect India and how proud they felt being an Indian. The results while not surprising for Indians, might have come as a shocker for anti-India narrative peddlers.
To summarise 98% of Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, 100% of Buddhists and 97% of Jains said that respecting India was important to them. Similarly 99% of Hindus and Muslims, 98% of Christians, 97% of Sikhs and Buddhists and 100% of Jains said that they are proud to be Indian.
Screenshot of questions used in the Pew survey conducted in India PF_06.29.21_India_topline.pdf (pewforum.org)
Prof Babones’s report also suggests that anti-semitic and anti-Israel tool kits are being used by similar set of players for creating anti-Hindu and anti-India narratives. There is also evidence to indicate that this bigotry towards India and Hindus is then given intellectual cover by certain other actors.