THIS IS A BATTLE WE WILL WIN

With every passing day we see more and more cases of Indian Malaysians being denied their fundamental rights by those in power. Every visit to the HRP website (http://www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com/) shows us that the objective of bringing the working class Indian to the mainstream development of Malaysia, is not a small or easy undertaking. And these cases are just the tip of the iceberg.

While we go to the field and experience for ourselves the frustration and pain that are the constant companions of the poor Indian Malaysian; there will be times when we will question our ability to achieve what we have set out to do. Our numbers are small, we need to find our own resources and make do, we have no allies to speak off, and we have many enemies, not all of them readily visible.

But we will win this battle.

We have no choice but to succeed in what we have set out to do. And while the challenges may come to us thick and fast while we walk this path, while we may wonder how on God’s green earth we are going to turn around 52 years of government enforced marginalisation, while we experience first hand the racism that has been bred and entrenched into every sphere of Malaysian life, while we lie awake until dawn wondering what to do next, while we see the apathy of even friends and family, let alone strangers; come what may, we will win this battle.

Allow me to state why I know we will succeed. The answer lies in the forgotten pages of history, a history that tells us why our names are Hindu to this day. This has nothing to do with whether our ancestors were great or whatever, but everything to do with the knowledge that we have overcome greater threats before, threats that not only threatened the livelihood of Indians, but their very way of life, nay their very lives itself.

Imagine a force greater and more successful than that of Alexander the Great. A force that did not turn back at the Ganges as Alexander did, but one that was stopped only when it reached the River Krishna.

In modern India, the area south of the River Krishna covers parts of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, and all of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and that island we call Sri Lanka today.

When the threat posed by this force became evident to the ancient kingdoms that ruled that part of India in 1336, these ancient kingdoms of Pandiya and Chola pooled their strengths and gave that strength to a minor principality called Anegundi at the banks of the River Krishna, a dominion that became the empire we know today as Vijayanagar.

The defence of our way of life as we know it today, of our languages, our culture, and the religions we call Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism was a war that lasted not for one or ten years, but one that lasted 250 years.

The attack into India began in 1001 A.D and came to a halt in the year 1344 at Vijayanagar. Islam took over all of India north of the River Krishna, but for ten generations, mothers sent their sons into battle to defend and protect our way of life. And they succeeded, which is why our names are what they are.

The Buddhist kingdoms of Sri Lanka, and the Jains, Jews and atheists were also protected from forced conversion, and this defence allowed Hinduism to spread to the north again in later days. This defence ended in the year 1565. This defence also indirectly protected China from the sword of Islam, as the disappointed invaders at one time decided to change tack and sent 100,000 soldiers to invade China and bring it under Islam, only for this depleted force to lose its numbers to the Himalayas.

Our forefathers had the knowledge of warfare, of politics, of forethought, the capacity to sacrifice for the greater good, of sticking to the mission for generation after generation, and the strength of character to never give up or surrender.

At one point in time their soldiers numbered 1.1 million, and this was 700 years ago, and if we compare that number to the largest standing army today, of 2 million, that China has, we see the magnitude of the resolve that we have running in the blood that we call ours.

We will succeed. Failure in not an option. Easy is not an option.

The needs that brought those 100,000 souls to the streets on the 25th of November, and the countless others that could not be there has not been met yet, and do we have a choice other than to keep on going until those needs are met? You tell me.

Jeevindra Kumar Krishnan

Human Rights Party Malaysia