Mumbai-based Bebaak Collective has described the recent surge in hate towards Muslims and the consequent attacks against them in different parts of the country as an attempt by the Hindu nationalists to erase and undo every aspect of the life of Indian Muslims. A press statement issued by the Collective has been signed by several activists, journalists, academics, filmmakers and civil society organisations.
The statement has also questioned the “complicity of the police” during recent instances of communal violence. “…[T]hey have chosen to let the violence play out and actively targeted Muslim youth with arrests, while the perpetrators are free,” the statement alleged.
Reproduced below is the full statement.
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Hindu Religious Festivals: An Excuse to Unleash Social Terror Upon the Muslim Community
The pattern of Ram Navami processions becoming occasions for display of Islamophobic bigotry, followed by anti-Muslim violence, is being witnessed in at least nine states; including Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, New Delhi, Goa, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Bihar.
“Jai Shree Ram” slogans were chanted in front of mosques by sword wielding crowds waving saffron flags. The processions taken out in Muslim neighbourhoods were embellished with songs played on loudspeakers, the lyrics to which called for violence towards the Muslim community. All these provocations let to vandalisation of mosques and Muslim owned shops and buildings. In a separate but connected incident, ABVP goons attacked students and hostel staff in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for protesting against ABVP’s demand that non vegetarian food not be served in the hostel.
These incidents are a testament to the politically engineered social hatred of right wing organizations like RSS and Bajrang Dal, reproduced to inflict violence on Muslims. The Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Kapil Mishra, who was central in inciting the pogrom at North East Delhi, was also present in the Ram Navami procession in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, where shops were demolished and at least 10 houses were burnt down. The complicity of the police has been a constant theme, where they have chosen to let the violence play out and actively targeted Muslim youth with arrests, while the perpetrators are free.
In Khargone, houses of families of those who were falsely accused were demolished in Chandni Chowk and Khaskhaswadi Mohalla, acting out an archaic idea of collective punishment.
As many have pointed out, the Ram Navami processions and the following violence, had the same modus operandi across states. A yatra “celebrating” Ram Navami is carried out through areas with a significant Muslim population. The crowd then stops outside a mosque to raise communal slogans, while the DJ plays music with provocative lyrics calling for violence against Muslims, destruction of mosques and religious wars. Amidst all this, a stone pelting incident is reported, the perpetrators of which are always unidentified people. This orchestrated aggravation is enough for the mob to “turn violent”, attacking and vandalising mosques, as well as Muslim owned shops and houses with weapons and torches, as the police personnel look on. One can’t help but question why the crowd was armed with weapons and swords, and how the police failed to take notice of both the actions of the crowd and the patterned as well as planned nature of the violence.
These processions are not isolated instances that took place in a vacuum. These series of events on the day of the Ram Navami violence were preceded by attacks on Muslim vendors in Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, students wearing hijab being denied the right to sit in classrooms and appear for exams, saffron flags being hoisted upon mosques in Uttar Pradesh, calls given for boycott of halal meat, Muslim vendors being excluded from participating in temple fairs in Karnataka, the supposed ‘meat ban’ being enacted in south Delhi which severely affected Muslim meat sellers, and religious leaders like Bajrang Muni Udasin publicly putting out calls for sexual violence against Muslim women.
These incidents need to be looked at within a wider pattern of concerted attempts to erase, demolish, attack and transform visible symbols and practices of religious coexistence. The Hindu nationalist suspicion towards Muslims as true citizens and patriots, a narrative which came up constantly during the anti-CAA-NRC movement, has devolved into a cultural assertion against the very existence of Muslims. Every aspect of the life of Indian Muslims is being undone and attempted to be destroyed by majoritarian violence.
The idea of ‘Hindus in danger’ has become the mobilising cry for anti-Muslim violence. Cultural moments are defined by their potential to instill and invoke majoritarian violence and hatred. Given that we as Indian Muslims are facing economic boycotts, being publicly lynched, having our houses and shops burned down, witnessing the criminalisation of our existence, and facing persecution on multiple fronts; are Hindus really in danger?
Signatories: Several individuals and organisations.
(For full list of signatories, see The Wire website. Courtesy: The Wire.)
