New Pretext for Orchestrating Communal Violence

Communal violence has been the bane of Indian politics. It has been over a century old. The violence is generally a planned one; according to most scholars of this phenomenon. This violence is followed by rise of communal polarisation. Scholars have also opined that “riots produce ethnic polarization that benefits ethno-religious parties at the expense of the Congress”. They maintain that while Hindu-Muslim riots are electorally costly for the Congress, these riots in effect strengthen the “ethno-religious parties at the expense of multi-ethnic ones like the Congress”. True to this observation more and more pretexts are generated to instigate violence and to reap its electoral benefits.

The new pretexts continue to be added on to the long list, loud music in front of the mosque, throwing beef in temples and spreading rumours which have been central to the hate spreading phenomenon. To this has been added the demonisation of Muslim kings, temple destructions by them, spreading Islam by sword, their large families being threat of Hindus becoming minority in this country, were added to the hate creation mechanisms. The past few decades have also seen the addition of cow, beef eating, ‘love jihad’, many other ‘jihads’, the most important being ‘Corona Jihad, Land jihad’ and the latest being ‘Paper leak Jihad’.

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All this one recalls as currently the country is seeing violence constructed around an innocuous slogan “I love Muhammad”. It began from Kanpur when on Milad-un- Nabi, the procession celebrating the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, some people objected to the banner ‘I love Muhammad’ on the ground that a new tradition is being added to the religious festival.

A section of the police accepted this argument and filed FIRs (first information reports) against those carrying such posters. This is in total violation to the norms that a peaceful procession, expressing their respect for the prophet, is not a violation of any norm. The violence around this spread in many districts of Uttar Pradesh.

The Kanpur incident was the first one and it saw a repeat in Bareilly, Barabanki, and Mau district in UP, and in Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand, and many other places. In turn, poster-tearing and violence followed and the atmosphere was vitiated.

As per documentation of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), FIRs related to ‘I Love Muhammad’ are as follows: 21 FIRS, affecting 1,324 people and 38 arrests. In Bareilly, the internet was suspended for a few days and a local Muslim leader, Maulana Taukeer Raza Khan, was put under house arrest for a week. He alleged that Muslims were being harassed indiscriminately. He had called for submitting a memorandum on the Kanpur incident. In this, he himself did not turn up creating mayhem. This irresponsible act led to the arrest of many Muslims.

This whole sequence of events also brought forward the inherent hate against Muslims. As happens most of the time, the top communal leaders give dog whistles that trigger the communal elements to intensify their hate campaign, leading to violence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi time and again has been doing it regularly, mostly around election time. This time round, their (Bharatiya Janata Party) campaign is bringing to the fore the word ‘ghuspaithiye’ (Infiltrators). This phenomenon has become the curse for Muslims in Bihar and Assam in particular. This is one justification for the dreaded SIR (Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls), planned to be taken to the whole country after Bihar, where over 47 lakh voters disenfranchised.

This time round, UP, where maximum communal incidents have taken place, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath came out with statements that don’t suit his office. He stated that he would ‘give tickets to hell’ to those dreaming of raising the ‘Gazwa-E-Hind’ slogan.

From where does this ‘Gazwa-e- Hind’ come in here? Indian Muslims, a section of them have been raising an innocuous “I love Muhammad” slogan, not Gazwa…. This slogan of Gazwa has been used by Taliban types and the Hindu Right wing is accusing the whole Muslim community for this. As such, Gazwa-a-Hind does not find any place in the Quran. In one of the doubtful hadees, this word figures but Hind here is referring to Basra not India. There are many hot heads in Pakistan who claim that every war against India is Gazwa…

Yogi further stated that “I love Muhammad’ posters are being used to instil anarchy. He asked Hindus to stay alert against anti-Hindu and anti-national activities… (Indian Express, Mumbai Edition, September 29, page 6). This is a worst example of creating ill feelings against India’s largest minority. How can this slogan create anarchy? How this slogan is anti-national is beyond comprehension. His statements defy democratic norms that give us the right to express our sentiments in a peaceful manner.

The whole episode of ‘I love Muhammad’ is further worsening the intimidation and marginalisation of Muslims. Such a display of affection for one’s Prophet comes very much within the democratic expression of speech. As some Taliban type elements in Pakistan claim that every confrontation with India is Gazwa…, here our Prime Minister is taking these matters in a similar direction. After India’s victory over Pakistan in cricket, he said this was an extension of Operation Sindoor.

In this situation. how does the Muslim community respond? Bringing out such peaceful processions is totally normal in contrast to the Ram Navami procession with DJs playing loud music and putting a saffron flag over mosques! Some of our Hindu festivals are being weaponised!

Irfan Engineer and Neha Dabhade’s book, Weaponization of Hindu Festivals, in their ground-level investigation show us that Ram Navami processions in particular are being used to create nuisance around mosques and Muslim majority areas. The obverse of this is to demonise Muslim festivals. Milad-un-Nabi with ‘I Love Muhammad’ is one such painful example.

Such hateful responses to Muslim festivals, as seen lately, add to the partitions of the hearts, the polarisation of the community and undermining of the very values of our fraternity, an integral part of the Indian Constitution. Also, the type of statements being made by the UP Chief Minister totally defy constitutional morality. The Muslim community needs to be realistic and avoid giving any pretext to Hindu communal elements to pounce upon them or to demonise them further.

The writer is a human rights activist, who taught at IIT Bombay. The views are personal.