COMMUNAL violence has been the bane of Indian politics for over a century. Many observers believe that communal violence is often pre-planned, exacerbating polarisation. This phenomenon further deepens with every violence incident. Experts have also opined that “riots produce ethnic polarisation that benefits ethno-religious parties at the expense of the Congress”. They also maintain that Hindu-Muslim riots are electorally harmful for 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; playing of loud music near mosques, throwing beef in temples and spreading rumours have been central to the hate spreading phenomenon. To this has been added demonisation of Muslim kings, destruction of temples by them, allegations of spread of Islam by sword, their large families constituting a threat thereby reducing the Hindu population making them a minority in the country. 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’.
Currently the country is witnessing violence constructed around an innocuous slogan “I love Muhammad”. It began with unfortunate events in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh when on Eid 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 was in total violation of the norms and the resultant violence spread in many districts of Uttar Pradesh and beyond.
Echoes of the Kanpur incident were heard in Bareilly, Barabanki, and Mau districts in UP, and in Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar districts of Uttarakhand, and many other places. In turn, poster-tearing and violence followed and the atmosphere got vitiated.
The date collected by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) shows the action related to ‘I Love Muhammad’ protests are: 21 FIRS, affecting 1,324 people and 38 arrests. In Bareilly, the internet was suspended for a few days and influential Muslim cleric, Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, was put under house arrest for a week and Muslims were harassed indiscriminately.
This whole sequence of events also brought forward the inherent hate against the community. As happens most of the time, vocal communal leaders unabashedly blow dog whistles that trigger communal elements to intensify their hate campaign, leading to violence.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been doing it time and again, mostly around election time. This time round, their (Bharatiya Janata Party) campaign is bringing to the fore the word ‘ghus paithiye’ (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 across the whole country after Bihar, where over 47 lakh voters were disenfranchised.
This time round, Uttar Pradesh, where a maximum number of communal incidents have taken place, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has issued statements which surely are not compatible with the constitutional post he occupies. He stated that he would ‘give tickets to hell’ to those dreaming of raising the ‘Ghazwa-E-Hind’ slogan.
From where does this ‘Ghazwa-e- Hind’ come in here? Indian Muslims, a section of them have been raising an innocuous “I love Muhammad” slogan, not Ghazwa…. The term Ghazwa has been used by Taliban-type groups, and the Hindu right-wing is accusing the entire Muslim community of promoting it. As such, Ghazwa-a-Hind does not find any place in the Quran. In a weak Hadith, the word is mentioned but Hind here is referring to Basra not India. There are many hot heads in Pakistan also who claim that every war against India is Ghazwa…
Yogi further stated that “I love Muhammad’ posters are being used to create anarchy. He asked Hindus to stay alert against anti-Hindu and anti-national activities… (The Indian Express, Mumbai edition, September 29, page 6). This is a worst example of creating ill feelings against India’s largest minority. It is unclear how this slogan could create anarchy or be considered anti-national. 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 Ghazwa…, here our prime minister is taking these matters in a similar direction. After India’s recent victory over Pakistan in Asia Cup, 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. The processions were in direct contrast to the Ram Navami processions 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, Weaponisation of Hindu Festivals, has their ground-level investigation showing 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. Eid Milad-un Nabi with ‘I Love Muhammad’ signboards 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 Uttar Pradesh 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.
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Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and a former professor at IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are author’s personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
