EID AL-ADHA, also known as Bakrid, is the second most important festival for Muslims. The Festival of Sacrifice is a major Islamic holiday that honours Prophet Ibrahim’s (Abraham) unwavering faith in Allah, commemorating his willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail before Allah replaced him with a ram. Muslims, who can afford to do so, sacrifice an animal, such as a goat, sheep, cow, or camel. This serves as a physical and symbolic re-enactment of Prophet Ibrahim’s sacrifice. It is a profound spiritual occasion that highlights the spirit of sacrifice and sharing. The meat from the sacrificed animal is divided into three portions: one for the immediate family, one for relatives and friends, and one-third for the poor and needy. This underscores the Islamic pillars of empathy, charity, and community solidarity.
In recent years, Hindu festivals have increasingly been used to spread hate against Muslims. During this year’s Bakrid, Mumbai’s Muslim community faced significant challenges in offering ritual sacrifices despite existing municipal rules and a 2019 Bombay High Court order that allows sacrifices within residential premises, but not inside houses, under certain conditions. The permissions for three housing societies were withdrawn at the last minute, largely due to the intervention of politically connected individuals, including BJP state vice president Kirit Somaiya, along with Bajrang Dal and VHP activists. This led to public spectacle and media attention, fuelling outrage against Muslims.
Jyoti Punvani, a freelance journalist, in her article in Frontline, points out, “Every local and many national TV channels focussed on the story, repeatedly playing visuals of Muslims being forced to take their goats out of their housing societies. The result: the hounding of a community on its second most important religious festival became a public spectacle. Social media was awash with revulsion and outrage against Muslims, based as always on half-truths and hyperbole.” She tells us that in three Hindu-majority housing complexes, the sacrifice ritual has consistently been performed for years. In one such society, goats were kept inside the complex till Eid and then taken out for sacrifice at the designated place.
This year, a ruckus was created in one of the complexes in Mumbai’s Mira Road. In the Poonam Estate cluster, unnecessary and unwarranted communal tension was created on 25-26 May. As has been the annual practice, the animals were kept in a temporary shed inside the compound. Many Bajrang Dal and VHP workers created a ruckus, claiming that animals cannot be kept inside the complex. No rule was being violated. But police and municipal authorities sided with those creating tension. To cap it all, they brought pigs inside the compound to scare away the Muslims.
Usually, festivals are an occasion to spread peace and joy. But VHP-Bajrang Dal and company are not sparing even these occasions to stoke communal tension. India has a long history of celebrating the spirit of festivals together and associating with each other, cutting across religious boundaries. These incidents have created lots of tension. This type of tension is running parallel with the rise in communalism in society. Over the last few years, we have observed that Muslim youths were not permitted to participate in the Garba festival, particularly in Gujarat. Strict watch and checking of Aadhaar cards were done at the entrances to Garba pandals. While threatening warnings are being given against observing namaz on the road, the Muslim community has to face the brunt even during Hindu festivals.
At another level, we painfully observed that the Kanwar yatra, which stalks the streets without any rules being observed, food and fruit stall owners have been instructed to display the names of the owners. The idea is that participants of these yatras should not buy anything from Muslim hotels or fruit stalls. The ‘purity-pollution’ practices are being imposed with the help of state authorities.
Ram Navami and Krishna Janmashtami processions have changed their character drastically. In my childhood, I used to participate in these processions with joy and happiness as prasad was distributed to all the passersby. Many a Muslim group used to put up stalls to give Sharbat to those in the procession. Now there is an emerging pattern in these festivals: to pass via the route dominated by Muslims and to shout anti-Muslim slogans. Some enthusiasts dance and shout abusive slogans in front of mosques. And to cap it all, they climb on the top of the mosques to remove the green flag and hoist a saffron one.
Where this hate is taking us is a painful question. India has been the place of a syncretic culture. All aspects of our culture have benefited from the ‘other’ streams, respected those streams and enhanced the joy of community life. Festivals are an occasion of interaction, joy and relief from daily mundane life. Communalism is taking away this pleasant aspect of our life.
A recent study by Irfan Engineer and Neha Dabhade, ‘Weaponisation of Hindu festivals’ (Pharos, Delhi) is a detailed ground-level study on the issue and is an eye- opener about the dangers of misuse of our festivals. As communal hate is erecting the walls of hate, the lives of the Muslim community have come under more and more intimidation. This is undoubtedly a major problem in our society. This is an assault on the values of our Constitution and, in particular, on the core values of fraternity.
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Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and former professor of IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are the author’s personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
