Hindutva violence

Incidents illustrate how deep anti-Muslim sentiment and fear of Hindutva terrorism run in Indian society

There was another incident of Hindutva violence in India last week, when at least 40 houses belonging to Muslim families were torched in Karauli, Rajasthan. The incident occurred hours after communal violence was reported in a nearby market area with mostly Muslim-owned shops. A Hindu group that took out a ‘motorcycle rally’ in the area was reportedly pelted with stones, leading to violent exchanges in which several shops were also damaged. Some reports suggest the rally was deliberately planned to pass through the area as a way to annoy and harass local Muslims. There were also allegations that the police looked the other way until top officials intervened.

While the Congress-led state government did make efforts to try and subdue the situation and actually made several arrests, with 13 people eventually booked, it was not enough to stop BJP and RSS leaders from making more threatening statements. This is hardly surprising, considering that even the threat of prison has failed to tone down hatemongering priest Yati Narsinghan, who in a weekend speech in Delhi called on Hindus to take up arms against Muslims. Narsinghan was booked, but not arrested, even though he is already on bail in a case relating to similar calls to attack Muslims. The same was the case for several other hatemongers at the same event. Despite the large number of speakers facing charges for previous hate speech offences and the event not being authorised by local authorities, no arrests were made, not even for the attacks on journalists who had gone there to report on the event.

These incidents are also illustrative of how deep anti-Muslim sentiment and fear of Hindutva terrorism run in Indian society. Even the police are unwilling to act unless pushed into action by the political leadership. Unfortunately, good elected leadership is also hard to find, with the BJP and its hateful allies dominating in the Centre and most Indian states, allowing Hindutva mobs a free hand to attack Muslims and other minorities. With more incidents of Hindutva attacks being reported and going unpunished in areas that are not controlled by the BJP or other extremist parties, the situation is threatening to get much worse.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2022.

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