Muslims in India have been feeling under threat since partition and specifically since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power in 2014. But in the past year, hostility towards this community became even more overt. Today, far-right Hindu nationalists, with the support and at times encouragement of the government and local authorities, are making it clear to Muslims that they are no longer seen as equal citizens in their own country and are no longer protected by their basic human rights.
The deadliest communal violence in decades has jolted India and the riots starting from Delhi and now across the country bear some hallmarks of an organized pogrom, Muslims being particularly vulnerable.
Muslims are experiencing increased discrimination in areas including employment, education (the current Hijab Row and Muslim students not being admitted in universities and colleges). Many encounter barriers to achieving political power and wealth, and lack of access to health care and basic services. Moreover, they are struggling to secure justice despite constitutional protections. Recently, Hindu nationalist leaders called on followers to take up arms against the country’s Muslim minority. On January 1, photographs of over 100 Muslim women appeared on an application called Bulli Bai, with the claim that they were “for sale as maids”. On the last day of 2021, a leading national daily ran an overtly Islamophobic advertisement which was funded by the Government of Uttar Pradesh. Furthermore, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is being weaponized to express masculinity and coercion. Moreover, videos are showing young Muslim men being hit by a Hindu mob, and the cops are asking the fallen and beaten Muslim men to sing the national anthem as they’re being hit. This majoritarian violence is slowly tearing India apart as human rights are being denied to Muslims, about which Mohammad Ali Jinnah said in Chittagong on March 26, 1948:
“We fought for Pakistan because there was a danger of denial of these human rights in this subcontinent”.
Author: Shiza Safdar
Student of IR at National Defence University