Deteriorating conditions of Indian Muslims

Progressive thinkers including myself used to criticise the partition project on the basis of religion and  romanticise the secular nature of the Indian constitution which bestows equal rights to its subjects irrespective of caste, creed, and religion.

However, since Modi’s assertion to the throne, we were all proved wrong and Jinnah finally won after 70 long years. We need to understand the deteriorating conditions of Indian Muslims from different dimensions and angles. This includes violence against Indian Muslims, portrayal in the media, and its relations with Modi and imposition of RSS-inspired Hindutva.

With the demolition of Babri Masjid, a new phase of violence against Indian Muslims started in 1992. The rise of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) marginalised the 200-million strong Muslim minority. BJP, a political manifestation of RSS and Hindutva, treats Indian Muslims as invaders and a different community.

After partition, the first notable communal violence occurred in Jabalpur in 1962 killing 55 but the score is said to be around 200. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Congress party also engineered communal riots in Ahmadabad in 1969. According to the official numbers, 660 people died in the riots in which 430 were Muslims and 25 were Hindus. According to some other accounts, the numbers exceeded more than 200, mostly Muslims.

During the 1970s Bhiwandi communal riots, 400 casualties were recorded predominantly Muslims. After winning elections in 1977, the newly-formed Janata party which later transformed into Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed government. Under their watch scores of communal riots occurred from 1978 onwards. These riots happened in Varanasi, Jamshedpur, and Aligarh engineered by RSS.

As stated earlier, BJP was the main driving force behind the Babri Masjid demolition. Scores of riots happened under their watch. After the demolition of the mosque, a series of communal riots occurred in Ahmedabad, Surat, Delhi, Kanpur, and Bombay. The then chief minister of Gujarat, and incumbent Indian premier Narendra Modi, and his party BJP were the main driving force behind the bloodletting of Muslims in 2002. Thousands of Muslims were butchered, houses torched and women were raped. 

The violence against Indian Muslims is not just communal and physical but economic and political as well. The Sachar committee was formed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ascertain the socio-economic conditions of Indian Muslims. According to the committee’s findings, the economic, social and political conditions of Indian Muslins were far worse than other communities of India and this was done systematically by state institutions. 

BJP is passing laws one after another from parliament such as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) which discriminate against Muslims. Protests against these laws erupted nationwide and the BJP government dealt with an iron hand.

During the recent visit of President Trump to India, the engineered riots and violence against Muslims in Delhi claimed the lives of more than 50 Muslims. This is another manifestation of systematic marginalization and targeting of one community on the basis of their religion.