Growing Islamophobia in India

Modi in his decade of being at the helm of affairs has spewed so much venom against Muslims in India that life has become unbearable for the largest minority living in the country. His acolyte Yogi Aditya Nath as chief minister of the largest province, the United Province dutifully follows the venomous anti-Muslim actions devised by Modi and his BJP regime.

Though Modi hails from Gujrat but he has deliberately chosen Varanasi, an ancient city of temples and gods that is known as the spiritual capital of India, as his constituency stamping his rabid Hindu nationalism. During the recent national elections tensions between Hindus and Muslims have escalated with Muslims raising fears with trepidation in their statements. They express apprehension that Hindu-nationalist right wing is no more hiding their hatred of Muslims that is highly troublesome.

Ten years after Modi’s ascension, Muslims feel neglected, even betrayed, especially now as centuries old-mosques have become a flashpoint. The Muslims feel that BJP government has failed to protect them and feel increasingly vulnerable and fearful of hate crimes against them. They opine that Modi’s re-election will be a worst development as he will act with virtual impunity against minority communities. Modi’s BJP has its roots in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing paramilitary organisation that advocates Hindu supremacy within India. The obvious outcome is that religious polarisation has increased manifold in India.

It is reported that Hindu nationalists have been given top government positions with the power to make sweeping changes in legislation that human rights groups insist unfairly target Muslims. Hindu nationalists have vastly altered textbooks downplaying the contribution made by Muslim rulers with names of cities and towns named by Muslims rulers changed irrespective of their demoralising effect on Muslims as well as distorting history. Moreover, properties owned by Muslims have been forcibly demolished and this action is termed as awarding punishment to Muslims for allegedly causing riots without realising that such atrocities are bound to cause reaction. Modi removed the special autonomy given to Jammu and Kashmir against the will of its majority Muslim population that is consistently protesting against this travesty.

To make matters worse Modi regime passed a controversial citizenship law that excludes Muslim migrants that resulted in deadly riots across the country particularly in Delhi where police did not register complaints of the victims of the riots. These riots were described as the worst communal violence in India where majority of the dead were Muslims. It is a pity that these riots were widely highlighted by international media but no concrete action was taken by the international community. The matters are reportedly gone worse as such incidents are a daily occurrence all over India that has fundamentally altered the lives of Indian Muslims. Police routinely treats Muslims harshly and did not hold extremist Hindus who wrote ‘Jai Shree Ram’ on the walls of a mosque in Gujrat known as the stronghold of Modi. In an outrageous incident a railway police officer opened fire on a moving train killing three Muslims.

Hate speech against Muslims has risen dramatically that have been documented by a Washington based research group that pointed out 668 such cases in 2023. BJP politicians routinely spew venom against Muslims with one of them, T. Raja Singh, stating that if Muslims take one Hindu girl, the Hindus will take ten of theirs threatening that instead of circumcision Hindus will cut Muslims fully. It is generally believed that lack of credible punishment for vitriolic hate speech has provided tacit support to Hindu extremists.

It is widely known that many international human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and International Federation for Human Rights have warned of continued discrimination against minorities particularly Muslims since Modi came to power. These organisations have consistently impressed upon Indian government to rectify the matters but to no avail. The discrimination against Muslims is so evident that BJP being a national-level party does not have a single Muslim legislature.

Modi is strident as ever as is evident by his statement given while campaigning in Rajasthan in which he termed Muslims as infiltrators echoing the BJP rhetoric that Muslims are displacing Hindu population as they have large families and their birth rate is higher than Hindus. This statement caused widespread uproar in the country making Modi to sheepishly yet wrongly clarify that he was mentioning undocumented migrants.

The latest outrage centres around the Gyanvapi Mosque built in 17th century by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb who is roundly detested by Hindu nationalists. The Hindus claim that the mosque was built on a temple devoted to Lord Shiva that was destroyed for building this mosque. Hindu nationalists are claiming that many places of worship of Muslims were built on temples and they are claiming them back further exacerbating the tense relations between both the communities. Modi actually added fuel to fire particularly when he inaugurated with plenty of fanfare a temple built on the site that was formerly known as Babri Mosque in 1992. Many observers believe that this single incident was the death knell for secularism in India.