Hence, in a pro-active move, on July 2, 2026, a delegation representing ‘Mumbai for Peace’ and 24 other civil society organizations visited the Office of the Police Commissioner to submit a detailed memorandum regarding the proposed event on Sunday. The delegation also highlighted that individuals, specifically identifying Ankit Yadav—a resident of Golibar, Santacruz—and his associates, have been regularly engaging in questionable (read criminal) and hate-filled activities that pose a severe threat to the city’s law and order.

The memorandum details how these groups have been breaking in at prayer venues and using social media to disseminate false propaganda against peaceful Christian religious assemblies. These actions have included making unfounded allegations of “black magic” against members of the Christian community, which the delegation argues have led to unnecessary police pressure and the filing of cases against the very pastors and religious heads whose services were targeted. In criminal law, such actions amount, among other things to criminal trespass. The memorandum dated July 2, 2026 may be read below:

The imminent threat in Vakola

The primary concern necessitating the July 2, 2026 meeting was an inflammatory call to action circulating on social media under the banner of “Sakal Hindu Samaj”. The poster alleges that illegal religious conversions are taking place in Vakola (Gamdevi) and demands strict legal action against four unnamed pastors by July 4, 2026. It is such unfounded and misguided provocations that have been consistently indulged in by this and other outfits, often unchecked by the police and administration.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaNcKWoIjHl/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

The content of the poster explicitly states that if these demands are not met by the police, the group intends to assemble on Sunday, July 5, 2026, in Santacruz East to sit directly in front of a Christian prayer assembly and perform a recitation of the Hanuman Chalisa. The message characterises the potential disturbance of law and order as the responsibility of the Vakola Police Station, a framing that the delegation has explicitly labelled as criminal intimidation intended to provoke communal tension.

Background

According to the memorandum submitted by the organisations, every Sunday, groups of anti-social elements allegedly target peaceful assemblies of followers of Jesus Christ. They are accused of criminally trespassing into places of worship, assaulting and threatening those present, and creating disturbances outside police stations. The representation states that these individuals, allegedly associated with the Bajrang Dal form groups arrive in large numbers, creating law-and-order situations, and that Ankit Yadav and his associates (Manojkumar Sarva, Abhishek Omprakash Tiwari, Dhananjay Dubey, Mehul Khokardiya, Harsh Pathak, Pradeep Mishra, Aditya Upadhyay and others) allegedly raise communal slogans outside police stations as part of a planned campaign. It further alleges that they circulate videos on social media containing false and baseless allegations against Christians, with the aim of spreading hatred and communal tensions. The memorandum also claims that these groups routinely approach police stations alleging, without basis, that their religious sentiments have been hurt and that Christian pastors are practising black magic. As a result of the pressure created by these incidents and the resulting law-and-order concerns, the representation alleges that the police have, in several instances, registered cases against pastors under the provisions of the Black Magic Act and for offences relating to hurting religious sentiments.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/DaL2INlM-Yg/

Recent incidents highlighting a pattern of disruption and intimidation

The detailed memorandum submitted to the authorities yesterday also highlighted recent incidents that reveal a clear and alarming pattern of organised disruption and intimidation directed at the Christian community. These recurring events demonstrate how anti-social elements systematically target peaceful gatherings to create communal instability. Some of these recent incidents include the following:

• Attack on a peaceful Christian assembly in Vasai (June 12, 2026): On June 12, 2026, Ankit Yadav and members of his group allegedly travelled from Santacruz to Vasai and attacked a peaceful Christian assembly being held at Dheeraj Complex, Second Floor, Evershine, Vasai East, within the jurisdiction of Achole Police Station. They allegedly forcefully entered the hall, assaulted those present, and created a law and order situation. In connection with the incident, Achole Police Station registered FIR No. 202 of 2026 against “unknown members of Bajrang Dal” under Sections 118(1), 189(2), 190, 191(2), 351(2), and 352 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023. However, despite CCTV footage reportedly showing Ankit Yadav and his associates physically attacking those assembled, no arrests have been made. Subsequently, Ankit Yadav and his associates allegedly made false allegations that the pastor had hurt their religious sentiments and was practising black magic. According to the representation, these allegations are baseless, as the gathering consisted solely of Bible readings and prayers, which had been conducted peacefully for years. Based on these allegations, Achole Police Station registered cross FIR Nos. 204 and 205 of 2026 against one Ravi Gupta. The representation further states that CCTV footage of the entire incident was provided to the police for investigation, but no action has yet been taken against Ankit Yadav and his accomplices.

• Attempted disruption of a Christian gathering in Kandivali (June 14, 2026): On Sunday, June 14, 2026, Ankit Yadav and members of his group allegedly attempted to forcefully enter a Christian assembly being held at White House Banquet Hall, behind Golden Leaf Hotel, Kandivali East, Mumbai. After being prevented from entering the premises, they reportedly went to Charkop Police Station, created a law and order situation, and alleged that Pratik Sitaram Naik was posting content about miracles of Jesus Christ on social media and spreading false claims about miracles. Following the incident, Charkop Police Station registered FIR No. 476 of 2026 against Pratik Sitaram Naik under Section 66(D) of the Information Technology Act and Sections 3(2) and 3(3) of the Maharashtra Black Magic Act. The representation states that despite clarifications being provided to the police, no action has yet been initiated against Ankit Yadav and others.

• Similar incidents reported at multiple locations: The representation further alleges that the same group has been involved in similar incidents targeting Christian gatherings at Ghatkopar on June 7, Andheri on June 20, and several other locations, following what it describes as a recurring pattern of disrupting peaceful religious assemblies, making allegations of forced conversion or black magic, and creating law and order situations. It contends that despite repeated complaints, effective action against the alleged perpetrators has remained absent.

Engagement with police leadership

The delegation held a formal meeting with the Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order), Dr. Manoj Kumar Sharma, to appraise him of these developments. The delegation included diverse voices such as Sameer Wagle, Smriti Nevatia, Pastor David Tribhuvan, Fr. Frazer Mascerenhas, Neena Shah More, Elvina Gonsalves, Pastor Jomon Mathew, Dolphy Dsouza, Shakir Shaikh, Ashfaque Mohammed Yaqub, Sandhya Panaskar, Shaista Sayyed Aejaz, Lalita Deonalli, and Lara Jesani.

During the meeting, the Joint CP stated that the police force was cognisant of the incidents involving these individuals. He provided an assurance to the delegation that the police would take all necessary steps to address these concerns and uphold the rule of law within the city. The collective of organisations emphasised that their goal is to ensure the constitutional rights of all citizens—specifically Article 14 (equality), Article 15 (non-discrimination), Article 21 (life and liberty), and Article 25 (freedom of religion)—are protected against such targeted harassment.

Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP): preventive frontier

Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) has consistently adopted a systematic, evidence-based approach to countering hate speech and communal mobilisation. Central to its strategy is the proactive filing of preventive legal complaints with district and state authorities. When events organised by groups such as the Sakal Hindu Samaj, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and by the habitual hate offenders are announced, CJP monitors these platforms to identify potential threats to public order.

The organisation’s complaints are rooted in documented history, highlighting the recurrence of provocative rhetoric and violence at past events. By providing authorities with concrete evidence—such as social media posters, planned agendas, and the track records of scheduled speakers—CJP urges the police to invoke Supreme Court guidelines on hate speech and deny permissions for events likely to incite enmity. These filings emphasise that preventive measures are not merely discretionary but are mandated by judicial precedents to maintain peace. Furthermore, CJP’s interventions extend to scrutinising campaigns related to exclusionary narratives, such as “love jihad” or calls for economic boycotts.

By consistently engaging with administrative and police machinery, CJP advocates for the enforcement of constitutional rights, aiming to hold hate offenders accountable while compelling local administrations to fulfill their duty in preventing communal harm.

A joint demand backed by 25 civil society organisations

The representation was jointly endorsed by 25 civil society organisations, demonstrating widespread support from civil society. The signatories include the Bombay Catholic Sabha, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Citizens for Justice and Peace, All India Students’ Federation (Mumbai), Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS), Pani Haq Samiti, Christian Development Association, Parcham Collective, Citizens for the Constitution, Hasrat-e-Zindagi, Mamuli, Free Speech Collective, Stree Mukti League, Platform for Social Justice, Disha Students’ Organisation, Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra, Students Islamic Organisation (Mumbai), Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (Mumbai), among others.

By copying the Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Division Zone 1) and the Senior Inspector of Police at the Vakola Police Station, the delegation demands the urgency of local-level preventive measures.

Related:

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CJP files complaints against the Hate Speeches delivered in Uttar Pradesh

The post Act Now: Citizens delegation approaches Mumbai police to prevent potential intimidation of Christians appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Thereafter, in a detailed statement, MSCE said that the objective of the restrictions is not to interfere with religious practices but to ensure transparency and prevent malpractices during the examination, which will be conducted under live CCTV surveillance.

“The council has not imposed restrictions on what candidates can wear. However, during the examination, the face must be clearly visible on CCTV cameras. No cloth or covering should conceal the ears, head, mouth or any part of the face above the neck,” MSCE commissioner Nandakumar Bedse said.

Outlining the initial rationale behind the decision, the council said that examination authorities across the country are increasingly dealing with sophisticated methods of cheating, including concealed mobile phones, miniature Bluetooth devices and other electronic gadgets.

Officials pointed out that in recent D El Ed and computer shorthand examinations conducted by the council, some candidates were found to have hidden mobile phones inside dupattas and burqas and used them during the examination.

“The Teacher Eligibility Test is a highly sensitive examination. With the emergence of AI-enabled tools, miniature Bluetooth devices and other electronic equipment, preventing malpractices has become increasingly challenging. Ensuring that every candidate’s face is clearly visible on live CCTV is essential to maintaining fairness and credibility,” the council said.

This clarification put out by the council is now expected to put to rest the controversy surrounding the dress-code instructions ahead of the examination scheduled for June 28. Figures reveal that  more than 6 lakh candidates have registered for this year’s TET examination, making effective monitoring a key challenge. Officials said clear visibility of candidates is necessary for identity verification, biometric authentication and CCTV-based surveillance throughout the examination period.

The council also relied on practices followed in several national and state-level competitive examinations, including UPSC, SSC, IBPS, SBI, RRB, GATE and public service commission examinations, where face-covering items are restricted to facilitate identification and monitoring.

The MSCE also referred to a 2024 Bombay high court (HC) judgment in a petition challenging a college dress code that prohibited hijab, burqa and other religious identifiers on campus. The court upheld the college’s dress code instructions, observing that the petitioners had failed to establish that wearing a hijab constituted an essential religious practice.

A translation of the clarifying instructions may be read below:

 Maharashtra State Examination Council, Pune

Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Office Building,

(Second and Fourth Floor) Survey No. 832 A, Shivajinagar, Pune – 411004

Telephone No.: 020-29709396    Website: www.mscepune.in   E-mail: mscepune@gmail.com

Outward No.:
MSCE/Svee.Sanha/217/2026                                                           Date: 22/06/2026

Subject: Regarding clarification on the use of dupatta, burqa, and hijab by female candidates in the Teacher Eligibility Test

Clear instructions have been issued that since live CCTV will be used in all classrooms at the examination centers during the Teacher Eligibility Test to be conducted by the Maharashtra State Examination Council on June 28, 2026, nothing including a dupatta, burqa, mask, or cap can be worn so that the entire face is clearly visible. However, emails have been received requesting that female candidates be permitted to use the burqa, hijab, and dupatta. A clarification on the said matter is being made as follows:—

In the Writ Petition WPL No. 17737 / 24, Zainab Abdul Qayyum Choudhary Vs Chembur Trombay Edu. Societys, Chembur Trombay Education Society’s, N.G. Acharya and D.K. Marathe College of Art, Science and Commerce, Chembur, Mumbai, order dated June 26, 2 024, filed in the Hon’ble High Court, Mumbai, 9 female students challenged the college’s dress code instructions, wherein hijab, burqa, niqab, and other attire revealing religious identity were banned on campus. In the said judicial decision, the Hon’ble High Court recorded observations as follows:—

In the writ petition, it has been pleaded that the petitioners have been donning a Hijab and/or Nakab for last few years. The pleadings in the writ petition to support the plea that donning of a Hijab or Nakab is an essential religious practice however are insufficient. Except for stating that the same constitutes an essential religious practice on the basis of the English translation of Kanz-ul-Iman and Suman Abu Dawud, there is no material placed to uphold the petitioners’ contention that donning of Hijab and Nakab is an essential religious practice. The contention in that regard therefore fails.

For the aforesaid reasons, we are satisfied that the Instructions issued by the College under which a dress code has been prescribed for its students does not suffer from any infirmity so as to violate provisions of Article 19(1)(a) and Article 25 of the Constitution of India.

In almost all major competitive examinations in India—national-level examinations such as UPSC, SSC, IBPS, SBI, RRB, GATE, CLAT, CA, CS, CMA, etc., and State Public Service Commission examinations like MPSC, GPSC, BPSC, UPPSC—face-covering clothes such as dupatta, burqa, scarf, cap, and goggles are prohibited. This is because it is necessary for the face to be clearly visible during identity verification, biometric checks, and the CCTV verification process throughout the examination period. The main objective behind banning the hijab, burqa, or dupatta on the face during examinations is to prevent malpractices by closely monitoring all candidates through Live CCTV during the entire examination period, to ease identity verification, and consequently to maintain transparency and credibility in the examination.

Various types of malpractices are being used in examinations nowadays, such as carrying a mobile phone, sending the question paper outside via mobile WhatsApp/Telegram, receiving answers via mobile, and keeping extremely small-sized Wi-Fi Bluetooth devices in the ears, among many other tricks. Therefore, the complete face and the entire portion above the neck—meaning the mouth and ears of all candidates at the examination centre—must be clearly visible so that there is no room for suspicion regarding malpractice. If the face is kept covered, it will not even be known who is talking to whom. Furthermore, if a female candidate is asked to show her face based on suspicion for verification at the examination centre, it might lead to a completely different issue altogether.

Recently, in the D.El.Ed. and Computer Shorthand examinations conducted by the Maharashtra State Examination Council, it has come to light that candidates hid mobile phones in their dupatta/burqa, brought them into the examination centre, and used them.

The Teacher Eligibility Test is a highly sensitive examination, and considering factors like AI, Bluetooth devices, and electronic devices as small as shirt buttons, it has become highly challenging to prevent any kind of malpractice. For the examination to be transparent and to curb all kinds of manipulations, it is necessary that the faces of all 6 lakh candidates are clearly visible in the Live CCTV.

Overall, considering all the above points, female candidates will have the freedom to wear any clothes, dupatta, odhni, or burqa for the Teacher Eligibility Test; however, during the examination period inside the classroom at the examination centre, the face must be fully and clearly visible in the CCTV camera. For this purpose, above the neck—meaning on the ears, head, or mouth/face there should be no cloth/covering of any kind; this is being clarified here.”

The June 22, 2026 circular has been signed by Dr. Nandkumar Bedse (I.P.S.), Chairman, Maharashtra State Examination Council, Pune.

The original circular in Marathi may be read below Embed Original

Related:

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Bombay High court upholds hijab ban in colleges: Muslim students’ rights curtailed

The post Face must be visible, then hijab, burqa, dupatta or attire of choice permitted to TET candidates: MCSE appeared first on SabrangIndia.

As reported by The Wire, on April 26, 2026, residents of Manoharpura in Mathura discovered that graves inside the Ahl-e-Muslimeen Kabristan had allegedly been damaged during a demolition exercise carried out with JCB machines working under the supervision of local authorities. Burial shrouds were exposed, graves were uprooted and skeletal remains reportedly became visible. Families arrived to find the resting places of parents, grandparents and relatives disturbed, turning what should have been a protected space of mourning and remembrance into a site of anguish and outrage.

The cemetery is not an informal burial ground. According to documents cited by The Wire, the Ahl-e-Muslimeen Kabristan is a gazetted waqf property dating back to 1909 and recognised by the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board. For generations, it has served as the burial ground for local Muslim families. Residents allege that nine graves were damaged, while six trees, boundary structures, fencing pillars and other parts of the cemetery were also destroyed during the operation.

Yet what transformed the incident from a local controversy into a matter of wider constitutional concern was not only the damage itself, but the state’s response to it.

Documents reviewed by The Wire reportedly show that the Mathura-Vrindavan Municipal Corporation formally acknowledged that approximately nine graves had been damaged. In a communication issued following complaints lodged through Uttar Pradesh’s Integrated Grievance Redressal System (IGRS), authorities reportedly directed compensation at the rate of Rs 100 per grave, valuing the destruction of nine graves at Rs 900. Separate assessments were conducted for damaged trees and fencing structures, resulting in compensation calculations for those losses as well.

For many residents, the issue was not merely that the amount was small. Rather, it was the very act of assigning a bureaucratic value to disturbed graves that appeared shocking. The controversy has therefore become less about the amount of compensation and more about what the calculation itself represents.

The question repeatedly raised by affected families is a simple one: what is the value of a grave?

The significance of that question becomes clearer when one considers the unique nature of burial grounds. A cemetery is not merely land. Nor is it simply a collection of physical structures. Burial grounds occupy a distinctive place within every society because they exist at the intersection of memory, religion, family history and human dignity. They are spaces where communities maintain continuity with previous generations and where the living continue to honour those who have passed away.

Every grave represents a life lived and relationships that continue beyond death. A parent, a sibling, a spouse, a grandparent or a child may be buried there. The disturbance of a grave therefore affects far more than physical property. It disrupts a family’s connection to the deceased and a community’s relationship with its own history.

This is why societies across cultures and faith traditions have historically treated the disturbance of burial grounds as a particularly serious wrong. Respect for the dead has long been regarded as one of the most basic markers of civilisation itself. Even international humanitarian law, which governs armed conflict, contains provisions concerning the respectful treatment of human remains and burial sites. The protection of the dead is recognised as a moral obligation that survives political conflict, territorial disputes and social divisions.

The outrage in Mathura stems from precisely this understanding. Residents are not merely complaining about damage to land. They are expressing anguish over what they regard as the desecration of a sacred space and a violation of the dignity of their dead.

The controversy also raises important questions about how law understands compensation.

Compensation in law is often misunderstood as a mechanism for calculating the market value of a loss. In reality, courts routinely award compensation for injuries that are impossible to measure in economic terms. Constitutional courts have awarded compensation for custodial violence, illegal detention, police excesses, violations of fundamental rights, wrongful deaths, emotional suffering and infringements of human dignity.

In such cases, compensation does not place a literal price on liberty, dignity or human suffering. Rather, it serves a broader purpose. It acknowledges wrongdoing, recognises injury, affirms the dignity of the victim and signals the state’s acceptance of responsibility.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognised this principle. Beginning with landmark cases such as Rudul Sah v. State of Bihar, Nilabati Behera v. State of Orissa and subsequent constitutional tort jurisprudence, Indian courts have held that monetary compensation may be awarded when fundamental rights are violated. Such compensation is not intended to erase the injury suffered. Instead, it functions as public recognition that a serious constitutional wrong has occurred.

Viewed through this lens, the Mathura episode appears particularly troubling.

The official response reportedly treated damaged graves within the same administrative framework used to calculate losses relating to fencing structures, landscaping and trees. Yet a grave is not municipal infrastructure. It is not an asset whose value can be determined through replacement cost. It is the resting place of a human being and occupies a unique position within constitutional, religious and social life.

The controversy therefore exposes the limitations of administrative approaches to certain forms of harm. Some injuries cannot be fully understood through accounting exercises because the injury itself lies not in the physical object damaged but in what that object represents.

The constitutional implications of the incident extend beyond compensation. Article 21 of the Constitution protects the right to life and personal liberty and has been interpreted by courts to include human dignity as one of its central components. Importantly, Indian courts have repeatedly recognised that dignity does not disappear at the moment of death.

Judicial decisions have acknowledged the importance of dignified burial, dignified cremation and respectful treatment of human remains. During the COVID-19 pandemic, courts across the country intervened repeatedly to ensure that even those who had died from infectious diseases were accorded respectful last rites. The underlying principle was clear: human dignity survives death. The treatment of the dead reflects the constitutional values of the living.

Seen from this perspective, the alleged disturbance of graves at the Ahl-e-Muslimeen Kabristan engages concerns that extend beyond municipal negligence. It raises questions about whether public authorities adequately recognised the nature of the harm involved. If the disturbance of graves implicates dignity, memory and religious identity, then reducing the injury to a compensation calculation risk obscuring the true nature of the wrong.

The controversy also engages questions of religious freedom. Burial practices are integral components of religious life. Cemeteries and graveyards are not ordinary public spaces but sacred sites through which communities discharge religious obligations, preserve ancestral connections and maintain collective memory. Their protection is therefore closely connected to the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom under Article 25.

This concern becomes particularly significant where the cemetery in question is a recognised waqf property. Waqf institutions occupy a protected legal status and are intended to preserve religious and charitable assets for the benefit of the community. The fact that the Ahl-e-Muslimeen Kabristan is a notified waqf property raises additional questions regarding the safeguards that existed to protect the site and the procedures followed before demolition work was undertaken.

The incident acquires further significance when viewed against the broader political and social context of Mathura. As The Wire notes, the district has witnessed continuing disputes concerning Muslim religious sites, waqf properties, demolition drives affecting Muslim localities, campaigns targeting Muslim-owned businesses and politically charged litigation surrounding the Shahi Idgah mosque. Local residents have also raised concerns regarding encroachments around the cemetery, the establishment of a garbage collection point near its entrance and previous attempts to alter the character of the land.

Whether these concerns are accepted or contested, they form the backdrop against which the graveyard controversy is being interpreted by the affected community.

This context matters because institutions do not operate in a vacuum. Administrative actions acquire social meaning through historical experience. For many local Muslims, the disturbance of graves does not appear as an isolated bureaucratic mistake. Rather, it is seen as part of a broader pattern in which Muslim spaces—homes, businesses, places of worship and now burial grounds—have increasingly become sites of contestation and intervention.

This is what transforms the story from an administrative controversy into a constitutional one. The issue is not merely whether a contractor made an error or whether compensation was eventually paid. The deeper concern is how institutions respond when sacred spaces belonging to a minority community are damaged. Do they treat the incident as a technical mistake requiring reimbursement, or as a serious violation demanding accountability, restoration and recognition of the injury inflicted?

The documents cited by The Wire establish a paper trail showing that authorities acknowledged the damage and directed compensation. But acknowledgment is not accountability. Compensation is not justice.

A cheque may close an administrative file, but it does not answer the central questions raised by the episode. Why was a legally recognised cemetery disturbed? Who authorised the operation? What safeguards existed to protect burial sites? Was the legal status of the cemetery verified beforehand? Were any officials held responsible? Will restoration measures be undertaken? And what remedies are available when the dignity of the dead is violated?

Until those questions are answered, the controversy surrounding the Ahl-e-Muslimeen Kabristan will continue to resonate far beyond the boundaries of a single graveyard. Ultimately, the most disturbing aspect of the Mathura incident may be the message that many residents believe it conveys. The issue is not simply that graves were damaged. It is that the destruction of a sacred burial ground appears to have been processed through the machinery of administration as though it were no different from a damaged fence or uprooted tree. In doing so, the state risks transforming a question of dignity into a question of accounting.

And that is why the controversy has become about far more than nine damaged graves. It forces a larger reckoning with how law, administration and public institutions understand harm itself. Some injuries can be compensated. Others can only be acknowledged. The disturbance of the dead belongs firmly in the latter category.

Related:

Constitutional ideals vs. public order: SC delivers split verdict on Christian burial rights, fails to confront structural discrimination

‘Can’t keep the pot boiling over dead bodies’: Supreme Court directs dignified cremation/burial of Manipur violence victims

Muslim group switches sect, Kerala HC upholds their rights to prayer and burial

Segregated burial grounds, a violation of the Constitution: Madras High Court

Christians not being allowed burials, forced to cremate in Mumbai?

In a Heartwarming Gesture, Hindu Family Donates Land for Muslim Burial Ground in Assam

The post When the State Valued a Desecrated Grave at Rs 100: The Mathura cemetery controversy appeared first on SabrangIndia.

For generations, this has been the lifeline of Pani Sol.

Today, fear travels those roads alongside them.

On 9 June, one of the village’s hawkers, 50-year-old Akbar Ali Mondal, was allegedly beaten to death in Purulia district while earning a living. Yet the arrest of the accused has done little to calm nerves in Pani Sol, where thousands of families depend on hawking for survival.

A week after the killing, the village remains engulfed in anxiety. Men leave for work with apprehension. Families wait anxiously for phone calls. Conversations in tea stalls, village shops and courtyards inevitably return to the same unsettling question: could the next victim be one of us?

Pani Sol, located under Onda Police Station in Bankura district, is one of the largest villages in the region. Home to nearly 80,000 to 90,000 residents, around 90 per cent of whom are Muslims, the settlement is known across neighbouring districts as a village of hawkers, with generations of families relying on itinerant trade for their livelihood.

According to local residents, nearly seventy to eighty per cent of the village’s young men earn their livelihood through itinerant trading. Every day, they travel long distances carrying household goods, relying on personal relationships, trust and repeat customers to earn a living. Few families have agricultural land. Even fewer have access to stable salaried employment.

Akbar Ali Mondal was one of these workers.

How Akbar Ali’s Final Journey Shook a Village of Hawkers

Akbar worked in areas near the Purulia-Jharkhand border alongside his 24-year-old son, Zulfikar Ali. Although father and son operated in different localities, they followed the same routine. They would leave early in the morning and return home after a day of selling goods door to door.

On 9 June, they set out as usual.

By midday, Zulfikar received a phone call informing him that his father had fallen ill and had been taken to hospital. Rushing there, he found not an injured man awaiting treatment but the lifeless body of his father.

Showing photographs of the deceased, Zulfikar struggled to control his emotions.

“I still cannot understand why such brutality was inflicted upon him,” he said.

Akbar Ali Mondal’s killing has left behind more than grief. Akbar’s widow and young daughter depended heavily on his earnings. The family’s modest mud house stands as a reminder of how fragile their economic existence had always been. Now the responsibility of supporting the household rests entirely on Zulfikar.

Fear Spreads Through Bengal’s Village of Muslim Hawkers

While Akbar’s family mourns a personal loss, many residents of Pani Sol fear the killing signals something larger.

Many villagers believe Akbar Ali Mondal’s killing has transformed a livelihood concern into a question of survival. Residents allege that harassment of Muslim hawkers has increased in recent years in some areas where they work. Several claim that traders are sometimes subjected to intimidation and communal abuse.

Zulfikar alleged that Muslim hawkers were occasionally forced to chant religious slogans and threatened with exclusion from local markets and neighbourhoods.

“We have been working under fear for a long time,” he said. “Now that fear has become even greater.”

Whether or not all such allegations are established through official investigations, the perception of insecurity is now widespread across the village. In many homes, parents worry every time their sons leave for work.

The impact on the village economy is already visible. Several hawkers working in distant areas have reportedly returned home after Akbar Ali Mondal’s killing. Others say they are reconsidering where they travel and whether they can continue in the profession at all.

The dilemma is stark: stay home and face hunger, or continue working while fearing for one’s safety.

Why Pani Sol’s Economy Depends on Thousands of Hawkers

Beyond the killing, the deeper tragedy lies in the economic reality of Pani Sol.

A drive through the village reveals a settlement bustling with human activity but struggling with limited opportunities. Bicycles loaded with merchandise are as common here as tractors are in farming villages.

The village economy revolves around hawking because alternative employment opportunities scarcely exist.

Despite its large population, the village has only two high schools and fewer than ten primary schools. Residents complain of teacher shortages and poor educational infrastructure. Extreme poverty forces many children to abandon their studies before completing secondary education.

According to villagers, only a handful of residents have secured government jobs. The number of graduates in a population approaching one lakh is astonishingly small.

The consequence is visible everywhere. Each generation enters the same occupation as the previous one. Sons become hawkers because their fathers were hawkers.

Hawking is not merely a source of income in Pani Sol; it is the backbone of the village economy.

That is why Akbar Ali Mondal’s death has generated fear far beyond his immediate family.

Growing Fear After Attacks on Travelling Muslim Traders

Residents also recalled earlier incidents involving hawkers from the village. One local resident cited an alleged stabbing attack on another trader from Pani Sol a few months ago near Bankura town.

Whether isolated or part of a broader pattern, such incidents have reinforced feelings of vulnerability among villagers.

“Hawking once meant hardship,” said an elderly resident. “Now it also means fear.”

Rights Groups Step In as Family Seeks Justice and Support

Akbar Ali Mondal’s killing has attracted the attention of rights organisations and community groups.

A team from the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), led by social activist Omar Owais, visited the family and assured them of legal assistance. Representatives of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind also met villagers and expressed concern over both the killing and the broader economic insecurity facing the community.

According to Owais, the family is living under tremendous psychological pressure and requires legal support to pursue the case, particularly because the crime occurred around 90 kilometres away in Purulia district.

For a family already struggling financially, travelling repeatedly to another district to follow legal proceedings presents a major burden.

“How Are We Supposed to Live?”

The question echoing across Pani Sol today is not only who killed Akbar Ali Mondal, but what comes next.

Akbar’s elder brother, Noor Mohammad Mondal, who survives by selling poultry, summed up the village’s predicament.

“Many hawkers are returning home because they are frightened,” he said. “But there is no other work here. Tell me, how are we supposed to survive?”

His question captures the anxiety of an entire village.

For decades, the roads of Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar provided a livelihood for Pani Sol’s residents. Today, those same roads have become a source of uncertainty.

As the investigation into Akbar Ali Mondal’s killing continues, thousands of hawkers from this village will once again leave home in search of customers. They will carry their goods as they always have.

But many will now carry something else as well: the fear that, for Muslim hawkers from Pani Sol, earning a living may itself have become dangerous.

Courtesy: https://enewsroom.in

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The protesters foot march happened days after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which protects the mosque, wrote to the district administration to not allow any “large gathering” on June 10, even as the campaign was building up. However, under the banner of temple Shri Chakradhar Swami National Heritage Conservation Committee and several Jain organisations, a march was organised from Hostel ground to the district collectorate, covering nearly a kilometre.

Apart from Gujaratis, several followers of Chakradhar Swami from Amravati and other districts in Maharashtra participated along with local residents, holding placards and banners. Among the participants was Bhavesh Patel, who was released on bail after his conviction in the Ajmer Dargah blast case of 2007 investigated by the National Investigation Agency. Patel had by then become a self-styled godman, assuming the name of “Swami Muktanand” reported Indian Express.

Protesters handed a memorandum to Bharuch Collector Navnath Gavhane and demanded preservation of the monument to its original structure. The memorandum states that a drive was carried out to create public awareness in Gujarat and Maharashtra by the followers of Chakradhar Swami from May 18-23. Signatures of over 35,000 were taken, along with their mobile phone numbers.

Muktanand Swami alias Bhavesh Patel of Bharuch said, “The Jama Masjid has its origin in the birthplace of an ancient Jain temple, and the birthplace of Swami Chakradhar of Maharashtra. The Islamic rulers had converted the monument into a mosque. The Masjid is presently under the possession of the ASI. We have come to know that the rules and regulations of the ASI are not followed, as some people are involved in making changes in the existing structure. Actions should be taken against those who are involved in alterations or changes made to the historically protected monument.”

Quick to set the record straight, however Bharuch district collector Dr. Navnath Gavhane said, “There is no law-and-order situation. District Superintendent of Police, District magistrate office and ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) officials are maintaining it. We have appealed to people to refrain from making any generalised comments about the monument or believing in rumours and misunderstandings. The ASI is a competent authority to decide about the monument.”

Over the past decades, far right groups have been consistently mobilising to “re-claim” Mosques and Dargahs in campaigns that threaten the cultural and religious rights of the religious minority.

Related:

ASI, Gujarat: Will Bharuch’s 700 year old Jama Masjid be the next target of right-wing saffron grab and terror?

Bhojshala Judgment: MP High Court declares Dhar site a Saraswati Temple, ends Namaz rights at complex

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Signed by the superintending archaeologist, ASI Vadodara Circle, the letter dated June 10 (Wednesday), accessed by the newspaper, is addressed to the Bharuch collector and district magistrate, and requests that “necessary steps” be taken to safeguard the Jami Masjid, a centrally protected monument, ahead of a large “gathering” planned by a right-wing organisation named Rashtriya Dharohar Sanrakshan Samiti (RDSS). The RDSS has been coordinating signature drives and public events in Bharuch since May 18, as part of a “campaign to reclaim” the centuries-old Sunni mosque as a Jain religious site.

ASI letter

The letter, describes Bharuch Jami Masjid as a living Monument of National Importance, listed under the Gazette Notification dated May 26, 1909. The ASI letter refers to information it has received from Maulana Qureshi Gulam Mustafa, President of the Jami Masjid, and notes that videos and messages circulating on social media platforms were calling on people to assemble in large numbers at the protected monument, and flagged the possibility of an untoward incident given the sensitive nature of the site.

The letter states, “…there is a possibility of a large gathering at the protected monument on June 15 and videos are getting viral in the social media platforms… As the monument is sensitive in nature, there is a likelihood of an untoward incident. Such gatherings may also pose a risk to the communal harmony and physical damage to the monument.”

Citing Article 49 of the Constitution of India, which places a direct obligation on the State to protect every monument or place of artistic or historic interest declared by Parliament to be of national importance, the letter also states Section 16 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, 1958, which requires the Collector to make due provision for the protection of such a monument from pollution or desecration.

Pirana Durgah, Gujarat

This is not the only site under attack and challenge by the majoritarian right-wing. Gujarat’s 600 year old Pirana Dargah has seen a similar aggressive attack and the matter is contested. Detailed reports may be read here and here.

Jami Masjid trustees

On Thursday, multiple representations were filed by the trustees of Jami Masjid with the Bharuch district administration and the police, citing serious apprehension about public order ahead of the June 15 gathering. In the representation, the trustees have pointed out that the Jami Masjid has functioned as an active Muslim place of worship for several generations and is also a registered Waqf. The trustees have submitted that “a campaign disputing the religious character of the monument has been gaining traction on social media over the past several months,” and flagged specific incidents, such as the March 3, 2026, incident of an alleged attempt to perform non-Muslim religious rituals within the monument premises.

The ASI had already requested adequate security arrangements and preventive measures from district authorities following that incident. The ASI has now also asked the district collector to unlock the exit gate of the monument on Fridays, to permit the continuance of religious observances by the Muslim community, referring to a September 2025 letter in this regard.

Bharuch District Collector N K Gavhane told this newspaper that the district administration is coordinating with all relevant agencies and that the situation remains under control. He said, “The monument is managed and protected by the Archaeological Survey of India. There is no law-and-order situation. Bharuch Superintendent of Police (SP) office, Sub-Divisional Magistrate office, and the ASI are maintaining it. We have appealed to people to refrain from making any generalised comments about the monument or believing in rumours and misunderstandings. ASI is a competent authority to decide about the monument.”

On Thursday, June 11, the trustees requested that the administration immediately prohibit all rallies, assemblies, and processions near the monument, enforce existing notifications under the Gujarat Police Act, deploy adequate police personnel, and initiate criminal proceedings against those spreading inflammatory content on social media. “If timely action is not taken and any untoward incident occurs the full responsibility will rest with the administrative and police machinery concerned,” the representation stated.

Related:

Sambhal, UP: ASI has no records to prove that Shahi Jama Masjid was built after demolishing earlier structure

Faiz-e-Ilahi Masjid, Turkman Gate: A court-ordered demolition, midnight policing, stone-pelting, arrests, and the ongoing legal battle

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The idea of a UCC in India has been debated for decades including within the Constituent Assembly itself, but its recent passage in BJP-governed states has reignited the question of whether this reform is genuinely about protecting women’s rights across communities, or is it primarily a political tool aimed at communalising what is, at its core, a secular problem of gender justice. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has openly linked the passage of the UCC to the BJP-RSS ideological project, stating that, “Had I not been a BJP CM and a swayamsevak of RSS, probably I would not have been able to bring the UCC to the assembly.” Interestingly Sarma currently serving as the 15th Chief Minister of Assam was a former member of the Indian National Congress (INC) who joined the BJP only on August 23, 2015!

‘Uniform Civil Code or Gender Justice?’ was the question raised around thirty-two years ago by the 1994 cover story of Communalism Combat. Teesta Seetalvad wrote:

“Through its constant argument that enacting a uniform civil code will bring about national integration, the Sangh Parivar has succeeded in making many Hindus believe that, one, only “separatist-minded” Muslims are opposed to a uniform law, and, two, the uniform civil code will only affect Muslims.”

Remarkably, that observation remains just as germane today. What this narrative however ignores is one, the call to do away with several practices, including polygamy, have come from Muslim women themselves (all while the BJP has adopted this issue as one of its own), and, two, all personal laws irrespective of religion have an-anti woman bias. Reported the Hindustan Times. Practices such as restitution of conjugal rights and the absence of no-fault divorce have existed in many religious communities. The broad powers granted to testators to will away property have long enabled the disinheritance of vulnerable family members across many faiths. The 2018 Law Commission report suggested that the legislature first consider guaranteeing equality within communities‘ between men and women, rather than equality between communities while suggesting that personal law reform over a UCC is recommended.

“Various aspects of prevailing personal laws disprivilege women. This Commission is of the view that it is discrimination and not difference which lies at the root of inequality,” the report read.

What the Bill changes 

The Bill aims to unify all personal family laws, including issues related to marriage, divorce, intestate and testamentary succession, and live-in relationships within the State of Assam. It applies to all residents of the state; including those living outside its territories, but it specifically excludes members of any Scheduled Tribes.

It sets uniform conditions for a valid marriage, including a minimum age of 21 for men and 18 for women, replacing the varying thresholds that existed under some personal laws. The religious ceremony through which a marriage is solemnised (whether a Saptapadi, Nikah, Holy Union, Anand Karaj, or any other recognised rite) remains valid and untouched.

The Bill explicitly prohibits polygamy; however, this is not a novel change as only last year, Assam had passed a law banning polygamy across the state. The UCC also standardises the list of prohibited relationships. This has an impact on Muslim personal law, which permitted marriage between first cousins.

Compulsory registration of all marriages within sixty days of the ceremony is introduced for the first time as a uniform requirement though several states, notably Maharashtra had introduced a separate law for this in 1999 while retaining personal laws (Maharashtra Regulation of Marriage Bureaus and Registration of Marriages Act, 1998). Failure to register attracts penalties, though importantly the UCC clarifies that non-registration does not by itself render a marriage invalid. The Bill also establishes procedures for judicial separation and the restitution of conjugal rights. The framework provides standardised grounds for divorce (such as cruelty, desertion, or mutual consent) and extrajudicial methods of dissolving a marriage or unilateral divorce are no longer legally recognised for any community. Maintenance during the pendency of proceedings and permanent alimony after a decree are available to either spouse, again, without any community-specific distinction.

The UCC’s most far-reaching provisions concern succession, where it departs most sharply from the existing personal laws of several communities. It defines a clear ‘Order of Preference’ for how property is distributed when a person dies without a Will. Class-1 heirs (including the spouse, children, and parents) generally succeed simultaneously and take equal shares. For a detailed understanding of this, read a previous analysis by Citizens for Justice and Peace here

Lack of stakeholder consultation 

Hasina Khan and Mridul Kaintura writing for Sabrang India in 2024 noted that conservative and orthodox religious leaders had failed their community as they sought to control their bodies under the guise of protecting the religion. However, they also wrote, “Despite spearheading the movement to bring reforms within our own communities, including the formulation of Nikah-Nama, protesting against fatwas and advocating reforms in discriminatory personal laws, the state has never taken any steps to hear our concerns and protect our rights effectively,” they added.

The UCC Bill was cleared without con­sult­ing any minor­ity organ­isa­tions who had demanded further consultations before the Bill was passed. Beyond the absence of consultations, even the text of the Bill was not placed in the public domain, despite the 2014 circular mandating that draft legislation be made publicly available for at least thirty days to invite comments and feedback. The Bill was vetted by the Assam Cabinet only May 12 before it was introduced on May 25 in the State Assembly and passed on May 27 after about five hours of discussion and debate. As per reports in both The Hindu and The Shillong Times.

The manner in which the Assam government pushed through the UCC Bill is not an isolated instance but reflective of a growing pattern across India where major legislative changes are introduced with little transparency and minimal consultation with those most affected. Similar criticisms accompanied the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, and the Delimitation Bill.

CM Sarma in fact went on record to say that Congress’s opposition does not matter because except one Congress MLA, rest of the 18 MLAs represent a particular religion.  He was referring to eighteen of the 19 MLAs of Congress, the largest opposition party, who are Muslims. This brazen vocal exclusion and segregation of elected representatives of the religious minorities bodes ill for any representative and participative democracy. Reported in The Times of India.

Dr Noorjehan Safia Niaz, co-founder of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, had said last December that her organisation had twenty-five points specifically relating to Muslims that must be included in any UCC, among them the preservation of mehr (the compulsory payment by the husband to the wife upon marriage, which provides a measure of financial security). The Bill does not incorporate any of the positive and progressive aspects of Muslim personal law. The mehr, nikahnama (which allows spouses to negotiate mutually agreed and legally enforceable conditions in the marriage contract) have completely omitted or left out, as has the one-third limit rule on willing away property for the first spouse and children, which served as a protection against complete disinheritance. The practice of khula, through which a Muslim woman may initiate divorce on grounds such as irreconcilable differences, neglect, or lack of financial support, has not been codified and extended to all women representing a missed opportunity to give every woman a meaningful right to exit a marriage independently. Such legislative exclusion is reflective of a majoritarian bias through exclusion that fails to introduce or include cultural-religious norms from varied communities that are or maybe progressive. As per a report in reddif.com.

The restitution of conjugal rights, which legally compels an unwilling spouse to return to cohabitation, and in the case of a wife could expose her to the risk of rape and forcible pregnancy, has also been retained at a time when its constitutional validity is actively challenged before the Supreme Court and the 21st Law Commission Report recommended its removal. The Bill is entirely silent on custody, and guardianship which are the areas in which Hindu law and Mohammedan law (after seven years of age) gender-based discrimination has been extensively commented upon as the guardianship of a minor boy or unmarried girl vests in the father before the mother.

Had the government followed stakeholder consultations and the Law Commission’s recommendations, would a Bill ostensibly rooted in gender justice have overlooked such regressive practices?

“Instead of maintaining a silence on all these anti-women and pro-men or pro-Hindu provisions of family laws, should not the debate on reforms in family laws be re-framed by secularists incorporating all these arguments with a correct perspective?” had asked Setalvad in 1994.

Exclusion of Scheduled Tribes

In a report in The Times of India, the most glaring contradiction in a supposedly uniform code is the blanket exemption granted to Scheduled Tribes. As per the last census (which was over 15 years ago!), 12.4 per cent of Assam’s population constitute of scheduled tribes meaning their exclusion removes a significant section of the state’s residents from the scope of legislation. When asked to justify this, CM Sarma reportedly stated that,

“Medicine will be given where there is illness… UCC will give radiotherapy, chemotherapy where there is cancer. Where there is no cancer, there is no necessity of giving radiotherapy.”

“Whether we bring UCC or not, our tribal people never accept polygamy … Our tribal people give equal rights to girls, they do not accept live-in relations. Self regulation is the best regulation. If Hindu and Muslim societies also had customary rights like tribals and our society would have been tied together with equal rights like them, maybe a UCC would not have been required for anyone,” he added.

In his speech in the House, he also stated that the society rarely sees distressed or neglected women within tribal societies, like that of the Shah Bano case because through their customary rights and customary courts, these communities had already been regulating their social systems.

This stance is perhaps ignorant of first, the socio-economic status of tribal women and how that could affect their access to courts and second, the available data and judicial record! Were consultations with tribal women held for the State to arrive at this conclusion?

According to the International Institute for Population Sciences, compared to the national average of 1.4 per cent (NFHS-5), the rate of polygamy was 2.4 among STs. Tribal communities have also historically opposed women’s inheritance rights on the grounds that recognising such rights would result in land being alienated to non-tribals through inter-community marriage. As per reports in The Print and the Hindustan Times.

There are also cases where tribal women have knocked on the doors of courts! In Gopal Singh Bhumij v. Giribala Bhumij (1990), a ST woman who sought the partition of her father’s property, was denied the same by the Patna High Court as she was bound by tribal custom, which excluded daughters from inheritance. In Smt. Butaki Bai v. Sukhbati (2005), a daughter of the Halba tribe similarly failed to obtain inheritance rights because she could not provide sufficient evidence of Hinduisation. In Ram Dev Ram v. Dhani Ram (2016), a daughter of the Uraon tribe was denied inheritance rights because she did not follow the tribal custom. All of this demonstrates that customary tribal law is neither beyond scrutiny nor inherently gender-just.

“What does uniform mean?… The content of this large Bill does not align with its title. Because to be uniform, it has to be the same for everyone staying in this state. I have no objection with someone being left out from it, I respect all tribes and communities, but the name should be changed… The CM and the other MLAs have been talking about ‘rights’ being secured by the Bill, but in that case, aren’t the women of those who are being left out being deprived of their rights?” said MLA Jakir Sikdar. As per a report in the Indian Express.

Mandatory registration of live-in relationships

One of the most controversial features of the recent UCC framework is its mandatory registration framework for live-in relationships which is a significant expansion of state and community oversight into intimate relationships. This applies even if the partners are residents of Assam living outside the state territories. Partners in such a relationship are obligated to submit a statement to the Sub-Registrar; who then conducts a summary inquiry, and must either register the relationship and issue a certificate or refuse to register with written reasons within thirty days. If either partner is below twenty-one years of age, the Sub-Registrar is legally obligated to inform their parents or guardians. In all cases, a copy of the statement is forwarded to the officer-in-charge of the local police station. Third parties are also permitted to provide information or file complaints regarding unregistered live-in relationships.

This means that a woman may marry at eighteen without parental consent, but must wait until twenty-one to enter a live-in relationship without triggering mandatory parental notification. This inconsistency is difficult to justify on any coherent principle of personal autonomy, nor has the State done its bit to explain the reason behind it.

“These are also matters concerning Muslim women, who may once again find themselves subjected to suffering at the hands of the institution of family, the state, and third parties. Here, the third party could be the involvement of any institution, from community Khaps, Jamaats to even Fatwa-judgements. The punitive measures after being unable to register the live-in relationships are in no way a protective measure but to further surveil the relationships that challenge the institution of marriage,” wrote Khan and Kaintura for Sabrang.

The Uttarakhand UCC Rules also require individuals seeking registration of a live-in relationship to furnish certification from a religious leader or community representative. In January 2025, CJP raised concerns that such rules “make it practically impossible for interfaith or inter–caste individuals to be in a live-in relationship. The requirement of religious sanction for two consenting adults to enter a live-in relationship defeats the principle of secularism provided in the Preamble of the Constitution of India.”

The UCC Rules for Assam are expected to be formulated within six months of Presidential assent. One will have to wait and see whether such draconian provisions are a part of the Assam UCC Rules too. On his X, Biswa has already linked the UCC as a panacea from ‘Love Jihad’ signaling the intent to regulate and restrict inter-faith relationships.

This is consistent with a rising trend across India where anti-conversion laws along with the mandatory public notice provisions of the Special Marriage Act, and now the UCC, create records that right-wing and Hindutva vigilante groups use to track and harass interfaith couples. Reports of young couples being attacked, or forcibly separated have become disturbingly common. Read weaponisation of laws to prevent interfaith marriages in Uttrakhand here. Stated a report in The Polis Project.

This was precisely what CJP tried to address when it challenged the constitutional validity of various State enactments regulating religious conversion. Read detailed reports here and here. By forwarding relationship data directly to police stations and permitting third-party complaints, has arguably created a fresh infrastructure for exactly this kind of extra-legal intimidation.

The Bill also maintains a complete silence on the rights of queer and transgender persons within the family, their rights to marry, and their inheritance and succession rights. In a country where the legal recognition of same-sex relationships remains contested and transgender persons continue to face pervasive discrimination, the UCC’s failure to even acknowledge their existence within the family law framework is a profound omission that no claim to progressiveness can easily paper over.

Conclusion

Women across every community have demanded reforms in personal law for decades. That is not the contention here. The concern, however, is that the UCC in name of reform is plausibly being deployed as a selective intervention that leaves comparable inequalities untouched and exempts a portion of the population on grounds it refuses to apply consistently. By introducing registration of live-in relationships, surveillance mechanisms are introduced that go against the right to privacy and dignity guaranteed by the Constitution and judgments by the Supreme Court.

Reports indicate that Madhya Pradesh is next in line and consultations have already begun. A law that is serious about gender justice would incorporate the best practices from every community and also address the silences around queer persons, HUFs, guardianship, and resist the temptation to use intimate relationships as a theatre for communal politics. By these measures, the Assam, Gujarat and Uttrakhand UCCs as passed have already fallen significantly short. Reported The Hindu.

The full draft of The Uniform Civil Code, Assam, 2026 can be accessed here

(The legal research team of CJP consists of lawyers and interns; this resource has been worked on by Tanishka Shah)

Related:

The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) of Uttarakhand: Advancement in gender justice or violating individual liberties?

Calls for Uniform Civil Code, Population Control Bill by Right-Wing groups amplified with divisive rhetoric

Destroying the basic standards of legislation- the Uttarakhand Model of UCC

The post Assam Becomes Third State to Adopt UCC: Reform for Gender Justice or Communal Politics? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Neither the government nor the Commission has answered this question.

Without conducting any proper study on illegal migration, how and why are they undertaking a potentially harmful exercise such as the SIR? Even the Supreme Court, while examining the constitutional validity of the SIR, unfortunately did not ask this fundamental question.

Thus, three-fourths of the SIR process was ‘completed’ without any respect for due process or empirical foundation whatsoever. After as many as 75 million Indians had already been pushed out of the electoral rolls, the Modi government, on May 26—just a day before the Supreme Court was due to deliver its verdict in the SIR matter —constituted a “High-Level Committee on Demographic Change” under the chairmanship of retired Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naik.

A close look at the committee’s composition, its members, and its terms of reference makes it abundantly clear that this is, yet another, carefully plotted political-bureaucratic plot designed to perpetuate the harassment of Indian Muslims. First, as Justice Prakash himself has reportedly admitted, he possesses no expertise whatsoever in this subject. He was also not informed in advance about the assignment.

Second, the other members of the committee include a retired bureaucrat, Durga Shankar Mishra; a retired police officer, Balaji Srivastava; and Shamika Ravi, an economic adviser to the Prime Minister. This is the same scholar who recently dismissed concerns about the rupee falling to 100 against the dollar by saying that it is “just a number.” Shamika also has the unique distinction of being the daughter of none less than former Tamil Nadu governor, R.N.Ravi, notorious for his attacks on federalism in that state. So critical has Ravi been to the services of the New Delhi regime that, in March 2026, he was transferred as the governor of West Bengal where he oversaw not just the notorious SIR but also the recently concluded ‘elections’ to the State Assembly!

Most strikingly, in a committee specifically constituted to study demographic change, there is not a single expert on the subject, demography. Every member appears to have been selected for political allegiance and loyalty rather than for any recognised expertise in population studies.

The terms of reference assigned to the committee raise even more serious concerns. Notably, the committee has not even been asked to investigate whether there is, in fact, any large-scale and systematic illegal migration into India from neighbouring countries.

Terms of Reference Designed to Officialise Propaganda

Instead of first establishing whether such large-scale, organised, and malicious illegal migration is actually taking place, the committee has already proceeded on the assumption that it is. The questions it has been asked to study include:

i) To comprehensively deliberate upon the challenges arising from demographic changes, including illegal immigration.

ii) To study the possible causes of such demographic changes, such as cross-border activities (including illegal immigration), economic opportunities, and other socio-environmental factors.

iii) To identify the underlying factors behind these changes, which include illegal immigration, abnormal settlement patterns, and orchestrated migration

iv) To analyse structural population changes at the level of religious or social communities, particularly where they deviate from broader trends.

v) To recommend a streamlined and permanent operational mechanism for the legal, fair, and time-bound identification, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants already residing in the country.

vi) To recommend an appropriate institutional mechanism to strengthen border management, population stabilization, and identification systems for the continuous monitoring of such trends.

The committee has been instructed to study these issues and submit its report and recommendations within one year.

Thus, it is clear that the Modi government’s agenda effectively treats as established facts several partisan and communal claims that the RSS and the BJP have long propagated regarding demographic change in India. These include:

• That the Muslim population in India is growing disproportionately, not only because Muslims allegedly do not practise population control, but also because of illegal migration from Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries.
• That this demographic growth is part of a deliberate project to reduce the proportion of Hindus and eventually transform India into a Muslim-majority nation.
• That this constitutes an international conspiracy in which Indian Muslims are complicit, making the entire Muslim community suspect. The only way to defeat this conspiracy, according to this narrative, is to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra.

A careful reading of the committee’s terms of reference makes it clear that it has been constituted primarily to validate these long-standing falsehoods and lend official legitimacy to a campaign of communal polarisation.

This propaganda has already succeeded in fostering a deeply anti-Muslim and fascistic social mind-set across large sections of the country. That is why, even when large numbers of Hindus lacking proper documentation are themselves being excluded through exercises such as the SIR, a narrative is being constructed that Modi is protecting Hindus from Muslims. As a result, poor Hindus are being persuaded to support policies that ultimately harm their own interests.

Economic Refugees or Illegal Conspirators?

Viewed in perspective, although both the Congress and the BJP have governed this country over the past seventy-seven years, it is unlikely that illegal migration into India has ever occurred on the scale of millions. At most, it may have involved thousands or perhaps lakhs of people entering the country in search of livelihoods.

Moreover, since around 2005, Bangladesh has recorded rapid economic progress, particularly in sectors such as ready-made garment exports. In fact, its per capita income has, at times, marginally surpassed that of India. As a result, illegal migration from Bangladesh into India has declined significantly.

This is precisely why neither the Election Commission nor the Modi government is willing to answer a simple question: in the states where the SIR exercise has already been completed, including Bihar and West Bengal, how many illegal migrants were actually identified through the process? Was it hundreds, thousands, or lakhs? No answer has been forthcoming. The Supreme Court, too, has not pressed the Commission on this question.

Meanwhile, reports over the past two weeks indicate that the BJP governments in West Bengal and Gujarat have identified around three to four thousand impoverished Bangladeshi nationals who were either overstaying their visas or residing in India without proper documentation. This is not fundamentally different from the thousands of Indians who attempt to enter the United States illegally every year in search of economic opportunities and are subsequently detained.

When Indian Hindus migrate illegally to the United States in significant numbers, they are not doing so as part of a demographic invasion aimed at altering America’s racial composition or taking over the country. By the same logic, the few thousand undocumented workers who may have migrated from Bangladesh to India are economic refugees in search of survival, not conspirators engaged in a grand political project.

Yet the purpose of the “Committee on Demographic Change” appears to be precisely to brand Muslims as perpetual illegals, keep them under a constant cloud of suspicion, and reduce them to a condition of permanent insecurity and uncertainty.

In reality, neither illegal migration by foreign Muslims nor the growth of India’s Muslim population poses the demographic challenge facing the country.

India’s population challenge lies elsewhere entirely. By deploying fascistic political strategies and manufactured fears, the Modi government is obscuring the real issues confronting the nation.

The Myth of Muslim Population Growth

If the BJP were to think about the interests of the country, even once, rather than viewing every issue through the prism of partisan advantage, a few realities would become immediately apparent:

• India is not facing a population explosion.
• Population growth is not the primary cause of poverty in India. On the contrary, India’s large youth population presents a historic opportunity for rapid economic growth.
• The rate of growth of the Muslim population has been declining sharply over the past two decades, and in fact has been falling faster than the growth rate of the Hindu population.

These facts are clearly borne out by the third, fourth, and fifth rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), conducted under the aegis of the Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as well as by the population census reports of 1991, 2001, and 2011.

India’s Population Growth Rate Is Declining

One of the biggest myths surrounding India’s demographic situation is that because India has one of the largest populations in the world, its population growth rate is spiralling out of control and therefore requires urgent and stringent intervention.

The reality is precisely the opposite. India’s population growth rate is steadily and healthily declining, not increasing.

The most widely used measure for assessing population growth is the Total Fertility Rate (TFR). TFR refers to the average number of children a woman is expected to give birth to during her reproductive years, generally between the ages of 15 and 49.

At the time of Independence, India’s TFR stood at approximately 5.9. In other words, an average Indian woman gave birth to nearly six children during her lifetime. Had that trend continued unchecked, India’s population today could have reached 2.5 to 3 billion people.

However, from the very beginning, India placed considerable emphasis on family welfare programmes, awareness campaigns, access to contraception, and reproductive health services. Wherever awareness increased, healthcare became accessible, and women gained greater educational and economic empowerment, fertility rates began to decline rapidly.

According to the 2015–16 National Family Health Survey, India’s average TFR had fallen to 2.3. Compared to 1951, this represents a decline of well over fifty per cent in the rate of population growth.

Women’s Empowerment, Not Coercive Laws, Drives Fertility Decline

Apart from the excesses associated with forced sterilisation during the Emergency, India’s family planning programme has largely relied on persuasion, access to healthcare services, and women’s empowerment rather than coercive legal measures.

This is not unique to India. Across the world, every successful population stabilisation programme has followed the same path. At the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994, India reaffirmed its commitment to this rights-based approach.

The variation in fertility rates across Indian states further reinforces this conclusion.

According to the 2015–16 NFHS, while India’s average TFR stood at 2.3, relatively developed states such as Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Gujarat recorded fertility rates of only 1.7 to 1.8—well below the national average.

In stark contrast, Bihar recorded a TFR of 3.4 and Uttar Pradesh 2.7, both substantially above the national average. The difference is not difficult to understand. States with lower fertility rates generally exhibit higher levels of female literacy, educational attainment, women’s participation in public life, and overall socio-economic development.

Indeed, the fertility rate among Hindus in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is higher than the fertility rate among Muslims in many southern states. In other words, Muslim women in the southern states are, on average, having fewer children than Hindu women in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

That is precisely why the phrase “Development is the Best Contraceptive” has become a widely accepted principle across the world. Development reduces fertility rates far more effectively than punitive laws ever can.

Equally important is the finding of the 2020–21 National Family Health Survey that 54 per cent of Indian women have only two children, while 76 per cent of women married during the past decade have expressed no desire to have a second child.

The implication is clear. When women are empowered to make decisions about their own bodies and reproductive lives, and when families become more democratic and egalitarian, population growth declines naturally without the need for coercion or state-imposed restrictions.

Muslim Population Growth Is Declining Faster Than Hindu Population Growth

Another important fact revealed by the National Family Health Surveys is that, over the past three decades, the fertility rate among Muslims has been declining faster than that among Hindus.

According to the third round of the NFHS conducted in 2005–06, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) among Hindus stood at 2.59, while the corresponding figure for Muslims was 3.4.

A decade later, according to the fourth round of the NFHS, the Hindu TFR had fallen from 2.59 to 2.13—a decline of 0.46 points.

During the same period, the Muslim TFR fell from 3.4 to 2.61—a decline of 0.79 points.

In other words, although the Muslim fertility rate remains higher than the Hindu fertility rate, it has been declining much more rapidly over the past decade. Consequently, the rate of Muslim population growth has also been falling significantly faster than the corresponding rate among Hindus.

In 2005, the gap between Muslim and Hindu fertility rates stood at 0.81. By 2015, that gap had narrowed to just 0.4. If this trend continues, the difference between Hindu and Muslim fertility rates is likely to become negligible within the next decade.

Equally significant is the fact that fertility rates among Muslims have been falling most rapidly in states with substantial Muslim populations, including Kerala, Assam, West Bengal, and Jammu & Kashmir.

The government’s own demographic data therefore establishes three important conclusions:

• India’s population growth rate is declining in a healthy and sustainable manner.
• The rate of Muslim population growth is declining far more rapidly than is commonly portrayed in public discourse.
• Wherever socio-economic development has advanced, fertility rates have declined across all communities, irrespective of whether they are Hindu or Muslim.

The logical conclusion is straightforward. If the government is genuinely concerned about population stabilisation, its focus should be on education, employment, healthcare, family welfare programmes, access to reproductive health services, and above all, women’s empowerment.

The Real Challenge Is Not Population Growth—It Is Population Decline

In fact, both the NFHS findings and demographic research from around the world point to a very different concern. The challenge confronting many societies today is not unchecked population growth, but declining population growth.

According to a study published in The Lancet, one of the world’s most respected scientific journals, India’s population, currently around 1.4 billion, may continue to grow and reach approximately 1.6 billion by 2048. However, because fertility rates are steadily declining, India’s population is projected to begin shrinking after that point.

By the end of the century, India’s population is expected to decline substantially.

Even more significant than the overall decline in numbers is the changing age structure of the population. The proportion of elderly citizens is expected to rise sharply, while the share of the working-age population will steadily decrease.

This will have profound economic consequences. A smaller workforce will be required to support a much larger elderly population. Governments will face growing pressure to provide pensions, healthcare, and social security, while economies may increasingly depend on migration and labour inflows from younger populations elsewhere.

These are the demographic challenges that demand serious attention.

The issue before India is not an imaginary population explosion. The real question is how to create productive employment opportunities for the country’s vast youth population and harness this demographic advantage while it still exists.

At the same time, policymakers must begin preparing for the economic, political, and social consequences of an ageing society that will emerge over the coming decades.

Instead of confronting these real challenges, communal fearmongering and demographic myths are being used to divert public attention from the issues that genuinely matter.

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Significantly, this action by the BMC authorities, as reported by India Today, followed two months after BJP leader and former MP Kirit Somaiya visited the place and urged the authorities to demolish the structure that was allegedly constructed on the land of the Maharashtra government’s dairy development project. Somaiya is a key leader who stokes strong communal passions in Mumbai. Soon after the demolition, the veteran BJP leader wrote on X, “Land JIHAD… illegal DARGAH of Aarey Colony Mumbai Demolished today. I had visited & filed a complaint on April 9, 2026.”

AAREY Land JIHAD

70,000 square feet Forest Land was grabbed in the name of Dargah.

After consistent efforts of 12 months 6 visits & 12 meetings with Minister, Officials & 1 FIR yesterday DEMOLITION.

Now this land is to be handed over to Forest Dept, Sanjay Gandhi National… pic.twitter.com/RA8NddmIxe

— Kirit Somaiya (@KiritSomaiya) June 3, 2026

Land Jihad
Land Grabbing in the name of DARGAH

Aarey Colony Reserved Forest Land by

Mahmud Yasin
Anwar Pinjari
Imran Mansuri
Vasim Mansuri & others

I had visited the site half a dozen times in last 12 months. Exposed the Land JIHAD & Filed complaints with Aarey Colony,… pic.twitter.com/CRxgq2UCvx

— Kirit Somaiya (@KiritSomaiya) June 2, 2026

Early on Tuesday morning, an army of bulldozers and cranes arrived on the land to start the demolition drive. The area was cordoned off by a heavy deployment of police forces to prevent any unpleasant situation from arising. Keeping the stone-pelting incident of Bandra Garib Nagar in mind, where the people allegedly threw stones at the officials when a demolition driver headed to raze down a religious structure, the people started throwing stones. Personnel from both Mumbai Police and riot-control forces were present at the spot.

Last week, the BMC also demolished a temple that was illegally constructed in Mumbai’s Dindoshi area.

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The post Under heavy police protection, decades-old Mumbai dargah razed appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Statesman reported that the Ajgaib Shaheed Mosque, located near Rajghat and falling within the alignment of the railway expansion project, was brought down shortly after midnight amid extensive security arrangements. Officials claimed that the structure stood on railway land earmarked for the station’s modernisation and expansion.

A report in the Deccan Herald said that a Hanuman Temple, which was also built on the railway land, was removed.

This sudden and arbitrary demolition is linked to a major infrastructure project under which Kashi railway station is being transformed into an integrated transport hub with airport-like facilities. Estimated to cost between Rs 330 crore and Rs 400 crore, the project aims to connect rail, road, metro and water transport networks at a single location to improve passenger movement in the city.

According to officials, senior police and administrative officers reached the site late Tuesday night and supervised the operation, which was completed within a short span. Bulldozers and earth-moving equipment were deployed to bring down the structure and clear the debris.

Massive security cover for overnight operation

The administration had put in place elaborate security measures to prevent any law-and-order issues during the exercise.

Joint Commissioner of Police Shiv Hari Meena led the security arrangements, with several IPS officers, police personnel and paramilitary forces stationed in and around the area. Access to the site was tightly restricted during the operation.

Officials said five JCB machines and two Poclain excavators were used in the demolition process.

Senior officers monitored operation

Before the demolition began, senior officials carried out a review of the area and security deployment. Among those present were DCP Kashi Gaurav Banswal, ADCP Vaibhav Bangar, ACP Vijay Pratap and officers from multiple police stations. The heavy deployment continued until debris from the site was removed.

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