It is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its proxies and fellow travelers, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal, the Hindu Jagran Manch, and others have clearly played a direct and proximate role in all such states in spreading violence and stigmatizing and invisiblising the minority, states the report published by Chander Uday Singh, senior advocate in the Indian Supreme Court. The 178-page report released today has a foreword by Rohinton F Nariman former Justice in the Supreme Court and is an effort of the Citizens and Lawyers Initiative.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”— George Santayana
Closely examining the events like trishul dikhsa (trident distribution), armed processions around the “festival” of Ram Navmi and Navrati and Hanuman Jayanti, while also addressing the relatively new phenomenon of targeted administrative punishment of demolitions “pioneered” by BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Delhi, the report addresses the sequence of events, response of state actors, demolition drives and media portrayal, providing a thorough documented analysis of the seemingly disparate but carefully orchestrated “events” of 2022.
Gujarat (Himmatnagar, Khambhat), Jharkand, (Lohardaga, Kodermo, Bokharo), Madhya Pradesh (Khargone
and Sendhwa), Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Maharashtra (Mankhurd Malad in Mumbai and Amravati), Goa, West Bengal are extensively covered as is the Jehangirpuri demolition of Delhi, the capital. States that saw low grade violence like Karnataka Bihar Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are also featured. The last chapter “Insights” examines the Nature of Institgation, Tactics of Mobilisaing minority, Administrative response as collective punishment.
A sinister pattern in marginalizing the civil and political rights of minorities, including right to residence and citizenship can be observed in the the multiplying of places of Muslim concentration in the form of ‘resettlement colonies’ on the peripheries of towns and villages, in the aftermath of the Gujarat 2002 riots was termed migration by the state,922 observes the report. “States Victims of the Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti violence, and the demolition drives that followed, face several layers of barriers to rehabilitation. It includes the loss of cash, documentation, and social support systems, threats to physical safety, and economic boycotts, but it is more than state apathy – in situations of communal violence, the Indian state has a history of disrupting Muslim families’ ability to rebuild and recover.
This is a precarity borne particularly by women, who bear the brunt of destabilizing the family and community. This is so visible post the violent religious processions as also in the ongoing citizenship, demolition crisis in Assam.
Distinct and Eerie Patterns
“There are distinct and eerie patterns amongst the Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti processions in April 2022 across all the States covered in this report. They all comprised of larger-than-usual gatherings of saffron-clad men drawing swords, waving trishuls and even (in some cases) firearms, taking deliberately mapped paths that crossed major mosques and Muslim-dominated neighbourhoods, and raising provocative slogans about the coming of a Hindu Rashtra, the conditions under which Muslims would be allowed to live in this Nation, and even justifying violence against Muslims. Many of these processions were accompanied by large flatbed trucks with concert-sized, high-decibel amplifiers and mega-speakers, on which DJs (disc jockeys) blasted hate-filled anti-Muslim music.
“While in some States such as in Goa or Maharashtra, the procession organisers appear to have been satisfied with mere intimidation of members of the minority community, in others – particularly in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Jharkhand – they used the garb of religious festivities to openly target, attack, and even destroy Muslim shops, handcarts, businesses, livelihoods, and even homes. States that saw the most violence are also those where Hindutva groups and extremists enjoy the highest levels of political patronage. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its proxies and fellow travelers, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal, the Hindu Jagran Manch, and others have clearly played a direct and proximate role in all such states in spreading communal unrest.904
Fear Psychosis & Propaganda: Hindu Khatre Mein Hai
“Simultaneously, in continuity with the treatment given to other recent events of communal violence that disproportionately targeted and affected the Muslim community, the events of April 2022 have also been instrumentalised to lend credibility to the notion of “Hindu khatre mein hai” (Hindus are in danger). Therefore, it is important to document the seemingly coordinated nature of the provocation and abuse, the one-sided media portrayal of the genesis of the violence, and the erasures of losses incurred at the hands of both mob violence and the brutality of the State’s response.
The Media Echo Chamber of Propaganda
“Mainstream media, politicians and commentators from the Hindu Right kept up a stream of invective suggesting that the widespread, pan-India violence in April 2022 was instigated by Muslim communities that threw stones at the processions without provocation. It is clear that news media, and particularly the mainstream television channels, played a leading role in
904 Anwar T. (13 April 2022). Ram Navami Violence: Institutionalised bid to subvert democracy. NewsClick. Retrieved from https://www.newsclick.in/Ram-Navami-Violence-Institutionalised-Bid-Subvert-Democracy-Mobsters- Pave-Way-Hindu-Rashtra [09 July 2022]manufacturing fear amongst the Hindu majority, helping to galvanise public opinion against minority communities.
“This report, based entirely upon details collected and collated by compiling reportage and published materials from credible and recognised sources, demonstrates the fact that the processions themselves were the primary catalyst for the violence, in a multitude of ways.
Nature of instigation
“It is not insignificant that the occasions of the birth of Hindu Gods Ram and Hanuman, marked as ‘Ram Navami’ and ‘Hanuman Jayanti’, were used for such strident political mobilisation in April 2022: both days happened to fall in the holy month of Ramzan. The processions concertedly targeted places of worship by gathering in front of Mosques and chanting anti-Muslim slogans, either at the same time as namaz was being offered, or at the breaking of the fast after sunset, thereby ensuring that the confrontation would coincide with the largest possible number of Muslim people being present and vulnerable.
“The processions used offensive slogans and music that openly called for violence against non- Hindus and particularly the Muslim community. What are being attempted to be passed off as ‘simply religious slogans’ have in fact direct political messaging; they are calls that have accompanied mob lynchings and pogroms.
“An important part of the effort put into instigating violence, is the role of the provocative and extremist media that has changed the face of Hindu festivals and celebrations. Incendiary and anti- Muslim songs have been reported from every one of these processions, and have in general become a mainstay of Hindu religious processions in recent years.
“An investigation by Caravan magazine into the ‘Hindutva pop’ phenomenon and its role in galvanising Hindu youth against the Muslim community, found that in both Roorkee and Karauli, most people who took part in the Ram Navami rallies knew the provocative songs being played by heart.905 From young children to middle-aged men, they could all rattle off the names of their favourite songs and artists, which included Sandeep Acharya, Laxmi Dubey, Prem Krishnavanshi and Kanhiya Mittal.
“Songs by these artists are not only popular online – referring to their millions of views on YouTube – but are also often played at temples, political rallies and cultural functions. They mark a shift within Hindu devotional music towards taking on direct political messaging, with lyrics about cow slaughter, Ram Mandir construction, Krishna Janmabhoomi, the lack of unity in Hindus. Their circulation is openly facilitated by the BJP IT cell, even when their violent lyrics get flagged by social media platforms’ content moderation systems. “When my channel got suspended, the central government came to my rescue,” said Laxmi Dubey.906 One of her songs 905 Sakunia S. (01 July 2022). Hindu Rashtra OST: The Hindutva pop singers fuelling a politics of hate. The Caravan.
Retrieved [11 July 2022] from https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/hindutva-pop-hate
906 Ibid
has lyrics that translate to ““We are hardcore Hindus, we will create a new history / We will enter the homes of enemies, and will cut their heads […] / In every home the saffron flag will be seen, the rule of Ram will return / There is only one slogan, one name, victory to lord Ram, victory to lord Ram.”907
Hateful music inscribes religious bigotry into ‘culture’ as everyday life, and the presence of DJs at all of these processions contributes to this. The visuals of young men dancing to and spinning electronic music that blends the devotional and the political with liberal doses of hatred, shows the concerted nature of these strategies. The young men who participated in the Ram Navami procession in Raichur, Karnataka, for example, could have been merely participating in a festival. Yet the song they played in front of the Osmania Mosque in Raichur has a music video made up of footage of the Babri Masjid demolition.908
“In Karauli, Rajasthan where communal violence broke out from 2nd April onwards, organisers of the Nav Samvatsar Shobha Yatra played songs such as ‘Topi wala’ (skullcap wearer) by Sandeep Chaturvedi.909 Its lyrics translate as “The day the Hindus wake up, the consequence will be / That the skull-cap wearer will bow down and say victory to lord Ram./ The day my blood boils, I wish to show you your place / Then I will not speak, only my sword will.” In Karauli, where only 6% of the population is Muslim, many men had this song downloaded on their phones. According to one who participated in the procession, “When we listen to the song, we feel strengthened, we get the feeling that we want to kill every single Muslim around.”910 Others compared these songs to ‘Vande Mataram’ or the national song.
Tactics of mobilising the majority
The Ram Navami riots reflected the important role played by vigilante outfits and local branches of Hindu nationalist groups in building an ethnostate. Having sprouted fast across the country over recent years, it is apparent that several local Hindutva groups are focused on trying to homogenise the practices of Hinduism. These organisations and street gangs, loosely affiliated around religious preachers or local leaders, are perpetuating an atmosphere of constant, everyday terror – sometimes seemingly low-grade violence, and at other times far more destructive attacks. These processions are perhaps the most visible, visceral forms of such an assertion.
907 Iyer A. (11 April 2022). ‘The day my blood boils’: How songs incited hate at a Navratri rally in Rajasthan’s Karauli. Scroll. Retrieved from https://scroll.in/article/1021548/the-day-my-blood-boils-how-songs-incited-hate-at-a- navratri-rally-in-rajasthan-s-karauli [11 July 2022]
908 Prakash B. (25 April 2022). Why the toxic beats of ‘Disc Jockey Hindutva’ are so dangerous for India. Scroll. Retrieved from https://scroll.in/article/1022502/how-the-toxic-beats-of-disc-jockey-hindutva-are-inspiring- violence [11 July 2022]
909 Iyer A. (11 April 2022). ‘The day my blood boils’: How songs incited hate at a Navratri rally in Rajasthan’s Karauli. Scroll. Retrieved from https://scroll.in/article/1021548/the-day-my-blood-boils-how-songs-incited-hate-at-a- navratri-rally-in-rajasthan-s-karauli [11 July 2022]
910 Ibid
“In some areas, this might suggest that caste-based polarisation is being replaced by a religion- based one, by appealing to all caste groups to identify themselves as superior to non-Hindus, especially Muslims. A ground report from Jharkhand about the Ram Navami violence of 2022 states that “A section of Dalits already seem to have traded their Constitutional right to equality with feeling of superiority and power over the Muslims, but subject themselves to the traditional authority of those above them in the Hindu caste hierarchy. They control no resources save the feeling of authority over the Muslims.”911 In Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, the Hindutva cause represents a path to social mobility for younger generations among the lower-caste Bengali Hindus, a way to assert their credentials as part of a pan-Hindu identity against a common enemy: Muslims.912 Reports from Khargone in Madhya Pradesh reflect similar patterns and motivations. The Sakal Hindu Samaj, a collective created in 2021 to bring various caste groups under its fold to address issues concerning Hindus in Khargone, has tried to find ways to enforce the economic boycott of Muslim businesses in the district’s villages.913
“The Wire’s ground report from Khargone a few weeks after Ram Navami, details a set of changes the town went through that facilitated this rise of extremism. There has been a spike in the number of Hindu right-wing organisations – “Five years ago, only the Shiv Sena was active here,” said one local. “Today, we have the Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, Gau Raksha Dal, Karni Sena, VHP, Sakal Hindu Samaj…in all there are about eight or nine such sansthans.”914 Another important change has been a rise in economic boycotts since 2018, prior to which communal flares didn’t affect economic ties as strongly.915 The boycotts started with the town’s real estate boom, when these organisations began appealing to developers not to sell houses to Muslims. The rise of social media in disseminating hate speech and misinformation, has been well documented in terms of its capacity to generate offline violence.
Administration’s Response as Collective Punishment
“A fourth change is the nature of the administration’s response with bulldozers indiscriminately used as reprisals for purported obstruction of processions. This change has also allowed the numerous Hindutva groups to foment hate with more impunity.916
“Further, that the processions were all armed with swords, tridents, bricks and bats is testament to the politicisation of Hindu festivals and their takeover by paramilitary groups operating with impunity due to State support.
“Weapons distribution has also been more openly taking place in recent years, especially in BJP- ruled states. April 2022 also saw mass events for distributing swords and tridents organised by Antarashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP) in both Gujarat and Assam, where they also announced
911 Engineer I. (19 April 2022). Koderma: What actually happened on Ram Navami? Sabrang. Retrieved from https://sabrangindia.in/article/koderma-what-actually-happened-ram-navami [07 July 2022]
912 Pandey T. (26 April 2022). Desire for pan-Hindu identity, hatred for Bangladeshis. The Print. Retrieved from https://theprint.in/features/shakha-taught-us-to-be-brave-how-children-were-drawn-into-jahangirpuri- violence/930389/
913 Lalwani V. (29 April 2022). In A Riot-Torn MP Town, Hindus Organise an Economic Boycott of Muslims. Article 14. Retrieved from https://article-14.com/post/in-a-riot-torn-mp-town-hindus-organise-an-economic-boycott- of-muslims-626b0b188f64b [09 July 2022]
914 Rajshekhar M. (08 July 2022). More Hindu Right Groups, Polarising with Impunity: How Communal Tensions Intensified in Khargone. The Wire. Retrieved from https://thewire.in/communalism/khargone-madhya- pradesh-communal-tensions-boycott [11 July 2022]
915 Ibid
916 ibid
further such drives.917 Calls for mass violence against Muslims in general have been taking place, with tacit endorsement from the authorities, in the form of Dharma Sansads and Hindu Mahapanchayats in Delhi, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.918
“It is clear that incendiary processions have been used to play a multi-functional role in majoritarian consolidation. They are also masquerading as a popular but extremely dangerous mode of religious expression. Although this report is focused on the processions for Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti in April 2022, and the events surrounding them, the same strategies are being invoked on smaller scales almost every month. On April 2nd, the beginning of Navratri, Uttar Pradesh’s Gahmar village saw a procession called the Ram Kalash Yatra, where young Hindu men played the same inflammatory songs and planted a saffron flag on the local mosque.919 Muslim residents are now in fear of going to the mosque but have not responded in any way, perhaps due to being a very small minority in the area.
Administrative response as collective punishment
“While there have been earlier phases of communal violence in India, which entrenched cycles of violence, segregation and generated lasting barriers to socioeconomic mobility for Indian Muslims in particular, they did not undermine State control over society or its authority over institutions in the manner that is being seen today.
“Coordination between Hindutva outfits, and the police and district administration, means combining an extreme ideological entity with the civil service. What can be observed from the 2022 Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti series of events is that the relationship between them has become institutionalised in many parts, sustaining a violently undemocratic model of governance that is anathema to the rule of law.920
In Khargone and Sendhwa in Madhya Pradesh, Jahangirpuri in Delhi, Himmatnagar and Khambhat in Gujarat, the district administrations and local police carried out demolition drives in the immediate aftermath of the violence, i.e., the day after Ram Navami and the day after Hanuman Jayanti. As the chapters of this Report have examined in detail, their punitive motivations were frankly admitted by either the district officials or State ministers, who made no bones about their motivations.
917 SabrangIndia. (25 April 2022). How is the Assam gov’t allowing Pravin Togadia’s trishul distribution? Sabrang. Retrieved from https://sabrangindia.in/article/how-assam-govt-allowing-pravin-togadias-trishul- distribution [11 July 2022]
918 Jha DK. (01 March 2022). Unholy Orders: The Haridwar dharma sansad is a reflection of the RSS’s new strategy with sadhus. The Caravan. Retrieved from https://caravanmagazine.in/commentary/haridwar-dharma-sansad- vhp-rss-hate-speech [11 July 2022]
919 Iyer A. (06 May). CCTVs recorded violence against mosques during Navratri. But are the police watching the footage? Scroll. Retrieved from https://scroll.in/article/1023257/cctvs-recorded-violence-against-mosques- during-navratri-but-are-the-police-watching-it [11 July 2022]
920 Ibid
“Widely recognised by lawyers, human rights defenders and experts to be arbitrary and unconstitutional, the demolition drives break the three cardinal principles of the Indian Constitution, i.e., presumption of innocence, rule of law, and separation of powers between the three wings of the government.
“The demolitions mark a set of important developments in the ongoing dismantling of rule of law and religious freedom in India. One conspicuous feature has been the largely passive role of the court. Most worrisome are the long-term implications of the illegality being ascribed to Muslim settlements. In the immediate sense, the fallout is that loss of housing and livelihood has a cascading effect on all other human rights. However, through these post-procession demolition drives, the occupation of space by the Muslim community is being tagged as encroachment in the concerned States, when the major part of Indian urbanisation comprises of unauthorised construction.
“Particular characteristics of Indian urbanisation, such as unclear systems of land ownership and planned illegalities, have led to a majority of homes in cities like Delhi being technically illegal or unauthorised constructions, even though they exist with tacit approval of the state.921 People settle in unoccupied parts, governments and administrations don’t do anything for years and, most often, regularise them. Many of the residents who lost their homes and livelihoods in these drives testified to receiving entitlements such as electricity or water, and many had documents determining the legitimacy of their residence.
“Historically, the displacement and dispossession of minorities in India tends to be rewritten as resettlement and ‘migration’. For e.g., the multiplying of places of Muslim concentration in the form of ‘resettlement colonies’ on the peripheries of towns and villages, in the aftermath of the Gujarat 2002 riots was termed migration by the state.922
Victims of the Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti violence, and the demolition drives that followed, face several layers of barriers to rehabilitation. It includes the loss of cash, documentation, and social support systems, threats to physical safety, and economic boycotts, but it is more than state apathy – in situations of communal violence, the Indian state has a history of disrupting Muslim families’ ability to rebuild and recover. This is a precarity borne particularly by women, who bear the brunt of destabilizing the family and community.
“The absence of mandatory rehabilitation plans alongside the now-frequent demolitions in BJP- ruled states must be seen in the context of the fate of people displaced due to communal or ethnic violence in India constituting a major information gap, particularly for those who do not live in formal camps or resettlement areas.923
In conclusion, the available evidence corroborates statements by civil society groups, lawyers, academics and activists, that India has reached a stage of perpetual violence. In an open letter to
921 Banerjee, C. (2022, May 18). Why cities create ghettos & politics sends bulldozers. The Times of India. Retrieved from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/why-cities-create-ghettos-politics-sends- bulldozers/articleshow/91611194.cms [09 July 2020]
922 Badigar, S. (2012). A “Normal” Anomaly: Displacement due to Communal Violence in Gujarat. Economic and Political Weekly, 47(3), 42–47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41419740 [11 July 2022]
923 New Internationalist. (04 January 2021). Displaced by a riot. Retrieved from https://newint.org/features/2021/01/04/displaced-riot [11 July 2022]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, more than a hundred retired senior civil servants stated that the administration of law has become the means by which the minorities, particularly the Muslim community, can be kept in a state of perpetual fear.924 Facilitation and support for communal frenzy is being provided at all levels of the administration – from local police and administrative officials to the highest political levels in state and central governments. The letter states, “While the actual commission of violence may be outsourced to fringe groups, there is little doubt as to how the ground for their operations is made fertile, how each of them follows a master script and shares a common ‘tool kit’ and how the propaganda machinery of a party as well as the state is made available to them to defend their actions.”925
The entire report may be read here.
Related:
CJP’s PIL seeking directions for established law & procedure on religious processions: A Factsheet