Ecostani | Discord during festivities and over hyper-local issues, an emerging communal module
It appears that a localised module of creating communal tension is being implemented across India including in places with no history of communal discord.
Protests in Himachal Pradesh over unauthorised construction in mosques in Shimla and Mandi have turned communal in recent weeks.
In the capital Shimla, protests broke out over a mosque in the Sanjauli area of the city while in Mandi, the ongoing controversy is about an illegally built wall of a mosque, built on government land. Subsequently, similar demands to demolish mosques have been made in Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand, in Madhya Pradesh and some other states.
Separately, reports of communal tension during religious festivals associated with Ganesh Chathurthi came in from Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, Bharuch in Gujarat and Jaipur in Rajasthan, the three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states in central and western India.
In Congress-ruled Karnataka’s Nagamangla in Mandya district, Hindu groups alleged that stones were pelted at a Ganesh procession while it was passing by a mosque – and where the procession halted for an extended period. After the alleged stone-pelting, several shops, bikes and homes were set on fire there.
In Ratlam too, the Ganesh idol procession had halted near a mosque; subsequently, communal slogans were raised, followed by violence and chaos.
A Hindu group lodged a complaint, claiming stones were pelted on them by Muslims, a claim denied by the police saying the CCTV footage did not show Muslims pelting stones; the district superintendent of police, Rahul Kumar Lodha, was subsequently transferred.
In Old Jaipur, a Ganesh idol procession while passing through a Muslim- dominated area halted near a mosque, following which provocative slogans were allegedly raised. Similarly, a case was registered on the basis of a complaint by a Hindu group that stones were pelted. In Bharuch, violence started after Hindus protested at Muslims installing religious flags for Eid-E-Milad. In Mumbai, Hindu groups alleged vandalising of Ganesh pandals, resulting in a case being registered.
These incidents of communal violence have an eerie similarity with riots during Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanthi processions carried out in the last few years. In most such incidents, violence started after Hindu groups stopped their processions in Muslim-dominated areas. These stoppages were inevitably followed by the raising of provocative slogans, some of which were aimed at hurting the religious sentiments of the minority community. In many cases, despite the sloganeering, local Muslim elders had urged the Muslim youth to show restraint.
During Ram Navami in April this year, communal incidents were reported from at least eight states in the country with reports of Hindu groups and RSS volunteers displaying arms like swords during these processions. A few days later in April, a repeat happened at several places on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti.
In 2022, similar communal incidents were reported during Hindu and Muslim religious festivals in at least four states. In the past five to seven years, such processions that trigger communal tension have been mainstreamed in various parts of the country with local police often not intervening on time.
In Himachal, the demand to demolish the mosque, in the midst of the controversy, flared from a clash between a local and a Muslim migrant in the Malyana area of Shimla town. As it became Muslims versus locals, the long pending issue of unauthorised construction of a mosque in the Wakf area turned political.
According to Shimla municipal corporation records, the complaint against unauthorised construction in the mosque was raised in 2010 when the construction started. The case has been heard by the court of the municipal corporation since then and it is yet to adjudicate on the matter. However, after the controversy, the mosque committee decided to voluntarily demolish the unauthorised floor of the mosque.
Vikramaditya Singh, the public works department minister, said on Friday that in 2019 when the BJP government was in power, the mosque received a grant of ₹2 lakh from the state government, possibly in an effort to show the party’s involvement in the ongoing issue.
In Mandi, the home district of former chief minister and BJP leader, Jairam Thakur, violent protests erupted over a boundary wall, said to be illegally built, of a local mosque on government land. The protest was organised despite the mosque authorities stating that they would “voluntarily” demolish the unauthorised part of the wall, urging locals not to trigger communal tension.
In Himachal’s Uttarkashi district, local Hindu groups demanded the demolition of a local mosque claiming it to be on government land even though the district administration said there was no encroachment. So much so, that the Hindu group leaders threatened local revenue officials with transfer and suspension after they told the media that there was no encroachment.
It appears that targeting the minority community in one way or another in cities across India has been mainstreamed by small Hindu groups with the help of local BJP leaders. Most of the Hindu group leaders are also local activists and members of the BJP. In a bid to avoid the blame falling on the BJP, these groups organise these protests or processions, which trigger communal disharmony. In most cases of communal violence, local BJP MLAs have supported the Hindu groups, say opposition party leaders.
To me, it appears that a localised module of creating communal tension, whose political benefit the BJP could reap, is being implemented across India, including in places with no history of communal discord. Himachal is one such state, where the module has created distrust between Hindus and Muslims, despite the fact that the local Muslim population is small. Those who come from other states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar help to run the local economy by doing petty jobs that local residents don’t do. This has also opened a new window of discord between locals and migrants.
The Muslim community accounts for less than two percent of the population of the state, which seldom, at least until now, reported cases of communal acrimony and violence.
Sadly, misunderstandings over local issues, fuelled by communal politics, have created a sense of distrust between communities in Himachal, my home state. If not addressed now, this artificially-injected discord could widen the chasm between Hindus and Muslims in a peaceful state known for its Himalayan peaks and verdant valleys.
Chetan Chauhan, national affairs editor, analyses the most important environment and political story in the country this week
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