There have been several instances of religious violence against Muslims since the partition of India in 1947, frequently in the form of violent attacks on Muslims by Hindu nationalist mobs that form a pattern of sporadic sectarian violence between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Over 10,000 people have been killed in Hindu-Muslim communal violence since 1950 in 6,933 instances of communal violence between 1954 and 1982.
The causes of violence against Muslims are varied. The roots are thought to lie in Indian history – resentment towards the Islamic conquest of India during the Middle Ages, divisive policies established by the colonial government during the period of British rule, and the partition of Indian subcontinent into a Muslim-majority Pakistan and an Indian state with a Muslim minority. Many scholars believe that incidents of anti-Muslim violence are politically motivated and a part of the electoral strategy of mainstream political parties who are associated with Hindu nationalism like the Bharatiya Janata Party. Other scholars believe that the violence is not widespread but that it is restricted to certain urban areas because of local socio-political conditions.
Background
The roots of anti-Muslim violence can be traced to events in Indian history – resentment towards the Islamic conquest of India during the Middle Ages, divisive policies established by the colonial government during the period of British rule (particularly after the suppression of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which saw Hindus and Muslims cooperate in revolt against the East India Company), and the partition of India into Muslim-majority Pakistan and an Indian state with a Muslim minority.
A major factor in the rising tide of violence against Muslims is the proliferation of Hindu-nationalist parties, which work alongside or under the political umbrella of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. This is evident in Golwalkar's writings about Hitler's Nazi-Germany where he observed: "Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well nigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for use in Hindusthan to learn and profit by." Since former-BJP leader LK Advani took the Hindutva-ideology to the mainstream of Indian politics by way of a Ram Rath Yatra, violent attacks on Muslim minorities have increased. Scholars argue that anti-Muslim rhetoric, politics, and policies have proved beneficial for Hindutva-leaders, especially the BJP, and therefore can be said to be politically motivated.
Manifestation
Violence against Muslims is frequently in the form of mob attacks on Muslims by Hindus. These attacks are referred to as communal riots in India and are seen to be part of a pattern of sporadic sectarian violence between the majority Hindu and minority Muslim communities, and have also been connected to a rise in Islamophobia throughout the 20th century. Most incidents have occurred in the northern and western states of India, whereas communalist sentiment in the south is less pronounced. Among the largest incidents in post-partition India include the large-scale killing of Muslims following the Operation Polo in Hyderabad, 1969 Gujarat riots, 1984 Bhiwandi riot, 1985 Gujarat riots, 1989 Bhagalpur violence, Bombay riots, Nellie in 1983 and Gujarat riot in 2002 and 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
These patterns of violence have been well-established since partition, with dozens of studies documenting instances of mass violence against minority groups. Over 10,000 people have been killed in Hindu-Muslim communal violence since 1950. According to official figures, there were 6,933 instances of communal violence between 1954 and 1982 and, between 1968 and 1980, there were 530 Hindus and 1,598 Muslims killed in a total of 3,949 instances of mass violence.
In 1989, there were incidents of mass violence throughout the north of India. Praveen Swami believes these periodic acts of violence have "scarred India's post independence history" and have also hindered India's cause in Jammu and Kashmir with regard to the Kashmir conflict.
In 2017, IndiaSpend reported that 84% of the victims of cow vigilante violence in India from 2010 to 2017 were Muslims, and almost 97% of these attacks were reported after May 2014.
Causes and effects
Ahmedabad(1969)
Nellie(1983)
Bhagalpur(1989)
Moradabad(1980)
Mumbai(1992)
Gujarat(2002)
Bhiwandi(1984)
Meerut(1982,1987)
Muzaffarnagar(2013)
Ayodhya(1992)class=notpageimage| Location of incidents. City name with year
Some scholars have described incidents of anti-Muslim violence as politically motivated and organized and called them pogroms, or a form of state terrorism with "organized political massacres" rather than mere "riots". Others argue that, although their community faces discrimination and violence, some Muslims have been highly successful, that the violence is not as widespread as it appears, but is restricted to certain urban areas because of local socio-political conditions, and there are many cities where Muslims and Hindus live peacefully together with almost no instances of sectarian violence.
Role of political parties
Many social scientists feel that many of the acts of violence are institutionally supported, particularly by political parties and organizations connected to the Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). In particular, scholars fault the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena for complicity in these incidents of violence and of using violence against Muslims as a part of a larger electoral strategy. For example, research by Raheel Dhattiwala and Michael Biggs has stated that killings are far higher in areas where the BJP faces stiff electoral opposition than in areas in which it is already strong. In 1989, the north of India saw an increase in orchestrated attacks on Muslims, and the BJP had further success in the local and state elections. The social anthropologist Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah concludes that the violence in Bhagalpur in 1989, Hashimpura in 1987 and Moradabad in 1980 were organised killings. According to Ram Puniyani, the Shiv Sena were victorious in the elections due to the violence in the 1990s, and the BJP in Gujarat after the 2002 violence. Gyan Prakash, however, cautions that the BJP's actions in Gujarat do not equate to the entirety of India, and it remains to be seen if the Hindutva movement has been successful in the deployment of this strategy nationwide. In recent years, anti-Muslim violence in India has increased seriously due to the Hindutva ideology which envisages citizens with other religious beliefs to have second‐class status.
Economic and cultural factors
Hindu nationalists use the historical subjugation of India by Muslims as an excuse for violence. They feel that, since the Partition, Indian Muslims are allied to Pakistan and are possibly radicalised and, therefore, the Hindus must take defensive steps to avoid repeat of the past wrongs and reassert their pride. The higher fertility rate among Muslims has been a recurring theme in the Hindu Right's rhetoric. They claim that the higher birth rate among Muslims is part of a plan to turn the Hindus into a minority within their own country.
Another reason given for these outbreaks of violence is the upward mobility of the lower castes caused by the expansion of the economy. The violence has become a substitute for class tensions. Nationalists, rather than deal with the claims from the lower class, instead view Muslims and Christians as not "fully Indian" due to their religion, and portray those who carry out these attacks as "heroes" that defended the majority from "anti-nationals". Muslims are viewed as suspect and their loyalty to the state is questioned because of the ill-will still prevalent after the violence during partition. According to Omar Khalidi:
Anti-Muslim violence is planned and executed to render Muslims economically and socially crippled and, as a final outcome of that economic and social backwardness, assimilating them into lower rungs of Hindu society.
Cultural nationalism has also been given as a reason for instances of violence carried out by Shiv Sena which initially claimed to speak for the people of Maharashtra, but quickly turned their rhetoric to inciting violence against Muslims. The Shiv Sena were complicit in the violence in 1984 in the town of Bhiwandi, and again in the violence in Bombay in 1992 and 1993. Violence has been incited by Sena in 1971 and 1986. According to Sudipta Kaviraj, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) are still engaged in the religious conflicts which began in the medieval times.
Anti-Muslim violence creates a security risk for Hindus residing outside of India. Since the 1950s, there have been retaliatory attacks on Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh in response to anti-Muslim violence in India. After the 1992 violence in Bombay, Hindu temples were attacked in Britain, Dubai and Thailand. This recurring violence has become a rigidly conventional pattern which has created a divide between the Muslim and Hindu communities.
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has spoken out against these communal clashes, as it believes that the violence not only impacts upon Muslims, but India as a whole, and that these riots are damaging to India's progress. In Gujarat, the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) was used in incidents pertaining to communal violence in 1992 and 1993. The majority of those arrested under the act were Muslim. Conversely, TADA was not used after the violence carried out against Muslims during the Bombay riots.
Demographics
The BJP politicians, as well as those of other parties, argue that demographics play an essential role in Indian elections. The BJP believe that the higher the number of Muslims within a constituency, the higher are the chances of centrist parties to acquiesce to minority groups' requests, which lowers the chances of Muslims "building bridges" with their Hindu neighbours. As such, according to this argument "Muslim appeasement" is the root cause of communal violence. Susanne and Lloyd Rudolph argue that the economic disparity is a reason for the aggression shown towards Muslims by Hindus. As India's economy expanded due to globalization and investment from overseas companies, the expectations of the Hindu population were not matched by the opportunities. Hindu nationalists then encouraged the perception of Muslims as the source of the Hindus' troubles.
The actions of anti-Hindu and anti-India militant groups in Kashmir and Pakistan have reinforced anti-Muslim feelings in India, which has strengthened the Hindu Right. The Hindutva discourse portrays Muslims as traitors and state enemies, whose patriotism is suspected. Sumit Ganguly argues that the rise in terrorism cannot only be attributed to socioeconomic factors, but also to the violence perpetrated by Hindutva forces.
Major incidents
Approximate total victims due to major incidents
| Year | State | Dead | Injured | Incarcerated | Displaced | Conviction of culprits | Incident |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | West Bengal | 100+ | 438 | 7000+ | ? | ? | 1964 Calcutta riots |
| 1983 | Assam | 1800 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 1983 Nellie massacre |
| 1969-1985 | Gujarat | 3130 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 1969 to 1985 Gujarat riots |
| 1987 | Uttar Pradesh | 42 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 1987 Hashimpura massacre |
| 1989 | Bihar | 1000 | ? | ? | 50000 | ? | 1989 Bhagalpur riots |
| 1992 | Maharashtra | 900 | 2036 | ? | 1000 | ? | 1992 Bombay riots |
| 2002 | Gujarat | 2000 | ? | ? | 200000 | ? | 2002 Gujarat violence |
| 2013 | Uttar Pradesh | 42 | 93 | 150 | 50000 | ? | 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots |
| 2020 | Delhi | 53 | 200 | ? | ? | ? | 2020 Delhi riots |
| NA | Approximate total | 9067 | 2767 | 7150 | 301000 | NA | NA |
1964 Kolkata riots
Main article: 1964 Calcutta riotsRiots between Hindus and Muslims had left over a hundred people dead, 438 people were injured. Over 7000 people were arrested. 70,000 Muslims have fled their homes and 55,000 were provided protection by the Indian army. Muslims in Kolkata became more ghettoized than ever before in the aftermath of this riot. Violence was also seen in rural West Bengal.
1983 Nellie massacre
Main article: Nellie massacreOn 18 February 1983 between 1,600 and 2,000 Muslims of East Bengal origin from various villages under the Nellie police station in Assam's Nagaon district (now Morigaon) were killed by their tribal and low-caste Hindu village neighbors. The incident began in the early morning when groups of villagers burned down the homes of the victims; and with no place to hide and outnumbered the victims ran towards the direction of a CRPF camp with the perpetrators pursuing and hacking to death those who fell back. As a result, those dead were mostly women (70%), followed by the elderly (20%) and men (10%).
This massacre happened in the context of the Assam Movement (1979–1985) that demanded the deletion of foreigners' names from the electoral roll. The Congress-led Government of India decided to go ahead with the 1983 Assembly elections without revising the electoral roll, which the movement leaders decided to boycott with widespread support from the local people. The Miya people decided to support the Congress party instead in the hope that it will end the movement. The AASU's call for boycott triggered widespread violence, with different ethnic, religious and linguistic groups clashing against each others in the then Nagaon district. The Muslim people of Nellie, anticipating an attack, had reported the possibility of one to the police several times before the incident; and though police officers visited Muslim villages to assure their safety, no police personnel was deputed for their protection.
In the aftermath, both the Government of India and the movement leaders blamed each other for the responsibility for the massacre. The government instituted the Tewary Commission, led by a retired IAS officer, in July 1983 to investigate the incident, and though the report has been printed, it has not been released to the public. The Movement leaders boycotted the Tewary Commission, and supported a non-official judicial inquiry commission instead, led by T U Mehta, a retired chief justice of a high court. Both the commissions are seen as biased and aligned to either the government or the movement leaders' perspective, and there exists no third-party report. After the incident, hundreds of cases were filed, and hundreds of charge sheets were submitted by the police; but after the movement leaders came to power in Assam two years later in 1985 all cases concerning the 1983 election were closed and no one has been punished for the incident. After the incident, both the survivors and the perpetrators went back to their villages, though not in complete harmony.
1969 riots to 1985 riots
Main articles: 1969 Gujarat riots and 1985 Gujarat riotsDuring the 1969 Gujarat riots, it is estimated that 630 people lost their lives. The 1970 Bhiwandi Riots was an instance of anti-Muslim violence which occurred between 7 and 8 May in the Indian towns of Bhiwandi, Jalgaon and Mahad. There were large amounts of arson and vandalism of Muslim-owned properties. In 1980 in Moradabad, an estimated 2,500 people were killed. The official estimate is 400 and other observers estimate between 1,500 and 2,000. Local police were directly implicated in planning the violence.
1987 Hashimpura massacre
Main article: Hashimpura massacreHashimpura massacre happened on 22 May 1987, during the Hindu-Muslim riots in Meerut city in Uttar Pradesh state, India, when 19 personnel of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) allegedly rounded up 42 Muslim youth from the Hashimpura mohalla (locality) of the city, took them in truck to the outskirts, near Murad Nagar, in Ghaziabad district, where they were shot and their bodies were dumped in water canals. A few days later dead bodies were found floating in the canals. In May 2000, 16 of the 19 accused surrendered, and were later released on bail, while 3 were already dead. The trial of the case was transferred by the Supreme Court of India in 2002 from Ghaziabad to a Sessions Court at the Tis Hazari complex in Delhi, where it was the oldest pending case. On 21 March 2015, all 16 men accused in the Hashimpura massacre case of 1987 were acquitted by Tis Hazari Court due to insufficient evidence. The Court emphasized that the survivors could not recognize any of the accused PAC personnel. On 31 October 2018, the Delhi High Court convicted the 16 personnel of the PAC and sentenced them to life imprisonment, overturning the trial courts verdict.
1989 Bhagalpur violence
Main article: 1989 Bhagalpur violenceIn 1989 in Bhagalpur, it is estimated nearly 1,000 people lost their lives in violent attacks, believed to be a result of tensions raised over the Ayodhya dispute and the processions carried out by VHP activists, which were to be a show of strength and to serve as a warning to the minority communities. On 24 October 1989 in the Bhagalpur district of Bihar, the violent incidents happened for over 2 months. The violence affected the Bhagalpur city and 250 villages around it. Over 1,000 people were killed, and another 50,000 were displaced as a result of the violence. It was the worst Hindu-Muslim violence in independent India at the time.
1992 Bombay riots
Main article: Bombay riotsThe destruction of the Babri Mosque by Hindu nationalists led directly to the 1992 Bombay riots.According to an article published in The Hindu's Frontline magazine, titled Gory Winter, "officially, 900 people were killed in mob rioting and firing by the police, 2,036 injured and thousands internally displaced." BBC correspondent Toral Varia called the riots "a pre-planned pogrom," that had been in the making since 1990, and stated that the destruction of the mosque was "the final provocation".
Several scholars have likewise concluded that the riots must have been pre-planned, and that Hindu rioters had been given access to information about the locations of Muslim homes and businesses from non-public sources. This violence is widely reported as having been orchestrated by Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist group led by Bal Thackeray. A high-ranking member of the special branch, V. Deshmukh, gave evidence to the commission tasked with probing the riots. He said the failures in intelligence and prevention had been due to political assurances that the mosque in Ayodhya would be protected, that the police were fully aware of the Shiv Sena's capabilities to commit acts of violence, and that they had incited hate against the minority communities.
2002 Gujarat riots
Main article: 2002 Gujarat riotsSince partition, Muslim community has been subject to and engaged in violence in Gujarat. In 2002, in an incident described as an act of "fascistic state terror," Hindu extremists carried out acts of violence against the Muslim minority population.
The starting point for the incident was the Godhra train burning which was allegedly done by Muslims. During the incident, young girls were sexually assaulted, burned or hacked to death. These instances of violence condoned by the ruling BJP, whose refusal to intervene lead to the displacement of 200,000. Death toll figures range from the official estimate of 254 Hindus and 790 to 2,000 Muslims killed. Then Chief Minister Narendra Modi has also been accused of initiating and condoning the violence, as have the police and government officials who took part, as they directed the rioters and gave lists of Muslim-owned properties to the extremists.
Mallika Sarabhai, who had complained over state complicity in the violence, was harassed, intimidated and falsely accused of human trafficking by the BJP. Three police officers were given punitive transfers by the BJP after they had successfully put down the rioting in their wards, so as not to interfere further in preventing the violence. According to Brass, the only conclusion from the evidence which is available points to a methodical pogrom, which was carried out with "exceptional brutality and was highly coordinated".
In 2007, Tehelka magazine released "The Truth: Gujarat 2002," a report which implicated the state government in the violence, and claimed that what had been called a spontaneous act of revenge was, in reality, a "state-sanctioned pogrom". According to Human Rights Watch, the violence in Gujarat in 2002 was pre-planned, and the police and state government participated in the violence. In 2012, Modi was cleared of complicity in the violence by a Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court. The Muslim community is reported to have reacted with "anger and disbelief," and activist Teesta Setalvad has said the legal fight was not yet over, as they had the right to appeal. Human Rights Watch has reported on acts of exceptional heroism by Hindus, Dalits and tribals, who tried to protect Muslims from the violence.
2013 Muzaffarnagar riots
Main article: 2013 Muzaffarnagar riotsIn 2013 between August and September, conflicts between the two major religious communities Hindu and Muslims happened in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh state. These riots resulted in at least 62 deaths including 42 Muslims and 20 Hindus and injured 200 and left more than 50,000 displaced.
2020 Delhi riots
Main article: 2020 Delhi riotsThe 2020 Delhi riots, which left more than 53 dead and hundreds injured including both Hindus and Muslims, were triggered by protests against a citizenship law seen by many critics as anti-Muslim and part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist agenda.
According to Thomas Blom Hansen, a Stanford University professor, across India "a lot of the violence perpetrated against Muslims these days is actually perpetrated by subsidiaries of the Hindu nationalist movement". According to Hansen, the police harassment of Muslims in Muslim neighborhoods in the run-up to the Delhi riots is "very well-documented". According to Sumantra Bose, a London School of Economics professor, since Narendra Modi's reelection in May 2019, his government has "moved on to larger-scale, if still localized, state-sanctioned mob violence".
According to Ashutosh Varshney, the director of the Center for Contemporary South Asia at Brown University, "on the whole, the Delhi riots ... are now beginning to look like a pogrom, à la Gujarat 2002 and Delhi 1984". According to Subir Sinha, a senior lecturer at the SOAS University of London, the north and northeast areas of Delhi were a focus of "highly inflammatory speeches from top BJP ministers and politicians" in the run-up to the Delhi election. Sinha continues that "the pent-up anger of BJP supporters" who lost the election in Delhi, effectively took it out on "the Muslim residents of these relatively poor parts of the city".
Depictions
In 2000, the movie Fiza was released which depicted 1992-93 Bombay riots.
The film Parzania, which is based on the Gulbarg Society massacre which occurred during the 2002 violence, was boycotted by cinemas in Gujarat over fear of sparking another riot. The film documents atrocities such as families being burned alive in their homes by Hindu extremists, women being set on fire after being gang-raped, and children being hacked to pieces.
Final Solution by Rakesh Sharma is considered one of the better documentaries which covers the violence in Gujarat in 2002. The Central Board of Film Certification had tried to ban the film but, in 2004, chairman Anupam Kher granted a certificate which allowed an uncut version to be screened.
See also
- Saffron terror
- Cow vigilante violence in India
- Religious violence in India
- Violence against Christians in India
- Persecution of Muslims
- Terrorism in India
- 2020 Delhi riots
- Hindutva
- Hate crime
- Hindu–Islamic relations
- Islam in India
References
- ʻAbd Allāh Aḥmad Naʻīm (2008). Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari'a. Harvard University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-674-02776-3.
- Yogesh Atal (2009). Sociology and Social Anthropology in India. Pearson Education India. pp. 250–251. ISBN 978-81-317-2034-9.
- Gupta, Narayani (1981). Delhi between Two Empires. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
- Hardiman, David (2003). Gandhi in His Time and Ours: The Global Legacy of His Ideas. Columbia University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-231-13114-8.
- Smith 2005, pp. 11–12.
- Jaffrelot, Christophe (2015). The Sangh Parivar: A Reader.
- Christophe Jaffrelot (1999). The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s: Strategies of Identity-building, Implantation and Mobilisation (with Special Reference to Central India). Penguin Books India. p. 55.
- Demerath, N. J. (2004). "Review: ". Sociology of Religion. 65 (3): 304–306. doi:10.2307/3712256. JSTOR 3712256.
- Engineer, Asghar Ali (1989). Communalism and communal violence in India: an analytical approach to Hindu-Muslim conflict. South Asia Books.
- Jaffrelot 1996, p. .
- Fachandi, P. (2012). Pogrom in Gujarat: Hindu Nationalism and Anti-Muslim Violence in India. Princeton University Press.
- Brass 2003, p. 65: "Deaths in Hindu-Muslim riots have three sources: "Mob action", "police killings" and "isolated incidents". "Mob action" may take the form of confrontations between gangs or crowds from different communities or segments of them, armed with sticks, knives, swords, and occasionally bombs and small weapons, and kerosene. It often involves armed gangs from one community seeking out defenseless persons or whole families in their homes, slashing and cutting up the male members and sometimes the female members, and raping the latter, and burning all alive including the children. A second source is police killings, which account for a large number of deaths in several major riots for which figures have been provided by inquiry commission reports, and which cannot be justified in terms of "crowd control". These killings are disproportionately of Muslims."
- Riaz 2008, p. 165: "Violence perpetrated against Muslims is now naturalized: riots are 'well-known and accepted transgression of routine political behavior in India.' ... 'Hindu-Muslim riots and anti-Muslim pogroms have been endemic in India since independence.'"
- Herman 2006, p. 65.
- Cohen 2013, p. 66.
- Ganguly 2007, p. 135.
- Pennington 2012, p. 32.
- ^ Dhattiwala & Biggs 2012.
- Brass 2003, p. 60.
- ^ Chandavarkar 2009, p. 29.
- Swami 2006, p. 217.
- Rao, Ojaswi; Abraham, Delna (28 June 2017). "86% Dead In Cow-Related Violence Since 2010 Are Muslim; 97% Attacks After 2014". IndiaSpend.com. Archived from the original on 28 September 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
- Wilkes, Tommy; Srivastava, Roli (28 June 2017). "Protests held across India after attacks against Muslims". Reuters. Archived from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
- Metcalf 2009, p. 117.
- Pandey 2005, p. 188.
- ^ Ghassem-Fachandi 2012, p. 2.
- Metcalf 2013, p. 109.
- Varshney 2004.
- "Religious Politics and Communal Violence: Critical Issues in Indian Politics" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 April 2009. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
- ^ Jaffrelot 2011, p. 376.
- Sarkur 2007, p. 187.
- Brekke 2012, pp. 86–87.
- Brass, Paul. "Riots, Pogroms, and Genocide in Contemporary India: From Partition to the Present". Paul R. Brass. Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- Jaffrelot 2011, p. 382.
- ^ Chandavarkar 2009, p. 114.
- Tambiah 1997, p. 321.
- ^ Puniyan 2003, pp. 12–13.
- Prakash 2007, pp. 177–179.
- Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar (24 November 2020). "Despite Modi, India Has Not Yet Become a Hindu Authoritarian State". CATO Institute.
But fears of India becoming a Hindu authoritarian state have been voiced after Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in New Delhi in 2014. The party's Hindutva philosophy—the creation of a great Hindu state—envisages a Hindu state where citizens with other religious beliefs are tolerated but have second‐class status. The BJP has been associated with hundreds of violent Hindu‐Muslim riots over the decades, the latest being in Delhi in February 2020, which claimed 54 lives.
- Sudha Ramachandran (June 2020). "Hindutva Violence in India: Trends and Implications". Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses. 12 (4). International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research: 15–20. JSTOR 26918077.
In recent years, anti-Muslim violence in India has increased alarmingly. Underlying this violence is the Hindutva ideology, which aims at making secular India a Hindu state.
- Etzion 2008, pp. 123–124.
- Weigl 2012, p. 19.
- Metcalf 2006, p. 89.
- Puniyan 2003, p. 153.
- Kaur 2005, p. 160.
- Kaviraj 2010, p. 245.
- Wilkinson 2006, p. 16.
- Shani, Giorgio (2007). Sikh nationalism and identity in a global age. Routledge. p. 187. ISBN 978-0415421904.
- Sikand 2004, p. 86.
- Singh 2012, p. 427.
- Varshney 2003, p. 8.
- Price 2012, p. 95.
- Sikand 2006, p. 88: "In the fascist Hindutva imagination, the Indian Muslims are continuously reviled as Pakistani "fifth columnists," as "enemies of the nation" and so on, and their patriotism is said to be suspect. The Muslim as the menacing "other" occupies a central place in Hindutva discourse, and this has been used to legitimize large-scale anti-Muslim violence."
- Ganguly 2003, p. 10.
- "1964: Riots in Calcutta leave more than 100 dead". BBC News. 13 January 1964. Archived from the original on 2 July 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
- "On February 18, 1983 about 1,600 to 2,000 Muslims of East Bengal origin were killed in several villages around Nellie." (Kimura 2013:68)
- "The attackers were mostly the Tiwas, the indigenous people whose kingdom was in this area, as well as other local residents, including the Koch and the Hiras, who are Hindus of lower caste." (Kimura 2013:68)
- Kimura (2013, pp. 72–73)
- "People who could reach the CRPF camp were able to save their lives, but many women, children, and elderly people were sacrificed. Among the victims, 70 percent were women, 20 percent were elderly, and 10 percent were men. (Kimura 2013:73)
- Kimura (2013, p. 66)
- "The boycott was supported not only by a handful of extremists and student activists, but also by a majority of the local Assamese people." (Kimura 2013:67)
- "Due to their immigrant origins, the Muslims had decided to vote for the Congress, also hoping that the new government will end the movement" (Kimura 2013:72)
- (Kimura 2013:69)
- (Kimura 2013:72)
- "The GOI put the blame on the AASU for the boycott and for provoking the violence. The AASU and the AAGSP criticized the government for imposing an election which resulted in grave violence." (Kimura 2013:82)
- (Kimura 2013:83)
- (Kimura 2013:83–84)
- (Kimura 2013:84)
- (Kimura 2013:74)
- (Kimura 2013:116)
- ^ Khalidi 2009, p. 180.
- Fatima, Nikhat (17 August 2020). "The forgotten massacre of Muslims in Moradabad, forty years later". TwoCircles.net. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
- Engineer 1991, p. 209.
- "Justice out of sight". Vol. 22, no. 10. Frontline. May 2008. pp. 7–20. Archived from the original on 10 August 2008. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - "Hashimpura massacre: Rifles given to PAC". The Times of India. 27 July 2006. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
- "20 years delayed, trial put off again". The Indian Express. 16 July 2006.
"This is the oldest case pending in Delhi and yet the prosecuting agency is still slow.." – ASJ Kaushik, 22 July 2007.
- "16 acquitted in 1987 Hashimpura massacre case". The Hindu. Delhi. 21 March 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
- "1987 Hashimpura massacre case: Delhi HC sentences 16 ex-policemen to life imprisonment". The Economic Times. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
- Hashimpura Massacre: A brutal and bone – chilling action of custodial killings (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
- "Delhi High Court sentences 16 ex-cops to life imprisonment in Hashimpura massacre case". The Print. 31 October 2018. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
- Berglund 2011, p. 105.
- Singh, Rajiv. "Bihar polls: Will Bhagalpur forgive Congress for 1989 riots?". The Economic Times. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
- "Chronology of communal violence in India - Hindustan Times". 10 February 2013. Archived from the original on 10 February 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
- Metcalf 2009, p. 31.
- Setalvad, Teesta (17 January 2018). "Gory winter". Frontline. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
- Varia 2007.
- Chris Ogden. A Lasting Legacy: The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and India's Politics. Journal of Contemporary Asia. Vol. 42, Iss. 1, 2012
- Tambiah 1997, p. 254.
- Blom Hansen 2001, p. 137.
- Singh, Sujala (2010). "Bombay Cinema: Terror and Spectacle". In Boehmer, Elleke; Morton, Stephen (eds.). Terror and the Postcolonial. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 348. ISBN 978-1-4051-9154-8.
one of the most horrific instances of fascistic state terror took place in Gujarat in 2002
- Burke, Jason (25 November 2014). "Terror threat to India rising again six years after Mumbai attacks". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 31 January 2017. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
- Tilly 2006, p. 119.
- Holst 2004, p. 149.
- Raman 2009, p. 210.
- Gangoli 2007, p. 42.
- Shani, Ornit (2007). Communalism, Caste and Hindu Nationalism: The Violence in Gujarat. Cambridge University Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-0521727532.
- Campbell 2012, p. 233.
- Murphy 2011, p. 86.
- Vickery 2010, p. 455.
- Eckhert 2005, p. 215.
- Brass 2003, p. 388.
- Risam 2010, p. 521.
- Narula, Smita (1 May 2002). "India: Gujarat Officials Took Part in Anti-Muslim Violence". Human Rights Watch.
not a spontaneous uprising, it was a carefully orchestrated attack against Muslims. The attacks were planned in advance and organised with extensive participation of the police and state government officials
- Krishnan & Shams 2012.
- Human Rights Watch 2003.
- "As India Counts Dead, Brutality of Hindu-Muslim Riot Emerges". U.S. News. 29 February 2020.
- Dhume, Sadanand (18 April 2019). "Opinion | India's Government Considers a 'Muslim Ban'". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 23 December 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
- "Narendra Modi Looks the Other Way as New Delhi Burns". Time. 28 February 2020.
- "Anti-Muslim violence in Delhi serves Modi well". The Guardian. 26 February 2020.
- "Modi slammed as death toll in New Delhi violence rises". Al-Jazeera. 26 February 2020.
- "Narendra Modi's Reckless Politics Brings Mob Rule to New Delhi". The Wire. 27 February 2020.
- ^ "'Hate Is Being Preached Openly Against Us.' After Delhi Riots, Muslims in India Fear What's Next". Time. 3 March 2020.
- "The Roots of the Delhi Riots: A Fiery Speech and an Ultimatum". The New York Times. 26 February 2020.
- "Hindu nationalist BJP supporters' 'pent-up anger' behind deadly Delhi riots". France24. 26 February 2020.
- Dasgupta, Swapan (9 October 2000). "'When embracing terrorism becomes a glamour statement'". India Today.
- Chu 2007.
- Gupta 2013, p. 372.
- Mazzarella 2013, p. 224.
Bibliography
- Berglund, Henrik (2011). Galina Lindquist; Don Handelman (eds.). Religion, Politics, and Globalization: Anthropological Approaches. Berghahn. p. 105. ISBN 978-1845457716.
- Blom Hansen, Thomas (2001). Wages of Violence: Naming and Identity in Postcolonial Bombay. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691088402.
- Brass, Paul R. (2003). The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India. University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0295985060.
- Brass, Paul (26 March 2004). "The Gujarat Pogrom of 2002". Social Science Research Council. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- Brekke, Torkel (2012). Chris Seiple; Dennis R. Hoover; Pauletta Otis (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Security. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415667449.
- Campbell, John (2012). Chris Seiple; Dennis Hoover; Dennis R. Hoover; Pauletta Otis (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Security. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415667449.
- Chandavarkar, Rajnayaran (3 September 2009). History, Culture and the Indian City (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521768719.
- Chatterji, Joya (2013). Meghna Guhathakurta; Willem van Schende (eds.). The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0822353188.
- Chu, Henry (25 February 2007). "Film on an India pogrom boycotted". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- Cohen, Stephen P. (2013). Shooting for a Century: The India-Pakistan Conundrum. Brookings Institution Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-0815721864.
- Datta, Antara (2012). Refugees and Borders in South Asia: The Great Exodus of 1971. Routledge. p. 183. ISBN 978-0415524728.
- D'Costa, Bina (2010). Nationbuilding, Gender and War Crimes in South Asia. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415565660.
- Dhattiwala, Raheel; Biggs, Michael (December 2012). "The Political Logic of Ethnic Violence: The Anti-Muslim Pogrom in Gujarat, 2002". Politics & Society. 40 (4): 483–516. doi:10.1177/0032329212461125. S2CID 154681870.
- Eckhert, Julia (25 May 2005). Austin Sarat; Christian Boulanger (eds.). The Cultural Lives of Capital Punishment: Comparative Perspectives. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0804752343.
- Engineer, Asghar Ali (1991). Communal Riots in Post-independence India. Sangam. ISBN 978-0863111396.
- Engineer, Asghar Ali (December 2002). "Gujarat Riots in the Light of the History of Communal Violence". Economic and Political Weekly. 37 (50).
- Etzion, Amitai (2008). Security First: For a Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300143072.
- Gangoli, Geetanjali (28 January 2007). Indian Feminisms: Law, Patriarchies and Violence in India. Ashgate. ISBN 978-0754646044.
- Ganguly, Rajat (2007). "Democracy and ethnic conflict". In Sumit Ganguly; Larry Diamond; Marc F. Plattner (eds.). The State of India's Democracy. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0801887918.
- Ganguly, Sumit (2003). The Kashmir Question: Retrospect and Prospect. Routledge. ISBN 978-0714684390.
- Ghassem-Fachandi, Parvis (19 March 2012). Pogrom in Gujarat: Hindu Nationalism and Anti-Muslim Violence in India. Princeton University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0691151779.
- Ghosh, Partha S. (2004). Ranabir Samaddar (ed.). Peace Studies: An Introduction To the Concept, Scope, and Themes. SAGE. ISBN 978-0761996606.
- Gupta, Ravi (2013). "The changing landscape". In K. Moti Gokulsing; Wimal Dissanayake (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Indian Cinemas. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415677745.
- Hazarika, Sanjoy (26 February 1984). "Peace fragile in Assam a year after carnage". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 7 February 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
- Hefner, Robert W. (2006). Robert W. Hefner; Muhammad Qasim Zaman (eds.). Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691129334.
- Herman, Phyllis K. (2006). Kathryn M. Coughlin (ed.). Muslim Cultures Today: A Reference Guide. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0313323867.
- Holst, Arthur (30 August 2004). Merril D. Smith (ed.). Encyclopedia of rape. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0313326875.
- Peter Malcolm Holt; Ann K. S. Lambton; Bernard Lewis, eds. (1977). The Cambridge History of Islam. Vol. 2A (New ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521291378.
- Human Rights Watch (2003). "Compounding Injustice: The Government's Failure to Redress Massacres in Gujarat". Fédération internationale des droits de l'homme. p. 57. Archived from the original on 19 June 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
- Hussain, Monirul (1 February 2009). Sibaji Pratim Basu (ed.). The Fleeing People of South Asia: Selections from Refugee Watch. Anthem. p. 261. ISBN 978-8190583572.
- Jaffrelot, Christophe (1996). The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics 1925–1990s: Strategies of Identity-Building, Implantation and Mobilisation. London: C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 9781850653011.
- Jaffrelot, Christophe (2011). Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. C Hurst & Co. ISBN 978-1849041386.
- Kaur, Raminder (5 February 2005). Performative Politics and the Cultures of Hinduism: Public Uses of Religion in Western India. Anthem. ISBN 978-1843311393.
- Kaviraj, Sudipta (2010). The Imaginary Institution of India: Politics and Ideas. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231152235.
- Khalidi, Omar (28 December 2009). Shiping Hua (ed.). Islam and democratization in Asia. Cambria Press. ISBN 978-1604976328.
- Kimura, Makiko (2013). The Nellie Massacre of 1983: Agency of Rioters. Sage Publications India. ISBN 9788132111665.
- Kokrajhar; Dhubri (24 August 2012). "Killing for a homeland". The Economist Banyan blog. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012.
- Krishnan, Murali; Shams, Shamil (11 March 2012). "Modi's clearance in the Gujarat riots case angers Indian Muslims". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- Markovits, Claude. "India from 1900 to 1947". Mass Violence.Org. Archived from the original on 8 April 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- Mazzarella, William (2013). Censorium: Cinema and the Open Edge of Mass Publicity. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0822353881.
- Metcalf, Barbara (2006). Robert W. Hefner; Muhammad Qasim Zaman (eds.). Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691129334.
- Metcalf, Barbara D. (2009). Barbara D. Metcalf (ed.). Islam in South Asia in Practice. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691044200.
- Metcalf, Barbara (2013). Deana Heath; Chandana Mathur (eds.). Communalism and Globalization in South Asia and its Diaspora. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415857857.
- Murphy, Eamon (24 March 2011). Richard Jackson; Eamon Murphy; Scott Poynting (eds.). Contemporary State Terrorism: Theory and Practice. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415664479.
- Pandey, Gyanendra (1 November 2005). Routine violence: nations, fragments, histories. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0804752640.
- Pennington, Brian K. (2012). "Striking the Delicate Balance Teaching Violence and Hinduism". In Brian K. Pennington (ed.). Teaching Religion and Violence. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195372427.
- Prakash, Gyan (15 February 2007). Anuradha Dingwaney Needham; Rajeswari Sunder Rajan (eds.). The Crisis of Secularism in India. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0822338468.
- Price, Daniel E. (2012). Sacred Terror: How Faith Becomes Lethal. Praeger. ISBN 978-0313386381.
- Puniyan, Ram (2003). Communal Politics: Facts Versus Myths. Sage. ISBN 978-0761996675.
- Raman, Sita Anantha (8 June 2009). Women in India: a social and cultural history. Praeger. ISBN 978-0275982423.
- Riaz, Ali (2008). Faithful Education: Madrassahs in South Asia. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0813543451.
- Riddick, John F. (2006). The History of British India: A Chronology. Praeger. ISBN 978-0313322808.
- Risam, Roopika (30 December 2010). John D. H. Downing (ed.). Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media. Sage. ISBN 978-0761926887.
- Saikia, Yasmin (2005). Fragmented Memories: Struggling to be Tai-Ahom in India. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0822333739.
- Sarkur, Tanika (2007). Taisha Abraham (ed.). Women and the Politics of Violence. Har Anand. ISBN 978-8124108475.
- Sikand, Yoginder (2004). Muslims in India Since 1947: Islamic Perspectives on Inter-Faith Relations. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415314862.
- Sikand, Yoginder (2006). Ibrahim Abu-Rabi' (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1405121743.
- Singh, Ujjwal Kumar (2012). Victor V. Ramraj; Michael Hor; Kent Roach (eds.). Global Anti-Terrorism Law and Policy (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 427. ISBN 9781107014671.
- Smith, Glenn (2005). Asvi Warman Adam; Dewi Fortuna Anwar (eds.). Violent Internal Conflicts in Asia Pacific: Histories, Political Economies, and Policies. Yayasan Obor. ISBN 9789794615140.
- Swami, Praveen (19 October 2006). India, Pakistan and the Secret Jihad: The Covert War in Kashmir, 1947–2004. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415404594.
- Tambiah, Stanely J. (1997). Leveling Crowds: EthnoNationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South Asia. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520206427.
- Tilly, Charles (2006). Regimes and Repertoires. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226803500.
- "State pogroms glossed over". The Times of India. 31 December 2005.
- Townson, Duncan, ed. (1999). "Indian communal massacres (1946–1947)". Blackwell Reference. doi:10.1111/b.9780631209379.1999.x. ISBN 9780631209379.
- Varia, Toral (2 September 2007). "Mumbai riots a planned, perfected pogrom?". CNN-IBN.
- Varshney, Ashutosh (2003). Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India (2nd Revised ed.). Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300100136.
- Varshney, Ashutosh (26 March 2004). "Understanding Gujarat Violence". Social Science Research Council. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
- Vickery, Jacqueline (30 December 2010). John D. H. Downing (ed.). Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media. Sage. ISBN 978-0761926887.
- Weigl, Constanze (2012). Reproductive Health Behaviour and Decision-making of Muslim Women: An Ethnographic Study in a Low-income Community in Urban North India. Lit Verlag. ISBN 978-3643107701.
- Wilkinson, Steven I. (2006). Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521536059.
Further reading
- Amarasingam, A.; Umar, S.; Desai, S. (2022). "Fight, Die, and If Required Kill": Hindu Nationalism, Misinformation, and Islamophobia in India". Religions. 13 (5): 380. doi:10.3390/rel13050380.
External links
- Brass, Paul R. "On the Study of Riots, Pogroms, and Genocide" (PDF). University of Washington.
