Violence against Muslims in India

Since the partition of India in 1947, there have been a number of incidents of religious violence against Muslims, frequently in the form of violent assaults on Muslims by Hindu nationalist mobs, which has led to sporadic sectarian violence between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Hindu-Muslim communal violence has claimed the lives of over 10,000 individuals since 1950, with 6,933 incidents occurring between 1954 and 1982.Violence against Muslims has many different root reasons. The division of the Indian subcontinent into a Muslim-majority Pakistan and an Indian state with a Muslim minority, colonial policies that sowed division during the time of British rule, and resentment towards the Middle Ages' Islamic conquest of India are thought to be the roots of the problem. According to many academics, incidents of anti-Muslim violence are politically motivated and a part of the electoral strategy of major political parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party, which are linked to Hindu nationalism. Other academics hold that the violence is not widespread but is instead confined to specific urban regions due to regional socio-political circumstances.

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."^[7] 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, anti-Muslim riots in Kolkata in the aftermath of 1950 Barisal Riots and 1964 East Pakistan riots, 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

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 incidences of sectarian violence.