April 18, 2022

Ram Navami festival spurs wave of anti-Muslim violence

topic:	Islamophobia
located:	India
editor:	Tish Sanghera

During the nine-day Hindu festival of Ram Navami, right-wing Hindu mobs have targeted Muslim communities with hate speech, intimidation and violence across India. In West Bengal, men brandished swords and held rallies in Muslim-dominated neighbourhoods, while in Uttar Pradesh, a crowd climbed atop a mosque and planted a saffron coloured flag (a Hindu symbol) while shouting incendiary slogans designed to stir up animosity between the two communities. 

Perhaps some of the worst rioting was seen in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone district, where a mosque was set on fire during the Ram Navami procession. After a day of rallies in which Hindu groups played antagonistic songs, shouted communal slogans and created a tense environment, violence spread throughout the city with homes vandalised and numerous injuries reported. 

Kapil Mishra, a member of parliament from the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), was in Khargone that day, delivering anti-Muslim speeches designed to stir up hatred against the local Muslim population. Mishra has previously been seen spewing hate speech ahead of the 2020 riots in Delhi, and is a key proponent of the Hindutva narrative underpinning the BJP’s ideology. 

According to New Delhi-based activist Nadeem Khan, founder of the United Against Hate group, the concurrence of numerous instances of anti-Muslim hate and violence that took place across the country during the Ram Navami holiday "clearly shows that it was a well-crafted and organised activity to instigate communal violence in the country." 

The recent spate of violence follows weeks of rising tensions as pro-Hindutva groups have sought to further marginalise and discriminate against Muslim populations. In the southern state of Karnataka, right wing organsiations pressured the authorities of a Hindu temple to ban muslim vendors from setting up stalls at temple fair, a previously common and uncontroversial practice.

Similar events amounting to the economic boycotts of Muslims have also been seen in Bangalore, India’s silicon valley, where a right-wing Hindu leader urged Hindus to not buy fruit from muslim vendors, while in Gujarat pamphlets have been circulating explaining that an economic boycott of Hindus will "[B]reak their backbone. Then it will be difficult for them to live in any corner of this country."

In a recent opinion piece, Congress party head Sonia Gandhi said: "An apocalypse of hatred, bigotry, intolerance and untruth is engulfing our country today. If we don’t stop it now it will damage our society beyond repair."

Image by José Antonio Morcillo Valenciano via Flickr. 

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