How law is being weaponised to criminalise the Muslims in India. An extract
Mujibur Rehman
The frequency, nature, and character of riots have gone through radical changes under the Hindu Right regimes. There are cycles of violence taking place in most parts of the country. Often, victims are presented as perpetrators. The most glaring example of this has been the Delhi riots in which a vast number of Muslims were presented as perpetrators though generally they were the main victims of violence according to a report prepared by the Delhi Commission for Minorities (DCM), which was under the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government. The AAP government barely even endorsed the report. Silence on the riot is a smarter political strategy to deal with the BJP or the Hindu Right, as many sympathizers of the AAP conveyed to this author.
The other noteworthy aspect of the Hindu Right regime that has implications for Muslims is the significant departure in governance with the introduction of what is known as the bulldozer model (also, bulldozer justice). In this approach, as part of the punishment, a bulldozer is used to demolish the house of the person concerned without following any procedure of law or establishing that the alleged violator is indeed on the wrong side of the law. While there are instances of it being used against non-Muslim citizens, it has been predominantly reserved for Muslim citizens who are alleged to have violated some law. Uttar Pradesh is considered the pioneer of this form of justice but it has become an inspiration among various Hindu Right regimes in other states such as Assam, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana, too. Though some of the courts have been deeply critical of this approach, it has fallen on deaf ears, demonstrating another evidence of a failure of what I have described as the ‘separation of powers’ model of liberal democracy in the Indian case.
Another concern of the Hindu Right regime is about the madrasas and their activities. In Uttar Pradesh, there was an attempt by the government to survey the state of madrasas. As an institution, since 9/11, madrasas have been a site of suspicion and there have been clamours for their reform and modernization. Scholarly research by Usha Sanyal, Shriya Aiyer, and Hem Borker presents a positive picture of the role of madrasas even in the context of Muslim women—their supplementary contributions. Some of the concerns by the Hindu Right about madrasas has been to find out how nationalistic they are.
The legality of old mosques and shrines is another area where the Hindu Right regime is eager to intervene. Invariably an attempt is made to ask for legal documents. In Delhi, a list of Muslim shrines and dargahs has now been prepared, for which the state seeks legal documents. In the event of failure to show these documents, properties are seized and structures are demolished. In Gujarat, particularly in Junagarh, this led to violence. In Delhi, a list of hundreds of such sites is under scrutiny.
Another major accusation is about the concerted attempt by Muslims to engage in religious conversions or what is called love jihad. Muslim youths, it is claimed, are deliberately enticing Hindu girls into having affairs, mainly to convert them to Islam. This allegation is so widespread that young couples are often targeted by vigilante groups. All in all, the Indian Muslim community seems to be a target of various forms of violence. Cow vigilantism has also been unleashed to coerce the community. In a well-researched book titled, Love Jihad and Other Fictions, by Sreenivasan Jain, Mariyam Alavi, and Supriya Sharma, several of the high-profile cases are well analyzed and the Hindu Right groups’ claims have been debunked.
When all of these accusations and responses by the Hindu Right to Muslim lives, issues, or identity are taken into account, it becomes clear that there is more to it than just stopping the alleged appeasement politics or abuse of minority rights by the governments. The truth is there is a clear-cut agenda of what I have described in the Introduction as the DEISLAMIZATION of India.
Comparison with African Americans
One way to look at the future of the relationships between Indian Muslims and India’s evolving majoritarian polity is by comparing it with the experiences of the African American minority in America. From the dark days of slavery to the Black Lives Matter movement, the arduous and painstaking journey of African Americans has confronted countless challenges and experienced multiple forms of human cruelty. Nonetheless, the community continues to fight a remarkable battle for human dignity and human rights. It is widely known how Martin Luther King Jr offered extraordinary leadership and had to pay the price of his life for the cause.
The basic issue is how much of the rights of a Muslim can be taken away from him/her under a Hindu majoritarian state and what type of violence can be unleashed.
In the lives of the African American community, there is living evidence of how cruelty, violence, and degradation can be unleashed on fellow human beings by a dominant social group. Multiple laws have been enacted to control their lives, extract their services, and unleash violence on them with impunity. This sustained violence for centuries has affected the emotional self of African-Americans. But the struggle, in its individual as well as collective form, is not yet over. The consequences of this form of violence on Black people have been enormous. Annette Gordon-Reed, in her book, On Juneteenth, presents a fascinating perspective on the fight for equality and human dignity.
SHIKWA-E-HIND: THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIAN MUSLIMS
Mujibur Rehman
Simon & Schuster, Pg 360, Rs 999