Since PM Narendra Modi came to power in July 2019, India has seen an increase in Hindu nationalist rhetoric that seeks to exclude the Muslim ‘Other’ from its agenda. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have systematically introduced a violent pogrom in the hopes of creating an all-Hindu nationalist State profiting from the mistreatment of Muslims.
A NEW STRING OF VIOLENT ATTACKS
US President Donald Trump’s two-day trip to India has sparked a new string of violent attacks against Muslims, their homes, and their places of worship in New Delhi. Reports indicate that the death toll has risen to approximately 40 people and 50 have been injured after supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the National Population Register (NPR) clashed with anti-BJP protestors.
WHAT IS THE CAA, NRC, AND THE NPR?
In August last year, the conservative BJP first stripped Kashmir of its autonomous rights, then introduced the CAA. The CAA introduced reforms that directly attack Muslim citizenship whilst the NRC purports to create a national register of citizens, requiring all Indians to prove their historic links to the State. The CAA will ease the path for non-Muslims to gain citizenship in India, and in effect strip the citizenship rights of Muslims whom have been living in India since the 1947 Partition of subcontinental India. Put simply, the CAA and NRC are unconstitutional and aim to delegitimise Muslims right to live safely and freely in India.
The introduction of these bills sparked a wave of protests and uprisings from Indian Muslims and human rights activists demanding equal treatment and a commitment towards restoring India’s position as a democratic state. New Delhi has since become the centre for non-violent protests, sit-ins, and demonstrations rejecting the amendments to the law and its implications for Muslims in a rapidly growing far-right State. Since the amendments were announced, activists from the Jamia Millia Islamia University and beyond have been beaten, forced to sing the national anthem, forced to recite Hindu religious chants, and outwardly denounce their rejection of the amendments.
SUPPORTERS OF THE HINDUTVA IDEOLOGY ATTACK MUSLIMS
Within the two days that Donald Trump visited India, supporters of Modi’s BJP have been recorded shouting ‘Hail Lord Ram’, a revered Hindu deity whilst attacking Muslim residents. Within a few days, markets, shops, homes, mosques, and vehicles have been burnt down, and both Muslim and Hindu supporters of the anti-CAA protests have been victim to brutalities that mirror those of the 1947 Partition.
Videos posted on social media also highlighted Muslims being heavily beaten by BJP supporters, with the Indian police officers and authorities silently watching from a distance or sometimes participating in the brutalities. Police have been threatened by locals who oppose the anti-CAA protests and sit-ins, vowing to attack the protestors if they are not contained.
What Trump’s visit to India has done, is justify the anti-Muslim ideologies created by the BJP. It has given Modi’s supporters a reason to wedge an even deeper gap between conservative Hindu groups and Muslim residents. The speeches of leaders like Kapil Mishra, Amit Shah, and Parvesh Verma in the lead up to Trump’s visit have presented the discourse as ‘though all of India is a victim of the Muslim protestors who have been out on the streets for 75 days in protest’.
REMNANTS OF A SEPARATION
The violence in Delhi has been described as a calculated attack on a group of people, bred by fear and nationalism. The attack on Indian Muslims is a product of the Islamophobic rhetoric spread by the Modi and his BJP. The BJP leaders are ‘trying to give the protests a Hindu-Muslim colour. They incite people in the name of religion’, says Zohran, a Jaffrabad resident.
The rise of the far-right in India has presented moral and legal challenges for Muslims and supporters of a democratic state. Contrary to the rhetoric pushed in dominant media platforms, what is happening in India right now is a manifestation of the ongoing battle between fascists and anti-fascists. However, the greatest challenge that the people of India will face in the coming years is developing a feasible strategy to dismantle racist ideologies that aim to incite violence.
Amara is in her final year of a Bachelors of Laws and Communication majoring in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney. She is incredibly passionate about human rights and social justice and intends to pursue a career in international human rights law in the near future.