Tag: hindu-muslim relations

In India’s ‘Brass City’, an Overwhelmingly Muslim Workforce Stares at a Looming Crisis

Industries that once offered socio-economic mobility for local Muslims are now being targeted across UP, albeit “silently”, some believe.

Moradabad: Since his early teens, 45-year-old Ashaqeel (who goes only by his first name) has been working as an artisan smelting and casting brass in a cubby-hole furnace area, in the Peerzada locality of western Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad. But despite over three decades of work, he has never felt as anxious about his prospects as he does now. 

“Local authorities have increasingly raised concerns about our brass production units, labelling them to be polluters, and we’ve been asked to relocate or shift to different methods of production. Where do we go when we’ve been working here for the past three decades and beyond?” a weary Ashaqeel asked.

Moradabad was once known as India’s ‘peetal nagri (brass city)’, but now a growing number of locals involved in the industry are expressing unease at what they see as an increasingly bleak future. 

Despite the city’s famous brass industry being part of the Union and UP government’s flagship ‘One District One Product’ scheme, demand for the metal has declined. 

“The brass industry is now worth Rs 8,000-9,000 crore at best. Until 2008-09, the turnover was at least Rs 20,000 crores,” a member of Moradabad’s Brass Manufacturers Association, Azam Ansari, informed The Wire. The former board member in the All India Handicrafts Board stressed that the sharp decline in the metal’s international demand had also affected them. “Over 50% of brass manufacturing units and 25-30% of our export units have shut down in the last decade,” he pointed out.  

Already under distress since the twin blows of demonetisation and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the onset of the pandemic, and the rising cost of raw materials and coal forced thousands to migrate. Brass is now said to make up just 20-25% of the metal industry in Moradabad. “Aluminium has taken over and is now at least 70% of the industry,” Ansari said. 

Moradabad’s industry has a three-stage production process, starting with artisans or karigars who form the backbone of the trade and undertake the work of casting, engraving and polishing the metal. The two other prominent players are the manufacturers and exporters. The divide between the three types of workers has widened over the past decade.  

“The son of an exporter has access to more profits, more money. If the exporter is making Rs 6,000 on a big order, the manufacturer makes Rs 4,000-5,000 while the artisan makes Rs 500-600 at best and is still a piece-rate labourer,” said 52-year-old Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, who has been casting metal in kilns for over four decades. 

While wages and profits have stagnated, the latent impact of communalism has also made an impact on the once-thriving industry. 

For Muslim-owned businesses and workers, flashbacks to post-riot economic distress

Close to 47% of the city’s population is Muslim and many have been involved in the brass industry. Amongst the various stages of production, Muslims have traditionally dominated in artisan and manufacturing roles. At present, there are approximately 4,000 exporters of brass in Moradabad, a majority of whom are Hindus, according to both Azam Ansari and Z.S. Mansoori, head of the Peetal Basti Dastkar Association.

“The manufacturers and at least 80% of the artisans are Muslim. Hindus are more involved in the labour in terms of packaging and polishing,” Azam Ansari said. At present, there are around 30-40,000 manufacturers and close to 2.5 lakh labourers and artisans in the city – which Ansari claims is a decline from the over five lakh persons employed in the industry in its heydays.

Raees Ahmed and his associates in Moradabad’s Peerzada locality working on engraving brass urns to be shipped abroad. Photo: Sabah Gurmat

The city has also been the site of UP’s earliest large-scale communal riots in 1980 – the biggest since Partition. A wave of violence began owing to tensions between local Muslims and Hindu Dalit groups near the Idgah area. This culminated on the day of Eid in August, 1980, after rumours spread that Hindus in the area had released a pig in the mosque. Muslims present there requested the police to remove the animal but to no avail. 

As things became heated, a few stones were pelted on the police, following which the stationed police and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) opened fire on the Muslims gathered there. The resultant deaths led to the spread of violence elsewhere, including the rural areas of Moradabad, Aligarh, Bareilly and beyond. 

As recently as May 2023, the BJP-led Yogi Adityanath government of the state declared that they would table a report on the riots in the UP assembly, over four decades since the violence. 

Writing about the riots’ impact on the city’s brass industry, economist Sami Uddin noted that the communal violence which continued for about four months in Moradabad led to a “sudden fall in production and exports of the industry”. Azam Ansari also said that the scale of violence, “caused the most hardships for Muslim karigars and piece-rate workers” owing to the imposition of curfews and scarcity of raw materials. 

Even as the industry bounced back over the next three decades, several workers and industry insiders now express a sense of foreboding. 

Rizwan*, a prominent Muslim exporter in the city’s Asalatpur area, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that capital and access to upward mobility amongst Muslims in the industry has been waning. “At least three generations of my family have been in this business and we have seen its dividends till around 2010, but my children don’t want to join this line of work. They will settle abroad for good. There is very little scope to grow now,” he admitted. 

He said that industries that once offered socio-economic mobility for local Muslims, were now being targeted across UP, albeit “silently”. 

One of the first moves of the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in UP in 2017 was enforcing stricter guidelines on the sale of meat, as well as closure of several private slaughterhouses. Coupled with draconian anti-cow slaughter laws, these changes have directly impacted the meat and leather industries in the state. “If you look at the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) space, we can feel social pressures affecting our businesses,” Rizwan said. 

He further emphasised, “Moradabad’s brass industry was dominated by Muslims, Aligarh’s locks industry has been dominated by Muslims. In Saharanpur, the wooden goods industry, then you have zari-zardozi work and even Banarasi silks also see a strong Muslim presence, the leather hub of Kanpur-Unnao has always seen upward mobility for Muslims. Now our qasais (butchers) and hoteliers are being threatened for selling meat, our businesses being boycotted. While it is not always overt targeting, a lot of us do sense an insidious, invisible attack”.

No state support, loss of artisan cards and a quiet exodus

Despite being a Padma Shree awardee, 75-year-old Dilshad Hussain believes that the brass business has become unsustainable. Hussain and his six children, as well as his wife, all work out of the bylanes of Kaitwali Masjid locality and have even received commissions for the Prime Minister’s Office, foreign dignitaries and bureaucratic officials. “[But] it’s not a regular job, I get commissioned for an order around once in three months, then there are months where no work is given at all,” he said. 

Both he and all his children have won state and national-level awards for the engraving work. He also undertakes training programs, seminars and workshops as part of the government’s ‘Skill India’ initiative. “But where once upon a time, we could make 100 pieces in one go, we now receive only limited advance pay for orders and can make just 50 to 60 pieces,” the septuagenarian said.

Akarigar in the industry earns approximately Rs 12-13,000 on average, and at best a monthly earning of Rs 20,000. Adding to their woes is the central government’s halting of various schemes. “If you look at the policies introduced between 2004-08, all of them have effectively stopped. First, there was the artisans credit card yojana where loans were given to artisans at a 4% yearly interest. Now that is no longer the case and we have MUDRA loans at 12% yearly interest with taxes that come to almost 22% annually. Artisans’ identification cards have also stopped being circulated, last reissued in 2017,” Ansari told The Wire. 

Ashaqeel and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman working next to a furnace to cast the metal into moulds, using silt. Photo: Sabah Gurmat

Even though the Ministry of Textiles under the development commissioner for handicrafts allows applications for obtaining Aadhaar-linked photo identity cards, Ansari said that “cards are not being issued at the moment”. In 2014, the textiles ministry had passed a decision to link the cards to each artisan’s Aadhaar.

 “The advantage of this was that if a karigar goes abroad, then his Aadhaar-linked card would show his identity as that of an artisan affiliated to the Indian government. This provided them much-needed identification to go showcase their work at international exhibits and fairs. It also gave them the patronage that they were official, government-recognised artisans,” Ansari added. Rahman also pointed out that smaller karigars were earlier able to go to nearby states and showcase their work in exhibits across cities, but that has taken a hit now.

While the Adityanath government has been making a big push for their ‘One District One Product’ scheme to boost industrial production and exports, the institution developed for training and technological-development in the brass industry, lies stagnant.  The Metal Handicrafts Service Center was inaugurated in the city in 1983, but it was relaunched just last year in 2022.

“For decades, it seems as if there was a vested interest in letting this institute stagnate and hence shut down, which would only affect the future generations and their economic prospects in the brass industry. It’s locals who put up a fight to ensure training and skill development takes place here. During the pandemic (2020-2021), neither state nor central government gave grants to the institute and people had to earn their salaries by themselves, by holding paid courses here instead of the teaching staff being paid by the government,” said Ravindra Kumar, who heads the centre. 

Kumar pointed out how many small exporters and metal-traders from across the country would come here for upskilling, testing of products and certification. “There’s over 800 types of tests here, it’s completely controlled by the government and is an accredited laboratory. But our salaries aren’t paid by the government so we have to charge fees for training or conducting workshops to pay our salaries,” he said. 

Notably, he informed that other MSME enterprises receive both training and salaries from the ministry of textiles, such as the Indian Institute of Handloom Technology and Indian Institute of Carpet Technology. 

“We have repeatedly been writing letters to the ministry seeking financial assistance of just Rs 4 crores. If the other institutes are getting Rs 5 crores, or Rs 100 crores, at least give us 4 crore to make this space world-class and better-equipped,” Kumar said. 

Seen as ‘polluters’, metal workers forced out of jobs

After the National Green Tribunal (NGT) reprimanded state authorities in 2018 for disposal of electronic waste on the banks of the Ramganga river in Moradabad, the UP government decided to shut down metal factories operating in the region citing a violation of pollution norms. As a result, at least 75 brass-making units were closed. 

Today, workers such as Aashaqeel suffer losses. “Government officials have flagged pollution as a problem for the last 8 to 10 years. We’ve been asked to relocate or shift to different methods of production. The government is saying these are the NGT’s orders so we must comply. But at least tell us about alternatives then, or do we just stop making our living and let this industry die?” he asked.

Brass-casting workers in localities like Islam Nagar and Peerzada spend 10 to 12 hours a day working in cramped kilns and operating the furnace without any protective gear. Photo: Sabah Gurmat

For 53-year-old brass urn manufacturer Raees Ahmed, no one in his family’s upcoming generations will enter this line of work. Such engraved urns are exported to the USA and Europe and used to store the remains of loved ones, or items of the deceased such as spectacles, cufflinks, a watch, etc by Christians in foreign countries.

Ahmed claims that work has dropped down to just 25% of what it once was. Where once, an artisan made Rs 500 they now make Rs 350 at best. “My father, his father and his brothers, and grandfather’s father were all associated with the brass industry in one way or another. People now realise there’s no money in this line of work, and high cost of production.” 

The people making ingots and undertaking the casting of metals are the ones who face the brunt of pollution norms. “Earlier I had around 50 artisans doing the engraving work, now that has gone down to 15 people. A lot of artisans have migrated out of Moradabad, and gone to Bangladesh and Nepal to work. Others have taken to jobs like driving e-rickshaws,” Ahmed told The Wire. 

52-year-old Haji Amin concurs. Amin has been working for the past 24 years manufacturing Buddhist singing bowls made up of brass and aluminium. “Earlier, we had around 30 people working at our workshop, now it’s just five people. Our work particularly declined after GST was introduced. Where an item was earlier sold for Rs 100, it’s now retailing at Rs 120. Because countries like Nepal have caught up and now compete with us on pricing for buyers, it is manufacturers in Moradabad who’ve suffered,” Amin pointed out. Since raw materials which go into smelting the brass are taxed under GST, costs of production have now risen and so have the prices for finished products. As a result, producers from the city are losing out to cheaper products from Nepal and Bangladesh.

He said that a “big chunk” of karigars had migrated to Nepal, Bangladesh and the Gulf over the past decade. 

“There is rising unemployment here. Which youth wants to work amongst dust, the lack of safety next to a furnace and this heat? My father and grandfather were associated with this line of work. I have four sons, all of them are working in the same industry but my grandchildren will not. It’s getting harder for our community to feel safe as it is, so if a child is well-educated, why make brass utensils when they can leave and aspire towards a good government job?” Amin added.

Sabah Gurmat is an independent journalist based in New Delhi. This story is part of an ongoing series on the socio-economic decline of industries and businesses led by Muslims.

Reporting for her article was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists.

Watch | ‘Most Hindu Religious Leaders Worried by Anti-Muslim Hate, but Silent for Fear of Hindutva Groups’

In an interview with Karan Thapar, Nikhil Mandalaparthy of Hindus for Human Rights reveals the findings of a yatra during which the organisation went looking for Hindu religious leaders who are concerned about the state of affairs in India today.

The US-based organisation Hindus for Human Rights, which has just completed what it calls a prema yatra “searching for Hindu religious leaders who are concerned about the state of affairs in India today”, has concluded that the majority of the Hindu religious leaders they met are concerned about the deteriorating state of Hindu-Muslim relations and the way Muslims are often treated but are scared to speak out because of their fear of the response from Hindu nationalist groups.

The yatra was conducted in February-March this year and travelled across nine states, visiting 12 cities and several villages and met nearly 30 Hindu religious leaders. The organisation said these are significant and important leaders who have considerable influence in their local communities. The yatra also visited major pilgrimage sites like Haridwar, Varanasi and Ayodhya as well as important metropolises such as Delhi, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram. In a North-South sense, it was a pan-India yatra though not necessarily so in an East-West sense.

In a 31-minute interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, the deputy executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, Nikhil Mandalaparthy, explained that the findings of the yatra fall into two categories: “deeply concerning but also incredibly inspiring”.

Mandalaparthy first discusses the deeply concerning aspect. “We encountered a pervasive sense of victimhood or resentment among Indian Hindus deeply intertwined with hatred towards India’s Muslim minority … we saw the extent to which Indian Muslims have been dehumanised in the minds of many Indian Hindus and their religious leaders.”

He said: “One swami we met in Maharashtra, a leader of a prominent and wealthy Vaishnava sect, insisted that Indian Hindus face much more discrimination than Indian Muslims and Christians.”

Mandalaparthy said that a trustee of an ashram in Uttar Pradesh had told them that “the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been trying to infiltrate ashrams and temples in rural communities, sending its members to spend a few days at a time to plant the seeds of polarisation.”

On the inspiring side, he made a point of saying that the majority of Hindu religious leaders do not agree with Hindutva. He said: “One temple priest in Varanasi told us that his idea of dharma is inseparable from humanity (manavta) which he said was the opposite of Hindu nationalism.”

Perhaps more significant was what the yatra was told by a Hindu religious leader in Haryana: “One swami in Haryana simply stated to us ‘India has never had only one religion. This is a pluralistic land’. Religious diversity, he said, was at the heart of what it means to be Indian.”

However, even though the majority of Hindu religious leaders fall into what  Mandalaparthy calls the inspiring side, because they are concerned about the deteriorating state of relations between Hindus and Muslims and the way Muslims are treated, nonetheless all of them were scared to speak out publicly. They were only prepared to voice their thoughts and concerns in private meetings behind closed doors.

Mandalaparthy said he was struck “by the pervasive sense of fear among the religious leaders (we) met, some of whom have faced violence from Hindu nationalists. Their ashrams and temples have been vandalised and attacked … they have faced accusations of being Naxalite Maoist rebels.”

Finally, Mandalaparthy said what is true of the majority of Hindu religious leaders they met seems also to be true of the majority of Hindu lay people they met during the yatra. He believes they are secular, though Hindu, and are concerned about the state of the country but they are hesitant or even scared to speak out for fear of the response of Hindu nationalist groups.

‘As Much as India Belongs to Narendra Modi and Mohan Bhagwat, It Also Belongs to Mahmood Madani’

In his presidential address on Saturday, the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind chief said, “India is our homeland”, and spoke about issues like Pasmanda Muslims, ‘bulldozer justice’, anti-conversion laws and Hindutva.

New Delhi: Mahmood Madani, the president of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, said that India is currently “reeling under the influence of hatred and religious prejudice”, which have become tools of destruction.

In the presidential address delivered on Saturday, February 11, at Ramlila Maidan during the three-day 34th general session of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, Madani raised several issues that he said were threatening India’s history as a secular and harmonious nation.

“Jamiat Ulama-i Hind considers aggressive communalism as a great loss to the whole country and community and considers it a serious threat to the integrity of the homeland. Communalism does not match India’s great heritage of social harmony. Friendly and brotherly relations between different religions are a proud and enduring feature of our society. To destroy these relations is a national crime,” he said.

The Wire is publishing some excerpts from his speech.

‘India is the best place for Indian Muslims’

India is our homeland, as much as this homeland belongs to Narendra Modi and Mohan Bhagwat, it also belongs to Mahmood Madani. Neither Mahmood is an inch ahead of him nor are they an inch behind Mahmood. The distinction of this land is that the first prophet of Islam Adam (peace be upon him) descended here. This land is the birthplace of Islam and the first homeland of Muslims. Therefore, to say that Islam is a religion that came from outside is completely wrong and historically baseless. Islam is the religion of this country and it is also the oldest of all religions. The last prophet of Islam, Muhammad (peace be upon him) came to complete the same religion, which bloomed in India.

So, I have no qualms in saying that India is the best place for Indian Muslims, just like one’s house is the best place to live in, however dilapidated it may be. But at the same time, it is important to understand the fact that there is a system to follow to live in one’s own country, if that system is right, it will be easier for the citizens of this country to live, and if that system is corrupted, their life will be difficult. We have to see how the system of our country is and how responsible are those who run it. Before that, we also have to see the country’s constitution, democratic system and law and order institutions and their functioning in the current political situation. Only after that analysis, it will be possible to make a decision. We have to understand that (1) the Constitution, (2) Democracy and thirdly the Human Rights are the hallmark of modern India.

If these three features are preserved and implemented in true sense in the country, it will be easy for us to say that today’s India is the best place, but if any of these three or even one of them is compromised, then it will not be easy for us to claim this. To further examine and understand this we have to scrutinise the functioning of four pillars of democracy (1) Legislature (2) Executive (3) Judiciary, and (4) Media

On Hindutva

India is a beautiful country with a diverse and pluralistic society; one of its main features is the freedom granted to people with various faiths, beliefs and ceremonies to lead their own lives and follow their unique ideology while cohabiting with other faiths. Gandhiji and other leaders had made tireless efforts to save and nurture this tolerance and coexistence. In this regard, the efforts of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and its leaders are also part of the golden history of India’s past and present, the ideals and philosophy of united nationalism and Hindu-Muslim unity is the legacy given by them.

In contrast, the current interpretation of Hinduism and the aggressive sectarianism being promoted in the name of Hindutva do not match the basic ethos of this country.

We want to make it clear here, that we do not have any religious or ethnic enmity with RSS and BJP, but we only object to these ideas, which lead to unequal treatment meted out to different sections of the society, which further leads to racial discrimination and flouts the basic principles of the Indian Constitution.

In our view, Hindus and Muslims both are equal, we do not make any distinction between human beings and do not recognise racial superiority.

Whenever we talk about RSS and its ideologies, we are reminded of its past leader Guru Golwalkar and about his philosophy. However, one should also put forward the views of the current Sarsanghchalak of the RSS, some how endorses united nationalism, one nation for all and fostering fraternal ties between different faiths. According to Islamic teachings, the hand extended for friendship should be held firmly. We warmly invite RSS and its leader Shri Mohan Bhagwat and his followers to eschew mutual hatred and enmity and embrace each other and make our dear motherland the most developed and ideal country in the world.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat addresses at a Vijayadashami function, in Nagpur, October 5, 2022. Photo: PTI

On Pasmanda Muslims

Among the distortions that have arisen in the Indian Muslim society, the most important is the caste system, although Islam teaches equality for all and racial non-discrimination. However, those who adopted the religion of Islam, found themselves chained to the old caste system and practices. They could not free themselves completely from the old systems and customs of their forefathers, thus they were a victim of contradictions, on the one hand, they wanted to embrace the Quranic teachings, but on the other they were chained to the old customs and the concept of ‘Ashraaf and ‘Arzaal’, further the societal pressure was so much that the Indian Muslims were not able to adhere to the teachings of the religious scholars and the holy saints…

There is no doubt that a large section of Indian Muslims are still affected by the ethnic and community discrimination and there is a dire need for measures like granting reservation to them to come out from their backwardness, but the categorisation of backwards on the basis of ‘Ashraaf and ‘Arzaal’ amongst Muslims is not true and acceptable at all.

However, accepting the presence of backwards (Pasmanda) and Dalits amongst Muslims as a reality, today on this occasion, we would like to assert that every section of Muslims has equal status in the Muslim society and the exploitations which were committed in the past, we are ashamed of those, and we pledge that we would try to forge economic, social, and educational equality amongst all sections of the Muslim society and also strive to demand reservation and special schemes for the welfare of pasmanda Muslims.

But at the same time we fully support efforts from Government of India to help the backward castes amongst Muslims, so as to ensure their progress and development by granting special measures for them. Today, we would like the Indian Muslims to be aware of plans to categorise and divide them, therefore they should adhere firmly to the principle of equality to all sections of the society as enshrined in Islam. We hope that the government will take practical measures to help these oppressed and marginalised sections of the Indian Muslims in all possible manner and recommendations made by different Commissions, earlier in this regard will be implemented as soon as possible.

On anti-conversion laws

Several states in India, using the legislative route have enacted laws recently to control religious conversions.

The Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh High Courts have struck down these provisions, saying they violate a person’s right to privacy. The respective governments have appealed to the Supreme Court. The anti-conversion legislation is aimed at undermining the fundamental Right to Religious Freedom and basically these laws target minorities. The language of these laws is so vague that they pose a serious challenge to religious freedom itself, which is a fundamental law as enshrined in the Constitution of India.

We are also against converting someone through “force”, “deceit” and “allurement”, but it is observed that those who genuinely convert themselves or those who facilitate their conversion are being arrested under false accusations of coercion, fraud and greed and the law is being used against them completely unnecessarily.

Therefore, such a law is no acceptable at all.

On ‘bulldozer justice’

The action taken in the name of “bulldozer justice” in India lately has undermined the country’s prestige globally. Using bulldozers against alleged culprits, without directive of court is tantamount to an attack on the democracy and constitution of our country. During a festival period in early 2022, sword-wielding elements carried out planned attacks on Muslim homes and businesses, in Khargaon, Karoli, Rajasthan, and Jahangirpuri in Delhi. These elements played loud music on loudspeakers in front of mosques during Ramadan, entered the Muslim neighbourhoods and subsequently a clash occurred between the two communities. Yet, the police unilaterally blamed Muslims for the unrest, arrested hundreds of innocent Muslims, including minors, and bulldozed their homes.

Similarly, after the BJP leader Nupur Sharma insulted the Holy Prophet (PBUH), a bulldozer operation was carried out in UP’s Kanpur and Allahabad cities and the punishment of an individual’s alleged wrongdoing was given to the entire family. In this regard, the Guwahati High Court in its historic judgment described the behaviour of the police as illegal and deplorable and said that if someone’s house is allowed to be bulldozed in the name of investigation, then anyone “will not be safe,” adding that demolition of the house is not permitted under any criminal law. Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has also filed a case in the honourable Supreme Court raising the plea of these oppressed people; the hearing in the case is currently going on.

‘Humans Before Hindus or Muslims,’ Say Men Who Saved Lives During Durga Idol Immersion in Bengal

While in Gujarat, cops were seen thrashing Muslim men over an alleged attack on a Garba event, in Bengal, three Muslim men risked their lives to save around 30 people from drowning in flash floods.

In the midst of festivities, in the broad daylight of October 4, a crowd of locals in the Kheda district of Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gathered to watch a group of Muslim men being tied to a pole and flogged with canes by police personnel.

The men were accused of throwing stones at a Garba event. They were seen begging for mercy as plain-clothes cops continued to thrash them in full public view while the frenzied crowd chanted ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. Decades from now, when history will recollect the events from today’s India, the crowd, even the children, relishing and cheering at the people being flogged, would be seen as no less horrifying than the Roman Colosseum which sponsored the shows of death.

The very next day, on the other end of India, three Muslim men risked their lives to save around 30 people from drowning in flash floods during the Durga idol immersion ceremony in West Bengal.

On Vijaya Dashmi, hundreds of people had gathered on the banks of the Mal river near Malbazar town in Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district to participate in the Durga idol immersion ceremony. All of a sudden, at around 8:30 pm, flash floods struck and scores of people were swept away.

The 20-year-old Toriful Islam and his friends were excited about the Dussehra mela. They never miss out on Vijaya Dashmi celebrations and the idol immersion ceremony. With his arm on his best friend’s shoulder, Toriful was standing on his tiptoes to look further when a flood struck the river. Within minutes, the floods wrecked havoc with people being washed away.

Talking to The Wire, Toriful, a class 12 student and the youngest son of a local pan seller, said he “felt terrible and jumped right into the river”.

He dreams of being an academician and being able to study for as long as he can. When asked if the thought of his life bothered him before jumping right into the river, he smiled and said, “See, I only have one life. What I saved was 10 lives. Ten is greater than one. Isn’t it?”

Toriful Islam (left) and Foridul Islam (right). Photo: Astha Savyasachi

When asked about the crowd cheering at the Muslim men being flogged publicly, he said, “Festivals are for everyone. If I as a Muslim had stood there and looked at Hindus being washed away, it would have been a sin. We are humans. We should become humans before becoming Hindus and Muslims.”

He added, “I would ask those who discriminate: What is the purpose of being a human? It is to help fellow humans. Where would we go if we do bad to others? Hindus and Muslims together make up our beloved Hindustan.”

Toriful told us about his family’s reaction, “My family was very happy and proud. They said that you saved 10 lives. You didn’t run away from a difficult situation. Our parents and teachers always teach us to do good for others.”

When asked if he looks forward to any reward, he promptly replied, “No. No. Even if they give me any reward, any money, I won’t take it. I didn’t do it for money. I did it because I couldn’t see people dying in front of my eyes. And till I am alive, I will keep helping those in need.”

Toriful saved the lives of at least 12 people. His relative, the 22-year-old Foridul Islam, who works as a master mason, also saved around 10 lives.

Also read: Fact-Check: Mohan Bhagwat’s ‘Religion-Based Imbalance’ Theory and India’s Population Growth

Another Samaritan who came to the rescue of hundreds of people was Mohammad Manik, a 28-year-old welder, who went to attend the idol immersion ceremony with his friends. He alone rescued around 10 people, including two children and three women.

Mohammad Manik. Photo: Astha Savyasachi

“I saw people, children as young as my son, being swept away by the flood. I couldn’t just stand there and watch. So I dived in and tried my best to rescue people,” said Manik, the father of a three-year-old boy.

He lives in West Tesimala village, a few kilometres from Malbazar, with his parents, wife and son. He told The Wire, ‘While I was helping those who were clinging to the rocks, I realised that my right big toe was badly hurt and I was bleeding. I borrowed a handkerchief from a firefighter, tied it around my toe and continued my work. Nothing else came to my mind. All I thought was that I have to save as many people as possible.”

At around 11:30 pm, he was taken to the district hospital where he received first aid.

He added, “I don’t see Hindus and Muslims. I only see humans. In Islam, they say that saving the lives of others is a deed of sabab. I did that only. I took Allah’s name and dived in. I had to save people. Both Hindus and Muslims have the same blood in their veins.”

He further said, “I have a message for those who believe that Hindus and Muslims cannot celebrate their festivals together. People of all religions should live together like brothers. In my locality, all the workers live in harmony. There are Hindus, Muslims, Adivasis and people from all castes. All are my brothers. On Eid, they come to our house to enjoy the sewayin and on Diwali, we go to their place and light the diyas.”

He smiled and asked, “Isn’t that the purpose of festivals?”

The BJP-RSS’s Quest for the ‘Acceptable Muslim’

The very fact that Mohan Bhagwat is concerned with who or what an acceptable Muslim looks like speaks volumes about whether the RSS has changed its position or just adapted to the times. 

Karl Lueger was the mayor of Vienna between 1887 and 1910 and is credited with building much of the modern city.

A Catholic, Lueger openly used antisemitism in his political speeches. His antisemitism was of the homespun, flexible variety which in German has been also referred to as gemütlich (cosy, in a kind of familiar way). However, this garden-variety – often instrumental – prejudice did not prevent him from having Jewish friends. When he was questioned about this, Lueger replied, “I decide who is a Jew.”

Today, the quest for the ‘acceptable Muslim’ has driven political narratives across the world. For the past few years, this debate has animated and driven the strategies of various political parties in India.

Since coming to power in 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological progenitor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have been active in moving from a position where all Muslims are seen as anathema to the Indian body politic, to a stand wherein certain kinds of Muslims are deemed to be more Indian because of their cultural practices.

Incidentally, these very practices are also the target of intra-sectarian polemics by other Muslims who see them as Hindu cultural accretions that must be purged in order to restore ‘authentic’ Islamic practice. Thus, ghar-wapsi, or reconversion to Hinduism aside, Shias and Sufis in particular have been singled out as being more acceptable Muslims because of their practices.

Additionally, ‘caste’ divisions within Muslims are now also used to advocate the position that the vast majority of Muslims are the descendants of indigenous converts. In other words, their ‘Indianness’ is established by the fact that their ancestors were Hindu. This change in policy from outright antagonism to selective engagement has been catalysed by international and, to some extent, domestic political exigencies.

Also read: When Rabbits Are Impressed by the ‘Simplicity’ of the Wolf

For the past 8 years, the BJP and RSS have been conducting an outreach program to try and create inroads in these communities. The RSS is part of this outreach through its affiliate, the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM).

The MRM was founded by erstwhile RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan in order to change the image of the RSS as fundamentally antagonistic to Muslims and bring Muslims closer to Hindus. Since then, the BJP and RSS have been trying, at various junctures, to give the impression that they are engaging in and encouraging dialogue with certain Indian Muslims, including organising international Sufi conferences.

The most recent effort was a trip made by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to visit Umer Ahmed Ilyasi on the death anniversary of his father, Jameel Ilyasi, who famously visited Israel to meet Shimon Peres. Bhagwat was accompanied, amongst others, by Indresh Kumar, a senior functionary of the RSS and the current patron of the MRM.

Ilyasi Junior’s website says that he inherited the stewardship of the All India Imam Organisation which claims to be the “legitimate voice of the half a million Imams of India who happen to be the religious and spiritual guide of 210 million Indian Muslims.”

This private visit was covered by newspapers as part of the RSS’s public outreach to all Muslims. Two prominent newspapers carried headlines about the meeting, which read, ‘RSS chief meets imam body head in outreach to Muslims’ and ‘RSS chief Bhagwat visits mosque in Delhi, meets Muslim intellectuals.’

The second article refers to another meeting Bhagwat held with prominent Muslims, to which I shall return later.

Now, readers of both the Hindustan Times and the Times of India would be forgiven if they were to think, from these very vague headlines, that the outreach to Muslims is genuine and it is the Muslims that are constantly complaining of maltreatment. Essentially, the visit to a mosque and a madrassa to meet a ‘prominent’ Imam is good optics at a time when the international community is increasingly critical of growing religious intolerance in India.

It is also perhaps no coincidence that the timing of the meeting with Ilyasi as well as the release of the news regarding the dialogue with Muslim intellectuals took place at the same time as raids on leaders of the Popular Front of India (PFI) were being carried out all over the country. Importantly, the meeting with the Muslim intellectuals actually took place a month earlier. 

The meeting with the five prominent Muslims – S.Y. Quraishi, Najeeb Jung, Zameeruddin Shah, Saeed Shervani and Shahid Siddiqui – became a matter of controversy and consternation. Quraishi modestly described the five as a “motley” group of concerned and retired community members.

Also read: What Mohan Bhagwat’s Visit To A Madrasa Tells Us About The RSS

A former election commissioner; a former lieutenant governor and former vice-chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia; a retired general who is also the former vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University; a prominent businessman; and a politician cum newspaper editor can hardly be described as a motley crew. Details of the meeting remained hazy until Quraishi and Jung appeared on Karan Thapar’s show on The Wire and then the former wrote an op-ed for the Indian Express.

Here, it is important to point out that this kind of outreach by the RSS has taken place before, most notably in 2019 when Bhagwat met Maulana Arshad Madani, head of the Jamiat Ulama-e Hind, another apex body of Muslim scholars in India. However, the years following those meetings have been marked by two trends.

The first is what Hilal Ahmed calls ‘Hindutva constitutionalism.’ In other words, the BJP and RSS are legislating Hindutva into being by co-opting and using the constitution rather than trying to replace it.

Thus, since Jung’s last meeting with Bhagwat in 2019, the Babri Masjid judgment was pronounced, the Citizenship Amendment Bill was ratified and the intention to create a National Register of Citizens was declared.Of course, the reading down of Article 370 of the Constitution, the amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and the Triple Talaq bill had already been brought earlier that summer.

Most recently, the right to wear the hijab, the Gyanvapi mosque controversy and the announcement by various states to implement a Uniform Civil Code, all point to how Hindutva is being legislated into existence. 

The second trend is that the communal pot has been kept boiling by central, state and local BJP politicians because of its electoral benefits. The last two years have been witness to calls for the socio-economic boycott of Muslims and there have even been open calls for their rape and genocide. Clearly, even if there was engagement at a high level, members of the BJP still feel incentivised to use anti-Muslim rhetoric for electoral gain.

The five-member delegation did bring up the fact that Muslims are called jihadi and Pakistani, but Bhagwat lamented that the Muslim population is increasingly too rapidly, that Muslims don’t respect Hindu sentiments about the sacrality of the cow, and that they use the word kafir for Hindus. It speaks volumes that a figure in power still felt compelled to paint himself and the community that he claims to represent as victims while speaking from a clear position of power.

Importantly, none of the major issues, including, most importantly, the UCC and the CAA, seem to have been brought up in the conversation with Bhagwat, who incidentally gave a disclaimer that he had limited influence on the ground (see, the Thapar interview). In fact, Quraishi in his op-ed seems to have believed Bhagwat’s assertion that the ‘Constitution was sacrosanct’, despite the fact that it is precisely the Constitution and its attendant structures which are being used as tools for creating a Hindu Rashtra.

In this atmosphere, it is important to remember that the BJP and RSS will seek to create their version of a civil society amongst Muslims whom it will then treat as interlocutors. An organisation called the Indian Muslims for Progress and Reform (IMPAR) has already been doing the groundwork for this and some of the recent delegation members have participated in its various events.

As it happens, one of the founders of IMPAR was also a founding member of the Peace Party in Uttar Pradesh and is alleged to be close to powerful members of the BJP. Incidentally, IMPAR has been doing commendable relief work on the ground as well but its future credibility will depend on whether it is seen simply as a proxy. In its press statement on the Bhagwat visit, it welcomed the move while appealing to the prime minister to reign in communal forces. In other words, individuals and organisations that engage with the powers that be will need to avoid that infamous label which was applied to those Muslims who toed the Congress’ line: sarkari (official) Muslims.

Bhagwat’s statement in the meeting – and subsequently in Shillong – that all Indians are Hindus echoes in a sense what Lueger said in Vienna. The delegation resisted this labelling and instead, the term ‘Bhartiya Muslim’ was agreed upon.

The very fact that Bhagwat is concerned with who or what an acceptable Muslim looks like speaks volumes about whether the RSS has changed its position or just adapted to the times. 

Ali Khan Mahmudabad teaches at Ashoka University and regularly writes for the Urdu and English press. He is the author of Poetry of Belonging: Muslim Imaginings of India 1850-1950 (OUP). He is a member of the Samajwadi Party. Twitter @mahmudabad.

Watch | What Has Transpired in Delhi Since the Jahangirpuri Violence?

Communal violence broke out in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri on the evening of April 16, after a Hindutva procession allegedly attempted to wave a saffron flag in front of a local mosque.

On the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti on April 16, a procession of Bajrang Dal members undertaking a Shobha Yatra in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, allegedly attempted to wave a saffron flag in front of a local mosque, reportedly leading to communal violence in the area.

By April 17 early afternoon, 14 people were arrested – all Muslims, according to a document accessed by The Wire requesting medical examinations of the accused. Towards the second half of the day, more Muslim youth were picked up by the police. Some Hindu men have been arrested since then, reports said.

What has Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on the issue? What are the opinions of the people on the ground? Take a look at this report of the incident from The Wire.

There Is Growing ‘Religious Fanaticism’ Under the Cover of Constitution: RSS

There appear to be elaborate plans by a “particular community” to enter the government machinery, the RSS annual report said, alleging a deep conspiracy with a long-term goal to increase their population.

New Delhi: There is growing “religious fanaticism” and “acts of communal hysteria” in the country under the cover of “Constitution and religious freedom”, the RSS said in its annual report while cautioning against “plans” by a particular community to enter the government machinery for furthering its ”malicious” agenda.

“The formidable form of growing religious fanaticism in the country has raised its head again in many places. The brutal murders of activists of Hindu organisations in Kerala, Karnataka are an example of this menace. Series of dastardly acts revealing communal hysteria, rallies, demonstrations, violation of social discipline, custom and conventions under the guise of the Constitution and religious freedom, inciting violence by instigating meagre causes, promoting illegal activities, etc. is increasing,” the annual report said, reported the Indian Express.

There appear to be elaborate plans by a particular community to enter the government machinery, it said, alleging a deep conspiracy with a long-term goal to increase their population.

The report was released at the three-day meeting of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) –  the highest decision-making body of the RSS – in Ahmedabad. At the meeting, the RSS took stock of the work done by the Sangh in the past one year, charted out the future course of action and discussed issues of national importance facing the nation.

Also read: ‘Won’t Look Good for Business’: Muslim Women Face Workplace Discrimination for Wearing Hijab

The RSS in its report also raised concerns about the continuous and planned conversion of Hindus.

“There is continuous information about the planned conversion of Hindus in different parts of the country like Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, etc. This challenge has a long history, but, of late, different newer ways of converting new groups are being adopted,” the report said.

“It is true that the social and religious leadership and institutions of Hindu society have woken up to some extent and become active to check this trend. It seems necessary to make joint and coordinated efforts in this direction in a more planned manner.”

While on one hand, the Hindu society is “awakening” and “standing up with self-respect”, the Sangh says, there are “inimical forces which do not tolerate this”, the RSS report said.

The RSS report also expressed concern about the post-poll violence in West Bengal and stalling of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s convoy in Punjab.

“Competition is essential in the political field, but it should be in a healthy spirit, and should be within the purview of democracy; the race should facilitate ideological brainstorming, and strengthen the development of society… The most condemnable incident of stopping the convoy of the Honourable Prime Minister of the country in the name of farmers’ agitation on the main road while he was going for a scheduled program, was certainly a challenge for security; but at the same time, this heinous act has also raised questions about political decorum, the central-state relation, the sentiment towards constitutional posts, etc.,” the report said, as per the newspaper.

(With inputs from PTI)

Sadhvi Vibhanand’s Call to ‘Rape’ Muslim Women With Impunity Shows Hindutva’s Politics of Fear

Vibhanand Giri is heard exhorting Hindu men to “rape and impregnate Muslim women if Muslim men cast even a glance at Hindu girls” at the December the Dharma Sansad in Raipur.

The National Commission of Women (NCW) took cognizance of a video inciting sexual violence against Muslim women. The said video was brought to their notice over Twitter by Alishan Jafri. The Commission, on February 3, issued a notice seeking an explanation of the person concerned within 48 hours. 

In this video, a Hindu woman, said to be Vibhanand Giri, is heard exhorting Hindu men to “rape and impregnate Muslim women if Muslim men cast even a glance at Hindu girls”. The statement was made during the Dharma Sansad held at Raipur, Chhattisgarh during December 25-26, 2021. 

A Hindu leader, Kalicharan Maharaj, was arrested by the Chhattisgarh police on December 31 for a speech abusing Mahatma Gandhi and “promoting tensions between different communities” during this event. Jafri reports that no action was taken by the police against Vibhanand Giri. I could not get any meaningful response from any officer of the Chhattisgarh police on this.

Criminal offences attracted

In the short clip, she is not heard using the notorious bogey of ‘love jihad’ though her other utterances leave little doubt as to what she really meant. She speaks of Hindu girls ‘eloping’ with Muslim boys. Since elopement is a voluntary act, it is obvious that the object of her ire is inter-faith love marriage.

Also read: Hindutva Bigotry Lies Behind the Attack on Hijab-Clad Students in Karnataka

She threatened that if Muslims “even look at Hindu girls”, not to speak of falling in love and solemnizing a marriage, it would lead to ‘their’ women “producing babies from Hindus without marriage (nikaah and pheras)”. 

Birthing in a marriage is a consensual act. By threatening that Muslim women would be “producing babies from Hindus without marriage”, Giri takes consent out of the act. This is thus clearly a threat and call to rape Muslim women.

She is therefore liable to be proceeded against for promoting enmity between different groups (Section 153A IPC); intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace (Section 504 IPC); word intended to insult the modesty of a woman (Section 509 IPC); criminal intimidation (Section 506 IPC); and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) if the speech was disseminated over social media.

Two key speakers at the event Kalicharan Maharaj and Sadhvi Vibhanand Giri. Photos: Twitter Collage: The Wire

Why police inaction is disturbing

Alishan Jafri reports that the Raipur police commissioner said that they have not received any complaint on this and hence no action was taken. This argument is wrong and legally untenable. In the case of State represented by Inspector of Police, Chennai vs N. S. Gnaneswaran (2013), a division bench of the Supreme Court has held that the law empowers the police to investigate a cognizable offence suo-motu (on their own) also ‘impelled by the information received from some sources’. Since the aforesaid video is now in the public domain and was also brought to their attention by tagging them on Twitter, police should have registered a case suo-motu.

Police inaction on a matter of hate speech in a Congress-ruled state is particularly disturbing because Congress leaders like Priyanka Gandhi had been very vocal in demanding action when similar incidents took place in BJP-ruled states, such as during the Haridwar Dharma Sansad.  

Asaduddin Owaisi correctly pointed out that even as he had submitted objectionable statements made by several people to the police, action on the entire Raipur Dharma Sansad affair was restricted to Kalicharan Maharaj’s arrest. 

Legally, it is difficult for the police to deny permission to hold such Dharma Sansads because often they are organised by different groups and the record of one group cannot be held against another. However, it is the duty of the police to take action after the commission of offences, in which they have failed.

Muslim women are targeted to humiliate Muslim men

The motive behind the utterances of Vibhanand Giri is essentially the same as the motive of the perpetrators of ‘Bulli Bai‘ and ‘Sulli Deals‘ apps. When they drag insult Muslim women or threaten them with sexual violence, their real target is the self-respect of the Muslim men. 

She is entitled to criticise inter-faith marriages of Hindu girls with Muslim men. However, the fact that she dragged Muslim women into it means that her call to ‘rape Muslim women’ was intended both as a ‘punishment’ to the Muslim men who ‘dared’ to marry Hindu girls and also an act of ‘retaliation’ for avenging what she considered an affront to “Hindu manhood” or whatever.

There is no running away from the fact that the honour of a community or a people is identified – regrettably – with and is intimately associated with the ‘honour’ of their women. Historically, women have been targeted for sexual violence essentially as a means of insulting their menfolk because males are perceived as “natural protectors and providers” of the females.

The ultimate objective of Vibhanand Giri and others like her is therefore to dominate the Muslims, debase them, humiliate them, de-humanise them, injure their dignity and self-respect so much that eventually they come to accept their ‘social defeat’ as ‘vanquished people’ and thus satisfy their desire of exacting a ‘historical revenge’ for all the real and imaginary atrocities the Muslims had allegedly committed upon them during the medieval era (from 712 to 1858 AD) of Muslim invasions and rule.

Also read: Clubhouse and the Fantasy of Sexual Violence Against Muslim Women

Wider implications of threats 

In the short clip, Vibhanand Giri is not seen elaborating on the basis of her objection to inter-faith marriages but it is clear from the context that she is preying upon all those latent fears in the collective psyche of the Hindus. 

She is also found shaming those parents whose daughters elope with Muslim boys and is also advising that they must be roughed up.

She is, thus, both communalising and criminalising a matter of personal choice between two consenting adults. She is within her rights to insist upon keeping Hindu girls under whatever sort of control she advocates – it is for the Hindu girls to object to it. However, she has no business dragging Muslim women into the discourse. 

Lynchings, hate crime, encounter killings, communal deaths are no longer trigger words in India – they have become as commonplace as the next ‘jumla’ that the ruling power drops down our throat. Credit: Reuters

A peace march to stand against attempt to communalise them. Photo: Reuters

Socio-cultural notion of using rape as ‘punishment’ or to disgrace

It is not surprising that the threat to rape Muslim women was given by a woman. This is a reflection of how deep certain chauvinistic and patriarchal values run in our society. In this value system, rape or threat of rape is used as a punishment or tool to disgrace the menfolk of other groups. Incidentally, this also explains the popular Hindi abuses that threaten sexual violence on the mother or sisters of the other person.

Amongst various socio-cultural theories of rape, a prominent one is that of ‘dominance assertion rapes’. In her work Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, Susan Brownmiller argued that rape was more often about power and dominance than about sexual lust. Historical examples throughout the world include rapes by victorious armies and by liege lords on the women of their subjects as evident from the concepts of jus prima noctes (the right of the first night) or droit du seigneur (meaning lord’s right). 

In the Indian context, we have had plenty of cases where rape is an expression of caste, community or religious domination in normal times as well as times of general lawlessness, such as riots. Horrific accounts of thousands of such incidents during post-partition riots may be had in works like Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre and Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition by Nisid Hajari. Readers may recall the deeply disturbing depiction of caste domination rapes of Phoolan Devi by upper caste Thakurs in the film Bandit Queen.

On January 26, there was an incident in the thick of Delhi (and not in some remote corner of the country) where some women instigated their men to rape a young married woman to ‘punish’ her because a boy pestering her could not take her ‘no’ for a ‘no’ and allegedly took his own life in “frustration”. They also insulted the woman by making her wear a garland of slippers, abused and assaulted her. Vibhanand Giri’s call is essentially the same socio-cultural sentiment coursing through our society’s veins.

N.C. Asthana is a retired IPS officer and a former DGP of Kerala. Amongst his 49 books, the latest is State Persecution of Minorities and Underprivileged in India.

‘Peace, Development, Not Hindu-Muslim Politics’: What Voters in Loni Want

BJP’s Nand Kishor Gurjar, who became MLA in 2017, has turned the town into a communally charged place, a voter says.

Ghaziabad: Fifty-five-year old Alimuddin was among the first voters in Loni, Ghaziabad. He woke up at 6 am, offered his namaz and left for the polling booth. “It was very important for Muslims to come out and vote this time,” he said. 

He added that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Nand Kishor Gurjar, has turned Loni into a communally charged place. Gurjar is a first-time MLA who won the assembly election in 2017.

Alimuddin says since Gurjar became Loni’s MLA, poor Muslims have suffered. He is a hawker who sells small decorative items.

“He has forcefully shut down many butcher shops. He didn’t allow us to offer sacrifice during our festival Bakraid,” he said, referring to the forcible shutting down of many meat shops in the area. 

Also read: Ground Report: On Poll Day, Dadri’s Rural Voters Foresee Churning Among Dominant Gurjars

Among all voters, burqa-clad Muslim women came out in large numbers to vote. A Muslim woman said, “How can I tell you who I am going to vote for? India has a secret ballot system.”

Mubina, a 60-year-old voter, said that she will vote for nalka (handpump), symbol of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, which is contesting the polls in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party. 

She believes that only Madan Bhaiya, the RLD candidate, can give strong competition to BJP’s Gurjar. Both of them belong to the Gujjar community. 

She added, “I don’t want my vote to go to waste, as other candidates are not as strong as the RLD. Voting for any other candidate would have hampered his win.”  

“Whoever wins, I hope they work to maintain peace and calm in Loni, and focus on development instead of Hindu Muslim politics,” she said.

Still, this election is not a cakewalk, neither for the RLD nor the BJP candidate.

Though a large section of Gurjars and upper-caste Hindus were rallying behind their BJP leader, Jats were largely supporting the RLD.

Some people belonging to the Scheduled Caste community, including Jatavs, The Wire spoke with said they were supporting the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate, Haji Akil.

“Maine vikas ke liye vote kia hai. Mahila ki suraksha ke liye, aur apradh kam karne ke liye (I have voted for development, women safety and to reduce crime),” a woman who came out of the polling booth said. She added that the BJP MLA did very good work during his term.

However, Rohit Singh, a local reporter from Ghaziabad, said if Gurjar wins again, it will not be because of him, but because of the “Modi-Yogi” wave.

He added that most people across Ghaziabad district are voting for the SP-RLD alliance. “Most Muslims and Jats are voting for the alliance, and Gurjar vote is divided.”

BJP turncoat, Ranjeeta Dhama, is an independent Gurjar candidate, who is also likely to eat into small chunks of Hindu votes.

However, Aam Aadmi Party’s Sachin Sharma, a first-time candidate, did not appear to have a clout in this election.

UP Elections: In Baghpat, a Jat Party’s Muslim Candidate Challenges the BJP

Baghpat is the heart of farmland politics, in the Jat belt of Uttar Pradesh, where political preferences are not dictated by people’s needs, but by their last names.

Baghpat: Through the thick winter fog, a group of villagers from Ahir Singhawali walk across the sugarcane field to the roof of a half-constructed brick building for an election meeting with Nawab Ahmad Hamid, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate from Baghpat, one of the most prominent assembly constituencies going to the polls in the first phase.

This is the heart of farmland politics, in the Jat belt of Uttar Pradesh, the garh of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh and his family. First elected to the assembly from neighbouring Chhaprauli he went on to represent the Baghpat Lok Sabha constituency for three terms. His son Ajit Singh won this seat seven times, and his grandson Jayant Chaudhary, the current leader of the RLD, lost the last Lok Sabha elections.

By 10 am, about 40 people had assembled, all men, half of them Yadavs, the other half Muslims. Among the panel of speakers facing the audience, the three-time village pradhan (head), Ram Pal Singh Yadav, a few village elders from both communities, and a woman, former district president of the Samajwadi Party, Rekha Yadav.

Enveloped by a thick fog, an early morning election meeting in Singhawali, Baghpat. Villagers gather to hear the RLD candidate, Ahmad Hamid. Photo: Radhika Bordia

In each speech, the BJP’s callousness in handling the farmers’ agitation and rising unemployment failure is raised. “This government killed farmers, we will not forget it,” says Ram Pal Singh Yadav. Another speaker, referring to the more than 300 police encounters under the Adityanath government, asks, “What suraksha (protection) does the BJP speak of when our innocent men were shot dead or maimed by Adityanath’s police.” Rekha Yadav refers to Mamata Banerjee, “The sherni (lioness) in Bengal decimated the BJP, we must get rid of it from Uttar Pradesh.”

The most strident voice is that of Sunder Pal Singh Yadav, a teacher. Angrily, he pitches into the BJP, accusing it of playing the worst kind of divisive politics. Like thousands of teachers across the state, he has been waiting for this government to fill vacancies and pay proper salaries. He further says that no teacher in the state should vote for the BJP. The anger among the teaching community has been heightened by the death of more than 1,600 teachers who were put on panchayat poll duty during the second wave of COVID-19.

Ahmad Hamid’s father, Nawab Kaukub Hamid Khan, a five-term MLA from Baghpat, is invoked with affection and some reverence by all the speakers. Nawab’s father and grandfather, influential zamindars, played a role in settling several areas of Baghpat. Closely associated with the RLD, his father’s death in November 2018 left a political vacuum in Baghpat.

“Nawab sahib’s son will carry on his legacy and good work,” says the village pradhan, and adds, “but do not give anyone a chance this time to say the Yadavs did not vote for their Muslim brother from the RLD, it will let Akhilesh bhaiya down.”

Directed especially at a group of young men – all Yadavs – standing in a row at the back, it’s a comment that confirms the perception that in 2017, a considerable section of the Yadavs voted for the BJP. One of these young men leans across to whisper that he has learnt his lesson and that Yogi’s government has failed abysmally.

A Muslim elder gets up to recite some verses, “Kami agar phaasle mein aa jaaye, voh shaqs phir se mere raabtey mein aa jaaye (If distances diminish, the contact will be re-established),” before saying, “Muslims have been accused of gaddari (betrayal), but no Muslim will betray his country even if a Hindu does.”

His intention to emphasise the loyalty Muslims feel to the country is immediately misinterpreted. Two Yadav men erupt with, “How dare he accuse Hindus of gaddari?” They are instantly pacified, the Muslim man apologises and calm is restored – but not before it reveals the precarious nature of the partially restored social accord between communities.

Also read: ‘Cruel Yogi-Modi Raj’: As UP Polls Loom, Palpable Anger Against BJP in Aligarh

Caste dynamics

Ahmad Hamid, in his speech, sticks to local and state issues, addressing unemployment, the rise of petrol prices, and the rates at which the main local crop, sugarcane, is bought. He pursued his education from St. Joseph’s school and Aligarh Muslim University, and got a management degree from IIMT Ghaziabad. He has worked in the corporate sector for 15 years. “When my father fell sick, he told me that he saw our family as a bridge between communities, one that has served this land for a hundred years. I felt compelled to continue that work,” he says.

As the crowd disperses, several members come up to ensure their voices are heard, all of them vigorously pledge their support to the RLD-SP alliance. For them, a vote for the RLD is a step towards Akhilesh coming to power. In a constituency of about 315,000 voters, the Yadavs number around 25,000, with the majority comprising Muslims at about 80,000-90,000 followed by Jats at around 45,000. These are rough estimates but are cited across the local political spectrum.

In 2017, of the five assembly constituencies falling under the Baghpat Lok Sabha seat, four were won by Jats, three for the BJP and one for the RLD. But the political landscape has changed since the farmers’ agitation, and the degree to which the Jats will support the alliance will strongly impact the result.

We stand by a pond at a roadside shrine in the heart of Jat territory. Across the water body lies Hisawada village, the home of Satya Pal Malik, currently governor of Meghalaya. Malik’s statements in support of the farmers’ agitation and his criticism of the Central Vista departed from the party line but the BJP has not acted against him, perhaps fearing the impact on the Jat vote.

At the shrine, another farmer, Sumit Yadav, is huddled in a discussion with three others – Arvind, a Yadav; Sitaram, a Bahmin and Mangeram Swami, who is from the Bairagi (OBC) community. They run me through a typical UP poll analysis, breaking down the caste arithmetic of villages in this part of Baghpat. The Jatavs, they say, will continue to vote for Mayawati, “Never underestimate the BSP in western Uttar Pradesh. The Baniyas in town will vote for the BJP, the Gujjars will split in a big way and the Thakurs behave like Yogi’s extended family.”

Sumit adds, “The Yadavs across Western Uttar Pradesh will vote for the SP-RLD but it’s a tight battle here in Baghpat. The decisive factor will not be us but the Jats.” As if on cue, Ranbir Malik, a Jat farmer with a large landholding in Hisawada, arrives at the shrine on his motorcycle, “It is rubbish to say the Jats are angry with the BJP. Modi, in the country and Yogi in UP, have made it safe for Hindu women.” The issue of safety and crime comes up in almost every conversation. Before driving off, Malik concedes some Jats may have broken away from the BJP but calls them misguided and inconsequential.

A few minutes later, Mehak Singh arrives on his bike. Also a Malik Jat from Hisawada village, he is Satya Pal Malik’s first cousin. “I’m from a family which voted for the BJP for 20 years, even before there was any sign of them in western Uttar Pradesh. But no longer.” He says he was at the forefront of mobilising support for the farmers’ agitation in his village and then lists a series of grievances against the BJP, none of them connected with its communal thrust.

“The RLD is the only party for Jats, for farmers,” Mehak Singh adds and points to Mangeram, “These are the only people who will vote for the BJP, they just want the Rs 2,000 dole they are getting.”

As soon as he leaves, Mangeram, who has remained quiet in the presence of the two Jats, speaks up to say the BJP looks after the “choti jaatis”. His Bairagi community is seen as an ‘atipichri’ or among the most backward of the OBC castes. The Bairagis have but a few homes in every village and number no more than 3,000 in the constituency, but Mangeram reflects the sentiments of several such smaller backward castes. For most of them, the Jats are a dominant, oppressive community.

The BJP and its Sangh affiliates have worked on such fault lines to consolidate their votes, which, at 3,000 a sub-caste, adds up. This BJP strategy is made easier in western UP in the absence of any smaller parties to claim the loyalty of these castes, on the lines of the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party of the Rajbhars or the Nishad Party which have built up a presence elsewhere in the state.

Also read: A New Alliance Behaviour Is Emerging With the Anti-BJP League of the Opposition

The non-dominant OBC castes, even when they are present in large numbers, are often left out of the calculations. The Kashyaps, for instance, number over 30,000 in Baghpat and have a significant voting presence in 58 constituencies of western Uttar Pradesh.

Purnima Kashyap runs a small vegetable shop in Hamidabad, a Mohalla in the heart of Baghpat. She says most of the women in her colony will vote for the BJP for one key reason, they feel more secure under Adityanath’s rule. “We have daughters who walk back alone from school, college or their coaching centre, they can do so without fear of being lured away by men.” Asked to mention any cases of women who were “lured away”, Jyoti says, “TThere haven’t been any cases in our mohalla, thank goodness, but it happens all the time.”

Staunch BJP supporters, Jyoti and Purnima Kashyap, from Hamidabad, Baghpat. Photo: Radhika Bordia

The BJP’s effective hold

Ironically, Hamidabad was founded by Ahmad’s grandfather who had donated land from his own estate to settle Baghpat’s more marginalised communities. Sitaram Kashyap, now in his early 70s, says he’s familiar with the history of his mohalla, “Nawab Kakub’s family have served Baghpat well but people don’t care to remember that anymore.” He is among the few here who says he regrets voting for the BJP, “Look at our own boys, they are studying now but are not going to get any jobs. This government has been a disaster in every respect. They have also reneged on the promise of giving the Kashyaps SC status.”

Pointing to the man standing next to him, Raju Kashyap, a daily wage labourer, Sitaram says, “Many in my community, like Raju, will vote for the BJP even though the party has done nothing for them.” He says part of the reason for the BJP’s effective hold is the number of Kashyap samaj sabhas the party has organised in the run-up to the elections. “The BJP’s agenda is to constantly poison our people, turn them against Muslims. Moreover, the RLD is seen as a Jat party.”

Also read: UP Polls: Students, Political Parties Take On BJP With Puns, Hashtags, Memes and Spoofs

The BJP’s strategy of playing to community sentiments and strengthening caste icons can occasionally backfire. The Gujjars are the other large landowning community in this constituency, numbering close to 40,000. In 2012, Hamid’s father was defeated by the BSP’s Gujjar candidate Hemlata Chaudhary. The current Gujjar anger with the BJP relates to the identity of the 9th century ruler Mihir Bhoj whom the Gujjars see as their own. They have been accusing the BJP, and Adityanath in particular, of siding with the Rajputs in removing the word “Gurjar” while referring to the King.

Against this backdrop of caste hierarchies and ancient feuds, Hamid faces another challenge, from the WhatsApp spin factory that often espouses the BJP’s interests. While communal tension has lessened a little in this region in the aftermath of the farmers’ agitation and the coming together of the RLD and the SP, it is still palpable and attempts to stoke it are a central plank of the BJP campaign.

“With the day of polling around the corner, the more the BJP senses that the Jats are rallying around the RLD, the more it pushes its communal agenda,” says Ajay Rana, a Jat farmer from Doghat village.

Recently a fake message was put out on Facebook, supposedly from the handle of Jayant Singh, an RLD leader. It stated that he was opposing Hamid’s candidature as Muslims had been “oppressors of the Jats” in the past. Jayant Singh had to repeatedly clarify this was fake news, circulated in all probability by the BJP’s IT cell. Another message being circulated on WhatsApp claims to be a “Warning to Jats” alerting them to the ‘fact’ that if they vote for the BJP, 21 Jats will become MLAs but if they vote SP-RLD only three Jats and 16 Muslims will be sent to the Assembly.

The BJP candidate Yogesh Dhama’s confidence seems to feed off such attacks on Hamid. We meet him in the Gujjar villages bordering Ghaziabad. Waiving off the perceived anger among the Gujjars or the Jats, he says the Rajputs, a sizeable community here, and all other OBC communities are firmly with him. He also lists the Agarwal families and Jains as communities who will vote for him.

BJP candidate Yogesh Dhama. Photo: Radhika Bordia

This emphasis on counting communities to the last vote is crucial. The tall arched gate to Basaud proclaims that this is a ‘Kranti Gram’ or a village of martyrs, named after those who were hanged by the British after the 1857 mutiny. Nearby, a group of young men are in the midst of their physical training. They hope to be selected for the army and each one of them expresses acute anger against the BJP government for not carrying out fresh recruitments. “It’s been three years. They say it’s because of COVID-19 but if you can have elections during COVID-19, why can’t you keep the other stuff going?” asks Samir Tyagi.

These men are united in the issues that affect them but they are divided by the parties they will back. Their political preferences are not dictated by their needs, but by their last names. Samir, like his fellow Tyagis, will vote for the BJP. Adnan Ali says all the Muslims will vote for the RLD as will Rakesh Yadav and Suresh Rana, a Jat, while Amit Sharma says he will vote for the BJP. Ask them about the result and they say it will be a “barabar ki takkar”.