India’s police force has apprehended five individuals identifying as Hindus, following a violent attack inflicted on a collection of Muslim foreign students who were partaking in Ramadan rituals within the dormitories of their university. This event occurred in Gujarat, the home state of India’s incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi.
Reports indicate that five among the assaulted students, originating from nations namely Afghanistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, were victims of physical harm during late Saturday’s incident at Gujarat University, located in the main city of Ahmadabad. A couple had to be hospitalised consequently.
According to commissioner GS Malik of the Ahmedabad police, an aggressive mob consisting of approximately 20-25 people, equipped with sticks, iron rods and stones, intruded into the rooms of the Muslim students while they were engaged in an evening prayer typical to Ramadan, confrontationally suggesting a relocation to a mosque.
A dispute broke out due to the unavailability of mosques in the immediate locality. The non-national Muslim students were assaulted subsequently and experienced damage to their properties.
The occurrence elicited a rather understated denouncement from Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-run administration, a Hindu nationalist group. They are not known to typically address instances of religious conflicts, particularly those involving Muslims. The denouncement emerged from a representative of India’s foreign affairs ministry over the weekend, promising that “stringent measures” would be enforced against the culprits.
Ahmedabad’s history features longstanding anti-Muslim biases. The city reported the maximum fatality numbers during religious riots that convulsed Gujarat in the early months of 2002. The bloodshed, which occurred while Mr Modi served as the city’s chief minister, led to over 1,200 deaths, primarily Muslims.
A gruesome episode from this period of turmoil involved a violent mob of 5,000, steered by the militant Bajrang Dal known to maintain close ties with the BJP, massacring 97 Muslims including 36 females and 35 children in the Naroda Patya district of the city.
Towards the end of 2022, in a shocking public display of unchecked aggression, five Muslim men found guilty of a minor violation in Gujarat’s Kheda district, located 40km south of Ahmedabad, were publicly flogged by Hindu law enforcement officers as onlookers encouraged and recorded the proceedings. The case hearing in January induced a stern admonition from India’s Supreme Court towards the policemen involved.
Mr. Modi and the BJP have been the subject of repeated accusations from both national and international human rights associations for exhibiting discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims. This forms a part of their broader political strategy that advocates for Hindutva, a form of Hindu supremacy.
Around 80 per cent of the population within India’s 1.4 billion people belongs to the Hindu faith, followed by Muslims who constitute around 15 per cent. The remaining percentage encompasses Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains.
A recent report by the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank based in New York, revealed an increase in anti-Muslim sentiments throughout a decade-long BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) rule in India. The report suggested that under the BJP, the basic rights of numerous Muslims were explicitly disregarded through the enforcement of contentious policies that infringed their religious liberties, even going as far as to attempt to disenfranchise them.
According to the council, under BJP governance, bias against Muslims extends to several facets of life, including education, employment, healthcare, housing, along with restrictions on gaining political power. Regardless of boasting constitutionally-guaranteed protection, Muslims often encounter challenges when trying to seek justice. Impunity for attacks on Muslims is noted to be widespread, as even national and state courts and government bodies have occasionally overturned Hindus’ involvement in anti-Muslim violence or dropped such cases.
Furthermore, in several BJP-led Indian states, there’s a frequent recourse to “bulldozer justice”, an extrajudicial mechanism used to penalise Muslims. This involves the arbitrary demolition of Muslim homes, justified by the alleged lack of required permits. The practice continues unabated even in the face of a ruling by the supreme court declaring these demolitions as illegal, according to the council.