Al Jazeera News :
On February 24, Hindu nationalist mobs descended on the northeastern parts of India’s capital, New Delhi, and wreaked havoc for four days, targeting Muslim businesses and homes. More than 50 people were killed and hundreds were injured in the violence.
In the aftermath of the attacks, I visited one of the worst-affected neighbourhoods, Shiv Vihar, and witnessed the destruction. While Hindu shops and residences looked largely intact, most Muslim houses and businesses were gutted down to their bare bones. The burnt remains of the possessions of Muslim families – fridges, TV sets and cars – were scattered across the neighbourhood’s narrow lanes.
While one local mosque was charred to the ground, another named Auliya looked largely unaffected from the outside. But inside, I found that it, too, was a charred, mangled mess. Hindu residents seemed to be carrying on with their lives as normal, but Muslims were nowhere to be seen – they had all left, seeking safety in relief camps set up by the government.
The unrest that left Shiv Vihar in ruins was triggered after the weeks-long sit-ins in Delhi against the new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which opponents say discriminates against Muslims, who were attacked by Hindu nationalists.
Anti-CAA protests in Delhi had been peaceful from the beginning. People got together to sing patriotic songs, wave Indian flags, recite from the Indian constitution and listen to speeches on freedom, solidarity and secularism. The protesters – many of them women – demonstrated nothing but loyalty to their country, but this did not stop the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from portraying them as “traitors” and making them prime targets for vigilante attacks.
In the run-up to the February 7 Delhi assembly elections, for example, the BJP ran a vicious campaign targeting the city’s Muslims. Anurag Thakur, the junior finance minister, incited the crowd at an election rally to shout “shoot the traitors”. Another minister, Parvesh Verma, swore the protesters would be “sent packing” within hours of a BJP victory, adding that if left unchecked,
they would “rape and kill”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, meanwhile, implied the protesters were anti-India and pro-Pakistan.
Modi termed the ongoing protests a “conspiracy” designed to undermine “India’s harmony”. Shah claimed protesters had raised slogans like “Jinnah wali azaadi (We want Jinnah-style independence)”, suggesting they demand the disintegration of India.
When the inevitable happened and the protesters were attacked, the violence quickly spread across Delhi. The authorities did little to ease the tensions, while the police faced accusations of looking the other way.
Many observers compared the attacks in Delhi to previous episodes of communal violence. Indeed, India’s post-independence history is bristling with such incidents.
This most recent episode was neither the biggest nor the most violent in India’s recent history. Yet, for careful India watchers, what happened last month was in a different category.
To understand what makes these attacks unique and therefore more frightening, let us recall two other episodes of intercommunal violence in India’s recent history: the 1984 massacres of Sikhs in Delhi and the 2002 pogroms targeting Muslims in the state of Gujarat.
On February 24, Hindu nationalist mobs descended on the northeastern parts of India’s capital, New Delhi, and wreaked havoc for four days, targeting Muslim businesses and homes. More than 50 people were killed and hundreds were injured in the violence.
In the aftermath of the attacks, I visited one of the worst-affected neighbourhoods, Shiv Vihar, and witnessed the destruction. While Hindu shops and residences looked largely intact, most Muslim houses and businesses were gutted down to their bare bones. The burnt remains of the possessions of Muslim families – fridges, TV sets and cars – were scattered across the neighbourhood’s narrow lanes.
While one local mosque was charred to the ground, another named Auliya looked largely unaffected from the outside. But inside, I found that it, too, was a charred, mangled mess. Hindu residents seemed to be carrying on with their lives as normal, but Muslims were nowhere to be seen – they had all left, seeking safety in relief camps set up by the government.
The unrest that left Shiv Vihar in ruins was triggered after the weeks-long sit-ins in Delhi against the new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which opponents say discriminates against Muslims, who were attacked by Hindu nationalists.
Anti-CAA protests in Delhi had been peaceful from the beginning. People got together to sing patriotic songs, wave Indian flags, recite from the Indian constitution and listen to speeches on freedom, solidarity and secularism. The protesters – many of them women – demonstrated nothing but loyalty to their country, but this did not stop the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from portraying them as “traitors” and making them prime targets for vigilante attacks.
In the run-up to the February 7 Delhi assembly elections, for example, the BJP ran a vicious campaign targeting the city’s Muslims. Anurag Thakur, the junior finance minister, incited the crowd at an election rally to shout “shoot the traitors”. Another minister, Parvesh Verma, swore the protesters would be “sent packing” within hours of a BJP victory, adding that if left unchecked,
they would “rape and kill”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, meanwhile, implied the protesters were anti-India and pro-Pakistan.
Modi termed the ongoing protests a “conspiracy” designed to undermine “India’s harmony”. Shah claimed protesters had raised slogans like “Jinnah wali azaadi (We want Jinnah-style independence)”, suggesting they demand the disintegration of India.
When the inevitable happened and the protesters were attacked, the violence quickly spread across Delhi. The authorities did little to ease the tensions, while the police faced accusations of looking the other way.
Many observers compared the attacks in Delhi to previous episodes of communal violence. Indeed, India’s post-independence history is bristling with such incidents.
This most recent episode was neither the biggest nor the most violent in India’s recent history. Yet, for careful India watchers, what happened last month was in a different category.
To understand what makes these attacks unique and therefore more frightening, let us recall two other episodes of intercommunal violence in India’s recent history: the 1984 massacres of Sikhs in Delhi and the 2002 pogroms targeting Muslims in the state of Gujarat.
