Hate Heat Spreads Across The Hills

The hills are once again dealing with the winds of communal hate. What had started in Uttarakhand a few years ago has now reached Himachal Pradesh. Himachal that was once an island of peace and amity is now engulfed by hate spewed against the Muslim community.

The communal campaign here is in the form of a whisper campaign, both on the streets and on social media, by various segments has been well documented in the past by the media, including by this reporter.

The question now arises if the administration, along with the government, lacks an effective intelligence apparatus? Or has the cauldron of hate been allowed to boil over?

The spread of hate is well orchestrated, and is a part of a design being carried out across the country to polarise the people on religious lines where the target is the poorest of the poor, and mostly Muslims.

Ironically, no political party is owning up this hate campaign, even though everyone can read between the lines. It is being said the protests are an outbursts of ‘samaj’ (society).

The developments in Himachal Pradesh are following the hate trajectory that has been witnessed in several parts of the country before. A fight between individuals in Malyana locality, where one party was a Muslim, was first given the tag of ‘locals versus outsiders’ and then used by right wing elements to rake the issue of illegal construction of a mosque in Sanjauli suburb of Shimla that stood sub-judice.

The area witnessed protests and use of force by the administration to maintain law and order. The issue was diffused with the mosque committee offering to raze the illegally constructed portion voluntarily and promising to abide by the court directions in the matter.

At a media briefing in Shimla, Cabinet ministers Anirudh Singh and Vikramaditya Singh announced that to ‘maintain the communal harmony and maintain internal security and peace’, the president of the Sanjauli Mosque Committee Mohammed Latif and member of the Waqf Board Maulvi Shezaad with other representatives of the mosque committee handed over a letter to the Shimla Municipal Commissioner.

According to the ministers the Muslim leaders “voluntarily agreed upon to seal the entire portion of the ‘illegally expanded structure’ or if MC permits, they were also ready to demolish the same and also agreed upon that they will accept the directions of the court in the public interest.”

A state government spokesperson stated, “The duo stated that Himachal was a peaceful state and no one will be allowed to disturb the serenity of the state and create lawlessness.

“Himachal has always been a symbol of peace and harmony they said, adding that few were trying to give a communal colour to the entire episode for their vested interest forgetting that it was during the COVID period that the structure was raised in an unauthorised manner when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was in power.”

Anirudh Singh said that “it was during the BJP regime that a sum of rupees two lakh was provided to the mosque authorities from the planning head-VKV/2019/774, by the then BJP government”. He also highlighted that the previous BJP government has also released another huge amount in lakhs for the same.

He reiterated that “Himachal was the first State to enact a law on 'Religious conversion' during the Congress regime”. Claiming that they respect the sentiments of the people he suggested that the peaceful environment of the State should not be disturbed at any cost.

Vikramaditya said that “the issue was about the legal and illegal structure of the mosque which took an ugly turn being backed up by the BJP leaders”. He said that the police had to take some strict decision by use of force to disperse the crowd after stone pelting in which both the police and the locals were hurt, which was not the culture of the Himachali People.

The BJP leadership has been playing up the “lathicharge on ‘peaceful Hindus’ protesting against the illegal mosque”. Former Chief Minister and the leader of opposition in the state assembly Jairam Thakur hit back claiming, “Orders have been given by the Congress high command to remove Anirudh Singh.

“That is why Congress ministers are giving baseless and false statements. The character of the Congress party and the government is in front of the country. Now, none of their damage control will work.”

At present the state continues to witness protests over demands to raze the ‘illegally’ constructed mosques. This demand has dovetailed into the frenzy being whipped up against the migrants from the minority community who have taken shops and houses on rent, work as street vendors or sell commodities while on the move across the towns and villages.

Such demonstrations have taken place in places like Sunni, Palampur, Mandi, and Kullu with a call given for Solan as well.

Meanwhile, in Shimla, former Mayor and CP-M leader Sanjay Chauhan said, “The Muslims have not arrived overnight. They were first brought here in the 1840s from Ladakh and Kashmir valley by the British. The Ladakhi Mohalla which later got the new name of Krishna Nagar was their abode. Even the 1904 Gazetteer mentions that there were six Masjids in Shimla.”

He explained that at the root of the present day discord is the plain economic distress that has hit everyone including the small traders. The frustration is being directed towards vendors, majority of whom are Muslims coming from other states.

It needs to be underlined here that the Constitution of India gives the right to every citizen to go and work anywhere in the country. Meanwhile, the issue of legal and illegal construction is for the courts to decide upon.

It is being pointed out that the four retention policies brought about in Shimla over the decades has led to large scale illegal structures coming up and these are not confined to any specific community or creed.

“Ironically people who cannot even spell demography are talking about a demographic change and a section of the Congress leadership is speaking the same language of those propagating hate.

“Nobody can discount the contribution of Muslims in the state. Today the best painters, tailors, mechanics, carpenters etc are from the community,” Chauhan said while pointing out that law and order needs to be maintained across the state.

Incidentally, the Left party has been the only force that has been flagging hate campaigns and trying to get the administration to deliver.

In a memorandum to the Shimla Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said, “Shimla is more than a century old cosmopolitan city where people from all over India live here in peace and harmony. People from different castes and creeds live here in harmony and familiarity.

“In the past no incident of communal hatred has been reported in the history of Shimla city. If someone has tried to create an atmosphere that disturbs peace and harmony in the city, people from all walks of life have together come forward and isolated such elements and maintain the sanctity of the Shimla city.

“Our Party demands that the administration should intervene effectively and the safety of all the people should be ensured. The law and order in the city should be maintained and those who are trying to disturb peace should be dealt with as per law.

“To maintain peace and harmony in the city a meeting of all the different communities should be convened at the earliest. The party assured full cooperation to the administration to maintain peace and appeal to the people to come forward and join hands to maintain harmony in the city.

“One of the organisations at the forefront of the protestors is the Devbhoomi Kshatriya Sangathan and Swarna Morcha. Along with other organisations it has been demanding a probe into ‘encroachments by the increasing migrants in the entire state, investigations into the dargahs and mosques built illegally and a law against illegal construction’. It has also sought a Sanatan Board for the Sanatan Hindu society.”

Incidentally this was the same organisation that had raised the demand for a Swarna Aayog in 2021 and as a part of the campaign had carried out a ‘Shav Yatra’ (funeral procession) of caste based reservation and Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to Haridwar.

At Haridwar, the participants had performed after-death rituals and returned to Himachal Pradesh while bringing back Ganges water for purification of the representatives of the BJP and the Congress that had been in power since the state came into existence five decades ago. This was reported by The Citizen in 2021.

Chauhan contested that “there is already a provision for registration and verification of migrants coming into the state. If it is not being followed, it is the failure of the local Police authorities.”

The causes and impacts of migration cannot be always looked through the prism of hate. On a personal note, there were some revelations coming from a Muslim mason and marble polisher from Arrah in Bihar way back in the first decade of this century.

During a visit to his small residential structure in Solan on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, the obvious question coming to mind was why had he chosen to move his entire family to Himachal Pradesh given the fact that the climate, lifestyle and food habits were contrary to those at his native village.

The man had called his eldest daughter and said, “This is the first girl in my entire clan to go to the school. The safety and peace here has brought about this change.”

The construction boom of the early 2000s has led to large scale demand of labour and vendors from other states that have prospered through their hard work.

Not only Muslims but a large number of tribals from Jharkhand, many of them Christians, have been dotting the cities of this hill state now. These tribals have fled the poverty and the Naxal unrest back home looking to earn a living and get their children educated.

One of the key points of the Right Wing hate campaign is that the migrants have taken over the small trade and jobs that should have gone to the locals.

All this has been laced with the lexicon of hate in terms like ‘love jihad’, ‘land jihad’, ‘mazar jihad’ and now ‘translation jihad’. Observers on the ground say that the present spate of hate narrative against Muslims stems from some of the recent political developments.

The first is that the Congress going on to win a majority of the Assembly by polls following the scenario emerging after the Rajya Sabha elections in February.

The second is the Waqf Board (Amendment) Bill being sent to a parliamentary panel. The third is the forthcoming Assembly polls in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, that are to be followed by those in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

Meanwhile, Uttarakhand, from where the hate has spilled over to Himachal Pradesh, continues to hit new lows as far as orchestrated hatred is concerned.

Amid calls for razing shrines of the minority community, the hills recently reportedly saw public boards coming up in the villages banning the entry of non-Hindus and Rohingya Muslims in Rudraprayag and Chamoli district.

Sources said that later the words non-Hindu/ Rohingya Muslim were dropped but ‘outsiders’ were warned against entering the hill villages. Instances of hate continue to pour in from Uttarkashi and Chamoli districts.

In a statement on September 13 the civil society group Citizens For Peace said, “We are deeply disturbed and troubled by the manner in which social and economic life in Uttarakhand is continually being disrupted by sectarian elements apparently with known political support.

“This situation has been aggravated in the last few months and weeks due to the administration’s inaction in upholding the rule of law.”

The statement added, “The recent events directed essentially against minorities at Paltan Bazar (DehraDun), at Chauras (Kirtinagar Block, Tehri), in Ghat block (Chamoli district), at Jhulaghat (Pithoragarh district) and in Uttarkashi have pained us deeply.

“We are particularly distressed to find that in many cases families which have lived in the state for more than a quarter century and in some cases even around half a century are reportedly being humiliated, uprooted and displaced.

“Signboards have come up in Rudraprayag and Chamoli directed against ‘outsiders’. These have necessarily to be read in the context of the campaign seeking to delegitimise the presence of certain minority communities even when they are as much Indian citizens as are members of the majority community.

“The Constitution of India bestows on all Indian citizens the right to live and practise their livelihood anywhere in the country. Uttarakhand has long been the home of plural communities.

“In the atmosphere now prevailing there have been assaults and even cases of violence. Apart from Muslims, Christians have also been targeted, as happened recently in the heart of DehraDun.”

The group has called for upholding the rule of law besides fair and just administrative conduct. “We do welcome and appreciate the conduct of those officials who did not succumb to mob pressure and who stood by the Constitution of India.

“It is to be expected that the administration at large too would demonstrate a greater resolve to ensure normalcy, so that all sections of the people are able to pursue the ordinary course of their lives with a sense of security.

“It is also expected that if the administration fails to show adequate sensitivity or consciousness of its responsibility, the judiciary should take suo-motu notice of the grave situation in the state and direct effective remedial action,” it stated.

The group has further stated that if the institutions fail in their duty or become ineffective, the citizens must shake off their apathy and ensure that peace and the rule of law are preserved.

“Towards this end we believe that it is vitally necessary that all party committees for peace are also set up at the state, district and block levels. We hope that such committees will be speedily established.

Political parties are expected to play a leadership role in upholding the Constitution. We are constrained to observe a growing gap between their words and action on the ground,” the statement added.

Observers say that in the last four years the state has fast transformed into another laboratory of Hindutva where hate has been percolating down from every fissure. Those with a rational outlook believe that this hate needs to be nipped at the earliest.

Meanwhile, following the protests at various places including Shimla and Solan, cases have been registered by the administration against some people on charges of disturbing peace.