EDITORIAL: It is clear that the recent consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya has only served to whet the appetite of Hindutva proponents, and after successfully targeting the Babri mosque, Hindu extremists appear bent upon replicating this model elsewhere in India. This they are doing not just through the dozens of lawsuits directed at mosques across the country – along the lines of the Babri mosque court case – but also through its brand of ‘bulldozer justice’, whose latest target was a centuries-old mosque located in Delhi, which was razed down on January 30, supposedly in a demolition drive to remove “illegal” structures from a forest reserve.
The flattening of the 600-year-old Masjid Akhonji came without any prior notice being provided to the mosque administration, with those at the premises allowed mere minutes to evacuate the site before the structure was razed. This callous act comes amid a time of crisis for India’s Muslim minority, which of late has seen an unbridled assault on its fundamental rights.
This is most notable in BJP-ruled states, where authorities have employed a highly prejudiced and cruel policy of using demolition drives to target Muslim homes and businesses, and term these as actions against illegal structures. This arbitrary use of ‘bulldozer justice’ promptly comes into play in the aftermath of incidents of communal violence or in the wake of any protest launched by the Muslim community, with these acts apparently a way to penalise any perceived transgression committed by Muslims.
The Ram temple inauguration had seen in its aftermath the outbreak of communal violence in the state of Maharashtra, with the result being the bulldozing of structures belonging to the Muslim community of the area. It would be pertinent to note the statement issued by Amnesty International India in the wake of these demolitions where the human rights body condemned the “impunity with which the Indian authorities have been enforcing their discriminatory … policy of … punitively demolishing Muslim properties following episodes of communal violence”.
Apart from facing the brutality of ‘bulldozer justice’, India’s Muslims have also been targets of an extensive project of rewriting, and at times inventing, an entirely new version of Indian history based on Hindutva ideology. This version of history talks about an ancient Hindu nation oppressed for centuries by tyrannical Muslim conquerors, with a BJP leader going as far as to claim that Mughal rulers had destroyed 36,000 Hindu temples and replaced them with mosques.
This project of reshaping history received a considerable boost on January 31, with an Indian court ruling that Hindus can now worship inside the 17th century Gyanvapi mosque, which had been the subject of dozens of lawsuits brought by extremist Hindu groups claiming that it was the site of an ancient Hindu temple, and that Hindu priests had prayed there until 1993. The fervent arguments provided by the Muslim side, asserting that the premises had only ever been used by Muslims and is protected under India’s Places of Worship Act, came to naught with the Allahabad High Court allowing Hindus to pray in the mosque’s basement.
The verdict is sure to inflame religious sentiments and act as a stimulating force for further claims having no basis in fact against other ancient mosques. The complete failure of the various organs of the Indian state, including the judiciary, to protect the fundamental rights of minority communities has been one of the major reasons why India has turned so resolutely on this tyrannical path.
With there being few checks on the rampant onslaught of the Hindu far right on the rights, lives and aspirations of marginalised sections of the Indian polity, the dreams of turning the country away from its secular roots and towards becoming a Hindu rashtra appear close to fruition.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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