Daily Times

As India grapples with COVID-19, the nation’s capital New Delhi continues to be scarred by the violence which erupted a month ago. Community divisions have become more pronounced and the Hindu- Muslim divide becoming more visible reflecting a trend similar to that in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots of 2002. These worrisome on ground realities in New Delhi have become apparent at a time when India needs to show national unity and solidarity. The divisions among the Hindu and Muslim communities in New Delhi’s localities shows that the Modi government’s push for an exclusionary social agenda against the Muslim minority in India is well and truly alive and the after effects of saffron vigilante groups such as the RSS running amok is also here to stay.

The effects are well and truly visible in the locality of Yamuna Vihar in New Delhi, where Hindu businesses, residents and shopkeepers have decided to boycott Muslim consumers with many considering it appropriate to maintain a safe distance from the community. Of the eight localities in the north east of Delhi, many Hindu’s who were interviewed had expressed disapproval over cooperating with Muslims, selling products to them, doing business with them and even having them as neighbors. Similarly, many Muslim residents claimed that they were being unfairly demonized and evicted due to their religious identity.

These realities echo similar trends which were witnessed after the Gujarat Riots of 2002 when many Muslim businesses witnessed isolation, unemployment and ghettoization. Those living and working side by side with their Hindu counterparts in Gujarat had to flee to neighboring localities of which many were isolated from mainstream society. The locality of Juhapura in Ahmedabad for example, witnessed a property boom as the influx of Muslim residents fleeing the violence in Gujarat decided to reside there. The locality has often been labeled as ‘Mini- Pakistan.’ , a veiled reference to its Muslim population coexisting with a Hindu business community which defines Ahmadabad and Gujarat as a state. This is a reality that many Muslims which hail from lower socio-economic backgrounds have had to confront as compared to Gujarati businessmen such as Azim Premji.

Polarizing rhetoric has spilled over into large scale riots whenever political tensions increase and an environment is created which limits interactions between different communities at a large scale

Yamuna Vihar prior to the riots last month was known for its interfaith harmony and social cohesion with many residents having Hindu and Muslim neighbors. Yet the political engineering of the BJP with the Citizenship Amendment Act, the vituperative rhetoric from the party’s politicians and vigilante groups running amok has left an indelible mark on social cohesion in the locality. Unlike Christchurch in New Zealand or Charlottesville in the United States where populism or right wing terrorism had united communities, riots in India often provide an environment which allows Hindu and Muslim tensions to fester particularly with the BJP government in power at the federal or the state level. Clientele politics also overshadows condemnation which usually comes from a disoriented opposition or celebrity elites in India. Furthermore, no rally in support of Muslims in the aftermath of riots took place with sporadic instances of heroism from the Sikh community being the only highlight of communal solidarity after the riots. The scale of the violence in New Delhi may have been smaller in terms of casualty tolls but forced evictions and isolation in Yamuna Vihar buttresses the point that not much has changed as far as the BJP’s social engineering back in Gujarat 2002 is concerned.

The case in Yamuna Vihar can also be widely attributed to divisive rhetoric being employed by BJP politicians which pander towards their Hindu vote bank and respective constituencies instead of looking for greater Hindu- Muslim unity which is needed to avert future turmoil. Such polarizing rhetoric has spilled over into large scale riots whenever political tensions increase and an environment is created which limits interactions between different communities at a large scale. This was the case in the Muzzafarnagar riots where firebrands such as Sadhvi Prachi inflamed tensions by attending a rally in favor of Hindu vigilantes. Contrastingly, in the aftermath of the Christchurch attacks, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s speech helped instill inclusiveness for the Muslim community and the wider public played a key role in ensuring that communal harmony materializes after the horrendous event took place. In 2002, Narendra Modi had famously questioned the need for refugee camps inside Gujarat for thousands of Indian Muslim citizens fleeing the violence. He appealed to his Hindu support base and asked them as to which religion or community was impeding the path to progress and development which was a veiled reference to the Muslims. Since then, communities continued to be polarized.

Such divisions in a secular state with a Hindu nationalist government in India is well and truly alive in New Delhi and would continue to impede social cohesion with a few notable exceptions. In hindsight, Modi’s India has not learned from the mistakes committed in 2002 when the Prime Minister was the Chief Minister of a state. Communal harmony which discourages ghettoization, social isolation or evictions will continue to be a tall ask for many localities such as Yamuna Vihar which is located in a capital of a nation whose founding father was assassinated by an RSS member.

The writer is Assistant Research Officer at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute. Visiting Fellow, Stimson Center, Washington D.C