The recent public flogging of Muslims in Gujrat is not entirely shocking when we consider the sheer pervasiveness of anti-Muslim discourse in India, especially since the Bharatiya Janata Party assumed office. In 2002, after 59 Hindus were burnt alive on a train in Godhra, Gujrat became the epicentre of mass violence against Muslims which eventually escalated into a full-blown pogrom that claimed 2000 Muslim lives. Narendra Modi, who was chief minister of the state back then refused to intervene during the first 72 hours after the riots erupted, enabling impassioned protestors to destroy private property and murder to their heart’s desire. It was after this critical period that law enforcement stepped in. By then, the damage was irreversible. While these incidences of violence are generally passed off as communalism, it must be noted that Hindus in India have far more social capital than their Muslim counterparts, making it an uneven fight.
Twenty years later, Gujrat continues to be at the forefront of persecution against Muslims and Narendra Modi is now the prime minister of India. The state’s capital, Ahmedabad, currently houses over 300,000 Muslims in a ghetto called Juhapura where residents have isolated themselves from the general populace in fear that the past may repeat itself again.
Indeed, the inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric of nationalist groups such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) lies at the core of violence against Muslims who have frequently used the events of the 2002 riots to intimidate Indian Muslims into submission.
Despite all this, the global media continues to disregard the issue of Islamophobia in India, where Muslims make up 14.6% of the total population. It is abundantly clear that anti-Muslim politics is exceedingly becoming the national narrative in India. and worrying that scholarship on state-sanctioned violence has neglected to situate Hindutva nationalism within this context. Hindutva fascists have created a straightforward political agenda that otherizes Muslims by situating them as an impediment to India’s future and it is precisely this style of governance that must be cautioned against. *