Self-advertised Indian secularists are covering up the dismantling of the Muslim minority’s rights
By Afsar Jahan
May/June 2022
India, the world’s largest democracy — in numbers — is known as the most religiously and ethnically diverse – self-claimed secular — country with about 204 million Muslims (2019 estimates) living in an overtly Hindu-majority country.
While religious fault lines have existed in India for a long time, anti-Muslim violence has risen since 2014 under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During his first term in office, there were numerous incidents of Muslims being attacked by gau rakshak (cow-vigilantes) merely over rumors that they had eaten beef or were trying to smuggle cows for slaughter — an animal that many Hindus consider sacred. He did not condone such attacks, but was criticized for not condemning them quickly or strongly enough either.
Recent anti-Muslim Events
In 2019, p.factchecker.in, which counted hate crimes in India (and was pulled down on Sept. 11 that year), reported that more than 90% of victims in the past decade were Muslims and the perpetrators of these attacks not only remain unpunished, but also in fact enjoy the Modi government’s political patronage. For example, in July 2018, Jayant Sinha, the federal minister of state for civil aviation, honored eight men who had been convicted of lynching Alimuddin Ansari, a Muslim, by garlanding them after their bail was paid. This was a message that it was alright to attack Muslims.
After Modi’s reelection in 2019, anti-Muslim violence spiraled. Often the violence is not physical but assumes subtle insidious forms as well that seek to vilify and demonize the minority community. For example, when Covid-19 began to take hold in India, Hindu leaders, including several Cabinet members, accused Muslim men who had attended a religious gathering in New Delhi of launching a “Corona Jihad” by indulging in behavior that would spread the virus.
Then followed the “Roti Jihad,” which included unfounded allegations that Muslim cooks were spitting on roti (handmade flatbread) to spread the virus to Hindus.
Apart from this, several states have introduced laws to curb “Love Jihad,” an Islamophobic term that fringe Hindu groups use to imply that Muslim men prey on Hindu women to convert them through marriage.
Muslim women haven’t been spared either. In July 2022, more than 100 Muslim women found that they had been put up for sale (with uploaded photos) online on Bulli Bai and Sulli Deals apps hosted on web platform Git Hub. The purpose was to degrade and humiliate these women, many of whom have been outspoken about the rising tide of Hindu nationalism under Modi. An Indian court granted bail to the two men accused of creating separate apps on the grounds that they were first-time offenders, and that continued incarceration would be detrimental to their well-being.
On the other hand, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) is being freely used as a political weapon to silence activists and demonize Muslims.
In 2021 in a public meeting held in Haridwar, located in the northern state of Uttarakhand, participants were asked to take up arms and conduct mass killings of Muslims. No serious legal action has ever been initiated.
In January 2022, some hijab-wearing Muslima students at a junior college were denied entry on the grounds that the hijab violated the college’s uniform policy. This controversy instantly took the shape of a nationwide wave of communal unrest. In addition, the state court ruled that the hijab was not an essential practice and thus denied the students’ right to education. An appeal to the Supreme Court is still pending.
I and many fellow Muslims face a chaotic situation in which basic human rights are denied. We are struggling and standing for our fellow citizens’ human and constitutional rights.
In my capacity as an attorney serving at state High Court of Telangana for the state department of industries and mines, for the past 14 years I have also been serving as a panel member of a family dispute resolution forum, the Telangana Marriage Counseling Center for Minorities (TMMC Hyderabad) — an arbitration council. I am also actively involved in community services, as we all are aware of the plight of our country’s Muslims. I strive to inform them of their constitutional and fundamental rights and work to bring legal awareness to the people, as most of them are unaware of their legal rights due to the predominance of illiteracy. Considering the situation as it exists today, they have no voice in their own country, the “world’s largest democracy.”
As an TMMC member, an entity formed by Telangana state for Muslims, I work with Islamic scholars and attorneys to help settle marital discords via Sharia-compliant laws as well as the law of land. However, the organization functions more as an arbitration board, a weak string, but nevertheless serves an important role. Unfortunately, one major drawback of India’s judicial system is that Muslim family matters, such as marriage and divorce, are not adjugated according to Muslim personal laws in regular courts, despite a provision to the effect. More often that not, the Hindu federal state governments try to interfere with personal laws by bringing amendments, be it Triple Talaq (some Muslim scholars interpret that three consecutive utterances of the word talaq [divorce] legalizes the separation) matter or increasing the marriage age.
I continue urging the Telangana government to upgrade TMMC to enable amicable Islamic settlements of Muslim marital disputes. I work to protect the rights of Muslimas and their education while providing free legal services to those who are subjected to domestic violence or are abandoned and neglected by their husbands.
I am actively involved with NGOs that seek to protect awqaf (Islamic trusts) properties from encroachment. After filing several public interest litigations in Telangana courts, the investigation revealed that over 75% (estimated 78,000 acres) of such lands have been encroached on. Similar situations face Muslim-owned properties in other parts of India.
Considering these circumstances, Muslims are forced to continue to live below the poverty line. As a result, most of them work as daily wage laborers with no financial stability and development and thus end up with having no voice in such a big democracy.
The Muskan Khan Case
I have initiated criminal proceedings against the attack on Muskan Khan, the hijab-wearing student who was attacked in Karnataka state. This was not just an attack on her. As an attorney, I look at it in the broader perspective that the mob was involved in a crime against the state. This incident therefore comes under the purview of the Indian Penal Code because it involves unlawful assembly, criminal conspiracy and outraging the religious sentiments of a particular community by insulting its religious feelings. This was a case of criminal intimidation, for the mob demanded that Muskan remove her hijab while shouting the Hindu religious chant of Jai Shri Ram at her. It also involves outraging the modesty of a woman, an act that should be penalized.
The Karnataka police overlooked such serious crimes by the mob, which had been sent by the RSS Bajrang Dal, a wing of the BJP government, by labeling it a “communal unrest” between Hindus and Muslims. The matter resulted in nationwide violence flaring up, when the matter could have been amicably settled. After all, it was already pending in the court and before the National Human Rights Commission.
Thus, as a law-abiding citizen, I registered a complaint and had an FIR (first incidence report) lodged against the mob for instigating this unrest. I, along with my team, are the attorneys on record in this case. My aim is to draw the court’s attention to how law and order is broken and that the administration closes its eyes to such crimes against the state.
For Muslims in India, all of us face a long and unstoppable struggle.
Afsar Jahan is a lawyer licensed to practice before the high court of the State of Telangana, India.
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