Beaten and humiliated by Hindu mobs for being a Muslim in India – By Geeta Pandey
Last month, a video that went viral on social media showed a terrified little girl clinging to her Muslim father as a Hindu mob assaulted him. The distressing footage showed the 45-year-old rickshaw driver being paraded through the streets of Kanpur…. His attackers asked him to chant “Hindustan Zindabad” or “Long Live India” and “Jai Shri Ram” or “Victory to Lord Ram” – a popular greeting that’s been turned into a murder cry by Hindu lynch mobs in recent years….
A few days later, another viral video surfaced showing a Muslim bangle-seller being slapped, kicked and punched by a Hindu mob in Indore, a city in the central state of Madhya Pradesh. The attackers could be heard abusing Tasleem Ali and telling him to stay away from Hindu areas in future…. Similar attacks were reported in the preceding months too – and many made headlines….
Religious faultlines have existed in India for a long time but, critics say, anti-Muslim violence has risen since 2014 under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi…. But religious nationalism, Prof Aeijaz says, is a dangerous idea that can lead to sectarian violence. “The buck stops with the political executive in a parliamentary democracy. How long can they look the other way?”
