Supreme Court stays lower court’s direction to evict over 4,000 Muslim families
In a move that restored some faith in India’s increasingly Hindu-biased judiciary, the Supreme Court has stayed the Uttarakhand state High Court’s order to demolish over 4,000 buildings – including homes, shops, schools, and mosques – in a Muslim-majority region of Haldwani city.
“There is a human angle to it,” said the Supreme Court bench, comprising of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S. Oka. “How can you say in seven days clear them off?”
The Justices also slammed the High Court for ordering the demolition drive without hearing the pleas of the Muslim residents, and acknowledged that the Muslim families had been living in their homes for around 50 years, many of them with legal documentation to prove their residence.
The lower court had attempted to justify this mass eviction drive under the blatantly false claim that the families were “unauthorized occupants” living on “encroached” land belonging to the Indian Railways. The initial petition to have the residents evicted was filed by a Hindu supremacist and sympathizer of the paramilitary extremist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The Supreme Court has now asked the Uttarakhand government and the Indian Railways to find a “practical solution” to the issue. The matter will be revisited on February 7th.
Muslims ordered to vacate homes to pave way for Hindu pilgrimage, festival in 2028
In yet another move to render Muslims homeless en masse, residents of two Muslim-majority areas of Madhya Pradesh state’s Ujjain city have been ordered to vacate their homes to pave way for a Hindu pilgrimage and festival, Kumbh Mela, which will be hosted by the city in 2028.
The Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Madhya Pradesh government is pushing homelessness onto Muslims who are impoverished and working-class citizens.
The announcement comes amid massive outrage and protests over the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand state’s attempt to demolish over 4,000 buildings in a Muslim-dominated area in a militarized eviction drive, which would have forced 4,500 families out of their homes.
Over the past year, bulldozers have become a weapon in the hands of Hindu supremacist governments across India to destroy the homes and livelihoods of the Muslim community.
Hindu supremacist mob attacks Christians, dumps Bibles into street
In yet another attack against Christians around Christmas, Hindu supremacist mob assaulted a group of Christians distributing Bibles and chocolates in BJP-ruled Karnataka state.
In a video of the incident that has gone viral on social media, the Hindu supremacists can be heard saying, “How dare you distribute the Bible in our area? If you have a Bible, keep it to yourself. Do we come and give you [Hindu scriptures] to read?
The mob is then seen desecrating the Bibles by throwing them from Christians’ car into the streets and then destroying the religious texts.
One of the victims, a Christian woman named Rebecca, said that a Hindu extremist woman had attracted the mob by demanding why Bibles were being distributed, and then vandalized one of them.
“As part of Christmas celebrations, we were distributing Bibles and chocolates to people. We didn’t force anyone to accept the Bibles,” Rebecca said.
A fact-finding report last year showed that Karnataka witnessed the third-highest number of attacks on Christians and their places of worship. Several churches and Christian institutions have been targeted by extremist Hindu groups in Karnataka over false allegations of forced religious conversion.
