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More hate speech against Muslims delivered across India, authorities remain deafeningly silent

CJP Team

Since the beginning of this year, a sharp rise in the number of targeted hate speeches being delivered, almost on a daily basis is observed. Muslims in India — who make up about 14 percent of the population, are facing increased stigmatization, active discrimination and threats of violence. With speeches ranging from slurs against Prophet Mohammad, to open calls to gendered violence on (rape of) Muslim women, to violent incitements against Muslims in general, these utterances, despite ongoing cases in the Supreme Court of India, are neither being prevented nor prosecuted.

Hate crimes include Hindu nationalists (read supremacists) destroying Muslim properties, disrupting their religious services to deadly lynch mobs. Surviving as a Muslim in India seems both fragile and hazardous. It is the climate of impunity stoked by these persistent hate speeches against Muslims that has made the Muslims extremely vulnerable. The police authorities have displayed a complete unwillingness to act and failed to curb any such anti-Muslim speeches.

CJP is dedicated to finding and bringing to light instances of Hate Speech, so that the bigots propagating these venomous ideas can be unmasked and brought to justice. To learn more about our campaign against hate speech, please become a member. To support our initiatives, please donate now!

Each day, multiple instances of hate speech are reported from various parts of the country. Spread over the period of three days, disturbing and soul chilling incidents of hate crimes and hate speeches against the Muslim community have been reported. While numbers of those that are monitored and projected on social media are already high, it is more than likely that the actual number of incidents are in fact, much higher.

  1. Anti-Muslim and violence instigating speech by Acharya Surya Sagar

Acharya Surya Sagar, who claims to be a Jain monk, has put up videos on social media wherein he can be heard making anti-Muslim statements, encouraging violence against the Muslim community and the use of weapons too! His videos are viewed by a substantial audience (116k) on YouTube. In this particular video, he claims training people in using weapons. He begins by insinuating that the Muslims living in India, (who will also be buried here) are traitors. He says that these traitorous Muslims are our neighbours, our colleagues at work, and our employees. His entire diatribe is a justification for owning and using ‘arms’. These weapons for the likes of Surya Sagar are a ‘defence’ when the Muslim community attacks Hindus; a classic strategy for the justified aggression of the Hindutva-waadis.

Arguing that he only stands for self-defense, and not violence, he uses the example of Rama, who wielded a bow and arrow in his hand which he used to kill Ravana and others.  Continuing with his communal and Islamophobic diatribe, he then refers to Muslims as terrorists, who the Hindus need to be protected from.

The video can be viewed here:

The same speech was continued by Surya Sagar in another video, wherein he says that government or the police does not have the power to cancel his arms license even if shows his swords and axe on his videos. He further says he works for the government and for our country, and thus, no one will cancel his arms license. Even in this video, he shows some weapons which he claims he has kept for his own protection. He even goes on to say that the Constitution of India has so many provisions, and within those provisions, there are many loopholes: these guarantee no punishment if even an act of killing is carried out in self-defense! Surya Sagar ends his instigating rant by said that “I will only be a criminal when u find any proof against me” and that he has done no crime by killing the enemies of the nations (referring to Muslims).

The video can be viewed here:

  1. Disturbing Sloganeering in the presence of Police

In another news, a video was uploaded by Shrikant Pandit, wherein he himself, Rinku Saini and several others can be seen raising slogans like “Jab take todenge nahi, tab take chhodenge nahi” (Till we break, we will not stop). They then proceed to raising slogans of “Jai Gau Mata”. What is deeply disturbing is that, in the video, a police man can be seen accompanying and chiming in with the sloganeering. The text “#BajrangDal, #Haryana” has been imposed above in the video.

The video can be viewed here:

  1. Objectionable slogans raised against Prophet

Another instance was reported from Madhepura, Bihar wherein objectionable slogans were being raised by a saffron clad mob of Bajrang Dal and indecent language was being used Prophet Muhammad. In the video, a young group of men could be seen laughing, and raising slogans of Jai Shree Ram. They then move towards objectionable slogans against Muslims, and say “Who is the father of Prophet, it is Rama.”

The video can be viewed here:

  1. Pravin Togadia delivers hate speech, in Maharashtra

Reported from Jalna, Maharahtra, Hindu supremacist leader and long-time hate offender Pravin Togadia can be seen addressing a crowd of more than five thousand, delivering a hate speech targeting Muslims and proudly claiming to have had a hand in the demolishing of the Babri mosque in 1992.

The video starts with Togadia saying that India must not be referred to as India, but as Hindu Rashtra. He then thanked the Maharashtra government and the Central government for renaming of Aurangabad city to Chhtrapati Sambhaji Maharaj and the city of Osmanabad to Dharashiv. Adding to this, he says that he is now waiting for the day when India will be known as “Hindu Rashtra”.

He then brings in the communally colored, divisive and misleading issue of temples being demolished for building of Mosques. Referring to the Babri Masjid demolition, which had deadly repercussions all over the country, he boasts of the Ram Mandir being constructed in its place.

Togadia provokes his audience to commit violence against the Muslim community, or else see their temples being broken and their daughters and sisters being abducted. Togadia then asserts that the only way to keep our temples and daughters safe is by eliminating the ones that follow the ideology of Akbar and Aurangzeb.

Togadia keeps on using the term “Mitti mei mila dena” for the Muslims, which he later explains as repeating what had happened during the demolition of Babri Masjid. To further instigate the crowd, he says that the moment of demolition of Babri Masjid was a moment of honour and pride for the Hindus in India.

The video can be viewed here:

  1. Muslim man manhandled by Bajrang Dal goons

A video has been doing rounds on social media where a Muslim man has alleged that Bajrang Dal members manhandled him over allegations of selling beef. This incident was reported from Tengakhat, Dibrugarh, Assam

(A transcript of the video cannot be provided since the video is in regional language.)

The video can be viewed here:

  1. An improvised rocket fired at an Islamic shrine

A video of a mob firing an improvised rocket at an Islamic shrine while shouting Hindu religious slogans of Jai Shree Ram has been rounding rounds of social media. According to reports, the mob was a saffron clad far-right mob that also pelted stones at the shrine and demanded its closure. They can be seen dancing out of joy in the video after having fired the rocket.

The video can be viewed here:

These spiraling instances of hate driven offences bode ill for social harmony. As bad or worse they pose a real threat to the minority Muslim community.

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