Reporting
from New Delhi
Feb. 9, 2024
The demolition of a mosque and a
Muslim seminary has led to deadly clashes and an internet shutdown in northern
India. The flare-up, in the hill state of Uttarakhand, is the latest bout of
sectarian tensions as Muslim sites have become a broader target of the Hindu
right wing after the opening of a major temple last month.
The toll of the violence was
unclear. An official in Haldwani, the town where the clash took place, said in
an interview that two people had been killed and dozens injured, including police
officers. Reports in the Indian news media, citing top police officials, said
four people had been killed, but this could not be confirmed because the police
did not respond to requests for comment. Images from the area revealed vehicles
destroyed by fire and debris littering the streets.
Thursday’s unrest began when
officials and the police arrived to raze the structures, which the authorities
said had been illegally built on public land, and encountered an angry crowd.
Witnesses said that the police fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse
hundreds of protesters who threw stones at a police station and set vehicles on
fire. The police have denied using live ammunition.
The violence unfolded against the
backdrop of Hinduism’s rise as a national identity in India, a multiethnic
state founded as secular republic, but which in the past decade has been moving
steadily further from that vision under the leadership of Narendra Modi and his
Bharatiya Janata Party.
In his 10 years as prime minister, Mr. Modi
has fulfilled many of his campaign promises, like building an enormous Hindu temple where a mosque once stood,
and stripping the Kashmir region of its semiautonomous status.
Thursday’s demolition was part of a
larger government effort that leaders of the opposition say has been targeting
Muslims. In 2022, a court in Uttarakhand ordered the destruction of about 4,000
homes of mainly Muslim inhabitants in Haldwani, located on land that the court
said encroached on a railway line.
In January 2023, after weeks of protests
in which residents who had been issued eviction notices camped out on the
street, judges at India’s top court ordered a stay
on the demolitions.
In the months that followed, tensions
rose. Posters surfaced in another town
calling for Muslims to shutter their businesses after two people, a Hindu and a
Muslim, allegedly abducted a Hindu girl. Shops
belonging to Muslims in another town were marked with black crosses, and
members of far-right-wing groups urged Muslims to leave Uttarakhand. The state,
home to many Hindu shrines, has increasingly become a major stop on the Hindu
pilgrimage route, yet its population is about 14 percent Muslim.
This week, a court ruling cleared
the way for the destruction of the mosque and the seminary. Residents and a
local elected representative said the government rushed in to demolish them
without consulting local residents.
On Friday, the authorities imposed a
curfew, shut down schools and colleges, and deployed hundreds of riot control
forces.
The demolitions are not confined to
Uttarakhand. In a recent report, Amnesty
International described what it called “unjust” targeting of Muslim homes,
businesses and places of worship between April and June 2022 in five states
where the local governments are run by Mr. Modi’s ruling party.
The report urged authorities to halt
demolitions of Muslim properties, which it said were being carried out as a
“punishment” after episodes of religious violence or protests by Muslims
against discriminatory policies.
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