Human Lives Human Rights: Coinciding with former president Donald Trump’s visit to India in February 2020, a new round of violence and repression against Indian Muslims took place in the country, during which 46 Muslims were killed, more than 250 were injured and four mosques in the capital city New Delhi were set on fire.
What’s behind the recent killings of Indian Muslims
The reason for this violence roots in the new citizenship law of this country. The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) deprives Muslims of their citizenship and grants citizenship to non-Muslim nationals of India’s neighboring countries. In fact, the ruling party of the Indian government and parliament intends to unify the demographic structure and racial cleansing of Indian citizens.
The Indian government’s illegal actions in this regard led to protests by Indian Muslims, and a group of extremist Hindus, in turn, clashed and suppressed them, leading to unfortunate tragedies against Muslims.
Another thing that has caused protest and concern among Indian Muslims is the National Registry of Citizens (NRC). The program requires Indians to prove that they are Indian citizens, and if they fail to provide sufficient documentation, their citizenship will be revoked.
History of the repression and killing of Indian Muslims
The repression of Indian Muslims is not a new phenomenon or unprecedented. After several rounds of extremist Hindu attempts to seize and destroy the Mosque of Babur (Babri Masjid) in 1949, 1961, and 1984, in October 1991, extremist Hindus demolished the walls of the Mosque of Babur. Subsequently, in December 1992, more than 200 innocent Indian Muslims fell victim to a conspiracy that proved to be more oppressive than ever before.
Even before the demolition of the walls of the Mosque of Babur, as part of a Hindu attack on Muslims in 1985, several mosques, books, the Qur’an, and 1,700 houses were set on fire. On the other hand, it should be noted that the repression and killing of Muslims has become a motto for extremist Hindus.
“If Muslims wanted Pakistan, they got it and no longer have the right to live in India,” said a Hindu newspaper. “We Hindus must swear that each of us would kill a Muslim. As per our beliefs, Muslims are unholy, behead these pigs and throw them inside the mosque.”
In terms of demolition of the Mosque of Babur, it is worth to mention that it was the extremist and right-wing Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) who demanded the destruction of this holy place. In 1990, the party organized large-scale demonstrations, most of which led to violent attacks on Muslims. In the 1990 elections, the party gained a stronger political position by winning 26 new seats in parliament and winning a majority in four Indian states.
The interesting thing is that the ruling government, parliament of India, and the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are affiliated with the same Bhartiya Janata party, and this shows that the repression of Indian Muslims in the early 1990s and this year, have all been fueled by a single source, the same party – BJP.
