The changing face of India: Majoritarianism and ‘bulldozer justice’
One of memories of growing up in Hyderabad, India, was to go for Friday prayers at a small mosque (masjid) near my home. This mosque was part of a cemetery and mausoleum complex. I would walk through the cemetery on a narrow path and pray in the mosque. It felt very peaceful and spiritual. There was juxtaposition of here and now and hereafter. Most recently built mosques do not have a cemetery next to them, because of regulations.
This memory came back to me when the news story broke that in the environs of the city of Delhi in a place called Mehrauli a 600-year-old mosque was demolished, and the adjacent cemetery desecrated. It was not done by a hate group but the Delhi Development Authority. The reason given is that the mosque complex was encroaching on the forest. The mosque was older than the forest. The heartless nature of the action leaves me exceptionally sad, but it does not surprise me.
Bulldozing Muslim homes and businesses and places of worship has become commonplace in India over the last few years. Amnesty International in a recently published report notes that “following episodes of communal violence and protests in 2022, the state authorities in Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhi, started unfairly and punitively demolishing properties including homes and business largely belonging to Muslims, and places of Muslim worship. In a span of 15 days, at least 128 properties were destroyed in the five states.” Except for Delhi administered by AAP, all other states are governed by Prime Minister Modi’s ultra-nationalist right-wing Hindu party the BJP. Hindu businesses and temples next to the Muslims’ structures stay untouched.
The rationale given for the destruction are flimsy. Amnesty International found that the “demolitions often under the guise of remedying illegal construction and encroachment were carried out without following any due process. The demolitions were carried out by the respective state authorities without any prior consultation, adequate notice, and alternative resettlement opportunities. They were also carried out without warning, sometimes at night, with the occupants given little or no time to leave their homes and shops and salvage their belongings.” While the authorities gave administrative reasons for the demolitions, the political authorities were gloating over them, putting up posters claiming to be the godfathers of bulldozer justice. By every legal and ethical standard, it would be considered injustice.
An egregious example of the use of bulldozers to punish critics of the government is in the city of Prayagraj (formerly known as Allahabad) in Uttar Pradesh. On June 10, 2022, Muslims protested a BJP spokesperson. On June 11, 2022, the Uttar Pradesh police detained Javed Mohammed, a human rights activist, his wife, and 19-year-old daughter Afreen, from their home. Both Javed Mohammed and, Afreen, a student activist, had been vocal in their criticism of the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act. On June 12, 2022, the state authorities demolished their family home. The lesson taught was if you protest your home goes.
Another example of the vindictive nature of these actions involved five sisters who became homeless for months after another bulldozing incident. The authorities threatened their neighbors that if they gave these girls shelter, their homes would be demolished as well.
There is increasing anxiety among Indian Muslims and other minorities. Churches have been destroyed during a riot in another state. No one knows when bulldozers accompanied by a large contingent of police may arrive and destroy their homes without warning and with no time to try and save their belongings.
It was not surprising that when the authorities and their bulldozer came to demolish yet another mosque and its adjacent seminary school in the town of Haldwani in Uttarkhand, thousands of Muslim men and women came out on the street, stones were pelted, there were injuries among the cops and protesters and a few Muslims died. Regardless, the mosque and the seminary were destroyed.
As Amnesty International points out, all of these are occurring in states ruled by the ultra-nationalist Hindu party, the BJP. Law is complicit in these actions. Sometimes courts appear to be colluding and other times their directives and verdicts are ignored. There is every indication that the BJP and Modi may win an even larger majority in the upcoming democratically held elections. There is no hope that Modi may stop this. The usually loquacious Prime Minister has been silent on this issue.
Bulldozer injustice that is a symbol of majoritarianism and lack of law and order, will eclipse secularism and pluralism. It is likely that large numbers of mosques, seminaries and cemeteries may be destroyed. The India I grew up in is a fast-fading dream replaced by a nightmare that Indian Muslims and minorities face.
• Javeed Akhter is a physician and freelance writer from Oak Brook.