Nuh Riots Correspond to Larger Persecution of Region's Muslims: Fact-Finding Team Constituted by The Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
By Irfan Engineer
5 October 2023
The communal riots in Nuh on July 31 and in Sohna and
Gurugram on August 1, 2023, wherein six people were killed, was the result of
an ecosystem built on frequent hate speech targeting the minority communities
and that has been nurtured in the country in the recent past, concluded the
fact-finding report of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS).
Many vehicles were
burnt by the mob during the Nuh riots. Photo: Atul Ashok Howale
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The CSSS regularly monitors communal violence in India. The
fact-finding team looking into the communal riots in Nuh, Sohna and Gurugram
consisted of Vikash Narain Rai, former director of the National Police Academy,
Hyderabad and former DGP (law and order) Haryana; Dr Sandhya Mhatre (executive
council member of the CSSS); and Neha Dabhade (executive director).
Elaborating on this ecosystem, Dabhade told this author that
the Meo Muslims, who are agriculturists and dairy farmers living in the Mewat
region spanning Haryana, Rajasthan and UP, were continuously badgered by cow
vigilantes – interested more in extortion rather than the protection of cows –
ever since the Haryana government passed the Cow Promotion and Protection Act
in 2015.
The cow vigilantes, who describe themselves as “Gau
Rakshaks”, have sprung up since the election of the BJP with an absolute
majority at the Centre in 2014, as they enjoy impunity with the tacit patronage
of those in power.
The ever-increasing and exorbitant extortion demands by the
cow vigilante networks have made it nearly impossible for the Meo Muslim agriculturists
to pursue the only livelihood available to them – agriculture and dairy farming
with diminishing returns.
“The communal riots in Nuh that took place on 31st July 2023
is intricately linked with the systematic and blatant targeting of the Muslims
in the region with no prospect of justice from the state. The residents have
been aghast and resentful about how easily Muslim youth are kidnapped or
abducted and murdered with the state doing little to ensure that the culprits
are brought to justice,” states the report.
The CSSS’s report cites the instance of Haji Jamat Ali, a
man whose cattle wealth of 56 cows, kept in a farmer’s field in Bai Kheda in
Gurugram district, was allegedly seized and taken away by vigilante youth
wearing saffron scarves and shouting communal slogans on June 30. Ali’s only
livelihood was dairy farming.
The report states that Bittu Bajrangi was booked for
snatching the cattle; however, there are little prospects of proper and
effective prosecution of the offenders, who, if Ali’s allegations are true,
have committed dacoity.
The report says that there were six other instances in which
seven people were murdered by cow vigilantes from April 2017 to February 2023.
Among those the report says were killed by vigilantes are
Pehlu Khan; Umar Mohammad from Ghatmika village; Rakbar Khan, a resident of
Kolgaon; Asif Khan, a resident of Kher Khalilpur village; Waris, aged 22 years;
and the last two murdered were Nasir and Junaid from Ghatmika village, who were
abducted from Bharatpur, beaten to death and later burnt in their car.
Monu Manesar, who is accused of being involved in Nasir and
Junaid’s abduction and murder on February 16, 2023, and who Waris’ family said
was behind his death, was still moving about freely on July 31, 2023, when the
riots occurred.
All those murdered by the vigilantes were done to death
brutally – Asif Khan, for instance, was allegedly stabbed in the eyes and his
bones broken.
In many other instances, the vigilantes, without any fear of
the law, made videos of their brutality and uploaded it on their social media
sites. The chilling videos were uploaded to instil fear in the minority
community so that they could run their extortion racket.
All this resulted in growing anger against the state and the
police among the minority community, and a feeling of helplessness.
“The Meo Muslim community fought the Mughals and opposed
[the] partition of the country, and Mewat was called “Bharat Ki Reed Ki
Haddi” [Hindi for ‘backbone of India’] by Mahatma Gandhi”, said Dabhade.
Being an agricultural community, Meo Muslims are
well-integrated into Mewat’s local customs and cultural traditions, and are
hardly distinguishable from other residents of the region. They follow Lal Khan
Meo, popularly known as Baba Laldas to the Meo Muslims, who preached
cow-worship, vegetarianism and chanting Lord Ram’s name, states the report.
The report states, “[t]here are many oral epics in this
region where Muslim Jogis have popularised epics like Gopichand,
Bhartrihari and Pandavon ka Kada, indicating their affinity with Hindu
religious traditions … their folklore, which attributes their … origin to
Arjuna, Krishna and Rama; they celebrate Hindu festivals like Holi and Dussehra;
their marriage customs combine nikah with Hindu ceremonies; their mixed names
such as Fateh Singh …”
The report states that while there was a green revolution
and networks of canal irrigation in Punjab and Haryana, the development of the
Mewat region – which remained rainfed with scant rainfall – was ignored. The
Muslim youth have no prospect of non-agricultural livelihoods, as there are no
higher educational institutions or industrial units in the area.
Some Meo Muslims used to sell biryani – which was famous –
along the highway. However, under pressure from vigilantes or out of their own
prejudice, police seized their cooking equipment, vessels and biryani, accused
them of using beef and sent their biryani for testing in laboratories. The
community had to abandon their business due to the harassment and seizures,
which led to heavy losses.
Some Muslim youth took to cyber fraud. However, this time
the police was proactive in arresting them – and rightly so – unlike the
treatment given to crimes committed by cow vigilantes.
This pent-up feeling of frustration was further aggravated
when Bittu Bajrangi and Monu Manesar posted offensive and provocative videos on
social media announcing their arrival on July 31 to Nuh along with the Braj
Mandal jalabhishek yatra led by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). They
challenged the ‘manhood’ of the Muslim community to receive them.
Some Muslim youth fell into the trap and were prepared to
meet the situation should they spot either of them. In their anxiety, the
Muslim youth who were prepared to receive the two miscreants spotted a white
car and believed that Monu Manesar was in the car, the report states.
A Muslim boy was knocked down as the car reversed and sped
away. The car was chased and stopped, and Bittu Bajrangi was pulled out, states
the report. This led to the attack by a group of Muslim youth and the
consequent alleged firing. Two home guards and three other Hindus were killed
in the violence.
The report also quotes eyewitness stating that provocative
slogans targeting the Muslim community were being shouted, including “Mulle
Kate Jayenge, Ram Ram Chillayenge” (‘As Muslims will be slaughtered,
they will chant the name of Lord Ram’).
Some participants in the procession were carrying arms. The
participants attacked and destroyed property and businesses belonging to the
Muslims in Nuh as well, a fact that has been largely ignored by the media.
Sandhya Mhatre, a member of the fact-finding team who was in
Nuh on August 28 – when the VHP had threatened to take out the Jalabhishek
Yatra once again – told this author that in contrast to the near inaction and
failure of the police on July 31 in preventing and controlling the riots, the
team on August 28 witnessed heavy police deployment and checkpoints in every nook
and corner of Nuh town.
Police were checking every vehicle and every stranger to
ensure that outsiders did not enter the town.
This meant that the Haryana police were capable of
preventing the riot on July 31 if they had possessed the same determination.
However, on that day, police presence was scant and they utterly failed in
discharging their duty.
After the riots, police came down heavily on the Muslim
community, arresting a large number of the community’s youths. They could see
only women, children and old people in their homes – young and able-bodied men
had run away to escape being falsely and indiscriminately accused of rioting.
The police were egged on to act indiscriminately by public
statements given by the chief minister and the home minister of Haryana to
teach rioters a lesson. The vindictive action included the demolition of more
than 750 homes, most of which reportedly belonged to Muslims, although some
members of the jalabhishek procession were also involved in rioting.
The report demanded an impartial probe into the violence by
a special investigation team under judicial supervision, bringing to justice
all rioters irrespective of their religion, and the release of those youth
against whom there is no evidence.
The report further demanded strict action against cow
vigilantes to ensure rule of law and the dismantling of their extortionist
network. The report also demanded reparations to the survivors of the riots,
making good their losses and the restoration of the properties that were demolished
by the state.
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Irfan
Engineer is Director, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism