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F
or the past decade or so, several members of the Khan clan have been making an annual trek from their homes in Shahjahanpur, in India’s Uttar Pradesh province, to the Delhi National Capital Region. It’s a distance of more than 300 kilometers each way, but for the Khans, the chance to boost their income by selling mats in a bustling city is worth the trouble.
That’s even if they do not make much. But this year, things ended badly for them.
In the evening of Aug. 9, dozens of men from the far-right group Hindu Raksha Dal went door to door in the slums of Ghaziabad, the Khan’s temporary home in the city, asking for the names of the people they found there.
“The moment they [the mob] heard our names, they started beating us mercilessly,” says Babu Khan, 30. “They didn’t listen to us because we are Muslims. They beat women, infants, and elders. We were all screaming, but they didn’t care enough to stop.”
“We tried to save ourselves, but we were threatened with the same fate,” says another Ghaziabad resident, who requested anonymity. “They beat my friends, too, and none of it was right. They told us to tie saffron flags with Hindu gods printed on them to our tents; only then would we be spared.”
Such attacks, however, are no longer unusual in India. Over the past few years, predominantly Hindu India has witnessed attacks on minority communities, especially Muslims, as the far right’s push to make the country a “Hindu rashtra,” or Hindu nation, grows stronger under the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In early August, reports started coming in that Muslims were being attacked in Bangladesh after the fall of the Hasina government. That gave far-right Hindu groups in India yet another reason to target Muslims, accusing them of being Bangladeshis.
Most of the reports were later revealed to be false. Those that had some inkling of truth, meanwhile, left out the fact that the reason for the attacks were not because the targets were Hindus, but because they were supporters of the Awami League, the party of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Yet even the Indian mainstream media apparently failed to verify the reports they were getting, and contributed to the spread of false information. Misleading and “provocative” headlines even led to a debate online, where Muslims were abused and threatened.
Making matters worse were far-right influencers who had a field day distorting what was happening in Bangladesh. They falsely depicted events in the predominantly Muslim nation next door as communal violence against Hindus allegedly perpetrated by “Islamist radicals.”
“The general theme of the presentation of Bangladesh turmoil (was) as widespread violence against Hindus,” says Mumbai-based writer-activist Ram Puniyani. This fit the script of India’s far-right Hindu groups, who Puniyani says are always on the “lookout for such anti-Hindu violence in neighboring countries to fuel the anti-Muslim rhetoric,” which often flares up into violence.
“Any event against Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan is used by Hindu right-wing groups to spread canards against Muslims,” he adds. “Resort is taken to fake news to intensify prevalent Islamophobia.”
Distorted news and false reports
When Prime Minister Hasina resigned last Aug. 5 and fled Bangladesh, it took some time for the ensuing chaos to dissipate. Most of the country’s police force went into hiding, and Bangladeshis were generally left to fend for themselves for several days.
Things have begun settling down, but Puniyani says that what has been happening in Bangladesh in the last few weeks have been presented in a distorted way in India.
“The photographs and videos have been circulated on social media to show as if Hindu temples are being destroyed and households of Hindus are being burned,” he tells Asia Democracy Chronicles (ADC). “The house of former captain and (Awami League) MP Mashrafe Mortaza was shown as if (cricketer) Liton Das’ house was burnt. The Chittagong Awami League office’s burning was shown as if a Hindu temple was burnt. There is cherry-picking in the presentation, an exaggeration of violence against Hindus.”
A viral social media post claiming to show a temple set on fire by “Islamists” in Bangladesh, for example, was revealed by several international media outlets to be false. The temple remained unharmed but was closed due to the tense situation.
In fact, Saif Ahmed, social media manager of the Bangla Tigers cricket team, posted on X: “A Muslim man was spotted praying Salah in front of Dhakeswari temple, Dhaka, and protecting the Hindu temple from all the evil people who are trying to stop the reform by attacking minorities and public properties.”
“As Bangladeshi people are not active on Twitter/X,” said Ahmed, “many random people, especially Indians, are spreading fake rumors on this platform to create propaganda.”
Ahmed may be referring to the likes of Kapil Mishra, who just happens to be the leader of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Mishra recently wrote on X, “Today Jihadi mobs are attacking Hindus in Bangladesh. This Jihadi mob will attack Hindus of every caste, without any discrimination. 1400 years of history is a witness that your caste will never be able to save you from the Jihadi mob. Keep fighting in the name of castes until Jihadis come to your door.”
In Ghaziabad, it was the Hindi Raksha Dal that came to the doors of the Khans and their neighbors.
In two videos circulated on social media, an angry mob was seen using religious slurs, abusing the Muslims, and accusing the Ghaziabad slum dwellers of being Bangladeshis. Men wearing saffron-colored scarves were seen vandalizing tents near the Galdhar railway station. They were also shown beating an elderly Muslim man who had been sitting inside a tent, hurling abuse at him, and ultimately burning the tent and the others around it, along with the dwellers’ belongings.
“They threw an eight-month-old infant into the fire, and she suffered burn injuries before her mother rushed to save her,” recounts Babu Khan. “We are not from Bangladesh. We are Indians.”
As the situation spiralled out of control, the Khans fled, leaving their belongings – including the mats they were selling — behind. As it had started drizzling, they ran to the roadside bushes for refuge.
“Most of us were in pain and drenched in the rain until we managed to reach a hospital,” recounts Babu Khan. “We won’t go back now because we are scared. We experienced something that we had never experienced before. We don’t even know what’s happening in Bangladesh, and they did this to us. Why do we care? We are poor, and only think about getting through the day.”
Threats instead of remorse
In a statement later, the Ghaziabad Police said, “During the investigation, it was found that Bangladeshis were not residing in the slum. The residents are from Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh; hence, a case has been registered under relevant sections at the local police station against those who vandalized and set fire to the slum.”
But those who instigated the attack seem to be far from being intimidated by authorities. The day after the Ghaziabad attack, Bhupinder Tomar — also known as Pinky Chaudhary and a Hindu Raksha Dal member — posted a video on X, in which he praised Daksh Chaudhary, who has a record of assaulting people.
Apparently, Chaudhary and a few others had attacked Muslims they called “Bangladeshis” in Delhi’s Shastri Nagar. In a viral video, Chaudhary was seen carrying a wooden stick and then beating up Muslims with it. He is also heard shouting in the video, “Go to your Bangladesh!”
In his X post praising Chaudhary, Tomar also warned the police not to take any action against the mob –where he had been among the leaders — who set on the Ghaziabad slumdwellers.
“Hindu Raksha Dal supports the beating of Bangladeshi people in Delhi,” he said in the video. “If any action is taken against my Daksh Chaudhary and Hindu lions, then a big demonstration will be held at the office.”
In an earlier video posted on X, Tomar had Prime Minister Modi an ultimatum: “Either Modiji should ensure the safety of our Hindu brothers and sisters in Bangladesh or else I will not allow even a single Bangladeshi to live in India. If the atrocities do not stop, then the Bangladeshis living in India are on our radar. I know all such places. I will not leave them. I will fight till the end.”
About a week after the Ghaziabad attack, another far-right Hindu group tried to call for a shutdown in two cities in Maharashtra state, in protest over alleged atrocities being committed against Hindus in Bangladesh. The attempt fizzled, but not before separate stone-pelting incidents took place in Nashik and Jalgaon.
Puniyani says that the government needs to control hate speech and aggressive rallies.
“Fact-check mechanisms need to be strengthened,” he says. “True incidents need to be presented objectively. Since India has a long history of amity and communal harmony, the values of peace and amity, and interfaith celebrations need to be promoted. The prevailing hatred against Muslims needs to be combated by promoting the real and rational history, and truth of current issues.”
Unless that happens, Indians like the Khans will remain at risk of being targets of assault just because of their faith. At a hospital in Delhi, Babu Khan keeps watch over his father, who lies weak in bed, an arm left fractured by the attack. An infant member of the family cries in pain nearby.
“They [the mob] said that they would burn us alive if we didn’t leave the place,” says Khan. “So we left, but are now in the hospital attending to the injured. We are left with nothing but the clothes we are wearing.” ◉
