Canada's South Asian Diaspora Condemns 'Brazen Calls for Muslim Genocide in India'

New Delhi: A group of individuals belonging to the South Asian diaspora in Canada has issued a statement condemning the most recent wave of violence against the Muslim community in India, “…unleashed by Hindu right wing groups affiliated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)”.

The statement notes that the country has seen a steady increase in “Islamophobic and misogynist actions taken by Hindu-fascist groups” over the last few months and goes on to detail some of the most recent, specific incidents of the same.

The first such incident that the signatories of the statement mention is the anti-Muslim violence that surrounded Ram Navami, which concluded on April 10. The statement notes that the nine-day occasion, wherein Hindus are required to maintain a vegetarian diet, was used as an opportunity by “right-wing nationalists” to attack shops selling non-vegetarian food.

The group specifically mentions the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the BJP’s youth wing, for demanding a meat ban and assaulting meat vendors, “who mostly belong to Muslim or ‘low caste’ communities.”

It also notes that the demands for a meat ban were not limited to states in which the BJP was in power, highlighting that municipal authorities, too, joined in to “prohibit small businesses from selling meat”.

The statement also details how Muslims vendors were disproportionately targeted, not only in relation to the meat ban, but also being barred from selling their wares at temple festivals on the basis of a state law in Karnataka, which has never been enforced in the past.

“Secular spaces such as university campuses were also not spared,” the statement reads, going on to describe the Ram Navami violence that occurred on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus. ABVP-affiliated students took objection to non-vegetarian food being served on campus, which triggered a clash between two groups. 

Also read: Violence in JNU After ABVP Allegedly Tried to Stop Non-Veg Being Cooked on Ram Navami

The statement also mentions an incident at Hyderabad University where alleged ABVP members installed portraits of Hindu deities Ram and Hanuman on campus “in a brazen demonstration of Hindu majoritarianism, and to provoke minority communities.”

The group then goes on to detail various reports from across the country which describe Muslim homes and shops being destroyed and torched and communal slogans and threats of violence against Muslims being raised by “BJP-affiliated” groups on April 10.

“We are outraged to note that the state authorities in India were complicit in the rampage caused by the right wing mobs, whose brazen calls for the genocide of the country’s Muslim population are in keeping with the BJP’s policy of establishing a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation),” the statement reads.

Also read: Communal Violence Reported From 4 States During Ram Navami Processions, 1 Dead in Gujarat

The statement also places these recent incidents of violence directed at the Muslim community in the context of the larger trend of Islamophobia and misogyny in the country. It mentions the controversy in Karnataka surrounding the ‘hijab ban’ wherein Muslim girl students were barred from entering college premises and taking exams while wearing hijab, which the statement describes as “apartheid-like conditions” for Muslim women.

It also highlights the hypocrisy of the establishment in this regard, detailing how Hindu students were encouraged to “publicly assert their religious identities by donning saffron clothes, and sacred threads on wrists”.

The group expresses concern at the fact that the anti-Muslim sentiment being conveyed by these incidents are not limited to the policies of the government; rather, the “reveal a deepening social polarisation that makes Muslims vulnerable to attacks in all spheres of social, economic and political life.”

The statement concludes with a plea to the international community to take note of the “genocidal violence” which the BJP and its supporters are perpetrating against Muslims in India. 

Alleging the complicity of the Indian judiciary and other state institutions in the violence, the group notes that it has “little hope” that the victims of the violence will get justice. However, it notes that there is a need for the international community to continue to put pressure on the BJP government. As such, it puts forth three demands that it wants the international community to make of the government: 

1) Take immediate action against the Hindu right wing groups that orchestrated the recent violence against Muslims in various parts of the country. 

2) Provide immediate and unconditional compensation to the victims of recent ethnic violence.

3) Stop the persecution of Muslim and minority communities in India, and uphold the secular and democratic values enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

The full text of the note is as follows:

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the recent wave of violence against the Muslim community in India unleashed by Hindu right wing groups affiliated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The latest incidents of anti-Muslim violence occurred during the Hindu festival of Ram Navami which concluded on April 10th. The festival comprises a nine day long fast held by Hindu communities during which many of them maintain a vegetarian diet. The festival was used as an opportunity by the right-wing nationalists to attack shops selling non-vegetarian food, and aggressively police the food habits of Indians who are predominantly non-vegetarians.

The days leading up to Ram Navami witnessed members of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the youth wing of BJP, demanding a meat ban across the country and assaulting meat vendors, who mostly belong to Muslim or low caste communities, particularly in states/provinces where BJP is in power. Even in states where BJP is not in power, municipal authorities doubled down on the meat ban and prohibited small businesses from selling meat. Muslim shopkeepers were disproportionately targeted, and even banned from doing business around Hindu temples. Secular spaces such as university campuses were also not spared. In New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), ABVP goons unleashed a reign of terror on the students who resisted the meat ban, along with meat vendors and hostel staff. In Hyderabad Central University, ABVP forcibly installed statues of Hindu deities such as Ram and Hanuman in a brazen demonstration of Hindu majoritarianism, and to provoke minority communities. 

On April 10th, many Muslim homes and businesses were torched and destroyed across the country by organized Hindu mobs. Organized rallies known as ‘Shobha Yatras’ were held by BJP-affiliated groups, which included participants making inflammatory hate-speeches against the Muslim community, the desecration of Mosques, destruction of properties owned by Muslims, arson, and rioting. The worst hit places include the states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. Many places in North India also reported instances of mob lynching of alleged beef vendors by so-called ‘cow vigilantes’ who operate with utmost impunity under BJP rule. We are outraged to note that the state authorities in India were complicit in the rampage caused by the right wing mobs, whose brazen calls for the genocide of the country’s Muslim population are in keeping with the BJP’s policy of establishing a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation). 

This recent wave of violence around Ram Navami follows the steady increase in the Islamophobic and misogynist actions taken by Hindu-fascist groups over the last few months. Notably, the state of Karnataka banned the hijab from being worn in schools, leading effectively to apartheid-like conditions targeting Muslim women. School gates became the scenes of mob justice, as Muslim students were humiliated and barred from entering, even as Hindu students were encouraged by authorities to publicly assert their religious identities by donning saffron clothes, and sacred threads on wrists among other Hindu religious symbols. We are concerned that, far from being limited to state policies and actions against India’s Muslims, these incidents reveal a deepening social polarization that makes Muslims vulnerable to attacks in all spheres of social, economic and political life.

As members of the South Asian diaspora, we urge the international community to take cognisance of the genocidal violence being perpetrated against the Muslim community by the BJP government and its supporters in India, and organize against it. Given the extent to which the Indian judiciary and other state agencies are compromised, and even complicit in perpetrating Hindutva violence, we have little hope that the victims will ever receive justice. It is incumbent upon us, nonetheless, to ensure that the pressure on the BJP Government remains. We, therefore, join the progressive groups in India such as the Bebaak Collective to demand that the international community call on the Government of India to:

1)Take immediate action against the Hindu right wing groups that orchestrated the recent violence against Muslims in various parts of the country.

2) Provide immediate and unconditional compensation to the victims of recent ethnic violence.

3) Stop the persecution of Muslim and minority communities in India, and uphold the secular and democratic values enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

Signatures collected on April 19, 2022:

1. Sudipto Basu
2. Rahul Varma
3. Komal Mohite
4. Ishita Tiwary
5. Aparna Sundar
6. Feroz Mehdi
7. Ajay Bhardwaj
8. Pasha M. Khan
9. Dipti Gupta
10. Sneha Kumar
11. Chinnaiah Jangam
12. Pankaj
13. Narayanaswamy
14. Mukhtiar Singh
15. Lorraine MichEl
16. Sushil Handa
17. Amina Bambotia
18. Florenciavallejo
19. Venkat Maroju
20. Sara Grewal
21. Sailaja Krishnamurti
22. Manum Shahid
23. Arif Ali Khan
24. Dr. Jyotika Virdi
25. Johny
26. Amruth P
27. Sushmai
28. Farzana Mussa
29. Dayasagar
30. Nadir Ali Khan
31. Raghu Krishnan
32. Nazar
33. Ghania Javed
34. Umer Faroo
35. Roy Manthena 
36. Kapil
37. Zafar Khan
38. Masoon Balouch
39. Nilambri Ghai
40. Imtiaz Popat
41. Nazir Diwan
42. P S Jaya
43. Martin Duckworth
44. Cheryl Simon
45. Shubhra Gururani
46. Siddan Chandra
47. James Douglas
48. Chelliah Premarajah
49. K. Ahmed
50. Anita Lal
51. Ayesha Vemuri
52. Dionne Bunsha
53. Anis Ali Khan
54. V. Mann
55. Kiran Sunar
56. Sadeqa Siddiqui
57. Sana Khan
58. Nandini Saxena
59. Raj Sohi
60. Khalid Khan
61. Julie Vig
62. Sameena Siddiqui
63. Critical Diasporic South Asian Feminisms in Canada
64. Sadhu Binning
65. Gurcharan Singh
66. Rana Tanveer
67. Neelukang
68. Mehak Sawhney
69. Muhammad Qadeer
70. Touqeer Sohail
71. Mohammed Khan
72. Kiran Mirchandani
73. Farzana Alam
74. Syed Fahad Ahmad
75. Kiranpreet Kaut
76. Baltej Dhillon
77. Sukhwant Hundal
78. Navdeep kaur
79. Kamran Abbasi
80. Mariam Zaidi
81. Ashok Gupta
82. Farha Najah Hussain
83. Malavika Kasturi
84. Farooq mehdi
85. Jody Freeman
86. South Asian Diaspora Action Collective (SADAC), Canada
87. Harinder Singh
88. Sana Khan
89. Farrukh
90. Bibi Emina
91. N. Bhattacharya
92. Kajri Jain
93. Ajay Rao
94. Sheetal Lodhia
95. Bhavani Raman
96. Sowparnika Balaswaminathan
97. Canadians Against Oppression And Persecution(CAOP)
98. Younus
99. South Asian Dalit Adivasi Network, Canada(SADAN)
100. Abdul Khan
101. Payoshini Pandey
102. Terry Zacko
103. Sanchia deSouza
104. Prem Sylvester
105. B.F. Saptel
106. Sejal Lal
107. Harsh Naik
108. Malcolm Blincow