When Eid was celebrated in independent India on August 18, 1947, three days after liberation of our country from British colonial rule, its western and eastern regions were reeling under dreadful Partition related communal violence which killed thousands of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. It was apprehended that Muslims in newly independent India would not be allowed to celebrate Eid and that they would be relegated to secondary status with their rights trampled upon.
Gandhi and the first Eid of independent India
It was during those terrible days that a refreshingly healthy example was set in Calcutta (now Kolkata) at a prayer meeting organised in the compounds of the Mohammedan Sporting Club on August 18, 1947. Mahatma Gandhi and about four to five lakh people, both Hindus and Muslims participated in it. Gandhi delivered a short speech by saying in the beginning “My first duty is to wish Id Mubarak to all those Muslims who are present here”.
“There was a time when both the Hindus and Muslims embraced each other on this day…I must confess,” Gandhi proceeded to add, “that after many years I am witnessing this scene.”
He was very happy to see the members of the Muslims League, National Guards and Congress volunteers present in large numbers and expressed fond hope that the unity of people of diverse faiths on that occasion would be everlasting. He said so in the context of the independence of India which heralded a new era, allowing Indians to replace British rulers to govern the country. At the end he reaffirmed his happiness by saying, “I will never be able to forget the scene I have witnessed today.”
The unity and amity of people of diverse faiths on the occasion of Eid in August 1947 recorded by Gandhi at a time when Punjab and Bengal were caught in internecine communal bloodbath reminds us of the role played by leadership in holding people together.
BJP leaders restricting Eid celebrations
Now on the occasion of Eid festival in 2025 when the country is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the constitution, that unity and solidarity is endangered by the divisive policies followed by Bharatiya Janata Party leaders who are now operating the state apparatus. The manner in which restrictions have been imposed by state authorities on Muslims celebrating Eid this year in some BJP-governed states, specifically Uttar Pradesh, clearly testify to the dreadful commitment of the authorities there to ensure the exclusion of Muslims from the shared social and cultural sphere. Such exclusions flow from BJP leaders’ familiar pattern of denying Muslims cultural liberties on the grounds of their faith.
Also read: Ahead of Eid, a Psychological War is Being Waged Against Muslims
The BJP government of UP has barred them from offering Namaz on roads and other public places on the occasion of Eid even as roads are used by Hindus during religious festivals for organising processions. Very strangely Muslims are now prohibited from gathering to offer Namaz in the terraces of their own homes. All such actions prove that Muslims are treated unfairly and in negation of constitutional provisions.
In Haryana, the BJP government has taken away Eid from the list of gazetted holidays and put it in the category of restricted holidays. It means the government offices and establishments which used to remain closed on the occasion of Eid in that state would remain open and those employees of the state, be they Hindus or Muslims, opting to remain absent on that day could apply for leave.
Such discriminatory treatment meted out to Muslims by the constitutional functionaries of BJP-ruled states by abandoning the neutrality of their offices towards religion constitute an assault on secularism. Last year, the Supreme Court had upheld the inclusion of secularism in the preamble to the constitution.
Holi
Almost a fortnight ago on the occasion of Holi, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath endorsed the statement of a police official that “Juma (Friday) comes 52 times a year, but Holi comes only once. Those (Muslims) who have a problem with the colours of Holi should stay indoors and offer their prayers there.”
This year, Holi was celebrated on a Friday (Juma), and appeals to Muslims to confine themselves to their homes and not venture out stoked fear and anxiety among them. High constitutional functionaries ordered that almost 200 mosques in UP be covered with huge sheets of tarpaulin and plastics so that those remained out of sight of Hindus playing Holi. Such weaponisation of festivals to target Muslims to make them feel unwanted and excluded goes against the very idea of India rooted in celebration of shared common culture and heritage.
An example
It is instructive to note that the 2004 Human Development Report on the theme “Cultural Liberty in Today’s Diverse World” took a stand “…that states must actively devise multicultural policies to prevent discrimination on cultural grounds – religious, ethnic and linguistic”.
It put forth the point: “The expansion of cultural freedoms, not suppression is the only sustainable option to promote stability, democracy and human development within and across societies”.
It went on to affirm “…that diversity is not a threat to state unity, not the source of inevitable “clashes”, not an obstacle to development. Instead, it is at the core of human development – the ability of people to choose who they are”.
In this context the report flagged the example of India which “…officially celebrates 5 Hindu holidays but also 4 Muslim, 2 Christian, 1 Buddhist, 1 Jain and 1 Sikh in recognition of a diverse population”. In contrast it stated, “France celebrates 11 national holidays, 5 are non-denominational and of the 6 religious holidays all celebrate events in the Christian calendar, though 7% of the population is Muslim and 1% Jewish”.
India which was reckoned with at the global level for safeguarding all cultural liberties has now been devalued because of the majoritarian policies of BJP regimes which throttle rights of minorities. The aforementioned Human Development Report stated that the Constitution of India guaranteed rights to citizens to establish affiliation with both their country and their own cultural identities without creating any conflict between the two.
“But modern India,” it warned “is facing a grave challenge to its constitutional commitment to multiple and complementary identities with the rise of groups that seek to impose a singular Hindu identity on the country.”
Such fears expressed in 2004 have been materialised in the last 11 years. In 2025, the country is confronting the denial and restriction of cultural liberties to Muslims. The limitations ruthlessly imposed on them by constitutional functionaries of BJP-ruled states on the occasion of Eid testify to the suppression of their rights as citizens.
S.N. Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K.R. Narayanan.
