Bengal: Amidst Alarming Hatred After Pahalgam, Grassroots Resistance Emerges a Powerful Force

Kolkata: The days after the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam have seen an alarming spike in anti-Muslim hate speech and threats across Bengal. Political presentations, social media spaces, and even everyday interactions have revealed brazen Islamophobia in a society thought to be largely syncretic. Yet, amidst the hate, a defiant current of resistance and calls for unity have also emerged, offering a measure of hope.  

Within minutes of the victims’ bodies arriving at Kolkata airport on April 23, Bharatiya Janata Party politician and Leader of Opposition in the Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari was videographed holding a deceased man's child, while repeatedly exhorting upon his grieving wife to say that her husband was targeted "because he was a Hindu."

Invoking Palestine, he proclaimed, “We are Modi’s sons. Just like Gaza was finished, we too will give a fitting reply.”

Mortal remains of Bitan Adhikari, who was killed in the Pahalgam terror attack, being brought to his residence, in Kolkata, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Photo: PTI.

His theatrics at the mourning event set the tone for the discourse that would follow.

The very next day, he posted an inflammatory message on social media claiming that two “suspicious” Kashmiris had been found operating in the South 24 Parganas district. West Bengal Police debunked the allegation, confirming that the individuals were engineers, one Hindu and one Muslim, who had simply installed a fiber broadband connection. The connection provider was incidentally Jio, a telecom company “dedicated to India” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. Adhikari meanwhile quietly deleted his post without a word of apology over putting two men’s lives in danger.

The political climate turned increasingly toxic as state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of pandering to "jihadis and fundamentalists" to secure votes. Party supporters, encouraged by Adhikari, placed the national flags of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Palestine at busy rail stations and encouraged passersby to trample on them. 

Hatred in news

The rise in Islamophobia was not limited to political speeches. Instead of probing the glaring security failures behind the Pahalgam terror attack, Bengal’s television media plunged into a spectacle of jingoism and communal incitement. Newsrooms morphed into echo chambers for war cries. Anchors who should have been demanding accountability resorted to chest-thumping nationalism, broadcasting venomous rhetoric against Muslims and baying for retaliation against Pakistan, making vengeance a primetime feature.

A Bengali anchor mocked famed poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s iconic poem on communal harmony before unleashing a tirade against dissenters. “Seculars should leave this country,” announced the anchor, reducing a national tragedy into a platform for exclusion and hate. 

This cartoon says the word #secular has to be removed from the constitution of #India .That seculars should leave india.

Shouting 'seculars get out' isn’t journalism—it’s just a crackpot auditioning for a circus where facts ride unicycles and the Constitution is the tightrope… pic.twitter.com/XnYkBATxau

— Tamal Saha (@Tamal0401) April 26, 2025

“With the kind of news we’re hearing on TV and the conversations among familiar faces on the streets, we are being humiliated everywhere. No one supports terrorists. But it's not right that we are treated as criminals just because we are Muslims,” said Mohammad Abbas Ali, a street vendor in central Kolkata’s  Rajabazar area, a predominantly minority neighbourhood.

A doctor, tour operators, education spaces

In greater Kolkata’s Maheshtala area, a seven-month pregnant Muslim woman alleged that a gynaecologist refused her treatment, citing her religion and referencing the Pahalgam attack. A formal complaint was lodged at the local police station, though the doctor denied the allegations and has filed a defamation counter-suit. 

At least two Bengali tour operators allegedly declared on a WhatsApp group that they would no longer serve Muslim clients, reflecting the normalisation of discriminatory practices. The Wire has seen the viral screengrab of their declaration but has not been able to confirm its veracity.

The poster saying 'Dogs and Muslims Not Allowed' at Bidhan Chandra Agricultural University. Photo: Social media.

Parallel incidents of overt discrimination emerged in spaces of education too.

A poster stating “Dogs and Muslims Not Allowed” was found pinned to a notice board at Bidhan Chandra Agricultural University in Nadia district. The poster explicitly conflated Islam with terrorism, declaring, “Terrorism means Islam.” Following protests by leftist student groups, university authorities took down the poster and filed a police complaint. 

Posters at the same college.

Social media became the battlefield where hate metastasised at scale. Posts glorifying “bulldozer justice” and demanding an “Israel-like solution” flooded platforms. Misinformation ran rampant. Old videos showing unrelated mob violence were falsely circulated as evidence of Muslim aggression in Bengal. That this took place days after the violence in Murshidabad, helped escalate their urgency. Fact-checkers exposed some lies and the police blocked a few fake profiles.

Glimmers of hope

Most of all, grassroots resistance emerged as a powerful counterforce. Award-winning actor Ritwik Chakraborty openly called out the hate campaign. Popular Bengali vloggers joined in and actively posted messages of communal harmony and peace, countering the narrative of division.

“Our political leaders are uniting to solve the issue of terrorism in Kashmir. We must trust the army and avoid creating divisions through social media debates. Evil forces can only be defeated by good,” said Subham Chowdhury, who runs a video channel called 'Bong Short'.

Public outrage also had tangible consequences. Shalidhan Publications, the local publisher of books authored by the hate-spewing news anchor, announced it would no longer sell or reprint his work. 

"We will not publish his writings anymore. We are ashamed because someone who carries such distorted, anti-national ideas has dishonoured our Constitution, and our publication had once published his book," announced Partha Dev of Shalidhan Publications.

Following dozens of police complaints against the anchor across the state, the television channel was compelled to tone down its aggressive rhetoric and promote messages of communal unity. 

Advocate Atanu Chatterjee, who filed the first police complaint, said, “The anchor of that TV channel said, “If you're secular, leave the country.” He is deliberately challenging the constitution of India and spreading hatred and slander."

Last Friday, mosques across West Bengal declared during prayers that Islam does not sanction the killing of innocents, sending a strong moral message against the forces of violence and hatred.

In Hooghly, the widow of Army man Jhantu Ali Sheikh, who died in a counter-terrorism operation in the immediate aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, had the last word. Clutching her husband's coffin, she said, “My husband has been martyred for the country. Those who killed him are enemies of humanity. A murderer has no religion.”

Translated from the Bengali original and with inputs by Aparna Bhattacharya. 

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