A delegation of opposition politicians and leaders of religious organisations have requested the police to not enter Muslim localities in the middle of the night – action they feel police have undertaken primarily to instil fear in residents.

Though the move to allocate a namaz room in the state assembly premises is welcome, what needs to be done is to put an end to the deliberate invisibilisation of Muslims in Jharkhand by the political class, academia and media.

While the Hindu Right has very deliberately tried to co-opt Sikh identity for decades now, Muslims have been constructed as an enemy for the sustenance of a monolithic Hindu imagination of India.

India is no different from the West in its perception and lack of knowledge about the Muslim community, producing a culture of Othering.