Last Friday, prayers in the national capital of New Delhi were disrupted by Hindu nationalists chanting ‘When they slaughter Muslims, we will raise glory to Lord Ram.’
In the state of Assam, two Muslim men, 30 and 19, were brutally shot dead at a protest by the armed forces. When the Muslim man was killed, a photographer embedded with the police force jumped and kicked the dead body.
In the same month, Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India, mocked Muslims publicly, saying the Modi government was no longer Indian Muslims’ ‘abbajaan’ (the Hindustani Muslim word for father).
Hindu nationalists attack and arrest Muslim men, whom they believe are involved in a wild conspiracy called a ‘Love Jihad’, seducing Hindu women and forcing them to convert so that they can marry their Muslim lovers. It’s part of a broader conspiracy theory on the nationalist right: That Muslims are trying to increase their population and take over India by 2050. (A quick glance at publicly available demographic data on the internet will show otherwise.)
On October 1, in the southern state of Karnataka, Arbaaz Aftab Mulla, who had been in a relationship with a Hindu woman, was found decapitated. His hands were tied, and his body had been mutilated and thrown on the railway tracks. Karnataka cops have detained 33 people associated with a Hindutva group called SriRam Sene, who they believe were behind this murder.
In the last ten days, Hindu nationalist outfit Bajrang Dal has forcibly shut down meat shops and attacked the homes of Muslims who sell and eat non-vegetarian food during the Hindu festival of Navratri.
According to a report in news website The Wire, on the 18th of October a Hindu nationalist leader was seen assaulting a Muslim man in a train and shared the video on his facebook page where his caption reads ‘thrashing a Jihadi snake.’
