Chicago – October 18, 2024
The scenic state of Himachal Pradesh, a popular destination for Indian tourists escaping the brutal summer and autumn heat of northern India, has been on edge for more than a month after far-right Hindu groups demanded the demolition of a mosque in the state capital, Shimla. That demand soon morphed into a larger anti-Muslim campaign aimed at instituting an economic boycott against them and even included calls to drive Muslims out of the state.
According to a report in The Hindu newspaper, a clash between a Shimla resident and some labourers in Shimla district’s Sanjauli town over the payment of wages on August 31 snowballed into religious tensions within days.
On September 10, residents in Sanjauli, led by some Hindu groups, including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP), gathered outside the five-storey mosque in the middle of the town, claiming it was an illegal construction and therefore should be demolished.
The VHP is a member of a nationwide network of right-wing Hindu groups, spearheaded by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers Association or RSS), a secretive paramilitary organisation formed 100 years ago which advocates for the conversion of a constitutionally secular India into a Hindu state. The RSS is also the ideological fountainhead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and counts him among its millions of lifetime members across and outside India.
In a move that worsened the fear and insecurity among Muslims, the opposition Congress-led government in Himachal Pradesh last month made it mandatory for restaurants and roadside food stalls to display the names of their employees.
The government claimed the order was for the “convenience” of customers, but critics allege the idea behind such a move is to help Hindus from privileged caste groups avoid food prepared or served by Muslim workers.
The announcement came a day after the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state where nearly 20 percent of the residents are Muslims, issued a similar order – both states in defiance of a July Supreme Court order that ruled that such policies facilitate discrimination on the grounds of religion and caste.
