In the wake of the 3rd consecutive term of the Modi Government under the Hindutva canopy, Indian religious minorities, particularly the Indian Muslims are struggling hard to hold on their constitutional rights. Amid sweltering alarms of Hindu-Fascism, the US State Department Report on International Religious Freedom, 2023 has underlined the upsurge of intolerance and violence against Muslims in India for the 4th year. The trailblazing report by the ‘United States Commission On International Religious Freedom’ (USCIRF) sheds lights on the worsening situation of religious minorities under the Modi government that has ‘continued to worsen’.
The trailblazing report by the ‘United States Commission On International Religious Freedom’ (USCIRF) sheds lights on the worsening situation of religious minorities under the Modi government that has ‘continued to worsen’.
Underscoring the government for systematic violations of representative ethos, the report has detected religious discrimination, fake conversion charges, risks of Uniform Civil Code, communal outbursts, hate speeches and arbitrary governmental practices in India that have resulted into violence, inequality, detention, mass resettlement and derogatory policies.
The panel has mapped unfair treatment of Indian religious minorities and cases of harassments, murders, intimidation, vandalism of worship houses and administrative inaction. The 69-page testimony classifies risks on the entity of Indian Muslims that form 14 percent of Indian population as the central minority community of India. But working independently, the USCIRF panel has ‘No Power’ to regulate the frameworks or to set policy as per given recommendations.
Highlighting the role of Hindu nationalist publications and social media, USCIRF has charted down the roles of ruling Bhartiya Janta Party and associated jingoist organisations like HJS (Hindu Janajagruti Samiti), RSS (Rashtriya Swayamseva Sangh), VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and others that have crafted the beleaguered ‘intimidating atmosphere’ of intolerance against minorities.
This assertion also bangs US President Joe Biden who has ‘failed to designate India’ and who has not been wakeful enough to tackle the situation as per its previous alarms and recommendations. The double-standard of United States regarding Muslims and religious freedom is hypocritical because the pro-Zionist US-policy has a historic record of providing financial, military and political aid to Israel in order to support horrifying massacre. A mammoth increase in Islamophobia and misinformation was reported after Hamas confronted Israel on October 7, resulting in targeted abhorrence in Muslim-majority localities in India.
A mammoth increase in Islamophobia and misinformation was reported after Hamas confronted Israel on October 7, resulting in targeted abhorrence in Muslim-majority localities in India.
Numerous musters of HJS were held in between where Hindutva offenders armor-plated victim-blaming and justified their phony projection of Indian Muslim community as a threat to the nation to attain electoral benefits in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Indeed, incidents anywhere in the world that deal with Muslim faith affect Indian Muslims. That’s the reason why the latest ‘All eyes on Rafah’ trend was getting absurd reactions in India and majoritarian Hindu extremists were making irrational comparisons and raising questions on Kashmiri Pundits and Pakistani Hindus while targeting Indian Muslims side by side.
The ‘legal instruments of oppression’ to restrict religious minorities addressed in the US state department report
From 2021 the US panel has been criticising the idea of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) that paves the path to similar personal laws instead of pluralistic laws for Indian religious minorities; Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and others, in order to fortify the dogma of Hindu-Rashtra. While the constitution instructs states to apply ‘various personal laws’ in matters of ‘marriage, divorce, adoption and inheritance’ to ensure cultural multiplicity, still, on February 7, 2024 the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has been passed by Uttarakhand legislative assembly that has been in the epicenter of parliamentary hullabaloo since the year 2023.
The religious freedom commission, along with Human Rights Watch has also slammed the parliamentary provisions to criminalise false promises of marriage and sexual exploitation of women. Chhattisgarh, Gujrat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Haryana, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh are already experimenting these anti-conversion laws to crush the chances of forced, influenced or counterfeit conversions.
The religious freedom commission, along with Human Rights Watch has also slammed the parliamentary provisions to criminalise false promises of marriage and sexual exploitation of women.
The report of the year 2022 also included Assam and Arunanchal Pradesh in its blacklist. These states with conversion prohibitions have witnessed ‘unjustified arrests’, intentionally targeting Muslim population. In case ‘clear proofs’ are lacking, the person accused of conversion is subjected to imprisonment or penalties while the accuser remains free, turning the law into an administrative instrument to suppress minorities.
On the other hand, the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) demands the NGOs and religious organisations to ‘be licensed by the Ministry of Home Affairs before accepting or transferring foreign funds’, equipping center with the power to reject and limit social work arena. FCRA requires NGOs to use no more than 20% amount in administrative tasks, creating hazards for them to maintain religious operations. These attempts to stop the alleged anti-national activities have clearly endangered social welfare, civil society and the work of humanitarian organisations, as observed by the US panel.
The role of the government in reinforcing communal hate against Muslims and other minorities
The previous report by the United States commission on international religious freedom’ highlighted the hijab-ban, institutional polarisation, mob lynching and derogatory comments by extremist leaders like Yati Narasinghanand, Nupur Sharma, Haribhushan Thakur Bachaul and Gyan Dev Ahuja which were provoking masses to commit violence, whereas the latest documentation adds the government-endorsed ‘public celebration of Hindu festivals’, and ‘Love Jihad’ narratives led by BJP and affiliated organisations.
Tapping an insightful gaze on violence against Christians, tribal communities and the appalling rapes of two Kuki women in Manipur, the recent description underlines the demolition of 1,209 structures in Haryana that majorly belonged to Muslim shopkeepers and residents and the scary calls of hateful ‘economic boycott’ of the Muslim community.
Looking back into 2022, the report gives a succinct flashback of the time when Jamiat Ulama-E-Hind filed petitions to ‘blanket-ban’ the bulldozing of Muslim properties after the house of a Muslim activist Afreen Fatima was shockingly demolished on June 12 for being ‘illegally built’ and the Supreme Court of India rejected their appeal. It’s noteworthy that the repetitive incidents of demolishing Muslim properties in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and other states have grabbed worldwide concerns, compelling international organisations like Amnesty International to urge Indian authorities to halt ‘unlawful’ bulldozing of Muslim properties.
Putting emphasis on the cow vigilantism upsurge under the BJP regime, attacks on the Islamic groups of Jammu and Kashmir and minorities’ houses of worship, the report criticises ‘272 incidents of communal violence’ in 2022 as per National Crimes Record Bureau.
The Indian American Muslim Council has hailed the documentation of these democratic and humanitarian concerns under Narendra Modi rule that has ‘continued to systemically violate the religious freedom of minority communities’.
The Indian American Muslim Council has hailed the documentation of these democratic and humanitarian concerns under Narendra Modi rule that has ‘continued to systemically violate the religious freedom of minority communities’. Despite bilateral ties between US and India hitting $120 billion trade in 2022 along with reported ‘informal groupings’ in G20, G7 and Quad Leaders’ Summit, the Indian government has ‘not accepted’ its arbitrary autocracy about supressing the voice of minorities.
The ‘inaction’ and attacks on the freedom of expression
US officials have harked back to the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report that signposts ‘a lack of proper investigation in cases against minorities’ and the ill tactics of punishing the victim communities and activists who protested against the chauvinist pattern. On the other hand, police and courts have given mixed responses in heinous criminal cases while dangling between two plugs. During March, 2023 the Gujarat police arrested 10 more people alleging their roles in communal violence in Khambat, Gujarat while in 2021 a court in UP released 41 Hindu individuals who were charged with murder cases in the Maliana communal violence during 1987.
Similarly, 69 Hindus who were accused of assassinating 69 people during the 2002 Gujrat riots have been shockingly acquitted by the court. The Supreme Court had allowed temporary freedom to the rapists of Bilkis-Bano but the bail pleas of activist-student Umar Khalid have been left unsorted.
A group of 93 former senior civil servants has approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March, 2024 against the harassments of minorities, hate speeches and communal crimes of BJP affiliated people but it did not attain any response from the Prime Minister. The report also draws attention towards reserved but vacant seats in the National Commission For Minorities and National Human Rights Commission; and takes account of the methodical punishments for exercising freedom of choice and for fighting for the federal ethos, as emphasised. The Human rights Watch, World Report, 2023 has confirmed these growing concerns about communal biases in ‘institutions, including justice system and constitutional authorities like the National Rights Commission’.
Double standards of Muslim pacification: mapping human rights in India and Palestine
During Modi’s visit to Washington in June 2023, US and Indian governments have recapped the frameworks of freedom, human rights, democracy and equal opportunities for citizens but the ground realities tell another story. Against the false claims and hollow promises to safeguard human-rights, US officials have been endorsing the Israeli raft in cross-border attack, bloodshed and brutal slaughter of innocent Palestinians. As per The Chicago Council On Global Affairs report, the United Nations General Assembly has called for cease-fire in the ongoing Palestinian crisis but it was unable to pass resolution because the US again used veto-power to support Israel. Since 2001, US has used veto more than 14 times to advocate heinous butchery in Gaza strip.
Hindu nationalists have shamelessly used the Palestinian crisis to fuel more intolerance against Indian Muslims by supporting the Zionist forces as Israel demonstrates the fascist ideal of religious nationalism for the vicious ethnic cleansing of religious minorities.
The joint resolutions of the powerful executive heads of India and the US are essentially mutual diplomatic show-offs of hollow concerns with double standard. Their claims about religious freedom and human rights are rational-crucial paper works and verbal annotations that require on-ground solutions, humanitarian empathy and unbiased perspectives to change the scene.
