In the past three years, mob violence, including lynching, particularly by cow vigilantes, has almost become a strategy to intimidate Muslims.
ON JUNE 26, MUSLIMS OF KHANDAWLI Village in Faridabad district of Haryana, on the outskirts of New Delhi were in no mood to celebrate Ramzan, or Eid. Sounds of wailing filled the narrow streets of the village. Women gathered around a shell-shocked Saira, whose 16-year-old son, Junaid Khan, had been brutally murdered on a train from Delhi bound for Mathura. The men offered prayers wearing black armbands in protest.
What provided the trigger for the attack on the teenager was not clear. Reports said that it was over an argument over sharing of a seat on a crowded train that resulted in the skirmish. But Junaid’s family and friends maintain that it was Junaid’s skull cap and his brothers’ beards, which gave away their religious identity, that led to the attack. The assaulters pulled Junaid’s cap and stamped on it, and even tried to pull the beards of his siblings. They told them they deserved to die. According to the family, other passengers on the train egged on the assaulters, saying maas khate hai, maaro inko (they eat meat, kill them).
Rabiya, the eldest of Saira’s seven children, said the cap was a symbol of identity and dignity for Muslims and stamping on it was the highest form of insult. The siblings were educated in religious scriptures and Junaid was a hafiz, he had recited the entire Quran, which he had learned by heart, during Ramzan.
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How Not To Handle An Epidemic
The lockdowns were meant to buy time to put in place appropriate health measures and contain the coronavirus’ spread, but they have failed to achieve the objective and heaped immense misery on the marginalised sections of society. India is still in the exponential phase of the COVID-19 infection and community transmission is a reality that the government refuses to accept.
Tragedy on foot
As the COVID-19-induced lockdown cuts the ground beneath their feet in Tamil Nadu, thousands of migrant workers are trudging along the highway to the relative safety of their upcountry homes.
Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Scapegoating China
As the COVID-19 death rate spikes and the economy tanks in the United States, Donald Trump and his advisers target China and the World Health Organisation with an eye to winning the forthcoming presidential election.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
No love lost for labour
Taking advantage of the lockdown and the inability of workers to organise protests, many State governments introduce sweeping changes to labour laws to the detriment of workers on the pretext of reviving production and boosting the economy.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Understanding migration
When governments and their plans are found to be blatantly wanting in addressing reverse migration, exercises such as the Ekta Parishad’s survey of migrant workers throughout India can be useful to work out creative long-lasting solutions.
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
