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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/india-muslims-undeclared-war-neighbourhoods">middleeasteye.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">India's bulldozer war on Muslim neighbourhoods</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Sara Ather - February 6, 2023<br></div>
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<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><img src="cid:ii_ldvx4c863" alt="image.png" width="392" height="221"><br><p>Hundreds
of Muslim residents of Haldwani, in India's northern state of
Uttarakhand, protested for days, braving the winter cold, after an
Indian court ordered the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/5/india-top-court-stays-demolition-of-over-4000-homes-in-haldwani" target="_blank">demolition</a>
of more than 4,000 homes over allegations they were encroaching on
railway land. While last month the country’s Supreme Court issued a stay
on the order, which could affect 50,000 people, it has not yet ruled on
the issue of land ownership.</p>
<p>While the scale of this demolition drive is uniquely massive, it is not the first of its kind. Last year, <a href="https://article-14.com/post/demolitions-as-collective-illegal-punishment-with-mainly-muslim-properties-destroyed-after-riots-6265a9ad591d8" target="_blank">Muslim properties</a>
were targeted for demolition in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, New
Delhi, Gujarat and other areas, with the pretext generally being
“illegal encroachment”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we stop existing on the map, do we still exist in the political community as participants?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The abrupt nature of demolition drives, leaving little room for legal
investigations, is profoundly altering how Muslims perceive normal life
in <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/india" target="_blank">India</a>,
blurring the lines between public and private space. The demolitions
cause Muslims economic harm, while also damaging their political
standing.</p>
<p>Somehow, a belief seems to exist that violence against Muslim homes
is less severe than violence against bodies - a form of “collateral
damage” that demands no urgent action. But this ignores the political
dimension of home demolitions, which aim to eliminate the targeted
group’s ability to survive. </p>
<p>In the Haldwani case, national media adopted a nefarious narrative framing the Muslim protesters as a “<a href="https://www.sabrangindia.in/article/times-now-channel-pulled-communal-report-zameen-jihad-haldwani" target="_blank">jihadi gang</a>” - a conspiracy theory that has been deployed against other Muslims, using the false claim that they are illegally <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/5/india-top-court-stays-demolition-of-over-4000-homes-in-haldwani" target="_blank">occupying</a>
Hindu lands. In recent years, the policy of demolitions has become an
inseparable part of the ruling BJP’s administrative discourse.</p>
<div><blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">This is not Iran or Afghanistan,
this is India! Thousands of Muslim women are protesting and praying in
Nainital, India, because Hindu right wing regime is going to demolish
4500 Muslim homes. <a href="https://t.co/2tQm5cuuIq" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/2tQm5cuuIq</a></p>— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) <a href="https://twitter.com/ashoswai/status/1609574020592148485?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">January 1, 2023</a></blockquote>
</div>
<p>And the road from homelessness to statelessness is not as long as
some would like to imagine. If we stop existing on the map, do we still
exist in the political community as participants? And if we don’t exist
in the political community, what keeps us from becoming mere
abstractions?</p>
<h3>Narrative of 'encroachers'</h3>
<p>While measures such as India’s <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-city-passes-resolution-against-india-caa-nrc" target="_blank">Citizenship Amendment Act</a>
and the National Register of Citizens threaten Muslims’ legal status as
citizens in the nation, the narrative of “encroachers” seeks to develop
a similar link of criminality, with Muslims portrayed as “illegally”
grabbing lands that legitimately belong to Hindus. The state of
Uttarakhand, which includes Haldwani, has been the focus of strong <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/hindutva" target="_blank">Hindutva</a> propaganda promoting it as the “land of the gods”, further pushing the concept that the Muslims who live there are outsiders. </p>
<p>It is not by accident that during the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/covid" target="_blank">Covid-19</a>
pandemic, Hindutva nationalists claimed that Muslim neighbourhoods were
responsible for spreading the virus in India. It was described in the
national media as “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/4/18/how-the-coronavirus-outbreak-in-india-was-blamed-on-muslims" target="_blank">corona jihad</a>”.
Demeaning terms such as “termites”, “cockroaches” and “leeches” are
also part of the Hindutva lexicon regularly deployed against Muslims.
The act of destroying Muslim homes is thus presented to the masses as a
necessary act.</p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/images-story/india-bulldozer-home-demolition-june-2022-afp.jpg" alt="A bulldozer demolishes the residence of a local leader who was allegedly involved in protests against the BJP in Allahabad, India, on 12 June 2022 (AFP)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="221"></p>
A bulldozer demolishes the residence of a local leader who
was allegedly involved in protests against the BJP in Allahabad, India,
on 12 June 2022 (AFP)</div>
<p>BJP politics heavily rely on pushing a reimagination of Indian land
as sacred Hindu territory under a perpetual threat of violation by
Muslim “invaders”. Yet, while this narrative has gained massive
popularity in recent years, its roots are much deeper. Important figures
who laid the foundations of Hindu nationalism, especially <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vinayak-Damodar-Savarkar" target="_blank">Vinayak Damodar Savarkar</a>
and M S Golwalkar, emphasised the cultural elimination of Muslim spaces
as a necessary step towards fulfilling nationalist goals.</p>
<p>As the popularity of Hindu nationalism has grown, so too has the
violent reassertion of a monopoly over public spaces, challenging a
pluralistic conception of Indian land. Hindu nationalists have led
campaigns against <a href="https://www.newslaundry.com/2022/04/18/we-dont-want-conflict-dont-want-to-fight-the-battle-of-shrinking-namaz-space-for-gurugram-muslims" target="_blank">public Muslim prayers</a> and the use of mosque loudspeakers for the <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/bihar-minister-bjp-janak-ram-ban-loudspeakers-azaan-mosques-1934790-2022-04-07" target="_blank">adhan</a>.</p>
<p>Physical space has become not just a target for Hindu nationalists,
but also the very medium through which an undeclared internal war is
being fought against Indian Muslims. While a traditional war is waged on
the battlefield, this one seeps into every aspect of its targets’
lives, turning even the most mundane moments into conflicts and
militarising everyday life. </p>
<h3>Events transformed</h3>
<p>To understand this phenomenon, one needs only to look at the
transformations that the most banal events have undergone. 2022
witnessed a massive change in how Hindu religious rallies and
processions are being organised, with celebrations marking <a href="https://thewire.in/communalism/gujarat-ram-navami-violence-fact-finding-report" target="_blank">Ram Navami </a>and <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/ram-navami-hanuman-jayanti-2022-jahangirpuri-violence-ram-navami-hanuman-jayanti-10622531.html" target="_blank">Hanuman Jayanti</a>
divorced from their religious origins and repurposed as occasions for
anti-Muslim political demonstrations of dominance and ownership.</p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/india-house-demolitions-Israeli-style-war-crime-against-Muslims" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/India%20demolition.jpg?itok=BIG_vx1D" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="392" height="245"></a></p><p>India house demolitions: Another Israeli-style war crime against Muslims</p>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/india-house-demolitions-Israeli-style-war-crime-against-Muslims" target="_blank">Read More »</a>
</p></div>
<p>Mobs of men rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods brandishing
weapons and chanting genocidal slogans, leading to confrontations in
some cases. The neighbourhoods that exhibited minimal retaliation were
met with a strong state response, as properties were bulldozed and
families left homeless.</p>
<p>In several such rallies, Hindu mobs reportedly tried to plant <a href="https://www.newsclick.in/hindutva-forces-responsible-planting-saffron-flag-top-mosque-PUCL-bihar" target="_blank">saffron flags atop mosques</a>, comparable to marking conquests in enemy territory - a historical method of claiming ownership or sovereignty over an area.</p>
<p>While laying the foundation stone for the Ganga Expressway in Uttar Pradesh in December 2021, <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/political-significance-of-uttar-pradesh-s-bulldozer-demolitions-1118558.html" target="_blank">Prime Minister Narendra Modi</a>
endorsed bulldozer politics, saying: “When the bulldozer runs over the
mafia … the bulldozer runs over the illegal building, but the person who
is nurturing it feels the pain.”</p>
<p>This speaks to a crucial aspect of the motivation behind the policy
of demolitions, which is not to attack people physically, but rather on a
psychological level, depriving them of any hope for a safe future. </p>
<p>Architecture, through its illusion of permanence, allows community
members to imagine themselves both in the past and in a future that
extends beyond the lifetime of their bodies. With the collapse of
whatever is built, that link, which reaffirms our belonging to the land,
also collapses. </p>
<h3>Discriminatory policies</h3>
<p>The emptiness that remains after the bulldozer leaves is replete with
contradictions: the absence of meaning left in the debris, and an
overwhelming political significance. The space becomes testament to
political power exercised in excess. What was once a home for a family
becomes a public artifact of nothingness for the city to behold - an
aggressive reminder to Muslims that they no longer hold the right to a
private life. </p>
<p>In a country that has socially ostracised Muslims, it is not
difficult to calculate the devastation that can follow from losing their
shelter. The ambiguous legal status of such acts also makes it much
more difficult to fight back.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Muslims must choose between a life of humiliation or a death of humiliation</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The people most affected by targeted demolitions in the Muslim community are those who are already <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/jahangirpuri-demolition-driver-muslims-target-residents" target="_blank">economically disadvantaged</a>
and lack the resources and power to retaliate. At the same time,
individuals within the Muslim community who openly speak out against the
government’s discriminatory policies become <a href="https://thewire.in/law/explained-demolition-afreen-fatima-house-up-authorities-legal-status" target="_blank">prime targets</a>. </p>
<p>Essentially, law and order are suspended temporarily at the whims of
state authorities. And a larger message is being sent to Muslims: that
the state does not necessarily protect them. Demolitions should thus be
seen for what they truly are, and that is not just an attack on the
walls of a home. It is not solely the rights of Muslims that are under
attack, but rather, as philosopher Hannah Arendt framed it, their “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-right-to-have-rights-and-the-plight-of-the-stateless" target="_blank">right to have rights</a>” and to defend themselves.</p>
<p>With the introduction of bulldozers, the government no longer has to
say with clarity what is acceptable behaviour. Rather, it can simply
push a narrow framework of possibilities, where Muslims must choose
between a life of humiliation or a death of humiliation.</p>
<p><i>The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.</i></p>
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