Sajeda Haider

An outright, full-scale economic boycott of India’s 200 million-strong Muslim community has been called by a newly formed Hindu body in the country.

The Sakal Hindu Samaj (SKS), which claims to represent all Hindus, has, in the last four months, held over 50 marches across the western state of Maharashtra, spewing hatred and inciting violence against Muslims.

SKS claims to be the umbrella body of far-right Hindu nationalist organisations whose ultimate aim is to turn India into a Hindu-only country, depriving Muslims and Christians of all rights. Currently, India is a secular country governed by a Constitution that guarantees equality for all religious communities.

The 50-odd ‘Hindu Jan Aakrosh Morcha’ [demonstration of Hindu mass anger] has the same modus operandi. Each meeting is preceded by a march, often through Muslim neighbourhoods, with the participants shouting provocative and Islamophobic slogans while waving orange flags and wearing orange caps (a colour once affiliated with Hinduism but now appropriated by Hindu nationalist forces).

At the rally, speakers compete to demonise the Muslim community, humiliate Islam, and order the minorities to mass migrate to Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Though the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has officially distanced itself from these rallies, local BJP leaders, MPs, and members of the state legislatures are present. The SKS is led by members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajarang Dal, Durga Vahini, and many other far-right Hindu organisations affiliated with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological pillar.

At one such meeting in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, a Gujarat-based Hindutva activist who calls herself Kajal Hindustani, said: “There are three major aspects of Islamic aggression.

First is love jihad, second is land jihad, and finally there is the problem of conversion. For these…there is a Ram-led solution – one where you will not be stopped by political leaders, the Supreme Court, or even the media. That solution is their (Muslims) economic boycott”.

Despite the minuscule number of Hindu-Muslim marriages among the country’s 1.4 billion population, the RSS-BJP-coined term, “love jihad”, has gained currency, with many believing the conspiracy theory that Muslim men seduce Hindu women with the intent of converting them to Islam and having children to increase India’s Muslim population.

Similarly, “land jihad” accuses Muslims of systematically encroaching on Hindu-owned land to build mosques, a charge that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, particularly as mosques cannot be built on someone else’s property, and administrations have stopped granting permits to build new mosques in BJP-ruled states.

Another charge levelled against Muslims is “forced conversion,” but census data shows even this charge cannot be supported.

Over the past few decades, the BJP has successfully instilled false and irrational senses of ‘victimhood’ in Hindus, who make up 85% of the population, by employing potent anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, with minority Muslims as oppressors.

In the run-up to the Hindu festival of Holi in March, SKS made persistent calls for a mass boycott of all Muslim-owned businesses.

For example, a common refrain at SKS programmes is: “Muslim vendors lace vegetables and fruits with toxins. Spend a little extra money and stop buying from them.

Ensure the money goes to a Hindu’s house.” During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Muslim vendors were dubbed ‘Jihadi vendors’ and accused of spitting on food to spread the virus, resulting in many being barred from selling in Hindu neighbourhoods.

While Maharashtra Police personnel are seen at most rallies, recording speeches, no charges have been filed against any of the speakers. In BJP-run regions, speakers at rallies continue to spread anti-Muslim conspiracies, despite a Supreme Court directive in February allowing Hindu Jan Aakrosh Morcha to hold rallies under the condition that “no hate speech” be delivered.

Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader denied the rallies were on the BJP agenda. However, he condoned the attendance of BJP leaders and staff at such meetings, arguing they were present as Hindus in support of local issues.

Nitesh Rane, a BJP lawmaker in Maharashtra, was more forthright, arguing that he attended the rallies and agreed with the call for an economic boycott of Muslims.

“All that money is used by them (Muslims) against the Hindu community. If that money is used for the prosperity of the community, no one would have an issue. But they use money in the name of terrorism, love jihad, and a lot of other things against Hindus. So obviously, we had to call out to stop their economic prosperity,” said Rane.

Though the Hindu right has called for an economic boycott of Muslims before, this is the first time it has done so in such a concerted effort. The unprecedented anti-Muslim mobilisation must be seen in the context of next year’s parliamentary and Maharashtra state legislative assembly elections.

Maharashtra has 48 parliamentary seats, which the BJP desperately needs to win if it wants to hold on to power in New Delhi. Muslims, who account for barely 11.5% of Maharashtra’s population, are being systematically targeted to achieve Hindu consolidation deemed necessary to defeat the opposition in the upcoming elections.

For the BJP, religious polarization has historically yielded good electoral results, and they hope it will do so in the future, regardless of the long-term devastating consequences.

Photo: A group of 70-80 people taking a pledge of economic boycott of Muslims and Christians in Jagdalpur, under the guidance of a BJP leader (Photo Credit: TWITTER/@cgvhp1)