Violence Against Muslims in India is Governmental Issue

Our investigation shows that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which allows citizenship in India for immigrants of many different faiths except for Muslims and therefore promotes Hindu nationalism. The law’s passage led to widespread protests across India, which have been counteracted with violence against Muslims and their property. 

Recently, Modi has started to aggressively restrict the rights of Muslim residents. Along with the CAA, Modi also forced citizens to verify or revoke their citizenship, and refused to recognize Kashmir’s autonomy. Through a series of interview questions with journalist and author Raghu Karnad, Chotiner further demonstrates how the Modi government has exploited the conflict between Hindus and Muslims. Karnad explains how the government has allowed Hindus to attack Muslims, but postulates that the reverse would never be allowed to occur. For example, a group largely comprised of Muslim protestors at Jamia University started a riot that ended with police assaults and mass arrests. 

Many of the Hindu attacks on Muslims took place during US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Modi government. One officer believes that this is because much of the police force was busy providing security, meaning that other areas were understaffed. However, Karnad and Chotiner counter this with evidence that even when police are present during mob attacks, they often do not interfere to protect Muslims. Due to the enormous amount of false news and edited videos circulating on social media, as well as the uniformity of the press, there is much misinformation about Hindu/Muslim politics in India.

There has been extreme violence against Muslims in India, and evidence shows that police often turn a blind eye to it. Misbar's investigation shows that the violence is at least partially the fault of Modi's government.