Uttar Pradesh: Stoking the fire is easier than putting it out

The sudden spate of petitions for ‘surveying’ mosques and dargahs, from Sambhal to Ajmer Sharif, and the seemingly unrelated ‘stray’ incidents of Hindu residents objecting to the sale of housing units to Muslims, from Moradabad to Bareilly, have contributed to a sense of unease in western UP.

In the last week of November, communal tension led to riots that claimed five Muslim lives in Sambhal. Police shrugged off their role, claiming to have fired pellets, not bullets. Eyewitnesses claimed, and videos confirmed, that policemen had used small firearms, which may not have been ‘official issue’.

The rioting followed tension around a hurried ASI survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid, conducted after an equally hurried order by a local ‘executive’ court. The coordinated haste looks suspicious because the petitioner had merely prayed for access to a monument protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

On the same day that the petition was filed, the ASI apparently informed the court that it was not being ‘allowed’ to inspect the mosque. The masjid committee countered by pointing out that the ASI had last inspected the mosque in June 2024. Prior visits dated back to 1998 and 2018. The ASI had made no attempt to ‘protect’ and maintain the mosque in all this time.

The Uttar Pradesh government declared Sambhal out of bounds for ‘outsiders’ till 10 December. The order, ostensibly issued to maintain law and order, was selectively used to prevent political leaders, social workers, journalists and fact-finding teams of activists from visiting. Public transport, however, continued to run as usual.

Sambhal MP Zia-ur Rahman Barq, who was in Bengaluru the evening before violence broke out, was prevented from going to his own constituency. No peace committee was formed, before or after the survey, and civil society was actively prevented from helping restore harmony and peace.

Muzaffarnagar hit the headlines (again) when a mosque near the railway station was said to have been constructed on land allegedly owned by Pakistan’s first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan. Opposing accounts stated that the mosque was donated as waqf in 1930, long before Partition, and therefore could not have belonged to Liaquat Ali Khan. Reports suggest that the local administration is considering declaring it ‘enemy property’.

Unlike other parts of India and Uttar Pradesh, people in western UP have historically been secular, reflects social activist Rakesh Rafiq. Former Union minister Sompal Shastri echoes the sentiment.

The current reality tells a starkly different story. Efforts to incite communal tension in western UP began over a decade ago, and have only intensified. In nearly every district and town, mosques are being scrutinised and claims being made that they were originally temples. Routine differences between neighbours are given a Hindu–Muslim spin.

Barely a week after the rioting in Sambhal, residents of TDI City, a residential colony in Moradabad launched a public protest when a Hindu doctor sold his house to a Muslim couple, who were also doctors. Local residents demanded the registration be cancelled. Instead of quelling this unreasonable demand or calming the agitators, the local administration sought to broker a compromise. Similar incidents have been reported from Bareilly and Muzaffarnagar.

While this trend has been evident for some time across large parts of the country, the scale and intensity in western UP is alarming. Administrative complicity and the role of BJP leaders in stoking the fire is unmistakable.

During the Kanwar Yatra, street vendors and shopkeepers were told to prominently display their names, ostensibly to identify their respective religions. Discriminatory and unlawful directives — reminiscent of the treatment of Jews in Hitler’s Germany — are being actively encouraged by the administration. Where or when will it stop?

The seeds of this strategy were sown during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. These riots, which claimed more than 44 lives, attempted to drive a wedge between the Jats, an influential community, and the Muslims of the region. Although that effort wasn’t entirely successful, it left an indelible mark on western UP, tarnishing its legacy of relative communal harmony. At the time, the Samajwadi Party was in power in the state. The BJP recognised that escalating tensions could pave its way to power. It did.

As assembly elections approached in 2017, the narrative of communal discord was reignited in a host of new ways. The BJP claimed Hindus were being forced to flee their homes in Kairana. Pictures of houses with ‘For Sale’ signs were circulated in newspapers and on television. The party even released a list of Hindu families who were allegedly displaced.

The controversy reached the Human Rights Commission, and stayed in the headlines for quite a while. Later, investigations revealed that the entire story was fabricated. But the false narrative achieved its purpose. The BJP not only won the elections, it also formed the government in Uttar Pradesh.

Shastri highlights another facet of this story. He traces the shift in western UP back to 2009, when Jat leader Chaudhary Ajit Singh formed a coalition with the BJP to contest elections. This partnership provided the BJP with an opportunity to establish a strong foothold in the region. Although Ajit Singh later joined the UPA, his frequent vacillation between alliances undermined his credibility, allowing the BJP to consolidate its base in western UP.

On 5 December 2024, a private school teacher in Khabbarpur village of Muzzafarnagar who was caught on camera in August 2023 instructing students to take turns to slap a Muslim classmate — while berating Muslims as a community — got bail.

Also on 5 December, while inaugurating the Ramayana Mela at Ayodhya’s Ram Katha Park, chief minister Yogi Adityanath remarked that Babar’s ‘deeds/ misdeeds’ in Kumbh 500 years ago were being repeated in Bangladesh and in Sambhal. According to him, all three incidents shared the same DNA. Three days after Adityanath’s speech, Hindu organisations staged a large demonstration in Ghaziabad to protest the alleged persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh.

Plans for similar demonstrations soon spread across western UP, bolstering the narrative that Hindus face threats everywhere. The situation in Bangladesh is much more nuanced. Former Bangladesh cricket captain Mashrafe Mortaza’s house was set on fire — he represented the Awami League in Parliament. Christian minorities have also faced violence, as has a single gurdwara. The pattern of violence is largely political, cutting across minorities.

Opportunities to intervene are severely limited, says Rakesh Rafiq. While headlines focus on opposition leaders being barred from visiting affected areas, the reality is that social workers also face similar restrictions. The administration is hostile to anyone who might act as mediator or peacemaker. Rafiq notes that the farmers’ movement was a successful example of uniting Hindu and Muslim farmers in a common cause. Now, they too face stricter curbs.

A retired IAS officer claims that the entire approach has changed dramatically. In the past, when communal tensions flared, the local administration would form social unity committees consisting of representatives of all religious communities. These committees played a crucial role by visiting tense areas and urging calm. Such initiatives seem to have vanished.

Western UP holds great political significance for the BJP. The region accounts for 25 Lok Sabha seats and over a 100 assembly seats. For any party aiming to form a government in the state or at the Centre, securing this region is critical. Inflaming communal passions to drive wedges between communities is so much easier as a strategy to get votes than actually working to gain the trust of the people. Who said divide-and-rule ended with the British Empire?