Being anti-Muslim is Dhami’s survival tool

Bulle Shah, the Sufi mystic known as the ‘father of Punjabi enlightenment’ is revered by Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims alike for his powerful poetry championing love, unity and spiritual freedom. On 24 January, a handful of fanatics belonging to the Hindu Raksha Dal broke into the Wynberg-Allen school in Mussoorie and demolished his shrine, claiming that the 100-year old structure was an illegal encroachment on their ‘Devbhoomi.’ They were so confident that no action would be taken against them that they even uploaded a video of demolishing it with hammer and rods. The Uttarakhand police registered FIRs against three individuals but made no arrests.

In November 2025, another century-old mazaar, located inside Doon School, was demolished at the behest of another Hindutva group led by hatemonger Radha Dhoni who heads Sanatan Sanskriti, a right-wing organisation whose reason for existence seems to be to target Muslim shopkeepers, road side chaiwalas and rehriwalas (street vendors).

Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, whose son is a student at Doon School, takes pride in informing the public that over 400 ‘illegally constructed’ mazaars have been demolished during his tenure. Leaning on a survey undertaken by his own officials (you can imagine how objective that would be) Dhami claims his government has recovered 5,000 acres from ‘land jihadists’.

Two enterprising activists decided to get to the truth behind this relentless anti-Muslim propaganda. They travelled the length and breadth of Uttarakhand to document how Muslims have been victims of violence between 2021-25 with several hundred being forced to flee their homes to become refugees in their own country. The report titled ‘Excluded, targeted and displaced: Communal narratives and violence in Uttarakhand’ was published on 22 January by the Association of Protection of Civil Rights (APCR). It reinforces our worst fears about how a peaceful state has mutated into a hot bed of fanaticism.

The hatemongering campaign was kicked off in December 2021 at the Haridwar Dharma Sansad, where Yati Narasinghanand, Prabodhanand Giri, Yatindranand Giri, Sadhvi Annapurna, Swami Anand Swaroop and Kalicharan Maharaj openly called for a Hindu Rashtra and the killing of Muslims. Their speeches triggered a surge in violence, economic boycotts and hate crimes climaxing in the Purola incident of 2023, where a false kidnapping case led to Muslim families fleeing and selling their properties. This model spread to Tehri, Uttarkashi, Chamoli and Gairsain. Dhami amplified this brazen communalism by harping on ‘land jihad’, ‘mazaar jihad’, ‘thook jihad’ and ‘love jihad’. Days after the India Hate Lab’s annual report labelled the Uttarakhand chief minister as ‘the most prolific hate speech actor’ of 2025, Dhami responded by saying he “accepts the tag”. His latest fatwa is banning the entry of non-Hindus to Kedarnath and Badrinath.

What is unique about the APCR report is the recording of testi monies of those at the receiving end of orchestrated violence in Uttarakhand. It also documents the role of the police, who remain mute spectators, refusing in most cases to take action against the perpetrators. Here are a few examples:

On 23 October 2024, right-wing groups led by Swami Darshan Bharti, head of Devbhoomi Raksha Abhiyan, took out a rally demanding the demolition of a mosque in Uttarkashi’s Barahahat. Shops owned by Muslims were vandalised and looted. Reshma Hussain, 37, the only earning member of a family of four said, “They broke the lock of my shop and barged in. I suffered a loss of around 1 lakh rupees.”

In the nearby town of Srinagar, a local BJP leader Lakhpat Singh Bhandari instigated the exodus of 15 Muslim families who were forced to return to Najibabad. Shoaib Akhtar, a school teacher at a government school in Srinagar, said, “Lakhpat Bhandari was invited as chief guest for a function where the principal [of the school where Shoaib teaches] spoke about love jihad and land jihad. If a principal talks like this in public, what kind of impression does that leave on students?”

An English teacher in the same school asked Ahmed, a Class 12 student, why people like him were taking over land to build illegal mosques. “What land have I captured? I feel targeted,” said Ahmed.

Mukesh Semwal, a social activist based in Srinagar, believes this communal unrest was deliberately stoked for the BJP to win the Kedarnath assembly polls, especially after having lost Ayodhya and Badrinath.

In August 2024, communal tension worsened in Chauras after right-wing groups forced five Muslim shopkeepers and their families to flee. The provocation? A Hindu woman and a Muslim man who came from Najibabad were said to be in a relationship.

Wasim, the father of the boy who had been accused of ‘love jihad’, said, “They were friends. Is friendship a crime? Will our children consider religion before befriending someone? They instigated our exodus based on baseless rumours. Even the girl’s family did not file a complaint against my son.”

Fifty-year-old Taseem Ahmed has lived in the town of Gauchar in Chamoli district for the last 45 years. His brother got into a fight with a Hindu man over the parking of his scooty on 15 October 2024. The Hindutva brigade forced ten Muslim shopkeepers to leave the town.

“It is shocking how such a small fight over parking changed our lives for the worse. We lived there for 45 years. Everybody in the locality knew us by name. But nobody supported us. We left Gauchar at midnight,” said Ahmed.

In Nandprayag, Chamoli district, the anti-Muslim campaign took a violent turn in August-September 2024 after eve-teasing allegations against a Muslim barber. On 22 August, the barber was asked to vacate his shop. He went back to Najibabad.

Uthman Hassan, the owner of a drycleaning shop for 20 years, and a resident of Nanda Ghat since 1975, said at least 15 families had to flee on the night of 3 September.

“On 31 August, the locals held a meeting and filed an FIR against the Muslim barber... On 1 September, the vyapar mandal gave a call to protest in front of Nanda Ghat police station. We Muslims also went to the protest. We thought we should support our business community. Little did we know that there was no solidarity among businessmen. We were targeted based on our religion. Anti-Muslim slogans were raised at the meeting such as ‘Mullon ke dalaalon ko joote maaro saalon ko’ (Beat the bastard brokers of mullahs).”

Hassan’s shop was broken into by the Hindutva mob who stole Rs 4 lakh from his cash box. They looted everything and threw it in the river. He blamed Darshan Bharti, the Hindutva leader who led the Uttarkashi rally against the mosque. “I still get shivers recalling that incident…”

Hassan filed a plea in the Uttarakhand High Court asking for protection. Despite the court ordering the SSP to ensure that no untoward incident took place against any community, none of the Muslims felt safe enough to return. Hassan re-opened his shop, only to find that nobody was willing to support or even talk to him, as if he was a criminal.

At present, Hassan is the lone Muslim living in Nanda Ghat. This is a sad commentary on our times.

If you need any further indication of Dhami’s communally led agenda, consider the passing of the Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand Act, 2024, the enactment of the Freedom of Religion and Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion (Amendment) Bill, and the Minority Educational Institutions Bill, 2025 which dissolves the Muslim-controlled Madrasa Education Board (where Muslims held 9 of 13 seats) and replaces it with a government body where Muslims hold only one of 12 seats.

Having failed on the governance front, Dhami is confident that his xenophobic discourse will pay electoral dividends in the assembly elections of 2027.