Although communal clashes between Hindus and Muslims are usually not new to India, information reveal that these throughout Ram Navami processions are current and have gained steam prior to now few years alone. In truth, West Bengal had been the hotbed of such incidents prior to now 5 years.

PREMIUM

In 2023, not less than 15 separate incidents of communal clashes between Hindus and Muslims had been reported from six states — West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. Three individuals died in these separate incidents and a number of other had been injured.

Last yr, 18 incidents of communal clashes had been reported from 10 states — West Bengal, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi and Jharkhand.

The Ram Navami celebrations had been subdued in 2020 and 2021 as a result of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and there have been no main incidents of communal clashes. In 2019, a yr earlier than Covid-19, two main incidents of communal strife had been reported, one every from Asansol in West Bengal and Jodhpur in Rajasthan, in accordance with media studies. In 2018, main communal clashes happened throughout Bihar and West Bengal.

Data from state police departments exhibits sporadic incidents of communal clashes and violence throughout Ram Navami processions earlier than 2018 — in 1993, 17 individuals had been killed in the course of the non secular procession in Karnataka’s Bhatkal city, and in 1991, some homes had been burnt in Bhadrak, Odisha.

This yr in West Bengal, communal incidents associated to Ram Navami had been reported from Howrah, North Dinajpur and Rishra in Hooghly district, unfold over three days, wherein an individual died and a number of other others had been injured. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee accused the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of “hiring goons from outside” and orchestrating communal riots within the state, sparking a confrontation between the 2 events. She is but to go to any of the affected locations.

In Bihar, communal clashes had been reported from Bihar Sharif in Nalanda, Sasaram and Rohtas districts, which then unfold to a few extra districts, harking back to the 2018 communal violence throughout Ram Navami that occurred in eight districts over three days. So far, the police have arrested 65 individuals for the clashes and on Wednesday chief minister Nitish Kumar mentioned he’ll expose who’s behind the incidents in a couple of days.

A hanging similarity between the incidents within the two neighbouring non-BJP dominated states was that each states additionally witnessed clashes in 2018 – the yr earlier than the 2019 common elections. The subsequent common elections are set to happen in 2024. “You can easily see a pattern,” mentioned a TMC member of Parliament requesting anonymity.

Kolkata-based political science professor Udayan Bandopadhyay mentioned: “These (Ram Navami violence) incidents are results of incitements from Hindu outfits helping the BJP. The BJP wants to gain ground through polarisation before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The rise in vote share of the Left and Congress in recent elections has made things difficult for the saffron camp,” Bandopadhyay mentioned.

However, clashes had been witnessed this yr in BJP-ruled states, too.

Communal violence in Maharashtra that began in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar district (earlier Aurangabad) and Malad in Mumbai on Ram Navami day (March 30) continued until Wednesday (April 5) with one other incident reported from Ahmednagar. Several minor clashes have been reported from another locations within the state corresponding to Jalgaon and Mumbai. In 2022, communal violence throughout Ram Navami was reported from Amaravati district.

In Gujarat, two incidents of stone pelting on Ram Navami processions had been reported from Vadodara wherein some individuals had been injured. There was pressure in state’s Gir Somnath district after a political activist Kajal Hindustani reportedly made a hate speech in opposition to a minority group.

In Hyderabad, BJP chief T Raja Singh was booked for making derogatory speech throughout a Ram Navami procession and in Jharkhand, a minor conflict erupted between two communities was reported from Sahibganj district on April 1, wherein some automobiles and outlets had been broken. In Uttar Pradesh, a conflict between two teams was reported from in Lucknow district; nobody was injured.

The anatomy of a riot

“In most cases, the procession gets bigger by the time it reaches close to a minority dominated area and it becomes very difficult to control the huge rowdy mob. They divert the route to reach a minority religious place where sloganeering against a community starts and playing of loud religious music on a DJ takes place. Then, there is stone throwing from some homes and the riot starts,” defined a West Bengal police officer who has seen a spree of communal incidents within the state since 2018, when the primary main communal violence incidents throughout Ram Navami procession happened throughout six districts.

Arup Chakravorty, retired professor of History, Lucknow University, mentioned that communal pressure in Ram Navami processions is current and it began with the procession turning right into a weapon show present. “I feel Ram Navmi processions are a comparatively current improvement, going again to no more than 15 to twenty years at finest. Before that we hadn’t heard of such huge Ram Navmi processions with loud music and all,” he mentioned.

India has an extended historical past of communal riots throughout non secular processions from Solapur in Maharashtra in 1967 to Bhiwandi, Jalgaon and Mahad in Maharashtra in 1970 to Jamshedpur in 1979 to Kota in Rajasthan and Bhagalpur in Bihar in 1989.

The purpose for violence throughout these processions was related to what’s being seen in Ram Navami processions today. Different inquiry commissions constituted after every of those riots discovered that non secular processions had been taken by means of Muslim dominated areas and “provocative” speeches had been made, leading to a conflict and deaths.

While most of those incidents might be thought of as one-off incidents, the Ram Navami processions bought a significant enhance when in 1987 the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliate teams began organising the large processions throughout Indian cities. “During these processions swords were carried as display weapons,” Chakravorty mentioned.

Many locations, the place communal clashes had been reported throughout Ram Navami prior to now two years, have a historical past of communal clashes. For occasion, Bihar Sharif in Nalanda district that was rocked with communal strife on this Ram Navami, was additionally the focus of communal clashes in 1946, a yr earlier than Independence, wherein shut to eight,000 individuals had been killed.

Howrah district, the place on March 30, there was a communal conflict throughout a procession organised by Vishwa Hindu Parishad on the time of breaking Ramzan quick, had reported communal clashes throughout partition after Independence in 1947. Sambhaji Nagar, has a historical past of communal riots, the place violence was reported after demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya by Hindu teams in 1992.