Discordant notes
Listen to excerpts from Outlook's Islamophobia issue,by Pragya Vats
#outlookmagazine #muslims #islamophobia
#outlookmagazine #muslims #islamophobia
Transcript
00:00 This is Pragya and I bring to you excerpts from current issue of Outlook on Islamophobia.
00:05 Discordant notes by Muhammad Asghar Khan from Outlook.
00:09 Clashes on festivals like Ram Navami sharpen the divide between Hindus and Muslims in Jharkhand.
00:15 He writes,
00:16 Abdul Zafarullah Sadiq, 38, has been the president of the committee of a mosque in Hazaribag in Jharkhand for the last 15 years.
00:24 He is well acquainted with most of the lanes of the city.
00:27 For him, it has been a matter of pride that though the mosque is situated in the Nawabganj area of the city, the name of the mosque is Indrapuri.
00:35 This shows our diversity. However, things have changed in the recent past, he says.
00:40 Over the years, Hazaribag has witnessed many incidents of violence between Hindus and Muslims, according to Sadiq,
00:48 while reconciliation between the two communities after episodes of communal tension was a norm earlier,
00:54 after the recent incidents, the animosity has spilled over to other aspects of everyday life, affecting personal equations and businesses too.
01:03 He is particularly upset about the vandalism at the Indrapuri mosque in April during the Ram Navami procession.
01:09 At 5 am on April 1st, people participating in the procession broke open the gates of the mosque.
01:15 The glass outside was broken, stones were pelted and slogans were raised.
01:19 And all this happened in the presence of the police, Sadiq says.
01:23 This is the first time this mosque was attacked.
01:26 There is a temple right opposite to the mosque, but there was no tension ever, he says.
01:31 In the lane next to Indrapuri mosque, there are small shops owned by a Hindu businessman.
01:36 Nine were rented by Muslims, which have been vacated after the incident.
01:40 I had never imagined something like this would happen, says Sadiq.
01:44 On Ram Navami, clashes were reported from three districts of Jharkhand, including Hazaribag.
01:49 It is the only district in the state where the procession goes on for 72 hours.
01:54 It passes through several Muslim localities, which leads to tension, say locals.
01:58 Such clashes between the two communities are unfortunate.
02:02 For years, people from all religions have participated in the procession.
02:06 In fact, it was in Hazaribag that the tradition of Ram Navami procession started way back in 1925, says Sanjay Krishna, a senior journalist and writer.
02:15 Incidents of violence were also reported from Jamshedpur.
02:18 The two communities clashed twice in 10 days.
02:21 10 km away, in Haldipokhar, stones were pelted and incidents of arson were reported on April 8.
02:28 Jamshedpur Baig Shahrikhan says, "There have been several such small instances before,
02:33 but the April 8 incident has widened the gap between the two communities.
02:37 People are avoiding meeting each other or buying things from each other's shops.
02:41 Though the situation is normal now, it seems as if it will be difficult to bridge this gap ever."
02:47 What happened in April was not an aberration.
02:49 The state has been witnessing violence on Ram Navami for decades.
02:53 In 1967, a massive violence in Ranchi spilled over to other districts.
02:58 According to the report of Raghubar Dayal Commission, 180 people died in the incident.
03:03 The actual number could be higher than the official one, say locals.
03:07 In the 1979 Jamshedpur riots during Ram Navami, 108 people lost their lives.
03:13 A fact-checker report of 2019 says that in the last decade,
03:18 there have been 14 incidents of religious violence in the state, in which 9 people have died.
03:23 For this and more, read the current issue of The Outlook.