– Uzma Ausaf
On February 14, the court was going to hear the petition regarding the legality or otherwise of the Haldwani madrasa or masjid. The madrasa authorities were confident of obtaining a stay on the basis of the documents they allegedly possessed with respect to ownership of the Islamic seminary. However, the local municipal authorities were in no mood to wait for the court’s judgement. Less than a week before the case was to come up for hearing in the court, the authorities swooped down on the madrasa, demolishing it. In the exercise, five innocent people lost their lives while hundreds were injured. The police action was not only illegal but it also left hundreds of children and adults under an open sky in the chill of north India. The move sent shivers down the spine of local Muslims who seem to be at the receiving end in the state of Uttarakhand.
This was not the first time that Haldwani residents were faced with prospects of displacement and dislocation. A little over a summer ago, the Uttarakhand government had made an attempt to uproot tens of thousands of residents of Haldwani, alleging they were squatting on the railways land. The residents came out to protest in huge numbers. They showed papers of the ownership of their mosques, schools, hospitals and even private houses. The Haldwani residents heaved a sigh of relief when the court halted the attempts to uproot them and provided a stay on the proceedings.
Unfortunately, the trials of the Muslim residents of Uttarakhand did not end with the Haldwani incident. In last June Muslim residents of Purola were subjected to harassment and calls for expulsion from the state. Muslim shops were marked with a cross as were several Muslim houses in the township. Posters were pasted on shops of Muslims by a little-known Hindu body called the Dev Bhoomi Raksha Abhiyan.
The body had earlier led a huge rally in Purola alleging that incidents of Love Jihad were on the rise in the state. As usual the Hindu outfit did not share any figures for the so-called Love Jihad in the region. Its sole point of concern was the kidnapping of a Hindu girl by two men, one of whom was a Muslim. At that time the Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami not only instructed the police to take stern action in any case of Love-Jihad but also read a conspiracy behind it. Showing a finger of suspicion towards migrants in the state, he asked the police to conduct a verification drive.
Around the same time, Hindu Yuva Vahini served ultimatums to local Muslims to vacate their shops. Many Muslims who have lived here for generations, left the township out of fear as the Hindu bodies insisted on claiming that Uttarakhand was a Dev Bhoomi where there was no space for Muslims. However, many Muslims came back home after a few days. Unfortunately, they were not allowed Eid Namaz in the local masjid. Many were not allowed to have Eid Namaz even at home in a group. Many Muslims were pushed out of Purola township into the forest where they could offer prayers with the local Gujjar community.
However, the administration insisted that the festival was celebrated in peace and harmony. The police claimed that the local Muslims themselves decided not to offer namaz by jamaat though they were offered police protection. Amidst all the tension no action was taken against the Hindu bodies which forced the migration of Uttarakhand Muslims nor was any action taken against the Vishwa Hindu Parishad personnel who had made namaz by jamaat almost impossible. It was their rule which worked at the ground level. The administration and police appeared helpless onlookers.
Even as Haldwani was burning, the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly decided to pass the Uniform Civil Code Bill. Under the new laws, no marriage can be solemnized if one of the partners has a living spouse at that time. Yet again no figure was shared. It was based on the assumption that Muslim men have multiple wives. Interestingly the Schedule Tribes were left out of the UCC and laws related to Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) remained untouched. How far was the code universal in the absence of the majority community, nobody bothered to answer.
While the Haldwani madrasa and masjid are the latest target of Hindutva forces, it is important to remember that it is part of a long chain where Muslims are sought to be expelled from the state. A new lie of the state being a Dev Bhoomi where Muslims are pollutants is being spread. The idea is to take yet another step towards Hindu Rashtra. Considering the Central government has not intervened nor has the courts taken suo moto cognizance of the whole affairs, the future does not dim for Muslims in the state.
