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Cameraperson: Shiv Kumar Maurya
Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam
Muneefa Khatoon, 56, had spent the last many months getting her decades’ old home in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani renovated for her son’s imminent wedding. Her son was scheduled to get married in April, after Eid. Khatoon, a widow, had warned her children against elaborate expenditure on the renovation. “They said a home isn’t renovated every day. This is a once in a lifetime expense, so we should go all out,” Khatoon recalls. Now, in February, two months before the wedding, Khatoon finds herself sitting amid shards of broken glass. The new appliances and furnishing she had gotten done just recently, all crushed to dust.
On 14 February, about a week after the demolition of a madrasa and mosque which stood right opposite Khatoon’s home, she decided to step out to buy some vegetables and visit a neighbor. “Things were still tense but the curfew began to be lifted, and I needed vegetables now.” After buying vegetables, Khatoon went to her neighbor’s place. From her neighbor’s terrace, Khatoon alleges she saw police officers barge into her residence and vandalise it. By the time Khatoon rushed back, her home was in an unrecognisable state.
The madarasa and masjid that once stood right in front of Muneefa’s residence have been replaced by a police chowki, and the demolition has left not just destruction but also regret in its wake.
Years ago, Khatoon’s family had an option of selling this home— located in central Haldwani —at a good price. Her children had settled in Haryana, so they didn’t need to keep this home. All the children were in favor of this, but Khatoon, who was born and brought up in Haldwani, resisted.
Khatoon’s sense of angst, frustration and hopelessness isn’t unique to her. In the last few years, Uttarakhand has seen a steep rise in incidents of violence against minorities, demolition of mosques and shrines (or mazars), economic boycotts of Muslims, and a forced mass exodus of members of the Muslim community from certain areas. While similar incidents can be seen in other states too, what sets Uttarakhand apart are attempts to legitimise these as part of the movement to “protect” and “cleanse” the ‘Devbhoomi’ (holy land).
The Quint traveled across Uttarakhand, to document how such repeated pleas in favor of the ‘Devbhoomi’ are effectively means to cement the conception of the state as an exclusive Hindu-only land.
A few feet away from Muneefa’s home, in Haldwani’s Banbhoolpura area, another woman alleges the police barged into their residence and created havoc.
The Uttarakhand police have denied the allegations of misbehaviour with women in the aftermath of the Haldwani riots.
The madrasa and masjid were demolished late evening on 8 February, following which protests ensued. The authorities imposed a curfew and gave shoot-at-sight orders. Six people were killed that evening, among whom were 43-year-old Zahid and his 17-year-old son Anas.
Mumtaz Begum, Zahid’s mother-in-law heard about the situation worsening in the city, after the demolition of the masjid and madrasa. She called up Zahid and asked him to return home soon, as he did. After returning, though, he decided to fetch some milk for his 1-year-old granddaughter, before all the shops shut down. Minutes after Zahid stepped out to buy milk, gunshots began blazing relentlessly. His son, Anas, also returned home around the same time.
The police and authorities subsequently labelled the 6 who had died as ‘rioters’. “They are not rioters. They are martyrs. It doesn’t matter what anyone says. If someone is stepping out of their home out of compulsion, does it make them rioters? And if you think they are rioters, arrest and punish them,” says Begum, who has lived in Haldwani all her life. She says she has never witnessed anything of this sort.
In December 2021, an assortment of Hindu religious leaders and Hindutva activists came together in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar for a 3-day event called the ‘dharma sansad’ or ‘religious parliament’ where explicit calls to pick up arms against Muslims were made.
“Either be prepared to die or be prepared to kill, there is no other option. Uttarakhand’s police, politicians... every Hindu here has to pick up arms and participate in this cleansing. There is no other option,” said Swami Prabodhanand Giri, one of the Hindu leader at the event.
This was followed up later by another statement of Giri’s,where he spoke specifically about the Devbhoomi of Uttarakhand.
Such assertions of needing to ‘protect’ the Devbhoomi have frequently led to ordinary Muslims becoming the victims of subjugation and economic boycotts. For instance, in May 2023, when two men Jitendra and Ubaid allegedly attempted to abduct a minor Hindu girl in Purola, a rumour of ‘love jihad’ was manufactured— even though one of the kidnappers was Hindu. Members of the Muslim community were targeted with explicit boycott posters and Nazi-like black markings painted on their shops. Many muslim residents, who had lived in Purola for generations, had to flee their homes.
A month later, in June 2023, in Haldwani’s Kamaluaganja a Muslim carpenter Nafees was beaten, paraded and had his head shaved by locals after a rumour spread that he had allegedly raped a cow. Right-wing portals circulated this news even as locals said that all this was a false rumour spread by his employer over an argument over his unpaid salary.
Regardless, Muslim shopkeepers in the area, who had nothing to do with Nafees’ case were harassed and forced out. Some Hindu landlords stepped in to safeguard the Muslim tenants.
The Quint visited Kamaluaganja in February 2024, over 7 months after the incident, where Muslims still live in a state of uncertainty and terror.
A decades’ old salon run by Farzand Ali was made a target in the violence which ensued after the Nafees incident. Ali’s salon has still not fully recovered from the vandalism.
“Only Muslim shops were targeted,” says Farzand, recalling the incident. Many other Muslim shopkeepers who were forced to temporarily shut shop during the incident are still too scared to speak on camera. One of them, a Muslim carpenter, says that it has “become the norm” for him and other Muslims in the area to face the ire “whenever something untoward happens.”
Earlier in May 2023, a simple wedding card had caused a whirlwind across Uttarakhand and the country. It was the wedding card of the daughter of Yashpal Benam, BJP leader and Pauri municipal chairman.
His daughter was set to marry a Muslim man of her choice. After backlash and pressure from hindutva organisations, Benam had to cancel the wedding. “I think getting the marriage done now won’t be right. All our local organisations have also protested against this,” Benam said in a video statement he released at the time.
One of the people who was credited for enforcing pressure via protests against the BJP leader to cancel the wedding was Darshan Bharti, who was also part of the Haridwar Dharma Sansad. He runs an organisation called the ‘Devbhoomi Raksha Abhiyan’.
As per the Devbhoomi Raksha Abhiyan’s website, the mission of the organisation is to thwart any attempt to hurt the devbhoomi’s culture, religion, and values. The mission also speaks against Halal food certification, “land jihad” and religious conversion.
The Quint spoke to Prerna, the media in-charge of the Devbhoomi Raksha Abhiyan.
The term ‘Devbhoomi’ frequently comes up even in casual conversations with residents of Uttarakhand. But what is the Devbhoomi and why is it in need of reinstatement? And what does it need to be protected from?
The term ‘Devbhhoomi’ literally translates to ‘holy land’ and refers to the innumerable temples in Uttarakhand. But temples aren’t unique to the state.
Besides ‘Devbhoomi’, the other term that is often heard in reference to Uttarakhand, is the ‘chaar dhaam’.
Uttarakhand is replete with many important temples with people’s sentiments particularly linked to Haridwar. In June 2023 this video of a man yelling at a Muslim family to go away from the Ganga ghat went viral. “Only Hindus can come here. No one else. Out. Get out. Out. You too, get out,” he can be heard saying aggressively in the video.
Back in 2015, Yogi Adityanath, who is now the UP CM, had demanded that non-Hindus be banned from the Har Ki Pauri — a famous Ganga ghat—in Haridwar. Further back in 2006, then UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav had courted controversy after organising an Iftar on the banks of Ganga in Haridwar.
Every few months, a video of Radha Semwal Dhoni, a right-wing nationalist based in Uttarakhand goes viral. If she is not harassing Muslim vendors, she is demolishing mazars.
But the campaign against encroachment of mazars or shrines has primarily been led by the Chief Minister himself, Pushkar Dhami.
As of May 2023, the Uttarakhand government had demolished 440 shrines and 45 temples, as part of its anti-encroachment drive. The Nathan Peer Baba mazar, in Tarai Western forest division near Ramnagar, was one of them.
Liyaqat Hussain, caretaker of the mazar, still frequently visits the site where the mazar once stood.
The vibrant decades’ old site is nothing but barren land now.
Besides the mazar, which would see people of all faiths visit as worshipers, the authorites also demolished the many graves next to the shrine. It is primarily the Van Gujjars or those communities who live and survive in the jungles who had buried their dead next to the mazar. Like Khatoon Bibi, whose family has been living here for generations.
Incidentally, not too far from the demolished mazar is a temple called the Sati mandir, next to which the priest of the temple Shiv Shankar Sharma resides with his family. He says around the time the mazar was demolished, the authorities came knocking on his door too. But while the mazar was demolished, the temple wasn’t.
“They came here as well. They said this is built on the jungle’s land. But (we told them) that the highway is now close to our temple but earlier wasn’t. Moreover, this land belonged to the Buksa tribespeople, it didn’t belong to the government,” says Sharma.
On the highway running parallel to the Sati mandir and the demolished Nathan Peer Baba mazar are multiple such banners, featuring PM Modi and CM Dhami, informing the public of their temple development programmes.
In Ramnagar city, another centuries’ old mazar that was demolished in 2023 was the Thapli Baba Mazar. Most of its visitors too were Hindus who live nearby.
“Earlier the mazar could be seen from far away, on top of that hill, and now the land has been cleared completely,” says Nawab Ali, son of the mazar’s caretaker.
Despite the syncretic following of these mazars, the devbhoomi concept has found many takers among ordinary folk.
“Other people used to go, so I also went a few times (to the mazar). It has nothing to do with belief. I believe in Sanatana dharma. I am Hindu so I will worship Hindus,” says GD Pandey, another Ramnagar resident who also lives close to the demolished mazar.
On further probing, he accepts that “others who come here to work” are acceptable. These ‘others’ include people who come to work as mechanics or labourers. “If I want to get my house made, people of other communities will come, I don’t know how to do this. Similarly, the job of a mechanic. People from outside come and do these chores,” he says.
Kamala Devi and Devki Devi are two friends, both in their 50s. While Kamala lives in a Muslim-majority neighborhood, Devki doesn’t.
“In our entire colony, there are only Muslims. I am the only Hindu living among them. But to date I haven’t faced a single problem. So how can I say Muslims are bad,” says Kamala. However, Devki says that tomorrow if there is a movement to make Uttarakhand a Hindu-only land, she will support it. “Why won’t I support the Hindus? Hindus and Muslims are different, why won’t I go with the Hindus,” says Devki.
Kamala, who was so far defending her Muslim neighbors, is quick to agree with Devki.
Uttarakhand emerged as a separate state in the year 2000 after several activists fought for the Uttarakhand movement, which wasn’t a demand for a devbhoomi hindu state, but was primarily an anti-reservation movement. Prabhat Dhyani was one of the members of the movement.
“In 1994, this movement caught steam. The primary reason behind it was to protest against the OBC reservation brought by then UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav. 42 people lost their lives in the Uttarakhand movement. People of all faiths were martyred in the movement. It includes a Salim and it also includes Sikh members as well as women. So people of all community sacrificed themselves for this movement,” says Dhyani.
While the genesis of the demand for Uttarakhand statehood wasn’t communal, gradually the state is being used as a ‘laboratory’ or ‘model state’, says Dhyani.
There are also devout Hindu believers who are strongly against the idea of a Hindu-only Devbhoomi.
Deep Chand Pandey, a grocery store owner in Haldwani, says he is staunchly against the idea of a Hindu-only state. A practicing Hindu, Pandey says he is against “ostentatious display of faith.”
Pandey adds that "God should be in your heart. There is no point in doing this show-off."
In February 2024, months before the Lok Sabha elections, Uttarakhand became the first state to pass the Uniform Civil Code law.
“They though the society will praise them for bringing UCC. But most people have given a cold reaction. We have been seeing across the country how people are being divided in Lord Ram’s name and we are seeing the same in Uttarakhand,” says Munish Bhatnagar, a civil society activist in Uttarakhand.
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