‘Hindutva Unsafe for Hindus Too’: Protesters On Jharkhand Lynching

“We’re turning a majority against the minority. We are here to prove that the majority is standing with minorities.”

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Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma

“What are mob lynchings? It is a way of targeting. The idea is you orchestrate mob lynchings in Haryana and Delhi so the Muslim community is petrified. So even if they want to raise their voice against the injustices, they're riddled with so much fear that they are incapable of overcoming it and raising their voice.”

Badru Hassan attended a protest in Jantar Manar on 26 June with hundreds of other people. All of them stood united against the most recent lynching of 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari who was thrashed to death on 23 June in Jharkhand.

Kamal has come for a protest for the first time in his life. In Jantar Mantar, he tells The Quint, “All I want to say is that please don’t think that because the oppression is not directed towards you, it is not your problem. When the neighbour’s house burns, it will reach your doorstep too if you do not help extinguish it.”(Photo: Aishwarya S Iyer/The Quint)

People came out to not only reject the growing environment of hate and fear but also to show their solidarity with the targeted Muslim community.

Amongst those present was 76-year-old Manish Manoja who was born in Multan, Pakistan and once stood witness to the bloodshed in the aftermath of partition. Manoja says he attended the protest cause it was a calling of his conscience. “By birth we are just human beings. Coming out and expressing solidarity is the way one can worship one’s god. This is not the way we (Hindus) should come across,” he says expressing regret.

Many gathered to voice their anger against the growing environment of hate and intolerance.(Photo: Aishwarya S Iyer/The Quint)

Yamini, a 21-year-old from Delhi, says she knows she is safe cause she is Hindu but is pained to see that others are not. “It is important to come out in solidarity. This symbolism is essential,” she says. Another protester, Ritvik Singh, all of 19 years old, is visibly agitated. “What happened in Germany, the same thing is happening in India. We are turning a majority against the minority. And we are here to prove that even the majority is ready to stand with these minorities here.”

Not only in Delhi, but the fire in Lucknow was burning strongly as well. Stressing the need to come out, a protester said, “When those who are propagating Godse's ideologies are coming forward, we will also have to come out to keep Gandhi's ideologies alive. When those who consider Manusmriti the constitution of this country are in power. Then those who believe in the Constitution should also come out and raise their voices so that the Constitution stays alive. This is why we must come out and speak.”

According to The Quint’s records, at least 95 people have been killed in mob violence across India since 2015.