Hindu Group Burns Crops, Demands Eviction of Muslim Tribe, Himachal Govt Obliges

Muslim Gujjars is a scheduled tribe that is legally protected from eviction from traditional forest land.

In Himachal Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has, on the urging of Hindu fundamentalists from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), who have reportedly burnt crops and fodder sheds of Gujjar Muslims living in Indora in Kangra district, served eviction notices on Muslims and taken no action against the Hindu attackers, Article 14 reported.

Muslim Gujjars is a scheduled tribe that is legally and constitutionally protected from eviction from their traditional forest land.

Despite the fact that the Gujjars have been living on the land for over 20 years, with land deeds provided by the state administration, the VHP has alleged the age-old bogey of ‘land jihad’, a claim which was recently also used to protest against Friday namaz in Gurgaon.

Though the local administration has refuted the VHP’s allegations, they have begun investigating the Gujjars and issuing eviction notices anyway.

The issue gained momentum after the VHP discovered a dead cow on 9 December 2021 near a village called Surdwan in Indora tehsil.

KC Sharma, Kangra’s superintendent of police, was quoted as saying, “The postmortem report has clarified that the cow died a natural death…The injuries could be due to predators or other wild animals.”

However, the VHP has continued to demand the eviction of Gujjars from the area.

Indora VHP leader Sunil Dutt told Article 14, “Even if the cow died of natural causes, the external injuries have been caused by Muslims…Muslims want to disrupt the peace and harmony of the area and should be sent out.”

Instead of controlling or preventing the attacks on Muslims, the administration promised the VHP that their officials would investigate if the Gujjars were living in Indora illegally and would be evicted if they were.

Kangra’s superintendent of police was quoted as saying,

“This is to pacify all the Hindus of the area. We did not want any big riots in Indora. So, to maintain peace, it was necessary.”

The police also filed cases of encroachment against the Gujjars. An investigation was underway, said Sharma.

After investigations into ownership of land began, eviction notices were served on 83 families, about half of them Gujjar. The rest were mostly Hindu tribals called Gaddi.

But these notices were served in violation of India’s Constitution and forest law, which confers residential rights on scheduled tribes living on forest land or grasslands or “waste land” designated as forest, Article 14 reported.

Meanwhile, the VHP has claimed that the land was meant for cow grazing and cow shelters. They have added that once the Gujjars are evicted, they would set up a cow shelter.

(With inputs from Article 14.)