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India School Hijab Ban: Majority of Hindu Women Also Cover Their Heads
Is the ban on hijab in colleges in the southern Indian state of Karnataka motivated by Islamophobia? Is it part of the ruling BJP party's campaign against 200 million Indian Muslims? Results of a Pew Survey help clarify the answer to these questions: Six in ten Indian women, including Hindu women, cover their heads.
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| Head Covering By Religions in India. Source: Pew |
The survey found that a majority of Hindu women (59%), and roughly equal shares of Muslim (89%) and Sikh women (86%), wear head coverings when they go out of their homes. It was conducted in 2019-20, well before the current hijab row in Karnataka, and republished recently.
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| Regional Differences in Head Coverings in India. Source: Pew |
The Indian practice of head covering is much more common in the North than in the South. It is especially common in the largely Hindi-speaking regions in the Northern, Central and Eastern parts of the country. In the states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, roughly nine-in-ten women say they wear head coverings in public.
In the South, 83% of Muslim women say they cover their heads, compared with 22% of Hindu women. In the Northern region, meanwhile, roughly equal shares of Muslim (85%) and Hindu (82%) women say they cover their heads in public.
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| Hijab-wearing Muslim Girls Refused Entry in Karnataka Schools. Sour... |
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu Nationalist BJP party's entire politics revolves around hatred of Muslims and other religious minorities in India. The BJP currently rules Karnataka which has seen a rise in activities of Hindutva groups and the targeting of the state’s religious minorities, mainly Muslims and Christians.
“We have been wearing hijab for years without any problem but now, the issue has been suddenly taken up by the BJP and Hindutva groups to rake up communal tensions,” Kaneez Fatima, a Congress member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, told Al Jazeera, referring to the Hindu far-right groups.
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Comment by Riaz Haq on May 11, 2022 at 1:58pm
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#Muslim girls in #India are missing out on #education as they fight classroom #hijab ban. #Islamophobia #Hindutva #BJP #Modi #Karnataka https://www.npr.org/2022/05/11/1098368173/muslim-girls-in-india-are...
When her high school banned the hijab, Ayesha Shifa sued — and her case went to India's Supreme Court. A verdict, expected soon, may redefine what secularism means in the world's largest democracy.
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‘The Kashmir Files is a propaganda movie’: Former R&AW chief A.S Dulat
https://muslimmirror.com/eng/the-kashmir-files-is-a-propaganda-movi...
Former R&AW chief A.S. Dulat, while commenting on the recently released Vivek Agnihotri directorial film, The Kashmir Files, has said that he doesn’t intend to watch it.
“I don’t see propaganda. And it is a propaganda movie,” he said.
“Many Pandits who chose to stay behind were protected by Muslims in 1990s. Many Kashmiri Pandit families did stay back. Even after the abrogation of Article 370, the Pandits have not been targeted,” Dulat said.
When asked about Jagmohan, the governor of Jammu and Kashmir, he said that when he was governor from August 1989 to January 1990, the situation had changed dramatically by the time he returned.
“The Kashmir that he came back to after four or five months, it was totally different from the Kashmir he had left. He was quite shaken himself,” he said.
“When these killings started, he didn’t want the pandits to bear the brunt of it. So once they started leaving, he was quite happy,” Dulat implied that Jagmohan was relieved when the Kashmiri Pandit migration from Kashmir began.
“It was a natural reaction. If they are leaving, ‘Good.’ There was no way that we could provide any protection to them because things were so bad,” he added.
The pandit migration began soon after the 1990 killings, according to Dulat. Rich KPs travelled to Delhi, while those who had nowhere else to go sought refuge in Jammu’s camps. Dulat also said that Kashmiri Muslims who could afford it left for locations like Delhi. They returned when things seemed to be improving.
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'The Kashmir Files': Hate - the Right Language For Our Story?
A Kashmiri Pandit responds to the film 'The Kashmir Files'.
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Sidhu #MooseWala: The murdered #Indian rapper who 'made sense of chaos'. He delivered a biting commentary on the shrinking scope for dissent in #India. "There will be a debate in the name of religions. If you speak the truth, you will get 295 (section)" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-61629133
Fans say that Moose Wala was merely confronting the dark truths about modern life and holding up a mirror to society. "He was just making sense of the chaos, whether it was corruption, violence or the gun problem in Punjab," one fan said. "And that contribution in itself is valuable."
Moose Wala's music has meant different things to different people. Some say they admired him for the "courage and I-don't-care attitude" that was evident in his songs. Others liked the way he added English words to his Punjabi songs, which gave it a contemporary sheen.
"His simple and colloquial style of writing made it easy to understand for his audiences. Also, we loved the way he answered his critics through his songs," 27-year-old Niyamat Singh, one of his fans, told BBC Punjabi.
Mr Singh is particularly fond of the track 295, in which the singer delivers a strong-worded commentary on the shrinking scope for dissent in the country. The song's title is a reference to Section 295 of the Indian Penal Code which deals with "injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class".
"Every day there will be controversy with someone or the other. There will be a debate in the name of religions. If you speak the truth, you will get 295 (section) And if the son progresses, he will get hate," Moose Wala sings in the track.
Mr Singh told BBC Punjabi that he loves the way the singer "says what it is".
Ms Sethi remembers a concert Moose Wala did at an upmarket Delhi hotel a few months ago. "People from every walk of life came to see him perform. The excitement was so high that people were willing to pay extra money just to get a glimpse of him," she says.
Fans also credit him for baptising hip-hop - which until recently clung to the fringes of popular culture in South Asia - as a mainstream genre. His songs were hugely popular not just in India but across the subcontinent, and especially among the Punjabi speaking population in Pakistan.
In 2021, he decided to enter politics. He contested elections as a candidate for India's principal opposition, the Congress party, in the 2022 Punjab assembly elections. Although he lost, his popularity as a "people's leader" continued to grow. He was especially invested in the betterment of his village. "That is why I chose to be known not by my name but by that of my village," he would tell people during his political rallies.
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#Hindu #Nationalism Threatens #India’s Rise as a Nation. It’s not smart #geopolitics to have officers of the leading party ridiculing the religion of the country’s key #trading and #strategic partners. #Hindutva #Modi #BJP #Islamophobia #ProphetMuhammad https://www.wsj.com/articles/hindu-nationalism-threatens-india-nati...
For starters, Ms. Sharma and Mr. Jindal are hardly champions of Enlightenment values. BJP state governments routinely arrest people for insulting Hindu sentiments, and many party supporters cheer these arrests. Last week, while releasing a report on international religious freedom, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called out India for “rising attacks on people and places of worship.”
But even if the BJP were a good steward of free speech—rather than selectively intolerant—India would still face the stark reality that it can’t afford to antagonize the Muslim world. For starters, about two-thirds of Indian citizens abroad—8.9 million of 13.6 million people—live in the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain. According to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, in recent years GCC countries have accounted for more than half of India’s roughly $87 billion in remittances.
The Gulf is also among India’s largest trading partners. Last year, two-way trade with the six GCC countries was $87.4 billion, which is more than India’s bilateral trade with the European Union or Southeast Asian countries. The Middle East supplies more than half of India’s oil and gas imports.
New Delhi also has close strategic relationships with some of these countries. As India has grown closer to the U.S. in recent years, it has also stepped up cooperation with such American allies as Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. The Saudi government has extradited terrorism suspects to India. In 2019 the U.A.E. bestowed its highest civilian award on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Four years ago, Oman, with which India has close strategic ties dating back to British rule, granted the Indian navy access to one of its ports. This gives India a foothold in a region where China has made inroads with its Belt and Road Initiative.
All this means that even if it were not hypocritical for BJP supporters to lambast penalizing Ms. Sharma and Mr. Jindal, it would be foolish for ruling party officials to insult revered Islamic religious figures. Hard-line Hindu nationalists may hate the idea of India’s kowtowing to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but Mr. Modi knows better than to pick a fight that he can’t win.
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REPORT OF THE PANEL OF INDEPENDENT
INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS TO EXAMINE INFORMATION ABOUT ALLEGED VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMITTED AGAINST MUSLIMS IN INDIA SINCE JULY 2019
S O N J A B I S E R K O
M A R Z U K I D A R U S M A N
S T E P H E N R A P P
https://www.ufs.ac.za/docs/librariesprovider21/default-document-lib...The report makes compelling reading and highlights significant areas of discrimination targeted
against Muslim Indians.
The scale and pattern of human rights violations against Muslims across India since mid- 2019
are alarming. The acts of physical violence perpetrated on Muslims, including by state actors, combined with anti-Muslim hate speech and incitement disseminated through several platforms
in the country, pose a serious threat to the survival of the religious minority. As noted in the report, in some cases, particularly in the state of Uttar Pradesh and in the Jammu
and Kashmir region, the alleged violations have potentially reached the threshold of crimes
under international law.
At the same time, it is also evident that such violations are not isolated region-specific incidents, as they appear to be unfolding rather systematically in much of the country indicating likely
further deterioration of the situation.
It is particularly concerning that Muslim women and girls have been subjected to threats and
acts of sexual violence, while some of them have been deprived of education for choosing to
manifest their religious identity. It is clear from the report that underpinning the acts of
violence is also an attempt by the authorities to undermine the equal rights of Muslims
guaranteed by the Indian constitution to all its citizens. The Citizenship Amendment Act, its
nexus with the National Register of Citizens in Assam, and other discriminatory laws and policies
being rolled out across India, in effect, downgrade Muslims as a separate category. They
normalise unequal treatment, enable further exclusion, stigmatisation and violence against this
group, thus creating the grounds for mass atrocity crimes against the targeted Muslim
community.
It is unacceptable that the authorities use the legal framework, including counter- terrorism and
national security laws to clamp down on civil society and silence human rights defenders who
speak out on behalf of the minority community. Administrative detentions, denial of citizenship, bad-faith prosecutions, withdrawal of licences, and threats and reprisals against human rights
groups, human rights defenders and activists and journalists, all have a direct impact on the
safety and protections available to targeted communities. This widespread attack on basic
freedoms and the shrinking civic space, bring shame to a once proud democracy.
The report notes that the situation risks deterioration because of the absence of an
accountability framework. The Indian legal system provides a wide range of laws and institutions
that are designed to combat religious discrimination. However, the Panel found sufficient
grounds to conclude that the ideological and religious prejudices of the current government
appear to be permeating all independent institutions, resulting in the lack of effective and
adequate accountability initiatives.
At the international level, despite India's commitment to the contrary, it has neither acceded to
the individual complaints mechanisms nor is it a state party to the Rome statute of the
International Criminal Court. The report also highlights that India's engagement with the Treaty
bodies and independent mandate holders has been passive and inadequate. As a consequence,
the current milieu does not provide victims of systematic human rights violations any avenues
to seek relief and remedies.
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REPORT OF THE PANEL OF INDEPENDENT
INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS TO EXAMINE INFORMATION ABOUT ALLEGED VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMITTED AGAINST MUSLIMS IN INDIA SINCE JULY 2019
S O N J A B I S E R K O
M A R Z U K I D A R U S M A N
S T E P H E N R A P P
https://www.ufs.ac.za/docs/librariesprovider21/default-document-lib...
I endorse the two goals emphasised in the report, namely, accountability for past crimes and
prevention of future atrocity crimes. The report makes a timely call to the international
community to act on the early-warning signs emerging in India by invoking the wide range of
measures at their disposal to protect the rights of the Muslim minority.
I reaffirm the recommendations made by the expert Panel members, not only to India and its
public institutions but also to the UN Human Rights Council as well as the wider UN system. I
hope that international values and the responsibility to protect will prevail over political
considerations and that the international community will deliver on its promise of " Never again"
to gross human rights violations. Ultimately, however, it is the Indian leaders and the country's
independent institutions that must rise to the occasion, recommit themselves to the inclusive
values of the Indian constitution, and defend and protect all Indians equally.
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The rise and rise of anti-#Muslim #hate music in #India. The lyrics are abusive or threatening. They are usually based on the premise that #Hindus have suffered for centuries at the hands of Muslims - & now it's payback time. #Modi #Hindutva #Islamophobia https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-62432309
Sandeep Chaturvedi, 26, is readying to record his new song in a makeshift studio in the city of Ayodhya in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The song is about a mosque that has became a subject of controversy after Hindus claimed the right to worship there. It is riddled with innuendos against Muslims. But Chaturvedi says the song could get him back in business.
Chaturvedi's songs are part of a growing trend of music on YouTube and other social media platforms where supporters of the Hindu right-wing spew venom at Muslims.
Why people get away with hate speech in India
The lyrics are abusive or threatening. They are usually based on the premise that Hindus have suffered for centuries at the hands of Muslims - and now it's payback time.
Writer and political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay says that in addition to being a source of income, such music fetches their singers some attention. But for him, this is not music. "This is a war-cry. It's as if music is being used to win a war. This is a misuse of music and this has been happening for years."
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Rana says that he gets a steady income from the videos he uploads on YouTube.
"We are bringing foreign currency to India. YouTube pays in dollars," he beams, pointing to wall-mounted YouTube Silver Play Button that shares space with images and portraits of Hindu warriors.
Ever since Rana moved on from composing devotional and romantic songs to ones with "historical" overtones, he has become a kind of star in Dadri. He has close to 400,000 subscribers on YouTube and many of his songs have been viewed millions of times.
Rana says that creating a music video costs him a mere 8,000 rupees (£84; $100). He has his own set-up to record and edit videos and a team comprising a cameraperson and an editor.
The young Indians spreading hate online
Mr Mukhopadhyay says the trend of weaponising music against minorities is reminiscent of events that have occurred in the past. He recalls the controversial foundation stone-laying programme in Ayodhya in 1989 organised by the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) which culminated in the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992.
"Just before that, an industry of audio tapes had sprung up. They contained religious songs and so-called provocative slogans related to the Ram Janmabhoomi issue [Hindus believe that Ayodhya is Lord Ram's birthplace] and these tapes used to be played in processions to mobilise people."
Three decades on, the tone has become shriller.
Compositions proclaiming "if you want to live in India, learn to say Vande Mataram ("I praise you, Mother")… and learn to live within your limits", or "thinking of Hindus as weak is the enemy's mistake" make no effort to hide who they are targeting.
These songs have also helped right-wing organisations "mobilise" their cadres.
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#Meta execs told #HumanRights groups they wouldn’t release full #India #HateSpeech study for their own security. An earlier 2020 study concluded that #Hindutva groups support violence against #Muslims, #minorities & should be banned from #Facebook https://www.wsj.com/articles/meta-officials-cite-security-concerns-... via @WSJ
Executives at Meta Platforms Inc. META 5.36%▲ privately told rights groups that security concerns prevented them from releasing details of its investigation into hate speech on its services in India, according to audio recordings heard by The Wall Street Journal.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, in July released a four-page summary of a human-rights impact assessment on India, its biggest market by users, where it has faced accusations of failing to adequately police hate speech against religious minorities. The India summary was part of the company’s first global human-rights report. The 83-page global report offers detailed findings of some previous investigations; it included only general descriptions of its India assessment, which disappointed some rights advocates.
“This is not the report that the human-rights team at Meta wanted to publish, we wanted to be able to publish more,” Iain Levine, a Meta senior human-rights adviser, said during private online briefings with rights groups in late July after the summary was released, according to the recordings.
“A decision was made at the highest levels of the company based upon both internal and external advice that it was not possible to do so for security reasons,” he said.
The company said at the time of the report’s release that it wouldn’t publish the full India assessment. It also said United Nations guidelines for companies reporting on human-rights issues caution against releasing details that could imperil stakeholders, a term that generally refers to people such as staff and external researchers involved in the reporting process.
Representatives from the rights groups contended in their meeting with Meta executives that the company wasn’t being transparent in its human-rights efforts, that it appeared not to take the undertaking seriously and that the groups had participated in good faith only to see Meta bury the findings, according to the recordings.
The fact that Meta isn’t releasing the full assessment is “a slap in my face and my people’s face who have endured so much hate speech on this platform,” said a person in the briefing who identified herself as an Indian Muslim researcher, according to the recordings. “We want a release of this report—now,” she said.
Mr. Levine and Miranda Sissons, Meta’s human-rights director, said they understood those complaints and wished they had been able to release more details, according to the recordings.
The executives said during the briefings that the effort represented an important first step in Meta addressing human-rights concerns. They said the summary was written after consulting the guidance on human-rights impact assessments for digital companies from the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
“This is the beginning of a reporting process where I think no activist, no human-rights defender of any kind would ever think that any of the work any company, or probably any entity, that is done is good enough and this team would agree,” Ms. Sissons said in one briefing, the recordings show.
Mr. Levine, who worked for more than three decades for global human-rights groups before joining Meta in 2020, told attendees of the briefings that 120 people at Meta reviewed the report, and that it was approved by president of global affairs Nick Clegg and chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead.
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In Pictures
Gallery
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Islamophobia
The Rise and Rise of Islamophobia in India
Muslims have been subjected to violence for decades, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has only made things worse.
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/4/18/history-illustrated-the...
By Danylo Hawaleshka
Published On 18 Apr 2023
18 Apr 2023
History Illustrated is a weekly series of insightful perspectives that puts news events and current affairs into an historical context using graphics generated with artificial intelligence.
Muslims in India are being targeted by vile propaganda, intense intimidation and mob violence.
For instance, Hindu nationalists in 1992 destroyed the 16th century Babri Mosque. Nationwide riots then killed about 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.
In 2002, 59 Hindu pilgrims were killed in a train fire in Gujarat state, which was blamed on Muslims.
Narendra Modi, who headed the state at that time, was accused of doing little to stop the violence.
In 2019, Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party enacted a citizenship law, seen to discriminate against Muslims.
Human Rights Watch said ensuing riots in New Delhi over that law killed 53 people, mostly Muslims, and that Hindu mobs injured over 200.
Propaganda films like The Kashmir Files demonise Muslims, a film Modi endorsed.
Today, mosques are often attacked, like the 300-year-old one in Uttar Pradesh razed for a highway.
This cycle of violence and vilification directed at a religious group is something history has seen before—and it never ends well.
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