Exporting Hate
A new export?
India exports many things, including engineering goods, petroleum products, jewelry, drugs and pharmaceuticals. Now there is one more thing it exports – communal violence. While our work to stop the forces of hate in India continues, we must take immediate and powerful steps to halt their steps to trample peace between Hindus and Muslims abroad as well.
What happened?
In the past month scenes of Hindu-Muslim violence have taken place in central UK. Violent crowds have clashed with each other, stormed neighbourhoods, threatened to attack places of worship and the police has had to break up several fights on the streets. This started in Leicester and has now spread to Smethwick, over 100 kms away. The police have arrested 47 people in Leicester. Many of them are not from the city. They came into Leicester with the sole purpose of inciting and participating in the violence.
The UK media and many local politicians have cited an India-Pakistan cricket match held on August 28 as the reason behind the violence. They allege that the whole thing started when a fight broke out in the Belgrave neighborhood of Leicester following India’s win against Pakistan. This was also accompanied by what the police has described as "racist and hateful chanting". Footage shows Indian supporters chanting anti-Pakistan slogans. The police started to investigate but no further incidents were reported.
Then on September 17, three weeks after the cricket match, around 300 Hindu men marched without permission shouting threatening slogans. A group of Muslim men then gathered and confronted them. The police issued a dispersal order. Following this, several breakout incidents across the area happened as the crowds dispersed. Also, rumors of an attack on a mosque started to appear on social media. The police issued a statement that no such attack had taken place, but the damage had already been done.
The violence then spread to Smethwick, near Birmingham. On September 21, about 200 Muslim men gathered outside a Hindu temple in the town and shouted religious slogans. The crowd threw bottles and firecrackers. Police were seen arriving in riot gear. The situation remains tense.
Rithumbara
What has not been reported widely is that a hate monger, fascist leader who calls herself “sadhvi” meaning accomplished, wise, virtuous and spiritual, was going to be in the UK in this month on a speaking tour of many temples. Rithumbara is a leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindutva extremist organization notorious for its involvement in communal hate crimes. Rithumbara has the distinction of being one of the most venomous speakers calling openly for violence against religious minorities. She is particularly ill-remembered for being a principal instigator of the Babri Mosque demolition in 1992. To quote Hindutva Watch, The Liberhan Commission set up by the Government of India to investigate the demolition of Babri Mosque declared that Rithumbara was one of the people who should be held personally responsible for leading the country “to the brink of communal discord”.
In August, Rithumbara had been invited to the United States by Hindutva organizations, including the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), which is the international wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA), the US counterpart of VHP. Her visit was widely protested by Indian American and international rights groups. However, the tour did go on. Only one event was cancelled.
Following the US tour, Rithumbara was scheduled to speak in Birmingham, Nottingham, Coventry, Ilford, and London from September 20-24. This entire tour has now been canceled. Rights groups and academics had been working hard to prevent the tour, given the history and affiliation of the speaker. There was even a campaign to bar Rithumbara from entering the UK, led by two Members of Parliament, Sam Tarry and Yasmin Qureshi. The Hindu-Muslim violence seen since the 17th has meant that those sitting on the fence and even some supporters of her tour agree that her presence would make matters worse.
It is also clear that Ritumbhara’s proposed visit added to the volatile situation that has surfaced since the 17th. The Durga Bhawan Hindu Centre (temple) in Smethwick where a violent crowd gathered on the 21st, was one of the event sites for Rithumbara’s tour, lending plausibility to the idea that some of the same people who are organizing the tour are also involved in this violence.
Rumours and Violence
It now seems clear that there was a small group of people on both sides who were able to mobilize a much bigger section of the population by spreading false information. This BBC piece leaves unanswered the question of whether the rumours were deliberate or accidental, but in either case they did a lot of damage. Some people seemed all too ready to believe stories of kidnappings and of attacks on mosques that were improbable even as the rumours were spreading and turned out not to be true.
The public disorder happened three weeks after the cricket match that was allegedly the spark that started the fire. Someone or some group of people most likely spent those three weeks preparing to not only take violent action but to spread misinformation that would suit their narrative. During that time the issue changed from a conflict between countries and sporting teams to a conflict between the Hindu community and the Muslim community.
The situation in UK is a result of constant orchestrated polarization. It is created through places of worship, support by politicians and businesses, social media and movies. It creates a volatile situation.
The question that all of us must ask ourselves is “Are we doing enough to keep our communities safe?” If someone comes around and deliberately targets our mosques, our temples, our churches not with an outright attack but with fear mongering and rumour spreading, will we fall into the trap? If there’s even a shred of doubt that you can keep your community from falling into this trap, we urge you to consider some of the practical tips here.
