Muslim Livelihoods
Under Attack in India

_According to data from the government's National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), 2013, in urban India, nearly 46 percent of Muslims are self-employed. It is the largest as compared with any other community.

 

The report also adds that Muslims are the poorest among all religious groups in India and are concentrated in low-paying jobs in the informal sector.

 

Jeremy Seabrook and Imran Ahmed Siddiqui, in their book People Without History: India’s Muslim Ghettos, have documented a gradual de-skilling of Muslim workforce due to globalisation, which has forced them into low-paying jobs.

 

In 2017, when the BJP government came to power in the northern state, one of its first moves was to shut down slaughterhouses and meat shops. The ostensible reason was that such places were not following legal regulations.

In March this year, the city council in Gurugram in Haryana state, also governed by the BJP, decided to close all meat shops and ban all restaurants from serving non-vegetarian food on Tuesdays to respect 'Hindu sentiments'.

 

It is well-documented that Muslim properties have been targeted during various communal riots in India. But focused attacks on small traders and hawkers seem to be a new trend.

 

As the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in India last year, Muslim fruit-sellers were targeted and scapegoated for allegedly spreading the virus. Posters were put up in several villages announcing that Muslim vendors were not welcome in those areas.

 

The National Hawker Federation, an association of street vendors across 28 states in India, issued a statement in April 2020, condemning the profiling and harassment of Muslim vendors.

Not everyone in India is excited about the upcoming festive season in October and November.

 

For Afzal, a mutton seller in Greater Noida, a suburb in Uttar Pradesh state neighbouring capital New Delhi, who did not wish to give his real name for fear of reprisal, it would mean a loss of business for nearly 10 days.

 

He told Al Jazeera, referring to the saffron-robed Uttar Pradesh chief minister, who belongs to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 'The Bajrang Dal (Hindu far-right group) in this area distributed pamphlets ordering the closure of shops during the festival period. They have become very active ever since Yogi Adityanath came to power'.

 

'We have nowhere to complain. The police and the municipality officials side with such groups', adds Afzal, with some trepidation.

 

Afzal has been fortunate, though he has been targeted, he has not faced any physical violence. Many others have not been so lucky.

In January 2021, at a Hindu panchayat (mass gathering) in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut, anti-Muslim preacher Swami Anand Swaroop said the Hindus should decide that they will not buy anything from Muslims.

 

'If you destroy them socially, politically and economically, they will begin converting to Hinduism from Islam', he told a crowd of hundreds.

 

Suresh Tiwari, a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Uttar Pradesh's Deoria, has kicked up a controversy after he was caught on camera suggesting people of his constituency to not buy vegetables from Muslim vendors. The clip was shared on social media, triggering an uproar.

On September 23, two Muslim men in Mathura, a temple town in Uttar Pradesh, were badly beaten up for carrying meat. Earlier this month, the government decided to make a large part of the city alcohol- and meat-free.

 

About a month ago, in Indore city of Madhya Pradesh state, also governed by the BJP, a Muslim bangle-seller, Tasleem Ali, was beaten up because he was selling his wares in a Hindu locality allegedly under an assumed Hindu name.

 

Within a week or so, in Ujjain city in the same state, a Muslim scrap dealer was forced to shout 'Jai Shri Ram' (Victory be to Lord Ram), a war cry used by Hindu supremacist groups.

 

Similar incidents were reported in Uttar Pradesh as well in the same month. The owner of a horse carriage in Lucknow was forced to chant "Death to Pakistan" on the basis of a fake claim that he had hoisted a Pakistani flag on his carriage.

 

Later, in Mathura, a Muslim eatery owner was forced to change its name from 'Shrinath Dosa' to 'American Dosa Corner' because right-wing groups objected to him using the name of a Hindu god.

 

All these incidents were recorded in a series of disturbing videos that went viral. The common thread in the videos is that they showcase Muslim vendors and small traders being assaulted because of their religious identity.

Such incidents are being seen as part of a larger attack on the livelihoods of Muslims, many of whom are self-employed or are engaged in low-paying jobs.

 

Abdul Waheed, professor of sociology at the Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh, told Al Jazeera, 'If these frequent incidents of attacks on Muslim livelihoods are seen in consonance with some policy measures which the BJP government has taken in different states in the last few years, then it is a worrying trend indeed'.

 

Such measures are likely to affect Muslims adversely. 'This is a clear attack on Muslim livelihoods since, traditionally, it is primarily Muslims who are engaged in the meat and poultry business in India', says Waheed. However, till date, no related regulation has been enacted.

 

Manoj Singh, journalist and researcher in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur city, who has been tracking the rise of the BJP in the state, told Al Jazeera, 'The absence of any regulation in this regard makes it clear that the intention behind such a move was to destabilise Muslim businesses'

 

Singh argues that such incidents belie the Uttar Pradesh government’s claim that it is interested in the development of all. 'We do not see members of such vigilante groups arrested which only means that they have the tacit support of the government'.

 

Shalabh Mani Tripathy, BJP’s spokesman and media adviser to Uttar Pradesh chief minister, said to Al-Jazeera countering such claims, 'The state government is popular even among Muslims because of its various schemes. A narrative is being built by vested interests that the government is anti-Muslim which is not true'.

 

'Some of these videos and incidents have turned out to be fake. Others are being probed, therefore, it will be premature to comment on them. Let me assure you that no one is above the law in the state'.

 

Journalist Singh links the current spate of attacks against Muslims to the upcoming state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, in which the BJP is seeking to retain power.

 

He said, 'The BJP government has been speaking against Muslims since it came to power, but just speaking against them is not enough to win the hearts of their Hindu supporters in the politically charged state'.

Reference

Al-Jazeera