Vulnerable at Home

To make sense of the Indian variant of Islamophobia, it is vital to examine its relationship with the notion of communalism-particularly their points of convergence

- Dr Shaikh Mujibur Rehman

THERE is a growing perception that Indian Muslims are increasingly victims of targeted violence by various means such as lynching, assault allegedly for ‘love jihad, random acts of violence like the recent shooting carried out by a policeconstable on a Mumbai-bound train; and also in a more systematic fashion as part of ‘bulldozer justice’ mainly und ertaken by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, etc. In a recent execution of bulldozer justice in the wake of the violence in Nuh, Haryana, close to 1200 structures were demolished. The Punjab and Haryana High Court while taking note of this ill egality invoked ‘ethnic cleansing’ as a possible fallout. This series of violent incidents in various forms occurring over the span of the past few years are argued be an outcome of growing Islamophobia. Does this indeed represent a pattern of Islamophobia? Or is there something more to it?