Dalit youth returning from BJP rally beaten with iron pipe in Hazaribagh's Muslim-dominated area, mob hurls casteist slurs

Case ID : 0b66b68 | Location : Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 17 May, 2024

Case ID : 0b66b68

Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, India

17 May, 2024

Dalit youth returning from BJP rally beaten with iron pipe in Hazaribagh's Muslim-dominated area, mob hurls casteist slurs

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Attacked for crossing 'Muslim area'

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, a Dalit youth named Diwakar Nayak was brutally assaulted by a mob of 30-40 individuals, including Zeeshan, Naseeb, and Monty Khan, after returning from a BJP bike rally on May 18. The attack occurred in the Muslim-dominated locality of Badam, where the assailants hurled casteist slurs and beat Nayak and his friend Vicky Rana with iron pipes, causing severe injuries. The police arrested three of the accused, while efforts were being made to identify and apprehend the remaining attackers. Nayak mentioned that due to his injuries, he is currently unable to walk, and Rana was also badly injured.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been categorised as a religiously motivated hate crime under two prime categories of the tracker. The first is- Attack not resulting in death. Under this, two sub-categories have been chosen. The first is- Attacked for Hindu identity- In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. The second sub-category selected under the aforementioned category is- Attacked for crossing 'Muslim area'. One of the reasons that Hindus get attacked unprovoked specifically by Islamists is for crossing ‘Muslim areas’. Essentially, Muslim mobs often attack Hindus crossing or present in certain areas which have a majority Muslim population. It has often been cited as one of the reasons to blame Hindus for attacks against themselves, signalling that Hindus displaying religious symbols, taking our religious processions or crossing any area which is dominated by Muslim residents is a provocation in and of itself. These areas are mostly ghettoized areas where mobs mobilize quickly to attack Hindus for a variety of reasons like playing music during a religious procession, crossing a mosque, wearing a tilak or any other religious symbol in a Muslim-dominated area, praying at a local temple in that area etc. There have been cases where the few local Hindus of that area have been attacked on their way to the Temple for prayers as well, simply because the area is considered a Muslim-dominated area. Several times, it is entirely possible that the immediate trigger for the violence against Hindus was non-religious in nature, however, the violence became religiously motivated in nature because the area was Muslim dominated and the residents on the whole harboured animosity towards Hindus, evidenced from the actions of the mob, the slogans, and the nature of the attack. Such crimes are motivated by the religious identity of the victims and are therefore classified as hate crimes under this category. The second prime category under which this case has been added is- Hate speech against Hindus. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith- Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. The brutal assault on Diwakar Nayak in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh is a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime. His affiliation with the BJP, which is perceived as a Hindu nationalist organization, was a key trigger for the violence, the fact that he was attacked by a mob in a Muslim-dominated locality proves that he was primarily targeted for his Hindu religious identity. The mob’s actions, which involved physically assaulting Nayak and his friend, hurling casteist slurs, and inflicting severe injuries with iron pipes, were not merely random acts of violence but were driven by religious animosity. Further, the use of casteist slurs exemplifies the religious animosity driving the crime. Here, it can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at her micro identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not her Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions are concerned, the micro identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. In this case, while the Muslim youths hurled caste abuses at the victim, the animosity was driven by his animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. While the immediate trigger of the violence could be the Hindu youth's affiliation with the BJP, as mentioned in reports, the fact that caste slurs were hurled at the victim by the perpetrator makes it a religiously motivated hate crime against the victim. Another aspect that exemplifies the religious angle of the crime is that the accused attacked the Hindu victim in a so-called 'Muslim area'. The fact that the victim was attacked in a Muslim-dominated area reveals a disturbing sense of Islamic supremacy harboured by the attackers. In this case, the perpetrators viewed the predominantly Muslim-occupied region as an exclusive zone where non-Muslims, particularly Hindus were unwelcome. This sense of entitlement and superiority not only reflects deep-seated prejudice but also highlights an attempt to assert religious dominance over public spaces. The assault on the Hindu youth was motivated by this supremacist ideology, where Islamists in the area looked down upon Hindus, believing that they had the right to dictate who could move freely through their community. The act of blocking and attacking the victim in the Muslim-dominated locality illustrates a dangerous mindset rooted in exclusion, intolerance and religious animosity, making this case an ideal example for inclusion in a hate tracker.