Muslim mob assaults Dalit family in Jaunpur with swords, hurls casteist abuses

Case ID : 0b66db8 | Location : Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 6 June, 2024

Case ID : 0b66db8

Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

6 June, 2024

Muslim mob assaults Dalit family in Jaunpur with swords, hurls casteist abuses

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for supporting/being part of perceived Hindu party/org or working for Hindu community

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur district, a conflict between Muslim and Dalit communities erupted following objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and the BJP. The altercation resulted in injuries to around a dozen people, with six seriously wounded and hospitalised. The incident occurred on June 7, 2024, in the Shahganj police station area. Vipin Kannaujiya, a Dalit resident, filed a complaint stating that he was verbally abused and physically attacked by Shahbaz and Karim, who were joined by Mobin, Jameel, Sagir, Farukh, and Afsar. The attackers used iron rods and sticks and hurled casteist slurs. Several of Vipin's relatives, including Vinod, Santosh, Pawan, Suraj, Bhola, and Manju Devi, also sustained serious injuries. They said, “S**e dhobi, mad****od, have you people developed so much courage? Now if you do BJP-BJP, we will kill and bury you. Modi and Yogi will not come to save you.” The police registered an FIR against the attackers under multiple IPC sections and the SC/ST Act. The Muslim side also lodged a counter-FIR, accusing Vipin and his supporters of assaulting Shahbaz and others. Both FIRs led to the arrest of six individuals: Shahbaz, Mobin, Jameel, Shakeel, Farukh, and Afsar. Police forces were deployed to maintain peace in the village, and the situation was under control.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This particular case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under two prime categories of the tracker because of the various distinct components that demonstrate the perpetrator's bias against the Hindu faith and their deliberate attempt to alienate the victims from their Hindu identity. The first category which has been chosen is 'Attack not resulting in death' under which the sub-category selected, as per case details, is 'Attacked for supporting/being part of perceived Hindu party/org or working for Hindu community' In several cases, Hindus are attacked specifically or tangentially for their association with parties or organisations perceived to be pro-Hindu and/or for working in favour of the Hindu community. One of the classic cases was the attack against a Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha (BJYM) worker Praveen Nettaru. Nettaru was attacked and hacked to death for his association with Hindu organizations and his work for the Hindu community. He was murdered by PFI, a terror organization which aimed to commit a genocide of Hindus, target Hindu leaders specifically and turn India into an Islamic Nation. In such cases, it is possible that the immediate trigger for the violence is non-religious – either according to the perpetrator or the police. However, there are surrounding circumstances from which the conclusion can be reached that the victim was attacked for his association with a Hindu organization. In a similar case, Rinku Sharma was attacked by radicals. He was a member of Bajrang Dal and regularly worked for the Hindu community. While the police cited a different non-religious trigger for the attack, it is true that he was associated to a Hindu organization and the family of Rinku Sharma specifically attributed his gruesome murder to him working for Bajrang Dal and raising Jai Shree Ram slogans. Such cases are intrinsically driven by religious hate and would therefore be documented as a hate crime under this category. The second prime category which has been selected here is 'Hate speech against Hindus'. Under this, the case has been listed within the sub-category '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. In this case, the Hindu-Dalit family was attacked by a mob of Islamists for voicing support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and the BJP. The fact that Muslims attacked the Hindu family for doing nothing more than endorsing the BJP party and objecting to the objectionable remarks made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is the primary factor that qualifies it as a hate crime. Furthermore, the religious motivation and hostility became more explicit when caste slurs were directed at the victim family. One of the victims filed a complaint in which he mentioned that the Islamist attackers used iron rods and sticks to assault him and his relatives. They also abused them with casteist slurs. It can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at his micro identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not his 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 Islamists hurled caste abuses at the victim and his family, the animosity was driven by his animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. While the immediate trigger of the violence could be the victim's family's support for BJP as mentioned in reports, the fact that caste slurs were hurled at the victim by the perpetrator makes it an even more of an overt act of religious hatred directed towards the victim. It can be argued here though, 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 accused 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 conflict between Muslim and Dalit communities erupted following objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and 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.