Dalit Hindu man attacked with swords, Muslim attackers hurled identity based slurs

Case ID : 0b672b6 | Location : Pune, Maharashtra, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 25 June, 2024

Case ID : 0b672b6

Pune, Maharashtra, India

25 June, 2024

Dalit Hindu man attacked with swords, Muslim attackers hurled identity based slurs

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

Muslim men brutally assaulted 19-year-old Rohit Thorat, a Hindu from the Matang community. The incident occurred when the accused, in autorickshaws, stopped and assaulted Rohit with a sword in the Gangadha area of Pune. Afridi Sheikh accused Rohit's brother of filing a complaint against him, hurled caste-based abuses, and attacked Rohit with a sword. Though Rohit tried to escape, he suffered a head injury from the sword and was also targeted with glass bottles. He managed to reach a friend's home and later filed a police complaint at Bibwewadi Police Station. Rohit is currently undergoing treatment at Sasoon Hospital in Pune. A local resident, Sushma Pawar (name changed for security reasons), expressed fear over the increasing attacks by Muslims in the locality and the failure of police protection. Sushma, along with 22 others from Lohiyanagar, applied for an Arms Licence on July 8 under the Arms Act, 1959, to protect themselves. Another applicant, Radhika Gawade (name changed for security reasons), revealed that Islamist attacks have been occurring for many years, but the frequency has increased recently. Gawade stated, “Muslims deliberately target us Hindus because we belong to lower castes. Recently, three major incidents were reported, but many others went unreported. Eleven boys from my locality were targeted just for being Hindus. The environment here is very scary. We need justice.”

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the hate tracker under two prime categories. The first 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 second prime category under which this case has been classified is- Attack not resulting in death. Within this, the sub-category chosen 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. Here, religious motivation and hostility became explicit when caste slurs were directed at the victim. The victim himself testified that he was abused with caste slurs by the Islamists before he was brutally assaulted. 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, the animosity was driven by his animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. While the immediate trigger of the violence could be personal enmity, as mentioned in reports, the fact that caste slurs were hurled at the victim by the perpetrator makes it an overt act of religious hatred directed towards the victim. Further, the victim himself reveals that Hindus in their locality are regularly subjected to assaults and harassment due to their religious identity. This reaffirms that the Muslim accused harboured a particular bias against the Dalits. This incident underscores a persistent animosity not only towards the couple's Dalit-Hindu identity. The recurring attacks suggest that the tension wasn't an isolated event, but part of a deeper pattern of prejudice and resentment against Hindus and their religion, making it a hate crime, motivated by religion.