Unidentified miscreants pelt stones at Ram Navami immersion procession in Jharkhand's Jamshedpur

Case ID : 242debf | Location : Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 30 March, 2023

Case ID : 242debf

Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India

30 March, 2023

Unidentified miscreants pelt stones at Ram Navami immersion procession in Jharkhand's Jamshedpur

Attack not resulting in death

Attack against Hindu devotees

Attack on religious procession

Case Summary

A Ram Navami immersion procession came under attack in the Haldipokhar area of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. The unidentified miscreants pelted stones at the Hindu devotees and injured 5 persons during the attack. The Hindu devotees recited ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ in response to the opposition by the group. Soon after, the immersion procession was attacked with stones. Following this, a large contingent of police was deployed to bring the law and order under control.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

According to the case details, 'Attack on religious procession' and 'Attack against Hindu devotees' are the two sub-categories under the core category 'Attack not resulting in death' under which this case has been listed. The first relevant sub-category in this case is, 'Attack on religious Procession'. The outward celebration and display of religious symbols in an intrinsic part of Hinduism. Religious processions on various festivals are age-old traditions and a way to manifest faith and form a part of the religious practices of Hindus. On several occasions, such religious processions come under attack by non-Hindu mobs, in a manifestation of their animosity towards Hinduism and their practices. The reasons cited for such violent attacks are many and range from crossing a non-Hindu resident-dominated area to playing loud music, crossing from an area where there is a religious structure of another faith etc. The violent attacks are triggered by the outward display of religiosity by Hindus. The attacks are mainly a manifestation of religious supremacist doctrine which believes that idolatry, essentially the Hindu faith, is one that deserves to be annihilated since the very tenets of Hinduism, its practices and traditions are considered a sin in those doctrines. Since these attacks emanate from intrinsic and doctrinal animosity towards Hindus and Hinduism, it is considered a religiously motivated hate crime under this category. The second sub-category relevant here is, 'attack against Hindu devotees'. Hindu devotees are a few of the easiest targets of religiously motivated hate crimes because during the festival/procession/puja etc, for non-Hindus it is easy to profile their victims on the basis of religion. Hindu devotees come under attack on several occasions by individual non-Hindus or mobs of non-Hindus owing to their animosity against Hinduism, its symbols and tradition/practices. There are several instances of Hindu devotees being attacked while they worship in temples or temporary religious structures, during religious processions, doing bhajan/kirtan/puja in their own homes, in the residential society etc. These attacks are perpetrated by non-Hindus primarily because of their animosity towards Hindus and their faith. In some cases, the trigger for the violence may be non-religious, however, there are two elements that make these hate crimes. First, the Hindus who come under attack are attacked violently while indulging in religious activity. Whether they are in a place of worship or not is immaterial to the crime. When individuals are attacked while indulging in religious practices, the attack in itself is a hindrance to their freedom to practice religion and therefore constitutes a hate crime. Secondly, religious supremacist doctrines and ideologies deem religious practices of Hindus to be offensive ab initio since they are considered “sinful” by these ideologies, worthy to be annihilated by force or coercion. Driven by these religious supremacist ideologies and doctrines, the attacks against Hindu devotees stem from intrinsic animosity towards Hinduism. In some cases, the trigger for the violence may be non-religious, however, it develops into a religiously motivated crime during the course of the violence. Since these attacks stem from animosity towards Hindus and Hinduism, they are considered religiously motivated hate crimes under this category. In this case, some unknown miscreants attacked Hindu devotees participating in the Ram Navami immersion procession. They also pelted stones at the procession when it was returning after the immersion. The attack was an unprovoked one, which means there was no provocation from the Hindu side. In fact, the Hindu devotees had responded to the aggression by reciting Hanuman Chalisa. It can thus be safely said that the disruption was motivated by hostility or prejudice against Hindus and their religious practices. Such acts are driven by intolerance and a desire to intimidate or harm individuals based on their religious identity and qualify as a hate crime. It is important to mention here that though the last update was that the miscreants were unknown, regardless, the action stemmed out of hatred against Hinduism and resulted in the desecration of the sacred temple and would therefore be considered a religiously motivated hate crime.