Ram Navami Shobha Yatra passing by a mosque attack, Muslim mob pelts stones

Case ID : 242dedd | Location : Hooghly district, West Bengal, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 1 April, 2023

Case ID : 242dedd

Hooghly district, West Bengal, India

1 April, 2023

Ram Navami Shobha Yatra passing by a mosque attack, Muslim mob pelts stones

Attack not resulting in death

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

Attack on religious procession

Attacked for crossing 'Muslim area'

Case Summary

On April 3, 2023, the Bharatiya Janata Party was taking out a Ram Navami ‘Shobha Yatra’ in Rishra, West Bengal’s Hooghly district, when miscreants pelted stones from a mosque, leaving several people, including one of BJP’s MLA Biman Ghosh, gravely injured. Following the incident, prohibitory orders were imposed and the internet was suspended. BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh, who took part in the rally, shared a video on social media saying stones were pelted from a mosque.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

According to the case details, 'Attack on religious procession' and 'Attacked for supporting/being part of perceived Hindu party/org or working for Hindu community' are the three 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 relevant sub-category in this case 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 with 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 third sub-category this case is being added to 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. In this instance, miscreants pelted stones from a mosque at a Ram Navami procession taken out by members of the BJP. Attacks on religious processions are motivated by religious bias. The perpetrators targeted the procession because of the participants' religious identity and intended to disrupt their religious practices and expressions. Such attacks are a form of symbolic aggression against the Hindu community, aiming to undermine their religious celebrations and create fear. In this case, since the BJP is perceived to be a pro-Hindu party, targeting its members was like targeting the Hindu community as a whole, which is why the miscreants attacked the Hindu procession taken out by the BJP members. Since such attacks are motivated by a bias against Hinduism or Hindu values, it has been included in the tracker. Another important thing to be mentioned here is that the last update was that the miscreants were unknown. The fact that the stones were thrown from a mosque, however, makes it clear that the perpetrators belonged to the Muslim community. Even if, however, we continue to believe that the culprits were unknown, the act was motivated by hatred for Hinduism and resulted in the attack on a Hindu religious procession; hence, it would be classified as a hate crime with a religious motive. Note: The total victim count in this case was in all probability much higher. However, for the sake of accuracy, we are adding 1 victim to the victim count because BJP leader Biman Ghosh is the only confirmed victim in the case.