Hindu woman and her mother assaulted by Chrisian neighbours for performing puja and playing bhajans at her home

Case ID : 30ab36a | Location : Hyderabad, Telangana, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 8 October, 2020

Case ID : 30ab36a

Hyderabad, Telangana, India

8 October, 2020

Hindu woman and her mother assaulted by Chrisian neighbours for performing puja and playing bhajans at her home

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

A 29-year-old Hindu woman, Kavita, was assaulted along with her 55-year-old mother by their Christian neighbour, identified as Yesu, in Hyderabad's Attapur area after a dispute over the family's daily religious practices. The incident took place when Kavita was performing puja at a Tulja Bhavani temple inside her residence and playing devotional bhajans. According to police, Kavita's practice of playing devotional songs during puja became a point of contention with neighbours, who objected to the use of loudspeakers. A police patrolling team had previously visited her residence and asked the family not to use loudspeakers following complaints from the locality. However, the dispute escalated when Yesu, along with his parents, entered Kavita's residence and attacked her and her mother with iron rods and the butt of a gun. Kavita sustained a serious head injury and required nine stitches. Kavita said that her neighbour had repeatedly objected to the family performing puja and playing devotional songs inside their own home. She further said that the hostility had been continuing for over a year and described the assault as a planned attack. According to her, Yesu and his parents had routinely abused the family over their religious practices. Following the incident, the Rajendranagar police registered a case against Yesu in connection with the assault and stated that action would be taken against those responsible.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The incident has been added to the tracker under the primary category: Attack not resulting in death. Within this, the subcategory selected 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. In this case, the Hindu woman was targeted for performing puja and playing devotional bhajans inside her own residence. Her religious practices, carried out within the confines of her home, became a source of repeated hostility from her Christian neighbour. The objections eventually escalated into physical violence, with the neighbour and his parents entering her residence and assaulting her and her 55-year-old mother with iron rods, leaving Kavita with a serious head injury that required nine stitches. The incident reflects a disturbing intolerance towards the expression of Hindu religious faith, even within one's private space. The objection was not merely to the use of loudspeakers, but, according to Kavita, her neighbour had repeatedly abused and harassed the family specifically over their daily puja and devotional songs. The fact that the hostility culminated in a violent attack inside the Hindu family's home makes the incident particularly serious. The fundamental issue here is the hostility directed at a Hindu woman for practising her religion in her own home. When objections to Hindu religious expression turn into intimidation, physical assault and violence, they reflect religious intolerance and an attempt to suppress the victim's freedom to practise her faith. The attack was therefore rooted in hostility towards her Hindu religious practices and therefore qualifies as a religiously motivated hate crime.