Bajrang Dal workers attacked by Muslim mob after reciting Hanuman Chalisa

Case ID : 90a0874 | Location : Haldwani, Uttarakhand, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 30 April, 2022

Case ID : 90a0874

Haldwani, Uttarakhand, India

30 April, 2022

Bajrang Dal workers attacked by Muslim mob after reciting Hanuman Chalisa

Attack not resulting in death

Attack against Hindu devotees

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

Communal clash/attack

Case Summary

In Haldwani, three Bajrang Dal workers named Rakshit, Dev and Manas, residents of the Sheeshmahal area, were returning after reciting Hanuman Chalisa from Hanuman Garhi temple in Kathgodam. Meanwhile, a group of Muslims riding 4 to 5 bikes attacked the Bajrang Dal workers at the Sheeshmahal gate. The local Hindus came out and caught three of the attackers and locked one of them in a shop. In a panchayat organised in the Kathogam Sheeshmahal area, in the presence of the Bajrang Dal workers, the mayor, and the police, Haldwani mayor Jogendra Rautela said that more than 50 Muslims pelted stones and beat up people of the Bajrang Dal organisation who were returning home after the recitation of Hanuman Chalisa. This created an atmosphere of fear in the area, and everyone was demanding action against them. There was a lot of anger in the Hindu community over such attacks. The police immediately started investigating, filed complaints and then arrested 10 Muslims for attacking Bajrang Dal workers.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected is - Attack not resulting in death. The sub-category selected 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. The other sub-category selected 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 other sub-category selected is - Communal clash/attack. Communal clash is a form of collective violence that involves clashes between groups belonging to different religious identities. For a communal clash between Hindus and non-Hindus to qualify as a religiously motivated hate crime, the trigger of the violence itself would have to be anti-Hindu in essence. For example, if there is a Hindu religious procession that comes under attack from a non-Hindu mob and after the initial attack, Hindus retaliate in self-defence, leading to a communal clash between the two religious communities. While at a later stage, both communities are involved in the clash/violence, the initial trigger of the violence was by the non-Hindu mob against the Hindus and therefore, it could safely be termed as an anti-Hindu violence. Further, the trigger would also have to be religiously motivated. In the cited example, the attack by the non-Hindu mob was against religious processions and therefore, can be concluded to be religiously motivated. In some cases, the trigger may be non-religious, however, it develops into religious violence against Hindus at a later stage. In such cases too, the foundational animosity towards Hindus becomes the motivating factor of the crime and therefore, it would be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus under this category. In this case, the Bajrang Dal workers—Rakshit, Dev, and Manas—were returning from Hanuman Garhi temple after reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, which is a deeply religious act of devotion in the Hindu tradition. The assault took place while they were still engaged in a religiously inspired activity, directly connecting the attack to their identity as Hindu devotees. This makes the violence a hate crime because it was not random: they were profiled and attacked specifically for being Hindus practicing their faith openly. Such targeting is consistent with a pattern in which Hindu devotees become vulnerable during or after worship, processions, or bhajan/puja gatherings, since the religious symbols and practices themselves are seen as provocations by supremacist ideologies. Therefore, this attack is best understood as an attempt to intimidate Hindus from expressing and practicing their religion freely. The victims were not just random devotees but also Bajrang Dal workers, which adds a further layer of targeting. Bajrang Dal, being a Hindu organisation, is viewed with hostility by radical groups that are antagonistic to Hindu identity and institutions. The fact that the mob specifically attacked Bajrang Dal members underscores that the violence was directed not only at their personal religious practice but also at their perceived political and organisational identity. The attack by the Muslim mob in Haldwani qualifies as a communal attack because it targeted Hindus solely for their religious identity and practices. The mob specifically sought out Bajrang Dal workers returning from Hanuman Garhi temple after reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, and initiated stone-pelting and physical assault. The violence was triggered entirely by the anti-Hindu aggression of the mob. This demonstrates that the attack was motivated by religious animosity, making it a religiously driven communal attack against Hindus rather than a spontaneous or mutual confrontation. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the incident was reported in the media.