Hindu vegetable vendor brutally assaulted, by a Muslim mob armed with swords, over a trivial dispute on price of lemons

Case ID : aa4b21b | Location : Udaipur, Rajasthan, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 14 May, 2025

Case ID : aa4b21b

Udaipur, Rajasthan, India

14 May, 2025

Hindu vegetable vendor brutally assaulted, by a Muslim mob armed with swords, over a trivial dispute on price of lemons

Attack not resulting in death

Communal clash/attack

Case Summary

In the Dhan Mandi area of Udaipur, a Hindu vegetable vendor, Satbir, was brutally attacked with swords by a Muslim mob for a trivial dispute over the price of lemons. According to various eyewitness and media reports, the incident began when two Muslim men came to Satbir’s stall to buy vegetables. They initiated a dispute over the price of lemons. When Satbir asked them to leave, they began verbally abusing him and started throwing stones at him, damaging his stall and injuring him and others. After this incident Satbir and his son filed a police complain against the accused. However, the matter did not end here and it escalated further when the two Muslim youths came back with a larger mob, from the Dhaulibavdi area, armed with swords and launched a brutal attack on Satbir and others in the area. Satbir was injured and was taken to the Hospital. Furthermore, the Muslim mob set fire to the vegetable market behind the Santoshi Mata temple, further escalating the tension in the area. Various Hindu organisations have staged protests and have demanded strict action against the perpetrators. As of the date of writing this report, the police have registered an FIR and assured the public that the attackers would be arrested as soon as possible.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Attack not resulting in death. Within it, the 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu man was brutally attacked with swords by a Muslim mob over a minor dispute regarding the price of lemons. The use of swords in response to a petty argument portrays the extreme and premeditated nature of the violence. The disproportionately violent nature of the attack points to a deeper religious animosity towards Hindus. This pattern has been seen time and time again where Muslim groups respond with overwhelming violence over minor disagreements, especially against Hindus. The way the Muslim mob quickly gathered and came back armed to launch a violent attack makes it clear this wasn’t just a fight over prices. The intent was to make an example out of Satbir and to further terrorise the market so that no one raises their voice against Muslims. This incident aligns with a disturbing trend where seemingly minor disputes are used as a pretext for large-scale violent attacks by Muslims, demonstrating a disregard for the law and a willingness to use violence to assert dominance and express religious hatred. Though the initial dispute may not have been explicitly religious, the nature, scale, and communal targeting of the attack by the Muslim mob reveal it to be a religiously motivated hate crime rooted in religious animosity.