State-Sanctioned Apartheid of Muslims in Modi’s India

Asma Khan Durrani 

The minority appeasement policies of the Narendra Modi led government are actually a disconcerting reminder of a promise that is slowly being washed away. Gujarat is a state that witnessed Hindu-Muslim riots and where Muslims today trace a picture of discrimination that is systematically practiced, promoted by policies that are implicitly detrimental to them and where the government turns a blind eye to these policies.

This persistent relegation – from ghettoized living to physically destructive anti-Muslim extremism – occurs implicitly with the complicity of a government that has failed to prevent, or even arguably encouraged, an atmosphere of persecution against its own Muslim populace. For Muslims in Gujarat, the hurdles start where most families should feel safest: their homes. Segregation in housing has been entrenched under Modi’s leadership since numerous Muslims cannot buy or rent houses or apartments in Hindu dominated neighborhoods.

Muslims in Gujarat communities suffer from enduring marginalization across the four spheres: accommodational, educative, vocational, and civilizational.

The latest protests against the accommodation of single Muslim mothers shows shocking institutional discrimination that excludes Muslims from integrating into progressive neighborhoods. What might be presented as just housing disputes concerns is a systematic approach aimed at deepening religious segregation, making Indian Muslims second-class citizens in cities they live in, and debunking the Indian secularism myth.

From exclusion to outright violence Muslim are discriminated and marginalized in the society. For so many times, Hindu fanatics have attacked Muslims during their prayer sessions, prayers or festivals with high levels of impunity. Muslim students at Gujarat University praying in their group during the time of Ramadan had been attacked—an infringement of their freedom of religion.

Inability of the government to act in such situations encourages extremities organizations to carry out their acts knowing fully that what they are doing will not be addressed. This dualism to the issue is abetted by the state without expressing its stance on the anti-Muslim violence, Muslims are made vulnerable in a country that is supposed to protect them equally under the law.

The violence and segregation the Muslim people go through are nothing but the result of policies and experiments carried out in their countries that aimed at excluding them and depriving of their rights. India is telling a very different story under Modi – from a secular democracy to an aggressive Hindu nationalism, from the unity in diversity India has been known for, often seen as the evil nation undermining the minorities on its own soil. As more than 30 attacks by Hindus on Muslim minorities occurred in Gujarat in the past year, Modi’s government’s pro-Hindu bias has created an atmosphere of Muslim’s insecurity and thus far has not mitigated the tensions.

Each act of violence that goes unchecked deepens religious polarization, erodes the Indian democratic spirit.

Growing violence in Gujarat shows how the current policies stir up Hindu chauvinism affecting the worsened state of Indian Muslims who feel they are in everyday danger of being persecuted in their own homeland. Such constructions help the government alienate an entire community, presenting them as some sort of ‘other,’ a threat. Each act of violence that goes unchecked deepens religious polarization, erodes the Indian democratic spirit, and continues to build what can only be referred to as an apartheid-type regime.

Muslims in Gujarat communities suffer from enduring marginalization across the four spheres: accommodational, educative, vocational, and civilizational, restricted to economic and social zones. Enclaves that restrict Muslim population densities to large, densely populated, Muslim majority enclaves, or business owners and taxi drivers not serving Muslim customers represent Modi’s and India’s deliberate Islamophobia. This forced separation discriminately locks up Muslims from the organic functioning of society with a clear message a Muslim, and in fact any minority perceived to go against the West’s perceived values of liberalism, is simply meant to be a second-rate citizen.

The increasing blatant persecution of Muslims in India appears more systemic and gets international attention, which jeopardizes the democratic brand associated with India. The targeted exclusion and Harass-Tired of being harassed? Click here to chat with other Muslims who have had similar experiences. Torment that has been facing Muslims is a clear human rights issue that cannot be assumed to be internal affairs.

The increasing blatant persecution of Muslims in India appears more systemic and gets international attention.

After inviting Hindu nationalism as a dominant ethos in his administration, Modi’s team is likely to erode India’s achievements as a secular democratic state that sets an example to its South Asian neighbors, achieved by previous governments. For global policymakers, government officials, and strategists alike, India’s actions prompt serious questions: how long can it sustain the appearance of a democracy, that a country is democratic if it supports policies that the minority group never get to vote on? The history of Hindus and Muslim relations in Gujurat is a clear example of how hate driven by state endorsement is destructive.

Modi’s government continuing policies that minorities will be exposed, Muslims especially as their rights are trampled by a government that seems hell-bent on polarizing the Indian populace. India must be ready to face and solve these partitions that are a clear example of its democratic background. Without such introspection, the silence of those in power tacitly endorses hostility and segregation, raising the question: Will India remain functional secularism as it has always boasted to be, or will go on to become a religious apartheid and its social fabric will permanently unravel?

The author is a scholar in Defence-Strategic Affairs, with a Master of Philosophy in International Relations. She tweets @AsmaKhan_47