Kodagu district in Karnataka reported a series of communal hate crimes over the span of two weeks. These cases unfolded in two places — Shanivarasanthe and Madapura – and some of the videos of these attacks show that they were unprovoked. In one case, cases were registered against members of both Hindu and Muslim groups while in other cases the assailants were male and supporters of Hindutva groups, particularly from the Hindu Jagarana Vedike.
November 7, 2021, Shanivarsanthe, Kodagu – Zakir Pasha and his wife Naziya Thabasum were involved in an altercation with a group of Hindu men from the Dalit community. According to the police, the clash started over a road rage incident and Zakir Pasha’s associates allegedly attacked the group of men who had stopped them on the road. Both sides approached the police with complaints, but a case was first registered against Zakir Pasha and his family members for assault.
November 12, 2021, Shanivarsanthe, Kodagu – Muslim women protested at the Shanivarsanthe Police Station against the police for not taking up Zakir Pasha’s complaint over the November 7 incident. A video of the women shouting ‘Ambedkar Zindabad’ was edited to make it appear as if they were shouting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ and shared widely on social media. A journalist named Harish, a Gram Panchayat member SN Raghu, and another man named Gireesh were booked for their actions.
November 12, 2021, Madapura, Kodagu – An 18-year-old named Shamsuddin filed a complaint that he was attacked near a ground close to his home in Madapura by members of pro-Hindutva groups. He said the group of men, many of whom were known to him, accused him of wearing a green flag mask. Though a complaint was filed at the police station, there was no FIR registered in the case. Shamsuddin’s family members say he did not disclose that he was attacked until Monday, November 15 when he was admitted to a hospital in Madikeri.
November 15, 2021, Madapura, Kodagu – Rashid ME, a fruit vendor by trade, was headed towards his home in Madapura when he was stopped and attacked by a large group of people travelling in pick-up vans, cars and bikes. The men allegedly questioned Rashid over talking to a Hindu woman. Rashid protested his innocence but the men attacked him with stones injuring him on the forehead.
November 18, 2021, Shanivarsanthe, Kodagu – At a bus stop in Shanivarasanthe, two girls waiting to return home were abused and slapped by a mob of people from Hindutva groups who accused the girls of handing over a burqa to a classmate, a Christian girl. The mob of over 30 people, with cameras rolling, swooped down on the girls, hounding them with questions about where they were from and why they had given the burqa to someone else. Police arrested two people – Prajwal and Kaushik – over the incident, though videos show a large mob threatening the girls.
The protest by the Muslim women in front of the Shanivarsanthe Police Station was over an incident on November 7 when Zakir Pasha, a local resident, was among those accused of assaulting four Hindu men who belonged to the Dalit community. This was over an altercation that took place on the road near Gudugalale village. At the time, Zakir Pasha was returning home after shopping for a wedding in his family and the four men, on bikes, allegedly did not give space for his car to pass. Hindutva groups held protests at the Shanivarsanthe Police Station against Zakir Pasha and his men accused in the case.
Zakir’s family claimed that the police did not act on their counter-complaint against the four men accusing them of jewellery theft. About 30-35 Muslim women held a protest in front of the Shanivarsanthe Police Station on the evening of November 12 asking the police to take up their complaint over the November 7 incident.
Protest outside Shanivarsanthe police station in Kodagu
“The women (in the protest) were chanting ‘Ambedkar Zindabad’ to make it clear that they were not against the Dalit community and that they were simply asking the police to take up their complaint over the November 7 issue,” says Zayid, a relative of Zakir Pasha.
A video of the women shouting ‘Ambedkar Zindabad’ was edited to make it appear as if they were shouting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ and circulated widely on social media. A news reporter Harish, a Gram Panchayat member SN Raghu, and Gireesh were booked for this act.The FIR registered in the Shanivarsanthe Police Station says that Raghu and Harish called for a bandh in the town on Monday, November 15, a day when police enforced restrictions under section 144 of the CrPC. The call for the bandh was shared on WhatsApp groups by Gireesh with the video of the Muslim women protesting along with a caption falsely claiming that they chanted slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.
Gireesh, Harish and SN Raghu accused in the video morphing case
On November 18, the incident involving the two girls at the bus stop in Shanivarsanthe took place and this too was shared widely on social media in Kodagu. In this case, a group of 30-40 men harassed the girls for handing over a burqa, a long, black garment worn by Muslim women in public, to a classmate, a Christian girl.
“You wear the burqa, you should go to school and go back home. The burqa is not to be given to others and to spoil girls from other homes,” one of the men threatening the girls is heard shouting in the video even as the girls pleaded with the men to leave them alone in public.
Shanivarsanthe Police Inspector Parashiva Murthy says that there was nothing untoward happening at the bus stop and that the Christian girl had kept the burqa with her since there was no space in their bags. He added that she was coming to the bus stop to return it to the Muslim girls. Despite this, the Muslim girls were threatened, slapped and beaten by the mob of men in public.
Residents in Kodagu are grappling with anxiety, fear and anger brought on by the series of incidents this month. The pattern of incidents mirror the events in Dakshina Kannada district, which neighbours Kodagu. Suresh Bhat Bakrabail, an activist with the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has recorded 100 communal incidents in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in 2021, including 26 instances of moral policing by Hindu vigilantes and three instances of moral policing by Muslim vigilantes.
This pattern of bullying, targeting interfaith friends and enforcing social segregation was also seen in another incident in Madapura on November 15. That morning, Rashid was headed home to Madapura along with his close friend Ashik when he was stopped by a large group of people travelling in a pick-up van. Rashid knew many of the faces in the van. He even counted one of them - Suju - as a friend. Suju had worked with him picking coffee cherries for harvesting when his fruit business was dull.
But that day, to his shock, Suju came up to him and asked him pointed questions about talking to a Hindu woman. “I did not expect this kind of hostility because Suju and I have worked together and eaten together many times in the past,” says Rashid.
Rashid at the hospital in Madikeri, Kodagu
Rashid asked him who the woman they were referring to was and to bring her along. But the group, which was now more than 15 with more people joining in cars and bikes, was not in the mood to listen. They assaulted Rashid, with Suju leading them by picking up a stone and striking Rashid over his right eye and his forehead. Soon, the others joined in attacking Rashid with stones.
Rashid was taken to the Madikeri Government Hospital by Ashik and a passer-by named Hussain. The full list of assailants given by the police is Sunil, Madhu, Bipin, Suju, Suraj, Akshay, Rajesh, and unknown others belonging to Hindutva groups in Madapura.
Though FIRs have been filed against the assailants in some of the cases in Kodagu, most such attacks do not result in serious charges. Police say that they need evidence that identity was a motivating factor for any attack, usually self-incriminating evidence like video evidence of communal slurs. “We are trying to identify all the people involved in these incidents and arrest them,” Inspector Parashiva Murthy says.
The Shanivarsanthe police called for a peace meeting with Hindu and Muslim leaders on Sunday, November 21, but among those who spoke about communal harmony was SN Raghu, the Gram Panchayat member accused in the video morphing case to show Muslim women saying ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.