While growing up, a common remark I used to hear was, "You don't look like a Muslim!". An innocent-sounding comment back then and I didn’t really understand its implications. It was expected to be taken as a compliment. It was only much later that I realised what such a simple statement insinuated. I didn't wear the common identity markers of Muslims like the hijab, burqa, head cover, surma, or other hallmarks that are associated with the community.
In the past few years, the meaning of that remark has metamorphosed into something else for me. What they actually meant was, "Your appearance doesn’t make me uncomfortable." I have seen this innocuous-sounding comment transform into a full-fledged Hindutva project.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which makes no bones about being an organisation driven by the Sangh ideology, has taken many steps that aim at invisibilising the minority Indian Muslim population of India. It has launched a systematic project to limit minority voices and impose restrictions on their religious expression and identity markers in a bid to make the community invisible from public spaces and unofficially push them to the status of secondary citizens.
Indian films over the years have played a major role in pushing a particular image of the bad Muslim. A typical bad Muslim is mostly bearded, wears a skull cap, and more often than not has kohl-lined eyes, all of which are supposed to be symbols of religious fanaticism rather than normal expressions of religiosity.
On the other hand, the burqa, which is a cover used by practising Muslim women, has been an object of ridicule in most movies, mostly worn to carry on some shady business. The "good" Muslim, on the other hand, is someone who has a religion-neutral appearance, devoid of any religious markers, an ideal representative of secularism, who offers aartis and occasionally dances in Visarjans, abuses Pakistanis whenever possible and eventually dies for the country fighting Pakistan, because what better test of patriotism can an average Indian Muslim have?
These stereotypes, propagated and emboldened over the years, are now a part of pop culture, with regular appearances in newsrooms, films, and even Tik Tok videos. Any deviation from this image is considered nothing less than an act of treason.
This started with an objection to the Muslim congregation for Friday Namaz. Last year, a campaign was started in Gurugram, Haryana, to stall the performance of Friday Namaz in any public space. A group of Hindu right-wing organisations began disrupting Friday Namaz week after week by occupying the designated Namaz spaces, even going so far as to perform havans on the said spaces as an expression of counter-activity.
All this happened with the help of the administration and police, who acted as a convenient passive audience.The Haryana Chief Minister released a statement in which he instructed Muslims to perform their prayers in private or designated religious spaces and not in public spaces. Ironically, a section of the majority now insists on performing their religious affairs in those designated spaces itself.
In Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, the Ram Navami procession was taken through a Muslim neighbourhood and loud music was played, which led to clashes and the resultant demolition of Muslim houses by the administration. In September this year, a Ganpati procession was taken out in Gulbarga, Karnataka, repeatedly playing provocative songs on loudspeakers in front of Mehbus Masjid. Similar incidents took place in Gujarat, Hyderabad, Siliguri, and Muzaffarpur.
So, essentially, not only the public places have been claimed by the majority, barring Muslims from performing or following any religious acts, but even the designated places of worship for Muslims, or those theoretically private spaces, are being encroached upon by the majority by these acts of bullying and intimidation.
Many strong and prominent Muslim voices have been lodged in jails in the past few years. Activists like Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid have been in jail for almost two years. Journalist Siddique Kappan is still in jail despite securing bail in the UAPA case as his bail application in the PMLA case was rejected. Recently, journalist Mohammed Zubair from Alt News was arrested and put in jail for an innocuous old tweet.
All this happened when members of the Hindu Maha Sabha organised rallies and meetings and gave incendiary speeches against the minorities with no repercussions. This is a reiteration of the fact that, in New India, a Muslim is not allowed to show dissent in any form, or they would have to pay a price. In most cases, the administration has made examples out of them to serve as a warning for any future dissenters.
The public trial of Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan was broadcast last year on many newsrooms by screeching, enthusiastic news anchors, and on social media by a dedicated section of trolls who didn't leave any stone unturned in vilifying and defaming the entire Khan family. These people rejoiced as if they had some personal scores to settle with the superstar and his family. Though the investigation was still in progress and numerous loopholes were already coming to light, some people had already pronounced Aryan Khan guilty. The fact that the irrational hatred had more to do with Shah Rukh Khan's Muslim identity cannot be denied.
Aamir Khan has been the victim of numerous boycotts over the past few years, since the time he made a statement about the rising intolerance in the country. The fact that even stars like Aamir and Shah Rukh, who have been adored and loved by all for decades in this country, are not being spared by the hate wave against Muslims in the country and have been bullied into silence, is an indication of the current situation of commoners.
Trolling and bullying of vocal Muslim women on social media platforms, especially Twitter, is not unheard of. But last year, right-wing extremists took it a step further by using the profile pictures of many vocal Muslim women from Twitter and other social media sites and using them on a virtual auction platform. It happened not once but twice, in the form of Sulli deals and Bulli deals.
I and many other Muslim women, who don’t subscribe to the ideology of the current political regime, were harassed by anonymous accounts and even after filing police complaints and the subsequent arrest of the perpetrators, no concrete action was taken. It was a reiteration of our fears that we should not expect any support from the system in case of any mishap. The result was that the majority of the Muslim women stopped using profile pictures in their bios, and many toned down their opinions, especially political ones. Another act of silencing Muslim voices was successfully executed.
Instead of addressing or facing the issues raised by the Muslim minority, the current regime has chosen the convenient path of blatant use of power, to curb any and every form of criticism. Noam Chomsky said, “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”
Almost every Indian Muslim must have heard the phrase “Go to Pakistan” at least once in their life. While the majority recognises that it is not feasible to deprive nearly 17.2 crore Muslims in India of their citizenship, the next best option is to disenfranchise and silence them.
Dr Nazma Parveen is from Kolkata and writes on socio-political issues. Views expressed are the author's own.