I watched and read in horror as news came in of how Friday prayers were disrupted and namazis were harassed by Hindutva vigilantes from nearby villages. This happened in my backyard, not in a remote village. It happened right here in Gurgaon, the Millennium City with tall glass buildings, a "world-class" Metro, international schools and gated communities and shopping malls.
Of course, I was aware of the presence of the huge migrant population (between two and five lakhs — no official numbers exist) from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and the Northeast, many of them Muslims, who mostly serve the city. In addition, there are office-going people at management level from across India who, too, are Muslims.
This area is known as old Gurgaon — the old city and villages. The villages are a mix of old and new inhabited by another distinct social group — referred to as the "villagers". It is a complex, heterogeneous mix, cutting across class, caste and religion.
I felt a sense of disquiet watching this theatre of aggressive Hindu majoritarianism being played out. The reason for my discomfort was simple – even if the vigilantes had problems with the Friday prayers in terms of public nuisance, who gave the young members of the Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti the right to take the law into their own hands?
After the first incident the police did take swift action, the perpetuators were quickly arrested and an FIR was lodged. Yet anticipating further trouble as news reports came in of demands being made by this vigilante group, a group of more than 150 citizens and I wrote a letter to the district authorities asking them to intervene.
We pointed out the unconstitutional demands made by the Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti and the bullying and intimidation which one religious community was subjecting the other to. We asked the authorities to reassure the Muslims and offer them protection as mandated by the Constitution of India.
However, the next Friday saw a repeat performance of namaz prayers being disrupted — the few photographs which emerged captured the two groups — a quiet group of men watching helplessly standing in disarray while another far more aggressive outfit consisting mainly of young men displaying machismo and authority. The police could be seen at a distance almost watching the "drama" — almost as if it was not their job to intervene, as keepers of law and order.
Disturbing reports began coming from friends who were witnesses to incidents to say that in fact the police stood there doing nothing and waited for the vigilantes to disperse in their vehicles, and then asked the namazis to leave.