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There have been several instances of religious violence against Muslims since the partition of India in 1947, frequently in the form of violent attacks on Muslims by Hindu nationalist mobs that form a pattern of sporadic sectarian violence between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Over 10,000 people have been killed in Hindu-Muslim communal violence since 1950 in 6,933 instances of communal violence between 1954 and 1982.[1]
The causes of violence against Muslims are varied. The roots are thought to lie in Indian history – resentment towards the Islamic conquest of India during the Middle Ages, divisive policies established by the colonial government during the period of British rule, and the partition of Indian subcontinent into a Muslim-majority Pakistan and an Indian state with a Muslim minority. Many scholars believe that incidents of anti-Muslim violence are politically motivated and a part of the electoral strategy of mainstream political parties who are associated with Hindu nationalism like the Bharatiya Janata Party. Other scholars believe that the violence is not widespread but that it is restricted to certain urban areas because of local socio-political conditions.[2]
- ^ ʻAbd Allāh Aḥmad Naʻīm (2008). Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari'a. Harvard University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-674-02776-3.
- ^ Yogesh Atal (2009). Sociology and Social Anthropology in India. Pearson Education India. pp. 250–251. ISBN 978-81-317-2034-9.