Days after a Hindutva mob burnt his fruit shop, Shaik Abdul Khadeer and his family were yet to return to their home in Daulatabad village in Sangareddy district. On January 22, following the pran pratishtha in Ayodhya, Daulatabad’s Sriramayalaya Utsava Committee organised a ceremony. During a procession taken out as a part of the ceremony, a shoe was hurled at a palanquin that was in the procession. Khadeer’s house was traced as the source of the shoe. Committee members who went to the building allegedly saw his sons climbing down. They barged into Khadeer’s home and claimed to have found, in the washing machine, the pairing shoe. A mob soon gathered outside Khadeer’s house and before police reinforcements could arrive, it proceeded to burn down Khadeer’s shop. Even as an FIR was registered against Khadeer’s sons, the calls for “justice” grew. Khadeer and his family were moved to an undisclosed location in an ambulance.
In Morgi, Sangareddy district, a 19-year-old Muslim man’s video recorded a disrespectful act with a saffron flag. He was paraded naked and beaten up by a Hindutva mob who later handed him over to the police. The police filed two cases: one against the Muslim man and the other against the mob.
In Narketpally, Nalgonda district, Muslims raised the alarm about attempts by Sangh Parivar-affiliated organisations to occupy a notified waqf land (next to a mosque).
Several such communal flare-ups were reported in Telangana on January 22. Police registered cases and counter-cases, and peace committees stepped in. The incidents were contained before any loss of life. However, the tensions continued to simmer.
Police arrest Osmania University students during a controversial beef festival conducted on the campus in December 2015. | Photo Credit: K.V.S. Giri
Khadeer now fears for the safety of his sons but he cannot keep them away from Daulatabad forever. The police have obtained his sons’ confessions. Local Muslim leaders call it a misunderstanding. Khadeer filed an official complaint against the mob.
Suitable site to spread Hindutva
Telangana has enjoyed a period of relative communal harmony for over a decade. However, a gradual increase in saffronisation and spread of the Hindutva ideology has also been observed. For quite some time now, Telangana has acquired the reputation as a suitable site to spread Hindutva and the BJP’s footprint in the south.
Electorally speaking, the BJP won eight seats in the 2023 Telangana Assembly election, seven from northern Telangana, up from just one in 2018. Its vote share increased from 7 per cent in 2018 to 14 per cent in 2023. The Sangh Parivar’s presence, however, extends to three Telangana district zones: north, central, and south, albeit in varying strength.
A Telangana RSS public relations officer said the organisation had about 3,500 shakhas in the State. As per their website, Saraswathi Vidya Peetham (run under the RSS education wing) currently has 160 schools in Telangana and over 30,000 students.
On January 20, some Hindutva supporters disrupted a small screening of Anand Patwardhan’s Ram Ke Naam organised by Hyderabad Cinephiles, a group of film enthusiasts, at a restaurant in Secunderabad. Police detained four members of the group in the Neredmet police station overnight and slapped a case under Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts that are intended to outrage religious feelings). In a counter-case, the Hindutva disruptors were booked under offences such as trespassing, criminal intimidation, and outraging the modesty of a woman.
This story was originally published in frontline.thehindu.com. Read the full story here.