Harsh Mander: Will Sambhal become the new Ayodhya?

The Muslim-majority town of West Uttar Pradesh, Sambhal, is shrouded in fear. In a vague but still overpowering dread. In unspoken anticipation of an impending calamity that could ravage the lives of the residents.

Over a month has passed since November 24, when five men were killed after a crowd protested with stone-throwing a court-ordered survey of Shahi Jama Masjid mosque. The purpose of the survey was to ascertain if the mosque erected during the reign of the first Mughal emperor Babar was built after demolishing a temple.

A visiting team of the Karwan e Mohabbat finds the families of the men killed still distraught and inconsolable. The Muslim citizens are confused, frightened and angry. The state officials are doing nothing to assuage their fears. Instead, the state administration is unleashing a battery of measures that are nakedly hostile to its Muslim citizens. The saffron-robed chief minister Adityanath further stokes the embers with a series of coarse and openly communal declarations.

One thing is immediately evident. This combat that tore into the medieval town of Sambhal is not between its Muslim and Hindu residents. There was not a single act of communal violence between Muslims and Hindus in this Muslim-majority town. Hindus, by and large, had…

Read more