Dehradun, Bareilly, Tamil Nadu attack—Indians are turning violent. Don’t keep blaming politics

Screenshots from videos of the Bareilly incident | Source: X

Over the last month, protestors have repeatedly told us that Christmas and its traditions are nasty Western imports that we should reject and abandon.

In at least one important sense, the protesters are right. The Western tradition is that Christmas is a time for love and goodwill toward all. But in India we have demonstrated that, for many of us, Christmas is actually a time for hate and violence. That, for better or for worse, is fast becoming an Indian tradition.

Just read the papers or follow the news on the internet. Each day brings with it new stories of anger, hatred and bloodshed. Here are some examples, picked at random from news items published during the last fortnight.

In Dehradun, Anjel Chakma, a 24 year old student and his brother Michael were stabbed by a group of men. Anjel died from his injuries. His brother said that they were abused with racial epithets about their Northeastern identity. According to Michael, among Anjel’s last words were ‘I am an Indian’, even as he was called a ‘Chink’ and worse.

In Tamil Nadu, a group of 17-year-olds attacked a migrant worker with a machete. They took videos of the assault and then posted them on social media with a Tamil song as background music.

In Bareilly, a group of 25 self-styled vigilantes burst into a student’s birthday party and assaulted the guests. The vigilantes took objection to two Muslims who were attending the party and complained about love jihad.

And then of course there has been the Indian way of celebrating Christmas: By assaulting Christians.

In Bengaluru, ‘activists’ disrupted a Christmas church service. In Delhi, a group of women and children were targeted for wearing Santa Claus hats. Even in Kerala, a state known for its tradition of pluralism, a group of carol singers faced attacks. That’s in addition to the attacks on shops selling Christmas merchandise. This atmosphere of fear and intimidation led many of those who normally organise Christmas celebrations (including deluxe hotels) to cancel them.

Not just politics

It would be tempting to see all of the violence as a straightforward consequence of politics. And yes, some of it certainly was connected to anti-minority feeling. The thugs who target Muslims in states such as UP are emboldened by the political atmosphere and by their confidence that the police will not act against them. In the Bareilly case, the police first blamed the victims. They acted against the attackers only after a social media uproar.

In the Dehradun murder case, the administration has not covered itself in glory. The police’s position is that Michael is lying, and there was no racial element to the attack. Most pathetic of all, several days after the stabbing, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, PS Dhami, finally called Anjel’s family to express his sorrow. Of course, he made the call on speaker and arranged for it to be filmed so that he could release the video to the media.

The Christmas attacks are baffling unless you take a cynical view of the motives of the attackers. Christians are too small in number to pose any threat to the massed forces of Hindutva. Nor is Christmas in India a particularly religious festival. Hindus enjoy the festivities as much as Christians.

So why target Christmas? Even in pure political terms it makes no sense to persecute Santa Claus at a time when the Prime Minister is attending a Christmas church service to demonstrate his support for the Christian community.

The only explanation that makes any sense is that the attacks come from Hindutva extremists who long for international publicity and want to feel important and noticed. And indeed they have got what they wanted: Headlines around the world.

It’s natural to try and link the violence to politics. Rahul Gandhi tweeted “Hate doesn’t appear overnight. For years now it is being fed daily – especially to our youth – through toxic content and irresponsible narratives. And it’s being normalised by the hate-spewing leadership of the ruling BJP.”

The need to be noticed

There is something to that view. But it would be a mistake to believe that the central government gains from or endorses this violence. Not only do the attacks on Christians harm Narendra Modi’s image in the largely Christian West, but the anger all over the Northeast that has followed Anjel’s killing also hurts the BJP, which seeks to be a major player in that region. (That’s probably why Dhami was asked to make a condolence call though his obvious insincerity led him to turn that into a PR disaster.)

Yes, there has been a growth in identity politics among upper caste north Indian males and this leads to their contempt for anyone who is not like them: Muslims, Christians, Northeast Indians, etc.

But that’s not enough of an explanation for the rising violence. We need also to look at the collapse of policing in India. People feel they can get away with anything. And in most cases they are right: Look at how the police behaved in Bareilly and Dehradun. People who commit violence don’t fear the police. They know that they can harass others, attack shops or even commit murder without being apprehended.

And partly it emerges from the desire of people to want to be noticed: The anti Christmas protesters wanted their headlines and the machete-wielding teenagers wanted to be famous on social media.

You could argue that there’s something wrong with a society where people can’t distinguish between right and wrong in their desire to be famous. But does that come as a surprise? Isn’t there already something very wrong with a society where people get away with holding rallies and demonstrations in favour of Kuldeep Sengar, who has been convicted of murder and rape?

What does it say about our society when these demonstrations continue unhindered, but Sengar’s grief-stricken victim is carried away by the police for the crime of demanding justice?

A society where people who protest against pollution spend a month in jail, while the government cheerfully and quite blatantly rigs the AQI figures?

The violence is a symptom of much deeper failures—of a society that has lost its moral compass and where politics is about lies and venality. That is the real crisis of today’s India.

Vir Sanghvi is a print and television journalist and talk show host. He tweets @virsanghvi. Views are personal.

(Edited by Theres Sudeep)