In Uttar Pradesh, Hindutva casts shadow of fear over Muslims: report

A new investigative report by the news portal The Quint has exposed how ‘Hindutva’ is casting a shadow of fear over the normal lives of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, sharing first-hand accounts of how it is difficult for a Muslim to find a home in the state.

Housing discrimination based on religious identity is not new news in India. If you are a Muslim, you may have to face various forms of discrimination while looking for a house or flat in many cities in India. But in UP, the most populous state in India, this phenomenon has now become more profound. As the Hindutva ideology has become more and more prevalent, incidents of Muslims being denied houses or being excluded from housing societies are increasing day by day.

Muslims are being denied entry to the region and forced to sell their houses as locals protest in most cases. Hindutva activists, who fuel these protests, use unsubstantiated allegations like ‘land jihad’, ‘offering Namas’ and planning to build mosques, to justify their protests. Muslims are often confined to certain areas, and this reduces their access to better services and opportunities.

In September 2024, a young Muslim bought a house in a predominantly Hindu area of ​​Bharatiya Colony in Muzaffarnagar, but he had to sell it within a few months. Property dealer in Muzaffarnagar and head of the Awami Hind Party, Rao Nadeems, said that he bought a flat from a Hindu man, but after some local Hindus protested and made untrue allegations, he was forced to sell it.

Nadeem was actually trying to help his friend Ashok Bharti, who was having financial difficulty and belonged to the Valmiki community. Bharti wanted to sell his flat, but no one was willing to buy the house due to prevailing caste discrimination in the region. Nadeem then bought the flat through an open bank auction to help him.

However, this purchase came at a huge cost to Nadeem. Not just the financial cost. It also caused him mental trauma. Nadeem said that someone broke and entered the house, destroying the front door, and attacked the workers there one day.

Local Hindus, who claimed to be part of right-wing organisations, told The Quint that they will not allow a Muslim to live there, no matter what.

Nadeem said that the chances of a riot were very high then. Right-wing groups made allegations that he offered prayers in the flat, carried weapons with him, and was aiming to build a mosque and a madrasa there. The Hindu assailants damaged properties belonging to him, and finally, he decided to sell the flat at a huge loss.

In a similar case in Punjab Pura, Bareilly, a Muslim woman named Shabnam bought a flat from Vishal Saxena on July 12, 2024. Both families had helped each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. The flat is near a Sufi shrine, and Muslim families live nearby.

However, soon after the purchase, local Hindus protested. They threatened in a way that if Muslims move in, they will not be able to live peacefully.

However, Shabnam’s brother, Naseem Bashiri and the seller of the flat, Vishal Saxena, said that they had followed due process in the sale of the flat. They also argued that the Hindutva ‘protests’ were creating hatred in the community. However, the Hindu groups accused them of waging ‘land jihad’. They said that it would be a problem if Muslims settled there.

Saxena, who sold the property, stood up for the family. On August 21, 2024, he wrote a letter to the police. He said that locals, in collaboration with Hindutva organisations, had made false allegations about the sale and threatened a group settlement of Hindus in the area from nearby neighbourhoods to disrupt communal harmony. He also wrote that the allegations against Naseem’s family were baseless.

Naseem and his family are now in a state of uncertainty. They have not been able to move into the flat, nor have they found anyone who will offer a decent price to sell it to.

These anecdotes confirm that Muslims, regardless of the area, location, or social status they live in, face discrimination when looking for a home and are increasingly confined to their own space in the BJP-ruled Hindutva-driven state.