HATE CRIMES FLOURISH
Since 2015, Amnesty International has been tracking hate crimes in India. Its ‘Halt the Hate’ website was started after Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched by a mob in his home in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, on September 28 that year. As if to show how little has changed, last month two Muslim men were filmed being beaten by a mob in Hapur, UP. Qasim, a 45-year-old cattle trader, died of his injuries in hospital. While it seems clear that the men were set upon by cow vigilantes, the police claim it was ‘road rage’ over a motorcycle accident, though they offer no evidence to support such a theory. The second man, 64-year-old Samiuddin, who survived the beating, says the police did not record his statement and, given possible police complicity in hushing up the lynching, he now fears for his safety. Should he take heart from the Supreme Court ruling on July 17 demanding a separate law against lynching, to stop these “horrendous acts of mobocracy”?
98
Hate crimes recorded on Amnesty International’s ‘Halt the Hate’ website in 2018 alone
18
Hate crimes in 2018 in Uttar Pradesh, the most in any state, followed by Gujarat (13) and Rajasthan (8). 138 such crimes in UP since September 28, 2015
80.4%
Of 4,991 communal incidents in India between 2011 and 2017, says ministry of home affairs, occurred in just 7 states: UP (1,094); Karnataka (591); Maharashtra (586); Madhya Pradesh (522); Rajasthan (422); Gujarat (404); Bihar (392)
601
Such ‘incidents’ tabulated on ‘Halt the Hate’ since September 28, 2015
111
Deaths and 2,384 injured in 822 “communal incidents” in 2017, said Hansraj Ahir, MoS for home affairs, in Parliament in February. Up from 644 incidents in 2014, though, under the UPA government, 943 such incidents were recorded in 2008
33
Deaths in 86 incidents of “cow-related violence in India” since 2010, says data journalism website IndiaSpend’s ‘HateCrime Database’. All deaths in 81 incidents from 2015-2018
56%
Of those killed in “cowrelated violence”, says IndiaSpend, are Muslim, 11% Dalit and 9% Hindu