Religious violence in India
[16] Ancient text Ashokavadana, a part of the Divyavadana, mention a non-Buddhist in Pundravardhana drew a picture showing the Buddha bowing at the feet of Nirgrantha Jnatiputra (identified with Mahavira, 24th Tirthankara of Jainism).
[17] According to K. T. S. Sarao and Benimadhab Barua, stories of persecutions of rival sects by Ashoka appear to be a clear fabrication arising out of sectarian propaganda.
[18][19][20] The Divyavadana (divine stories), an anthology of Buddhist mythical tales on morals and ethics, many using talking birds and animals, was written in about 2nd century AD.
"[23] Following his quest for Jihad against the infidels of India, Mahmud of Ghazni not only ruined the Somnath temple and plundered its treasures but also killed every devotee present in the town.
[26][27] The first inquisitors, Aleixo Dias Falcão and Francisco Marques, established themselves in what was formerly the king of Goa's palace, forcing the Portuguese viceroy to relocate to a smaller residence.
During the Goa Inquisition, described as "contrary to humanity" by anti-clerical Voltaire,[28] conversion efforts were practiced en masse and tens of thousands of Goan people converted to Catholicism between 1561 and 1774.
[40][41] The British colonial era, since the 18th century, portrayed and treated Hindus and Muslims as two divided groups, both in cultural terms and for the purposes of governance.
[42] The British favoured Muslims in the early period of colonial rule to gain influence in Mughal India, but underwent a shift in policies after the 1857 rebellion.
[50][51] After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British colonial government followed a divide-and-rule policy, exploiting existing differences between communities, to prevent similar revolts from taking place.
With British authority gone, the newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal with migrations of such staggering magnitude, and massive violence and slaughter occurred on both sides of the border along communal lines.
The aftermath of the Partition of India in 1947 to create a separate Islamic state of Pakistan for Muslims, saw large scale religious violence and bloodshed throughout the nation.
[63][64] In Indira Gandhi's attempt to "save democracy" through the Emergency, India's constitution was suspended, 140,000 people were arrested without due process, of which 40,000 were Sikhs.
[65] After the Emergency was lifted, during elections, she supported Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Jathedar (leader) of the Damdami Taksal, in an effort to undermine the Akali Dal, the largest Sikh political party.
However, Bhindranwale began to oppose the central government and moved his political base to the Darbar Sahib (Golden temple) in Amritsar, demanding creation on Punjab as a new country.
[63] In June 1984, under orders from Indira Gandhi, the Indian Army attacked the Golden temple with Vijayanta tanks and armoured vehicles, due to the presence of Sikh Khalistanis armed with weapons inside.
[68] Human Rights Watch also stated that the Indian Government's response "led to the arbitrary detention, torture, extrajudicial execution, and enforced disappearance of thousands of Sikhs".
On 4 Dec 2000, nearly three months after his death, an ashram set up by Shanti Kali at Chachu Bazar near the Sidhai police station was raided by Christian militants belonging to the NLFT.
In September 2008, Swami Laxmanananda, a popular regional Hindu Guru was murdered along with four of his disciples by unknown assailants (though a Maoist organisation later claimed responsibility for that[78][79]).
[87] Three years later, during the 2013 Canning riots, several hundred Hindu businesses were targeted and destroyed by Islamist mobs in the Indian state of West Bengal.
[98][99] A similar case took place in Gujrat in January 2022 where Kishan Bharvad was murdered for making an allegedly blasphemous social media post on Muhammad on the directive of a Muslim cleric.
[102] In early 1990, local Urdu newspapers Aftab and Al Safa called upon Kashmiris to wage jihad against India and ordered the expulsion of all Hindus choosing to remain in Kashmir.
[102] Since March 1990, estimates of between 300,000 and 500,000 pandits have migrated outside Kashmir[103] due to persecution by Islamic fundamentalists in the largest case of ethnic cleansing since the partition of India.
[116] In the aftermath of the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya by Hindu nationalists on 6 December 1992, riots took place between Hindus and Muslims in the city of Mumbai.
According to New York Times reporter Celia Williams Dugger, witnesses were dismayed by the lack of intervention from local police, who often watched the events taking place and took no action against the attacks on Muslims and their property.
[128][129] The 2020 Delhi riots, which left more than 40 dead and hundreds injured, were triggered by protests against a Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 seen by many critics as anti-Muslim and part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist agenda.
[130][131][132] In recent years, anti-Muslim violence in India has increased seriously due to the Hindutva ideology[133] where citizens with other religious beliefs are tolerated but have second‐class status.
In 2003, a Bajrang Dal activist, Dara Singh, was convicted of leading the gang that murdered Graham Staines and his sons, and was sentenced to life in prison.
[150] Among Indian Muslim communities, atheists worry of backlash, they and their families may face social boycott and ostracism including stopping them in participation of funerary rites of their dear ones.
[152] On 15 March 2007, a bounty of ₹700,000 (equivalent to ₹2.1 million or US$24,000 in 2023) was announced on atheist[153] Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin, while living in India, by a Muslim cleric named Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan for allegedly writing derogatory statements about Muhammad in her work.
[8] The 2007 Amnesty International report listed several issues concern in India and noted Justice and rehabilitation continued to evade most victims of the 2002 Gujarat communal violence.
