Nuh violence: A gradual build-up, an abject failure of law enforcement, and hidden agendas

Nuh was a powder keg waiting to explode, going by media investigations. The build-up on social media, availability of weapons and strategic choice of targets increasingly point to advance planning. Yet, the palpably incendiary situation on the ground was apparently invisible to the local administration. What’s baffling is the gratuitous violence in and around Gurugram, a city where the only ideology that counts is ease of doing business. Communal violence is rarely spontaneous; passions are deliberately ignited by rumour-mongering or provocative speeches or aggressive displays of religiosity, amplified by social media. Both sides play into the hands of insidious forces looking to stir the pot for their own benefit. The claim that Nuh represents a ‘failure of intelligence’ is correct insofar as the police displayed a remarkable lack of mental capacity. ‘Intel’ was available, according to reports, as the state intelligence agency had informed the police that violence was likely to erupt during the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Brij Mandal Yatra. While earlier yatras had passed off without incident, this year was different. Simmering tensions had come to a boil, and certain elements appear to have been spoiling for a fight. Inflammatory social media content and rumours that the cow vigilante Manu Manesar was participating in the procession, provoked the Mewati Muslims. What happened next, however, appears to have been pre-planned. Going by media reports, the motorcycle-borne youth who converged on the yatra were armed not just with sticks and stones, but with revolvers and crude bombs. Shooters were strategically placed on the surrounding highlands. The subsequent attack on the Cyber Crime police station was clearly neither spur of the moment, nor random. How did Nuh (formerly Mewat), which has historically been free of communal tension despite a high proportion of Muslims, become polarised? The Meos, who are believed to have converted to Islam under the influence of Sufi saints from the Ghaznavi invasions (1001-1027 CE) onwards, co-existed peacefully for centuries, while hanging on to Hindu traditions and maintaining a liberal ethos. But in the 1990s, external elements from both sides of the religious divide began fomenting mistrust and violence. The hapless cow was at the centre of it all. The day after the Babri Masjid demolition, a politician associated with the Janata Dal put forth rumours that Hindus had distributed sweets in Nuh. Hoodlums imported into the district went on a rampage in the villages, torching temples. Some of them put together a mob to attack a goshala, burning one cow alive and driving out the rest. Then, as now, the police allowed the violence. Post-facto, they came down on the denizens of Nuh like a tonne of bricks. Cut to 2014, when the death of a youth in a road accident sparked a riot in Tauru town near Gurugram. By this time, according to Economic and Political Weekly, “intrusion of petrodollars from some Muslim countries, especially Saudi Arabia” had led to “a string of mosques and madrasas” in Mewat. The article quoted a social activist as saying that radicalisation was distancing the Meo community from contemporary social and political trends, and retrogressive attitudes were taking hold, to the detriment of female education and freedoms. By 2020, the VHP and Bajrang Dal had become active in Mewat. Claiming atrocities against members of the majority community and a thriving illegal beef trade in the region, they pressured chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar to put protective measures in place. Cow vigilantism escalated, and resentment festered. The police attempted to defuse the situation by conducting ‘awareness drives’ and holding village-level meetings at which residents agreed to boycott those involved in the illegal trade. But the murder of alleged cow smugglers early this year intensified anger against the VHP and by extension, the BJP government. In addition to the cow slaughter ban, the recent crackdown on cybercrime in Nuh — believed to have been involved in 28,000 cases of cyber fraud totalling Rs 100 crore — had infuriated the Mewati youth. Some 40 villages were raided and 125 hackers detained. Nothing stokes resentment like a loss of livelihood, be it through legal or illegal means. The stage was set for violence. The timing of the Nuh riots has led to speculation that it amounts to chunaav ka tanaav. While religious polarisation generally benefits the BJP by consolidating Hindu votes, such a strategy is unlikely in this case. Because here, polarisation is along caste lines: Jat vs non-Jat. The Opposition’s Jat leadership stands to benefit by pointing out that if they had been in charge, the breakdown in law and order would not have occurred. Maintaining peace in Gurugram, home to a plethora of MNCs, is an imperative for any government in Haryana. If the government per se had nothing to gain from the communal violence, why did the police fail to take pre-emptive or prompt action? They certainly had access to social media content showing gas cylinders and other explosive material, while threatening to ‘burn everything’. The parallels with the North-East Delhi riots are striking. Violence was preceded by incendiary speeches from both sides and provocative social media posts; petrol bombs, stones and other weapons stockpiled, and security personnel targeted. Freedom of speech and the right to public assembly gives miscreants on both sides a free run. And social media, as French President Emmanuel Macron observed during the riots in Paris, play a “considerable role” in encouraging acts of violence. Religious conflicts usually have three elements in common: A gradual build-up, an abject failure of law enforcement and hidden agendas. The violence in Mewat is marked by all three. But we still don’t know what lies beneath. The author is a freelance writer and author of Gurus: Stories of India’s Leading Babas and Just Transferred: The Untold Story of Ashok Khemka_. A journalist since 1986, she has written extensively on national politics._ Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._ Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.