Last year, Imaad Hassan moved from New Delhi’s posh, Hindu-dominated Sarita Vihar neighborhood to Abul Fazal Enclave – a Muslim-majority area that has long struggled with poor access to water and electricity.
“I moved from a closed society to a ghetto for my own safety,” he says.
Why we wrote this
What makes a room safe for Indian Muslims? Amid escalating violence and recent demolitions, many are seeking safety in Delhi’s predominantly Muslim enclaves. But ghettoization comes with risks.
Since the right-wing Bharatiya Janata party came to power, there have been increasing reports of hate crimes against religious minorities. In recent months, authorities have bulldozed Muslim homes, mosques and shops, often under the guise of anti-burglary campaigns.
The normalization of Hindu nationalism and anti-Muslim violence has led many Delhi residents to seek refuge in the city’s Muslim enclaves, which are widely stigmatized as lawless or unclean, but provide a relatively safe space to express their religious identity. express. Although the government today does not explicitly force Muslims to live in these areas, they are commonly referred to as “ghettos” because of the challenges the residents face and the pressure Muslims experience to settle there.
But Nazima Parveen, author of “Contested Homelands: Politics of Space and Identity,” worries that in the long run, this segregation will only help Hindu nationalism grow. “Hindus will also be unwilling to live in areas dominated by Muslims, just as Muslims look for areas dominated by their own species,” she says. “Such developments will have a very dangerous impact on the social fabric.”
New Delhi
Eight months ago, Imaad Hassan moved from New Delhi’s posh, Hindu-dominated Sarita Vihar neighborhood to Abul Fazal Enclave – a riverside area that has long struggled with poor access to water and electricity.
“I moved from a closed society to a ghetto for my own safety,” he says. “Every time the news brought events of clashes between Hindus and Muslims, my neighbors stopped responding to my greetings. Only Allah knows what would have happened if I had stayed there.”
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, there have been increasing reports of hate crimes against religious minorities. At the same time, BJP leaders have developed new laws and policies restricting interfaith marriage and Muslim immigration. And in recent months, bulldozers have become a symbol of Hindu nationalist groups as authorities raze Muslim homes, mosques and shops under the guise of anti-burglary campaigns, government campaigns that claim to demolish illegal or unauthorized buildings.
Why we wrote this
What makes a room safe for Indian Muslims? Amid escalating violence and recent demolitions, many are seeking safety in Delhi’s predominantly Muslim enclaves. But ghettoization comes with risks.
Amid all this, many Delhi residents are leaving the mixed-population areas for the city’s Muslim enclaves, which often lack basic amenities and are widely stigmatized as lawless or unclean. Experts say Hindutva — an ideology that promotes Hindu hegemony — has become so mainstream that Muslims are forced to choose between expressing their religious identity and their security.
Regarding Hindutva groups: “their constant messages” [is] this is our country,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a journalist who has written several books on Indian politics. “Muslims can stay here, but as long as they are invisible. You don’t offer namaz [prayers] on roads you don’t wear a hijab, but you are invisible.”
The temporary refuge offered by Muslim-majority areas comes at a price, experts warn, but Hassan says the compromises are worth it. “I don’t have to worry about being a Muslim in a ghetto,” he says. “I don’t have to worry about being socially boycotted.”
The Rise of the Ghettos of Delhi
Delhi’s Muslim enclaves have a long history, many dating back to Partition or to a 1970s “city beautification” drive, and they’ve always carried a stigma — though the nature of that stigma has evolved over time, according to Nazima. Parveen, independent researcher and author of “Contested Homelands: Politics of Space and Identity.” First they were seen as areas where the government could control and protect the Muslim population, then as unsanitary and culturally deprived slums, and later as hiding places for terrorists.
Although the government does not explicitly force Muslims to live in these areas today, they are commonly referred to as “ghettos” because of the stigmas and challenges faced by residents, as well as the pressure Muslims experience to settle there. For example, landlords in Hindu-majority areas are not always willing to rent out to Muslim families.
dr. Parveen worries that this continued segregation — forced or voluntary — will inevitably help Hindu nationalism grow. “Hindus will also be unwilling to live in areas dominated by Muslims, just as Muslims look for areas dominated by their own species,” she says. “Such developments will have a very dangerous impact on the social fabric.”
The ghettoization of Muslims also makes their communities more vulnerable to physical, targeted attacks, as evidenced by recent demolitions.
In April, Jahangirpuri resident Mohammed Haseeb witnessed the demolition of the front gate and wall of a local mosque. A Hindu temple about 100 meters away was spared. It was one of several recent anti-invasion campaigns in the area, typically following clashes between Muslims and Hindus.
“In ghettos they come to bulldoze our houses and shops. Outside ghettos they harass Muslims because they just exist,” he says. “My skullcap, my beard and even my name attract angry looks.”
Power in numbers
Rizwan Ansari moved to Shaheen Bagh, a Muslim enclave, in 2018 after living in a Hindu-dominated town in southwest Delhi for nine years.
“I don’t dress Islamically so I could somehow manage, but my wife is a practicing Muslim who wears the hijab. It would be difficult for her to be safe in a Hindu majority area,” he explains. “Every day there is a new hate crime against Muslims. Every day we learn how much we are hated in our own country.”
However, the life of the couple in Shaheen Bagh has not been completely peaceful. As in Jahangirpuri, a bulldozer drove into a busy street in Shaheen Bagh shortly before noon on May 9. But unlike the April incident, this bulldozer withdrew after hundreds of residents and opposition party members surrounded the vehicle and blocked it from its target.
It is not the first time that the neighborhood has become the nerve center of protests against anti-Muslim discrimination. Critics believe the demolition attempt in May was in retaliation for a series of demonstrations in 2019 and 2020, when residents of Shaheen Bagh demanded the repeal of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, which created a pathway to citizenship for non-Muslims living in neighboring countries. fled.
Mr Ansari says that despite this chaos, living where Muslims are in the majority gives a sense of security. “Even if anti-Muslim groups attacked, we would certainly have our own community supporting us,” he says.
In a nearby neighborhood called Batla House, mechanical engineer Sanaullah Akbar sees ghettos as spaces where Muslims can live without fear, even if these areas lack infrastructure or attract hostility.
And he feels he is not alone – Mr Akbar says the population in the surrounding ghettos appears to have doubled in recent years.
“We will certainly witness the emergence of new Islamic ghettos,” he says. “I would always choose a run-down Muslim ghetto instead of living in a prosperous area of Muslim minorities.”