The Question is... Why Are Hate Crimes Going Unchecked in India?
Be our strength and support our Uncovering Hate project.
Dear Reader,
A few days back, The Quint's special correspondent Himanshi Dahiya received a shocking tip-off — that a gram panchayat in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district has passed a resolution barring any new Muslim voters from being registered in their village.
Though localised, it was an attempt to disenfranchise an entire community and showed how widespread communal hatred had become.
Even as the problem now runs deep, the question is... How did it become so normalised?
A big reason for the spread of communalism is the impunity that communal actors enjoy. They are convinced that they can kill someone in the name of religion and get away with it, they can make a hate speech or attack a place of worship and get away with it.
This is why we at The Quint believe that it is important to document each hate crime, identify the perpetrators and their methods, and raise questions at every point.
As part of The Quint's Uncovering Hate project, we have prepared a tracker that will give you verified information about hate crimes that have taken place. You can check out the tracker HERE.
If you click on any of the incidents listed, you will be able to get details on what exactly happened in each of these cases.
We have received an excellent response to our initiative so far with several public figures like scholar Ramchandra Guha and actor Sushant Singh sharing our tracker on their social media handles.
But documentation is only one part of the Uncovering Hate project. It is also important to hold a mirror to people who make hate speeches. Take for instance, my colleague Aliza Noor's report about the communally loaded speeches made by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma or Eshwar's story on Maharashtra MLA Nitesh Rane who went to the extent of saying "Masjid mein ghus kar chun chun kar marenge" (We will enter mosques and kill everyone one by one).
When it comes to reporting on communalism, The Quint has a solid track record. Our investigation into the 2020 Northeast Delhi Violence was cited in court and it forced the Delhi Police to go back on a key part of their theory.
In this space, we have released in-depth documentaries on a number of themes such as rising communalism in Uttarakhand, detention camps in Assam, misuse of the anti-conversion law in Uttar Pradesh, the rise of cow vigilantes in North India and the plight of people who were acquitted after suffering in jail for over a decade under anti-terror laws.
This is a big deal for a small newsroom like ours. Be our strength in this and support our Uncovering Hate project. It will help sustain our Hate Crime Tracker and help us do more investigations and documentaries that raise the right questions about communal violence and impunity.
Thank you,
ADITYA MENON
Editor, Politics
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Where is this country heading? We travel overseas with peace missions, without any standing or locus standing,when own country is burning with communal violence,all over the country .