Decoding the Rise in Cases of Economic Boycott of Muslim Vendors

Hate crimes are part of a larger campaign scripted by local Hindu activists, religious leaders, and politicians.

The Big Story Podcast on rising religious violence against Muslim vendors in India. Image used for representation only.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/ The Quint)

In a video that went viral on social media on Sunday, 22 August, a Muslim man named Tasleem Ali, who sells bangles, was brutally beaten up and allegedly robbed by a group of men in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore.

In the video, he can be seen being repeatedly slapped and threatened. The mob is also using derogatory words and is asking him not to sell in a “Hindu area”.

Just two days before the incident in Indore, a similar incident occured, also captured on video, in Rajasthan’s Ajmer, where a Muslim man who apparently came to beg alms was assaulted by another man. In the video, the assailant can be heard telling the beggar to “go back to Pakistan”.

And in another similar incident in Kanpur, a Muslim e-rickshaw driver was thrashed by a mob and allegedly forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ while being paraded through a crowd.

Though incidents like the one in Indore, Ajmer, and Kanpur may seem isolated, they are actually part of a larger campaign for the economic boycott of Muslim vendors in the country.

In this episode, we will analyse how these hate crimes are part of a larger campaign scripted not just by local Hindu activists but by religious leaders and politicians as well.

For this, we spoke to Mohammed Asif Khan, an activist who documents hate crimes against Muslims and Abhilash Mallik, a fact-checker for WebQoof — The Quint’s fact-checking initiative.