No Namaz, No Salaam: Muslims in Modern India Forced to Self-Censor
On Twitter, Indian Muslims can openly discuss what this atmosphere of religious hatred means in their daily lives.
Producer: Vatsala Singh
Camera: Athar Rather
Video Editor: Kunal Mehra
Taking a cue from her conversation with a friend, former NSUI member Angellica Aribam took to Twitter on 23 July to explain how the air in India has turned poisonous and forced Muslims to change their basic way of living.
The Twitter thread started when Aribam explained how a friend had stopped carrying mutton in his lunch box for fear of being lynched.
Indian Muslims expressed their anxieties on the same Twitter thread.
Merely bearing a Muslim identity – like greeting parents with a “salaam” to wearing a “Kurta pyjama” for reading namaz on Fridays – is to invite life-threatening consequences from bigoted mobs, according to many who responded.
On 27 July, after the story was published, historian Rana Safvi shared her inhibitions about getting mutton delivered to her house after Mohammad Akhlaq’s lynching.
In a bid to avoid raising the ire of mobs, a BTech student narrated an episode in which he was asked by his mother to visit during Eid, only to be later told by his father not to come home because “traveling during Eid is no longer safe”.
People at The Quint read out these tweets. Watch the video.
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