In Uttar Pradesh, any reason will do to harass Muslims

It is a sign of our vitiated times that a Muslim shopkeeper in UP’s Bulandshahr district was hauled up by the police for selling shoes embossed with the word ‘Thakur’. The charge was that he was inciting communal disharmony by using the name of a high caste group in a disrespectful manner. The UP police did not take action against the shopkeeper on its own, though going by its record and reputation, it would not have been disinclined to do so.

It was apparently the Bajrang Dal in a small town in the district that discovered the potential for communal trouble that the shopkeeper’s act had, and in the interest of maintaining peace in the district, men from the outfit went to the shop and handed him over to the police. The police realised the gravity of the situation and booked the man under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for promoting disharmony, voluntarily causing hurt and causing insult to provoke breach of peace.

The story had a happy ending, at least for the shopkeeper, because the ‘offensive’ word was embossed on the shoes by their manufacturer, and the shopkeeper was only selling them as he received them. Since there was no evidence to prove that the man was up to mischief and was promoting disharmony, he was eventually let off. It turned out that the manufacturer was in the business for three generations and the Thakur brand, named after the present owner’s grandfather, was in circulation for many years.

He is not ready to change the name of the brand, which has stood the test of time, even if he is told to. The whole incident raises uncomfortable questions about our society and politics and shows where we are now and where we are heading.

Why is it that a caste name on the shoe becomes incendiary when a Muslim sells it and not when others do it? Shopkeepers have sold the Thakur footwear in UP and perhaps elsewhere for decades without anyone kicking up any dust. Why weren’t other shopkeepers not reported to the police and why is the manufacturer now not charged with trampling over the community’s honour? The communal shoe was actually on the other foot, and those who complained against the shopkeeper were targeting him not for what he sold but for who he was – a Muslim.

Are we reaching a situation where to have a certain name is to invite trouble and the attention of the police, whatever the bearer of the name does? Gujarat was once considered to be the laboratory of Hindutva. Its field trials are now happening in UP. We are also seeing the processes being tried and tested there taken elsewhere for use and nurture, to India’s shame and damnation.