As Muslims across India prepare to observe the holy day of Ashura in the Islamic month of Muharram on Tuesday, religious tension between Hindus and Muslims is on the rise in some parts of northern India.
Shiite Muslims, who traditionally hold processions on the 10th day of Muharram to mourn the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, have been forbidden from passing through certain Hindu neighborhoods in New Delhi.
According to Zafarul Islam Khan, head of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, an umbrella organization of Muslim groups based in Delhi, in the Bawana neighborhood of northwest Delhi, a “maha panchayat,” an unelected village council, on Sunday decided that Muslim processions should be banned in public spaces, particularly those with majority Hindu populations.
Heads of nearby villages dominated by the Hindu Jat caste also attended this meeting to affirm their opposition to the public processions, Mr. Khan says members of the Muslim community told him. Members of the village council could not be reached for comment.
Muslims have, in turn, agreed to restrict their processions to a Muslim-dominated residential colony instead of the main market of Bawana, according to a report in the Times of India.
During the Ashura march — also referred to as Muharram — many Muslims weep and inflict wounds on themselves in an expression of grief for the martyrdom of Hussein, Prophet Muhammad’s grandson.
“The Muslims themselves have decided not to take their processions to Hindu areas,” said Mr. Khan, adding, “this is happening for the first time.”
After communal violence broke out in New Delhi following celebrations for the Hindu festivals of Dussehra and Diwali last month, the atmosphere in neighborhoods with mixed Hindu and Muslim populations is still tense, according to a Times of India report.
In the eastern neighborhood of Trilokpuri in the capital, tension over the construction of a platform for Hindu gatherings close to a mosque led to low intensity violence for several days, culminating in three days of riots that ended Oct. 26.
There is an ongoing conflict over public space, said Mr. Khan, which leads to small incidents of communal tension across the country.
“In my childhood, everyone took part in the [Muharram] processions,” he said, adding that increasing polarization between Hindus and Muslims have turned festivals into a point of communal tension.
Processions for Muharram often begin a few days before the 10th day, which falls on Tuesday this year. On Sunday, authorities imposed curfew-like restrictions in most parts of Srinagar, the Muslim-majority summer capital of the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, to prevent religious processions of Shiite Muslims on the eighth day of Muharram, according to a report in Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency.
via Religious Tension Escalates in North India Ahead of Muharram – India Real Time – WSJ.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 