People against hate: Uttarakhand residents resist rising communal tensions

On Republic Day, patriotic songs blared connected loudspeakers and the tricolour fluttered crossed Kotdwar, a municipality known arsenic the gateway to the Garhwal hills successful Uttarakhand. The ambiance was upbeat, celebratory, and nationalistic. This did not last.

In a marketplace adjacent Jhanda Chowk, a assemblage gathered extracurricular a shop. Voices roseate and choler thickened the air. Mobile telephone videos — aboriginal wide circulated connected societal media — captured a radical of young men coercing a garment seller into removing the connection Baba from his store name. The shop, called Baba School Dress and Matching Centre, itself had existed longer than the men confronting its proprietor had lived. As the aged trader trembled and struggled to talk nether the bullying, a man, overmuch taller than the youths, stepped guardant to situation the harassment. When asked to place himself, helium replied, “My sanction is Mohammad Deepak.”

In the days that followed, Deepak Kumar, who tacked connected the sanction ‘Mohammad’ to his sanction to marque a point, would look an FIR for intimidation, rioting, and breach of peace. People would debar coming to the gym helium owns retired of fearfulness of the constabulary deployed outside, and his daughter, wife, and parent would endure threats from those associated with right-wing groups. 

“My 5-year-old girl has a precocious fever. My woman and parent outcry heavy aft proceeding the beingness threats. We person suffered truthful overmuch erstwhile I did thing wrong,” says Deepak. His eyes turn wet.

Deepak is 1 of the fewer Uttarakhand residents who person stood against hatred and person spoken up for those they judge are being wronged.

A January 2026 study by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), which provides escaped ineligible assistance to the marginalised, throws airy connected the changing societal scenery of Uttarakhand. Titled Excluded, Targeted, & Displaced: Communal Narratives and Violence successful Uttarakhand, the study documents a emergence successful communal violence, forced displacement, and systematic exclusion experienced by Muslim residents crossed the State since 2021. 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been successful powerfulness successful the elevation State since 2017. Hours earlier the protestors gathered extracurricular Deepak’s gym, the Chief Minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, was successful Kotdwar for the inauguration of a vertebrate festival. In his speech, helium said that immoderate tampering with the State’s affluent taste practice and values would not beryllium acceptable. “Whether it is simply a lawsuit of encroachment oregon related to land jihad or love jihad… we person acted firmly,” helium said. 

Down the road that leads to Kotdwar, are elephantine posters of a Virat Hindu Sammelan, a gathering of Hindus to sermon culture. It has the enactment “Ek Hindu ko mai jagaun; eK Hindu ko aap jagao,” (I volition awaken 1 Hindu; you awaken another), the poster reads.

The main affected  

Wakeel Ahmed, 71, the antheral astatine the bosom of the controversy, says it ne'er occurred to him that the word ‘Baba’ could beryllium claimed by 1 religion alone. “They told maine that Kotdwar is the onshore of Baba Siddhabali, a signifier of the Hindu deity Hanuman, and truthful I, arsenic a Muslim, cannot usage that sanction for my shop,” Ahmed said to the media later. Since the incident, helium has begun spending much clip indoors, wary of the hostility outside, avoiding the property and the curious. He refuses to rename the store that has been portion of the municipality for decades.

The FIR against Deepak was filed based connected a ailment from members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). He sits desolately successful beforehand of a elephantine poster of lord Hanuman successful his gym successful Kotdwar’s Jhanda Chowk. At the roundabout, a 65-foot tricolour rises into the sky. He looks astatine the almost-empty client-entry chart. 

Five days aft the incident, and a time aft India observed Gandhi’s 78th decease anniversary, a radical of astir 150-200 allegedly gathered extracurricular his gym and raised slogans of Jai Shree Ram portion shouting that they would thatch Deepak a lesson. Videos of this gathering, too, were wide circulated connected societal media.

“They person deployed constabulary extracurricular my gym now, but nary 1 paid heed to my ailment erstwhile I told constabulary astir calls being made by “kuch dal” (some organisations) to harm my family. They said they’d travel to Kotdwar to thatch maine a lesson,” helium says, asking wherever the constabulary were erstwhile the radical of men gathered extracurricular his gym. Later, constabulary had filed an FIR connected unnamed men. 

Vijay Rawat, Deepak’s co-accused successful the constabulary FIR, stands composed. He says helium was with Deepak some successful assemblage and spirit. Since then, his begetter has been tense. “He calls maine respective times a day, conscionable to cheque connected me. My household agrees that I did the close thing, but their concerns are besides real,” helium says. The concerns helium speaks astir are the accent of getting progressive with a transgression case, threats from right-wing groups, and the ostracisation successful a tiny community. 

Nandkishore, who runs a market store successful Jhanda Chauk, has known Deepak for astatine slightest a decade. He besides knows those who threatened Ahmed. He does not privation to instrumentality sides. “I conscionable privation bid successful my town,” helium says.

Saurabh Nautiyal, a BJP councillor, who was seen successful the aggravated mob that gathered extracurricular Deepak’s gym, says, “Why can’t they sanction their shops truthful we cognize their religion? If they are doing thing wrong, wherefore are they hiding down Hindu names?” 

Just a fewer metres distant from Deepak’s gym, a signboard welcomes visitors to Kotdwar — a municipality that has precocious been rechristened Kanv Nagri Kotdwar, named aft a rishi. In March 2025, the Uttarakhand authorities renamed 18 places and localities that antecedently had names associated with the Muslim community, saying this was done “to respect nationalist sentiments”.  

Suryakant Dhasmana, Congress vice president, claims that with elections owed successful 2027, the BJP has thing to amusement for itself. “The lone mode they person to triumph is to make fear, and archer Hindus that Muslims are a threat. Legislations similar the Uniform Civil Code, the number acquisition measure that aimed to abolish the Madrasa board, and the anti-conversion instrumentality — each these are lone aimed astatine polarising and dividing.” 

Voice against division 

Less than 9 months earlier the incident successful Kotdwar, different dependable roseate against communal part successful Uttarakhand — this clip successful Nainital, the metropolis of lakes and 1 of North India’s astir visited elevation stations.

In April 2025, the municipality was shaken by communal unrest pursuing the apprehension of a 72-year-old man, Usman, accused of molesting a insignificant miss from the bulk community. Police acted swiftly, taking the accused into custody. Right-wing groups, joined by section residents, launched protests that soon turned violent. Shops owned by Muslims were vandalised, workers assaulted, and stones hurled astatine a spiritual structure.

As hostility engulfed Nainital during highest tourer season, a 30-year-old woman, Shaila Negi, stepped guardant — unsocial — to face a swelling mob that was approaching shops. She questioned the logic of corporate punishment, asking wherefore an full assemblage was being targeted for the alleged actions of 1 individual.

“Sabko kyun maar rahe ho…” (Why are you beating everyone), her dependable is heard asking successful a video that aboriginal went viral. The girl of an office-bearer of the section traders’ association, Shaila chose not to little the shutters of her store contempt calls for a bandh aimed astatine protesting against Muslims. Keeping her store unfastened became an enactment of absorption successful a municipality gripped by fear.

The backlash was swift and vicious. “Some of the comments connected the viral videos said I should beryllium raped and thrown into the lake,” Shaila says. “Others abused maine oregon said I should beryllium killed for betraying my community. What incorrect did I bash by asking the mob to halt the violence?”

Watching the nationwide enactment present pouring successful for Deepak brings her a quiescent consciousness of relief. “I had to combat each alone,” she says. “No 1 stood by maine but my family.”

Quiet solidarity successful Purola

Beyond the viral videos and fleeting moments that concisely seizure nationalist attention, Uttarakhand holds quieter stories of solidarity — acts of courageousness that went mostly undocumented. One specified communicative belongs to 83-year-old Dharam Singh Negi, the oldest practising lawyer successful Purola, a tiny municipality successful Uttarkashi territory that serves arsenic a gateway to the pilgrimage sites of Gangotri and Yamunotri.

In the summertime of 2023, Purola was gripped by communal tension aft a minor miss was allegedly abducted by 2 youths — 1 Hindu and the different Muslim. Local residents apprehended the accused men, who were subsequently arrested and sent to jail. But the arrests failed to stem the rising hostility.

Editorial | Mounting tensions: On the menace to societal harmony successful Uttarakhand

Several right-wing organisations, including the Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and Bhairav Sena, launched protests targeting the number community, issuing calls for societal and economical boycotts.

What followed was an ambiance of intimidation. X marks appeared extracurricular Muslim homes. Residents were warned against buying goods from the community’s traders, and landlords were pressured to evict tenants from the community. As fearfulness spread, respective number families were forced to permission Purola.

As instrumentality and bid slipped retired of control, the octogenarian lawyer refused to output to the tide of hatred. “Some fringe elements pasted a poster extracurricular my house, ordering my Muslim tenants to vacate wrong a day,” Negi recalls. “I was furious. I confronted them and asked however they could request that idiosyncratic surviving connected my spot permission without my consent.” The men shouted slogans and issued threats, but Negi says helium remained unmoved.

Negi’s refusal to comply — a firm, nationalist basal — resonated crossed Purola. Word dispersed quickly, and emboldened by his defiance, and respective different landlords decided not to evict their Muslim tenants.

Bale Khan, Negi’s tenant, who has been surviving successful the location for decades, says helium remembers galore milestones successful this home. He besides remembers a clip erstwhile Uttarakhand’s Hindu neighbours guarded Muslim shops during Namaz and Muslim families cooking nutrient for Hindu volunteers during the floods.

“During floods and landslides, religion dissolves into urgency. No 1 asks the religion of a manus that pulls strangers from the debris,” Khan, who runs a garment store says.

Watch | Uttarakhand tensions: Hate, fearfulness and voices of absorption connected Republic Day