Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew in parts of a western Indian city on Tuesday, a day after violent sectarian clashes were provoked by aggressive Hindu nationalist groups who wanted to demolish the tomb of a 17th-century Muslim Mughal ruler.
Clashes erupted when a Hindu nationalist mob in Maharashtra state’s Nagpur city launched a violent protest demanding the demolition of the tomb of Aurangzeb, a Muslim Mughal ruler who has been dead for more than 300 years.
Lawmaker Chandrashekhar Bawankule said at least 34 police personnel and five other people were injured and several houses and vehicles were damaged during the violence. Senior police officer Ravinder Singal said at least 50 people have been arrested so far.
Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra’s top elected official, attempted to justify the violence, claiming it began after “rumours were spread that things containing religious content were burnt” by the protesters, referring to the Quran.
Aurangzeb’s tomb is in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar city, some 500 kilometres (310 miles) from Nagpur. The city was earlier called Aurangabad, after the Mughal ruler.
Aurangzeb is a loathed figure among India’s Hindu nationalists, who accuse him of persecuting Hindus during his rule in the 17th century, even though some historians say such stories are exaggerated.
As tensions have escalated under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Muslims have faced increasing hostility and persecution.
Modi has repeatedly invoked Aurangzeb in speeches, accusing him of targeting Hindus, fueling resentment and hostility towards India’s Muslim minority.
Such inflammatory remarks have heightened anxieties among the country’s significant Muslim minority, who in recent years have endured escalating violence and oppression at the hands of emboldened Hindu nationalist groups. Modi has largely remained silent on these attacks since first coming to power in 2014.
While there have long been tensions between India’s majority Hindu community and Muslims, rights groups say that attacks against minorities have become more brazen under Modi. They also accuse Modi of discriminatory policies towards the country’s Muslims.
Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party denies this.
Hindu extremist groups have repeatedly targeted Muslim places of worship across the country, aggressively laying claim to several famous mosques and calling for their demolition, claiming they were built on the ruins of prominent temples. Many such cases are pending in courts.
