Victimhood in a Time of Crisis: Muslims and the Riots of 2020 in New Delhi, India

Ankur Datta, South Asian University

Research Grant, 2020

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This project explores how victimhood is expressed by Muslims during a time of violence. It studies the case of a communal riot between Hindus and Muslims that took place between February 23 and 29, 2020, in the Indian capital of New Delhi. While limited to northeastern New Delhi, this was the first communal riot in the city since 1984. Northeast Delhi is home to Hindus and Muslims who inhabit the socioeconomic margins of the city. Muslim citizens occupy a difficult position as a national minority in the face of majoritarian Hindu nationalism in India, and they faced greater losses of life and property in the riots. The riots were followed by legal cases where many witnesses were presented as perpetrators of violence, and by the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown that was implemented by the Indian state.

The project was based on one year of data collection (2021–2022), which involved visits and observation of sites in northeast Delhi; interviews with witnesses, victims of violence, activists, social workers and legal professionals; collection of media reports in English, Hindi, and Urdu as well as fact-finding reports published by civil society groups; and observation of court trials related to the riots.

Concepts of victimhood and injustice are significant in expressing how life for Muslims was affected during and after the riots.

The key findings of the study are reflected in the following themes:

1. Victimhood: 

Among Muslims in the study there is an overwhelming sense of victimhood that has followed actual loss of life or property. This emerges in statements from activists, social workers, and Urdu-language media where concepts of victimhood and injustice are significant in expressing how life for Muslims was affected during and after the riots. For respondents from northeast Delhi directly affected by the riots, this sentiment is tempered by concerns of everyday survival, first in the aftermath of the riot, quickly followed by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic hardship resulting from lockdowns. Even in the present, when life is ostensibly peaceful and economic activities have resumed with the easing of pandemic restrictions, there are concerns regarding economic insecurity. In that sense, riot victims deal with several crises. Some respondents who faced physical violence and had long medical recoveries continue to face difficulties.

2. Victimhood in Public Sites: Law and Media:  

Urdu-language media emphasize losses and suffering of Muslim communities. Hindi-language media present the riots as resulting from an alleged conspiracy by some activists, and focus on acts of violence committed by Muslims in the riots. Hence, Muslim victims have to contend with their presentation in public as perpetrators, not victims. English-language media purports to balance both Hindu and Muslim narratives. In court, Muslims face trial as perpetrators and so have to prove their victimhood. Hence in public spaces, Muslim victims find their experiences doubted and have to prove their condition.

3. Mistrust: 

As a minority affected by violence, there is mistrust among research subjects. There is a mistrust of state institutions such as the police, which are accused of not preventing the riots. Victims seeking compensation from the state for losses in the riots have found the process time consuming. The length of time in courts or in settling compensation has resulted in a mistrust of state institutions and suffering in terms of a suspension of everyday life. Communities in northeast Delhi are observed to also have become more segregated along communitarian lines, implying a loss of trust between Muslims and Hindus in the areas affected.