India Saw Highest Levels Of Religious Hostilities During COVID-19 Lockdown: Pew Research Center

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 20202, India witnessed the highest level of religious hostilities, according to think tank Pew Research Center’s report published on Tuesday.

With a score of 9.4 out of 10 on the Social Hostilities Index in 2020, India fared worst than its neighbours Pakistan (7.5) and Afghanistan (8), said the think tank’s 13th annual study.

The centre calculates the Social Hostilities Index on 13 questions that measure hostilities both between and within religious groups, including mob or sectarian violence, crimes motivated by religious bias, physical conflict over conversions, harassment for attire for religious reasons, and other religion-related intimidation and violence.

The report said that Islamophobic hashtags like #CoronaJihad circulated widely on social media in India, seeking to blame Muslims for the virus.

There were multiple reports of Muslims being attacked after being accused of spreading the coronavirus, it added.

In India, thousands of Tabhligi Jamaat members in Markaz attended a congregation held from 13 to 15 March, 2020. The government banned public meetings due to the virus. Even though the Markaz management cooperated with police to evacuate the building, several members were booked, including foreigners under the Epidemic Diseases Act. However, the courts have quashed most of the FIRs and acquitted the members.

A BJP legislator from the Uttar Pradesh, called for a boycott of Muslim vendors, accusing them of “infecting vegetables with saliva“.

According to critics, India’s ruling party treated the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to double down on its existing Islamophobic policies.

The Pew Research Center report also mentioned that India was among the three countries, besides Indonesia and Yemen, where pandemic-relates killings of religious minorities took place in 2020. During the lockdown, two Christians died after they were beaten in police custody for violating COVID-19 curfews in the state of Tamil Nadu, it said.