Why Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh is seeing a Hindutva surge

“This is the first time in 10 years that I felt like an outsider,” said Kaif Rizvi, who runs a small garment shop in Himachal Pradesh’s Solan. Rizvi moved there from his hometown in Bijnor in western Uttar Pradesh in 2015, attracted by how peaceful the hill state was.

However, Rizvi’s idea of Himachal received a rude shock on September 16, when Hindutva supporters, protesting against Muslims migrating from other states, painted a cross on Rizvi’s shop. “People are speaking in an aggressive tone and demanding that clothes sold long ago be taken back,” he said. “I have to comply, who knows what might happen otherwise.”

Himachal was a state where communal tensions were rare. Of late, however, that is changing. In September, several cities in Himachal Pradesh saw rallies against businesses owned by Muslims and mosques that protestors claimed that been built without authorisation.

Travelling across the state, Scroll found that the animosity towards the community stemmed from standard Hindutva conspiracy theories that were often underpinned by economic insecurities triggered by Muslim traders and businessmen from other places.

Politically, some sections of the ruling Congress have also found this new communalism useful. Many leaders hope that supporting the Hindutva mobilisation might help them attract some Hindu votes from the...

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