On November 24, Hindu residents of Gurugram’s Khandsa village sent the district deputy commissioner a letter. A field where the local child...
On November 24, Hindu residents of Gurugram’s Khandsa village sent the district deputy commissioner a letter. A field where the local children play cricket, they complained, was being used by Muslim worshippers for Friday prayers. On November 19, the letter claimed, children who had gone there to play had been told rudely to clear the grounds. “There is fear in the minds of children” and villagers were angry, it warned.
The letter was duly circulated by the Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti. The umbrella body of 22 Hindutva groups was formed this year to protest against Muslim residents of Gurugram gathering outdoors for Friday prayers. According to Hindutva groups, this was a covert way of laying claim to public space.
On November 26, a Friday, members of the samiti, along with local residents of Khandsa village, occupied the field and held a havan there. Ritual fires were lit, they claimed, to commemorate the 2008 terror attack in Mumbai. Muslim congregational prayers could not be held there.
Since 2018, periodic protests by Hindutva groups have shrunk the number of open spaces where Muslims can pray in Gurugram. With every round of protest, the administration has urged Muslims to give up a few of the spaces where they...
