Last week in Rajsamand, a farming district near Udaipur in Rajasthan, a BJP-ruled state, a flashily dressed — tight white trousers, red shirt, white muffler, white shoes —man in his late 30s said to a migrant labourer from Bengal that he has some work for him.
Afrazul (50) went along with Shambhulal Raigar. At a desolate spot, Shambhulal swung the axe he had with him from behind. The video shows how difficult it is to kill a man with a pick axe and, later, a machete like weapon. Afrazul struggles to escape the blows, but Shambulal goes after him till his victim is rendered unconscious. Then he goes back to his scooter parked a little away from the spot , and fetches a can of petrol. He pours it over the unconscious man and sets him on fire. The scene is faithfully recorded by Shambhulal’s nephew, a 14-year-old boy.
Shambhulal then recorded his own speech on why he had no choice but to murder Afrazul: Afrazul apparently had a relationship with a Hindu woman, a practice the right-wing Hindu fundamentalists describe as “love jihad.”
Shambhulal also quoted the instance of Padmavati — a film mired in controversy because it shows a 13th century Mughal king, Alauddin Khilji, having a relationship of sorts in the movie in a dream with a Rajput princess — and the usual myths about how Muslims are out to destroy Hindu culture.
Rajasthan is notorious for a recent wave of violence against Muslims. In this year alone Pehlu Khan, Ahmad Khan, Ummar Khan, Zafar Hussain and Umar Mohammad lost their lives to mob violence and cow-vigilantism.
A few days ago, Ahmad Khan, a folk singer who used to sing Hindu hymns, was killed because he was not doing a “proper job”. Zafar Hussain, a leftist and an activist, who attempted to prevent municipal councillors from taking photographs and videos of women relieving in public was murdered.
The police do not register these murders as communal in nature, which involves serious punishment, but label these as acts done “ in the heat of the moment.” The latest instance as recorded by Shambulal’s nephew shows the crime to be pre-meditated and executed in cold blood.
Shambhulal is in police custody. The fundamentalist Hindu elements have already begun a campaign in defence of the murderer, saying he is not of a “balanced mind.”
Nothing that we know of the man justifies it. This is a hate crime, and communal in nature; a kind of honour killing in reverse. Shambhulal himself admits as much in his video recordings.
The BJP has made some disapproving noises. Most of it mentions the brutality of the murder. It is as though if the act were executed with more kindness, it may have been condoned.
That there are so many communal murders and lynchings taking place in BJP-ruled states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, is enough proof that there is an ecosystem that empowers the frenzy of the Rajsamand sort.
The civil society has protested strongly in social media and elsewhere against the growing communal violence. But as could be seen in the response to a tweet by the Chairman of the Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra, the protests are nuanced, too.
Mahindra’s tweet said : “Turning cold-blooded murder into a televised drama shows a diseased mind of unimaginable magnitude. If we are to lay any claim to being a civilised society, then justice for this act must be delivered decisively & swiftly.”
Mahindra’s was an extraordinary response not because the sentiment expressed in it, but because the business community of India is deafening for its silence when it comes to political and social issues.
In fact, Mahindra’s tweet was the only one from the business community to express shock over the incident. Despite the general impression that the Indian social media is relatively more educated than the masses, a good number of people were critical of Mahindra’s stepping out of his role as a tycoon and becoming a social commentator of sorts.
The incident and its brazenness, the recording of the incident and putting it out on the internet, is clear indication that India is plummeting in terms of religious tolerance.
That Shambhulal took a break between the proceedings to face the camera and explain his actions is exactly where Indians are at present on the secular map: “If I have to die, I will kill some and die.” And Shambhulal goes on to make references to Ayodhya, the Padmavati film controversy, and the Hindi film PK, which featured a romance between an Indian and a Pakistani woman, as great wrongs done to the Hindu community.
He also warns that he would find those responsible for the “wrongs” and kill them.This is not a man talking in the heat of the moment. It’s a political position, representative of a section of Indians, whose voice is getting louder with each passing day. And they believe they are just.
Nor is it easy to consider Shambhulal is not of a sound mind. The arguments — however mistaken— he articulated are largely how Indian power politics is run.
If Shambhulal is mentally ill, one might as well consider millions of Hindutva campers equally sick. Shambhulal clearly is a sign of the times; and the times are changing for the worse. India is in the grip of a collective paranoia.
C.P. Surendran is a journalist based in India.
