Aakar Patel | World Is Taking Note Amid Surge In India’s Human Rights Violations

At the end of every year, the organisation I represent puts out a report on the human rights situation in India. This is part of Amnesty International’s global assessment, which focuses on violations mostly, though not exclusively, by countries around the world.

I was going through the draft of this year’s report, which is updated to September, and thought readers would be interested to know where we stand. This will be a list of the highlights, or to be more accurate, a list of the “lowlights”.

In January, Uttarakhand had passed rules enforcing a Uniform Civil Code. It mandates the registration of live-in relationships with the state authorities supposedly to combat religious conversions via fraudulent marriages. The rules were passed without considering the report of a nine-member panel appointed by the government on the rules.

In February, Rajasthan introduced a bill criminalising consensual inter-faith marriages that involved conversion and proposed ten years in jail for those Muslims marrying Hindus and vice versa. Maharashtra passed a resolution aimed at blocking inter-faith marriages.

Also in the same month, the Malvan Municipal Corporation demolished the scrap shop of the father of a minor boy accused of saying something after India’s win against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy cricket match.

In March, the Maharashtra police filed an FIR against Kunal Kamra over his stand-up show called “Naya Bharat” (New India). Violence against the venue followed. This was but one of a series of episodes where freedom of expression, a fundamental right, was abused by the State.

The previous month, the Delhi police detained 12 students of Jamia Milia Islamia university who were protesting against the showcause notices issued to two PhD students for allegedly sloganeering “without permission or intimation to university authorities” in 2024.

Also in March, the Assam police arrested journalist Dilwar Hussain Mozumdar for reporting on a protest over alleged financial misconduct at a bank run by the state government. He had consistently reported on financial issues at the bank where the state’s chief minister is a director.

In April, came an FIR against folk singer Neha Singh Rathore in Lucknow for her comment on the militant attacks in Pahalgam that killed 26 people.

In May, India cancelled the Overseas Citizenship of India status of British-Kashmiri academic Nitasha Kaul. She has regularly spoken against the rising authoritarianism in India.

Also in May, the Nagpur police filed an FIR against three people including Pushpa Sathidar, wife of late activist Vira Sathidar, for reciting the poem Hum Dekhenge by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. The Haryana police registered two FIRs against Ali Khan Mahmudabad, associate professor at Ashoka University, over social media posts on “Operation Sindoor”.

The Nagpur police arrested 26-year-old Rejaz M. Siddique for allegedly insulting Operation Sindoor on Instagram. He was subsequently charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Between April 22 to May 8, the Association of Protection of Civil Rights documented at least 184 hate crimes targeting Muslims after the Pahalgam attack.

In June, India withheld the Instagram account of The Savala Vada, a satirical meme page inspired by The Onion. Then the Mumbai police detained 19 people who had gathered at Azad Maidan to join a rally in support of Palestinians. In July, India ordered X (formerly Twitter) to block over 2,000 accounts, including two belonging to Reuters News.

In July, came the Maharashtra Special Public Security Act, which criminalises dissent under the guise of public safety.

In August, Kashmir banned 25 books written by journalists, historians, feminists and peace scholars accusing them of “glorifying terrorism and inciting violence”. Also in August, the Guwahati police summoned journalists Siddharth Varadarajan and Karan Thapar in connection with a sedition case without sharing more details.

The next month, a court in Gandhinagar issued notices to journalists Abhisaar Sharma and Raju Parulekar for reporting on the sale of a vast area of land to the Adani Group for a small amount in Assam.

Our torture of the vulnerable proceeded apace. In May, 40 Rohingyas were blindfolded and flown to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and thrown into the sea and made to swim to an island in Myanmar. And after the Pahalgam attack, at least 300 Muslims were “pushed back” to Bangladesh from Assam.

In May, Assam announced it will provide arms licenses to people, especially those in Muslim-majority districts. In the first half of July some 1,800 families were left homeless after Assam carried out an eviction drive in Goalpara. Most of those affected were Muslims.

In the second half of July, Assam launched a large-scale eviction drive in Uriamghat, largely populated by Muslims, to reclaim over 11,000 bighas of forest land. The drive was halted by the Supreme Court on account of multiple due process violations.

In September, India repealed four earlier laws and now classifies asylum seekers as “illegal migrants”.

We are still in October, and more will follow, of course. Umar Khalid and other Muslim student activists remained in pre-trial detention for their alleged involvement in the February 2020 Northeast Delhi violence that claimed the lives of 53 people -- 38 of them Muslims.

The United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights also puts out a report and he said the following: “I am concerned by the use of restrictive laws and harassment against human rights defenders and independent journalists resulting in arbitrary detention and a diminished civic space, including in Kashmir. I also call for stepped-up efforts to address violence and displacement in Manipur, based on dialogue, peacebuilding and human rights.”

India’s response to this concern was to put out a Doordarshan story whose headline was “India Slams UN Human Rights for Unfounded and Baseless Comment on Kashmir and Manipur”.

The writer is the chair of Amnesty International India. Twitter: @aakar_patel