Who lit the spark in Nuh?
Was it Monu Manesar? Was it Bittu Bajrangi? Was it the simmering tension in a district that has seen a string of recent cow vigilantism incidents? Was it Nuh’s status as one of the districts with the poorest social indicators in the country that turned it into a ready tinderbox when someone decided to strike the match? Or was the patchwork cover of “bhaichara” and “aman” – brotherhood and peace, two words often used in Nuh but which now hang heavy in the days after a rare communal incident ripped through the Haryana district – too frayed to not have ripped and exposed deep divides and raw wounds?
In Nuh, still reeling from a temple yatra that went wrong, the clues are hard to find in the deserted Bypass Chowk; the main Jumma Bazar where most shop shutters are still down; down the deceptively picturesque road leading to the Nalhar Shiv mandir, the epicentre of the July 31 clash that saw hundreds of yatris seeking refuge from a mob outside that set fire to buses and cars.
At the home of Nuh’s Congress MLA Aftab Ahmed, where visitors sit in the lobby discussing the recent developments, his brother Mehtab Ahmed attempts a chronology – and a context.
“We, the Meo Muslims of Nuh, take part in all Hindu activities, including the Chaurasi Kos Yatra that starts from Mathura and enters Mewat through Bichhor village in Nuh. Recently, when the Kanwar yatra passed through Nuh, like every year, we ensured the yatris got water and food at regular intervals. The Brij Mandal yatra has been happening for the last three years in Nuh; this was the fourth. So why did this blow up?,” he says.
He goes on to list three recent incidents of cow vigilantism by alleged Bajrang Dal members – an alleged raid by the vigilantes on a house in Shekhpur village; the death in January of Warris, a youth from Hussainpur village in Nuh, who was pulled out of his car allegedly by gau rakshaks and beaten to death; and the death in February of Nasir and Junaid, two youths from Rajasthan’s Bharatpur, who were kidnapped on the suspicion that they were carrying meat. The Rajasthan Police’s chargesheet says Nasir and Junaid were taken to the Firozpur Jhirka police station in Nuh, before their charred bodies were found in Bhiwani.
“In all three cases, nothing came of the police investigation and there was already a sense that people from one community were being singled out and targeted. So on July 29, when Monu Manesar, who is an accused in all these cases, released a video saying he would attend the yatra at the Nalhar temple and asking all Hindus to assemble in strength, a trigger was pressed,” says Mehtab.
Almost every household in Nuh owns a cow – a prized family possession but which is now at the centre of periodic flare-ups between vigilantes and smugglers. (Express Photo: Chitral Khambhati)
Nuh, in the shadow of the Aravallis, is part of the larger Mewat region that spills into Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Home to the Meo Muslims, who make up almost 80 per cent of the population, the district has consistently fared on the bottom of most development indices, from education to health. A largely pastoral population, almost every household here owns a cow – a prized family possession but which is now at the centre of periodic flare-ups between vigilantes and smugglers.
Before the eruption, a slow build-up
In the days leading up to July 31, with indications that the yatra could stoke passions on both sides, the elders of Nuh town had tried desperately to come up with a working solution.
Says Mehtab, “Once the video came out, the MLA reached out to the administration and indicated that with tensions so high, Monu Manesar’s presence would lead to tension, but we were assured that Monu wouldn’t come and that if he did, he would be arrested. Then, on the day of the yatra, Bittu Bajrangi puts out a video with some very offensive and threatening language. By then, Muslims from nearby villages in Nuh and nearby districts such as Palwal start assembling on the road leading out of the temple. And then, around lunch time, there are rumours on Facebook that Monu Manesar has reached the temple. It proves to be false, but by then, there is anarchy and the people coming out of the yatra are attacked. I agree these boys (in the mob that attacked the yatris) made a mistake… Not one in the group must have been above 30… Dimaag nahin hai kisi mein (none is capable of thinking)… all fed on social media and Facebook.”
According to an FIR filed on a complaint by ASI Dharmender, who is in charge of the Nalhar chowki, a mob of about 800-900 from Nalhar and its surrounding villages allegedly marched down the mountains surrounding the temple. The FIR says the mob, armed with sticks, stones and weapons, started moving towards the temple. “They were pelting stones and firing… In the meantime, miscreants started firing bottles full of petrol on the road leading to the Nalhar temple. They started vandalising the parked vehicles and sprinkled petrol on the vehicles and set them on fire,” the FIR quotes the ASI as saying.
That both sides were armed is clear from an FIR filed against alleged cow vigilante Bittu Bajrangi, who was arrested on August 15 in connection with the violence during the yatra. The FIR registered on a complaint by ASP Usha Kundu reads: “Around 12.30 pm, 300 metres away from Nalhar temple, I encountered a group of 15-20 individuals going towards the temple… Some of them were carrying swords and trident-like weapons.” The complaint goes on to say that even after police took away the weapons Bajrangi and his associates allegedly snatched the weapons away from the police vehicle.
The Indian Express reached out to senior officials in the Nuh administration — Superintendent of Police Narender Bijarnia, who replaced Varun Singla, who was on leave on July 31 and has since been transferred out; DSP Dhirendra Khadgata, and ASP Usha Kundu, among others – for an official version of the sequence of events and violence on July 31 and the status of the investigation, but got no response.
Five people, including two home guards Neeraj and Gursev, died in the attack outside the temple. In the days that followed, the administration brought out the bulldozers – by now a familiar trope that follows every communal incident – ostensibly to clear encroachments. So far, at least 230 people have been arrested and over 1,000 buildings demolished.
The road leading to the Nalhar temple, outside which violence erupted on July 31. (Express Photo: Uma Vishnu)
Two years ago, says Mehtab, there was some tension during the Brij Mandal yatra — a mazar near the temple was broken. “The Bajrang Dal guys came, damaged the mazar and left. The situation could have exploded. Luckily, both sides got together, we had bhog at the temple and our Hindu bhai offered to fix the mazar. So there was always a fear that the yatra could get out of hand. Which is why, it’s a complete failure of the administration. Police should have changed the yatra route, suspended the internet, dispersed the crowd building up on the road outside the temple,” says Mehtab, adding, “The outsiders on both sides came and did the damage they wanted to. It’s Mewat that has had to pay the price. People have lost homes and it will take years for trust to build.”
Off the road leading to the temple, at Paladi village, which shares its panchayat with Nalhar, sarpanch Azad, who is in his fifties, is just back from a meeting with a Hindu family, assuring them of their safety.
“We have never had such trouble in our village, not even after the Babri demolition in 1992, when there was some violence elsewhere in Nuh. All we wanted was for this yatra to pass peacefully. Even on the morning of the yatra, we went to the temple, met the authorities, had prasad there,” says Azad, sitting with Nihal Singh, a social worker in these parts, and a group of youngsters.
“This is what our village looks like and this is what Mewat looks like. I am Sikh, these boys are Hindus from the Prajapati (Backward Class) community, the sarpanch is Muslim. We all sit together, eat together,” says Nihal Singh.
‘Get Yogi… He’ll fix this’
The Aravallis that hug the Nalhar temple is among Nuh’s rare hangouts. “We often go there for an outing, walk right through the temple, trek up the boulders and watch the streams and small waterfalls there. No one has ever stopped us and we never felt out of place,” says Mohamed Farid, a 25-year-old first-time sarpanch from nearby Satputiyaka village.
But today, the temple is out of bounds for “outsiders”, with entry permitted only after an identity check.
In the airconditioned office of the Nalhar temple, Gurcharan Singh Malik, who, in his capacity as the chairman of the Punjab-based Shiv Rudra Jan Kalyan Sanstha, is also the chairman of the Nalhar temple, rues the incendiary speeches, including by VHP’s Surendra Jain, made from the temple on the day of the yatra. “We tried all that we could to defuse the tension. The youngsters are all hot-headed. As long as we are around in Nuh, we will work hard to maintain peace. We don’t know what will happen once we are gone,” says Malik, 73.
And then, allowing himself to be swept away in a rush of optimism, he says, “Waise kuch nahin badlega (Nothing will change). There is some tension now between both communities. But if you come back in some days and see, everything will be fine. That’s how we have always been here. There is a lot of bhaichara.”
Outside the room, just out of Malik’s earshot, a group of youngsters at the temple have a very different version of this “bhaichara”.
“We are a minority here. Dab ke rahna padta hain (We have to stay under their thumbs),” says one of them, as the others join in enthusiastically, falling back on all the familiar bogeys – from love jihad to how “people with two children have to subsidise those with 18”.
Many of them say they were not at the July 31 yatra but eagerly volunteer with videos of what they claim are Muslim youngsters shouting religious slogans from the hillocks behind the temple.
Blaming the BJP government for the clash, one of them, Ravi Kumar, a 25-year-old who says he is a businessman in the town, comes up with a solution. “Remove Khattar and get Yogi. If nothing else, give him additional charge for some time. His bulldozers will fix everything,” he says.
A sense of disquiet hangs heavy in Jumma Bazar, one of the main trading hubs in Nuh town. On the afternoon of July 31, a mob had allegedly run amok here, setting fire to shops and attempting to vandalise others.
Sitting in his shop that’s among the few that are open a week after the clash, Naveen Goyal, 40, sniggers at the mention of Nuh’s “bhaichara”.
“In 1992, if they tried to demolish temples, this time, they were after our shops and our people… Now there is fear. We will be very suspicious that those we are sitting with may harm us. It’s hard to go back from here,” he says, adding that an immediate consequence of the clash is a possible exodus of Hindu families. “Nuh has grown in the last 10 years, mostly because of Hindu traders who are flourishing under this government. But now, this incident will force all of us to pause. In my case, for instance, I had planned to expand my business, but will no longer do that. I won’t invest in Nuh any longer.”
Naveen Goyal, who runs a shop selling hardware and sanitary ware in Nuh, sniggers at the mention of “bhaichara”. “After what happened, it’s hard to go back from here,” he says. (Express Photo: Chitral Khambhati)
Dismissing the idea that the mob was mostly of outsiders, Goyal says, “Yes, they may have been instigated by others, even the attack may have been carried out by outsiders – there were definitely some Rohingyas in the mob — but they couldn’t have done it without local support. Of course, both Hindu and Muslim shops were targeted, but the mob is a mob, they only know how to attack.”
As the sun goes down, in a visibly Hindu part of the town, a group of youngsters sit outside shops with downed shutters. In the days that the internet restriction was in place, the hours had passed agonisingly slowly.
“There is absolutely nothing to do in Nuh. There is no mall, no cinema hall, no university; only a jail that came up recently,” says Devender Mehra, 21, who dropped out after Class 12 and does odd jobs. Minutes into the conversation, familiar fissures open up. “The Muslims use their money to get their children into good schools and colleges, while we get left out. It’s the same story here,” he says.
Why Anjum holds out hope
Anjum Islam at the Saket district court in Delhi. The arc of her journey — from a district with one of the highest school dropouts in the country to Delhi, where she is interning while studying for an LLM — is part of a new Nuh story. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)
A few metres away, a new Nuh story is playing out.
“Selfie with Daughter. Anjum Islam Niwas”, reads the nameplate outside a gate in the town’s Hamid Colony.
Inside, Mohamed Mushtaq, 42, a Registered Medical Practitioner (RMP), doesn’t hold back when it comes to his daughter. “If you keep chai on the stove and sit down to look at Anjum’s social media profile, the pan will burn, but you won’t stop. You’ll forget everything else. What she does is so interesting… Is papa ko faqr hai apni beti par (This father is proud of his daughter),” says Mehtab of his eldest of his five children – three girls and two boys.
Anjum’s achievements are a rare bright spot for a district where over 16 per cent children drop out in Classes 9 and 10 – a rate that’s higher than the national average (12.6%) and far above Haryana’s 5.9%, according to the 2021-22 UDISE data.
Rashida Bano’s daughter Anjum Islam is a law graduate and is now pursuing her Master’s in law. I had to fight a lot to ensure Anjum followed her dreams… Now people come here looking for Anjum,” says Rashida. (Express Photo: Chitral Khambhati)
After her graduation in law from Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Viswavidyalaya in Haryana’s Khanpur Kalan, Anjum, 23, is now an LLM student at the same university. She is as close as it gets to a social influencer in these parts – three years ago, Anjum’s campaigns on a period chart for women had left the town both stunned and squirming. “Here people say don’t give daughters phones, don’t let them be on social media, but we didn’t stop our daughter or any of our children for that matter. I had to fight a lot with relatives and so-called well-wishers to ensure Anjum followed her dreams and went out to study. Ab Anjum ka naam kehke log humse milne aate hain (Now people come here looking for Anjum),” says her mother Rashida Bano, a Class 12 dropout.
Three years ago, after Anjum was named brand ambassador for the Haryana government’s ‘Selfie with Daughter’ campaign, the family put up her nameplate at the gate to celebrate the feat. “We decided nameplate lagega toh sirf uska,” says Rashida.
The nameplate, stark and simple, tells a story. Of a Nuh that is changing, asserting itself, charting a new path. That path may now be charred in places and strewn with shattered glass pieces — remnants of the recent clashes – but Anjum believes there is a new way out. “Education,” she says, speaking on the phone from Delhi, where she is practising at the Saket District Court. “Most of Nuh is uneducated. They fall for rumours and get provoked by outsiders. It’s only education that can help Nuh. The faster we get there, the better it is for us.”
With inputs from Aiswarya Raj