Eid Mubarak, India — But Where Is the Safety Net?

Synopsis

India's 200 million Muslims get up early in the morning of Eid ul-Adha, May 28, 2026 to pray before the sun rises. Prayers, ritual slaughter of animals and inter-caste and community dining. It By all the criteria of the civilisations, this is an extraordinarily generous festival. However, after smelling them, The flavour of biryani; the sound of takbeer in streets, the careful documentation and the politics. Inconvenient crisis festers — one that the ruling establishment has chosen, with remarkable Consistency, ignore, deflect, in some cases actively encourage.

A Festival of Sacrifice — lived in fear

The 10th day of Zil is celebrated as Eid ul-Adha (Bakrid) which is widely celebrated as the festival of sacrifice throughout the subcontinent. Hajj is always connected to the tale of Hazrat Ibrahim's steadfast obedience to Divine will.

It is One of Islam's two major feasts, it is a day of prayer, mass sacrifice and giving, when the community gathers to celebrate together in the mosque. The meat used for qurbani is divided into three parts; one for the family, one for relatives and neighbours, one for those in need.

EID Mubarak to all the Muslim community in India and around the globe. The Veritas wishes them a joyous festive day with humanity being centred.

A day of peace, joy and the warmth of family, a warmth they deserve not only Today, but on every Tuesday and Wednesday not visible in this list. It is just that, too many of those days have been extraordinary in all the wrong ways.

A report jointly compiled by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) and the Quill Foundation

He reported 947 cases of hate-related violence in India between 7th June 2024 and 7th June 2025 — including 602 hate crimes and 345 cases of hate speech, many by members or affiliates of the ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party.

The main victims were Muslims – who suffered 1,460 cases in 419 incidents. At least 25 Muslims were killed. There were 173 physical violence incidents. Children and elderly were not spared.

32 crimes were against minors and 10 of those were against senior citizens. This hatred is not random in terms of geography.

The worst hit state was Uttar Pradesh with 217 hate, followed by West Bengal with 184.Uttar Pradesh was the worst hit state with 217 hate while West Bengal was 184. BPJ ruled states comprehensively tops the orchestra.

The system of accountability, however, is essentially absent. Only 13% of hate crimes led to an arrest. Formal FIRs, exposing an appalling gap in justice and institutional accountability. Atrocities against Dalits are tracked by law. There is no parallel to religious minorities. It's not a mistake. It is policy.

It's not a coincidence, it's engineered, this is the escalation

As per the India Hate lab report in Washington, there were hate speech incidents against Muslim and Christian communities. Minorities rose to 1,165 in 2024, up from 668 the year prior — a 74% increase. Around 98% of these Incidents were directly or indirectly against Muslims.

The trend continued. From the 1,318 hate speech events reported in 2025, India Hate Lab recorded a 13% rise. The number of new cases has increased by more than 2024 and an astounding 97% from 2023. In average, 4 hate speech incidences were recorded on every single day of the year.

The report said the escalation was 'the strategic deployment of hate speech to systematically polarise the'. Electorate consolidation, Hinduism majoritarianism, and consent manufacturing are the three processes.

This impelled India's Muslim community to become even more vulnerable in the name of 'policies'. Let's be clear about this, it means a government whose associates are involved in the majority of.

A lack of reporting hateful behaviour does not equal a government failing to act — it's a government that has decided not to. The difference is stark and the political elite's lack of comment on this escalating wave of violence isn't enough.

Bulldozing, boycotting, and the machinery of exclusion

The bulldozing of houses under the guise of “illegal” housing — a term that has been used for decades to designate such structures — is nothing new. Demolition by bulldozers (backed by officialdom as “illegal” housing) is not novel.

The term 'construction' became in 2025 an effective and highly destructive emblem of institutional structures in general, discrimination against Muslims. Occasionally, there has been judicial intervention. Although, The demolitions have continued.

For many Muslim families, the routine of surveillance, arrests and lengthy legal proceedings became a way of life. Building a "watchful" atmosphere. Even if the cases were dropped, the whole process worked:

Punishment

Political scientist Vanessa Chishti from Jindal Global Law School provides the structural dimension context. What adds to the anxiety in the Muslim community is to be seen in the media, where the Muslim community perceptions are distorted, and the Muslim community is portrayed in a different light.

Muslims are unfairly accused of various issues — from allegedly waging war against the Hindu majority to Being blamed on the spread of COVID-19. This negative depiction, along with the legitimisation of violence Has helped put some Muslim citizens under the radar of the police.

The economic factors are no less negative. The Council on Foreign Relations reports that Muslims, have faced discrimination in employment, education and housing — and faced barriers in Power and prosperity. Muslims' representation in parliament dropped to 5% after the elections in 2019.

The BJP, As of mid-2022, however, none of the members of parliament in government since 2014 were Muslim. This is what exclusion is when it is organised and maintained for ten years.

Collective punishment as political instrument is the subject of the book, "The Pahalgam Aftermath

In April 2025, 26 lives were lost in terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir. It was a tragedy of any kind in April 2025 in Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir, when 26 lives were lost due to terror attack.

A nation reeling lost, What was to come revealed, however, how fragile the walls of civic protection were:

Citizens for Justice and Peace reported 180 hate attacks during the following weeks after the attack in Pahalgam.

Anti-Muslim attacks – those which have no apparent connection to the crime, but follow a familiar pattern.

There was a lot of collective blame and retribution

A government that is not — and will not — be able to shield its citizens from communal reprisals after a terror attack has defaulted on the most fundamental of constitutional responsibilities.

This is not a slogan but rather a strategy for survival: Unity in Diversity

Here is the other story which lives in the presence of all the machinery arrayed against it. The Muslim population in India, in both urban and rural areas across the country, is embedded in a state of near half woven together.

Along with Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Christian neighbours who share not only streets, but livelihoods, festivals and grief. The "biryani" served with others across the fence. During the Eid, the mithai that is brought to the mosque on Diwali, the common auto driver, who parks outside both the mosque and temple.

It is this India, this temple, this mosque, this religion which no one ever asks about — that is the real India.

Carving their way through the blaring screens on TV

In India there are 200 million Muslims. It is home to some of its surgeons, judges, cricketers, scientists, engineers, and more. soldiers, and sweepers. Their contribution to this civilisation in terms of their intellectual, artistic, architectural and economic.

It is NOT a footnote, it is a structural beam. It is not only a moral tragedy but also an economic one, to marginalise this population. It is not only a moral tragedy, but an economic one, too, to marginalise this population.

An act of a great national self-mutilation

If a country loses 14% of its human resources in the cause of electoral polarization, it is not a country that can claim to present itself as an emerging global power.

India can never be a $10-trillion economy and a permanent member of The UN Security Council, or an influential representative of the Global South in the absence of the biggest religious minority.

What Is Required: Not Mercy, But Justice

Tolerance is not being called for here. Tolerance is what one shows towards an inconvenience. What India's Muslims require — what India's Constitution guarantees them — Is equality before the law, equal protection from the unconditional right to live, pray, trade and celebrate without counting the communal.

Despite the lack of resources, Muslim communities continue to challenge using legal means, Grass-root mobilisation, independent journalism and solidarity actions.

That is remarkable. That is resilience existing in situations which would shred any social group. The government is not as resilient as it lets on, it has an ever-growing list of incidents.

Those that did not go investigated, speeches that were not punished, and demolitions that were not unchallenged.

As Eidgahs and mosques echo the takbeer (Islamic prayers) from all over Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Kolkata and thousands of cities.

Today the Veritas extends its warmest Eid Mubarak to all the Muslims in this country, who are left to live in smaller towns. May May Your prayers be heard. May your Qurbani be accepted. May all your tables be filled and your families be safe.

May this country, and its people, its press, and its courts, and ultimately its government, discover The conscience to make sure that the next Eid is celebrated without a fight.