The air in the Hastsal Village, a thick cluster of the Uttam Nagar of the city of Delhi, always brims with the desperate frenzy of pre-Eid arrangements. Normally, the smell of simmers sulking sewaiyan and new clothes in balcony railings would be felt in the narrow lanes. However, this year there is a heaviness in the air of another form: the silence of closed doors and the clang of police barricades.
The future festival is not a celebration anymore to many Muslim families who have been staying within the neighborhood as generations. It has turned into a time limit.
One Spark and a Showing Shadow
The modern crisis dates back to an apparently simple event on March 4 that was the day of Holi. What started as a fight over a water balloon, which an 11-year-old girl allegedly threw and struck one of the neighbors, grew into an ugly physical fight between two families who had been living the past fifty years side-by-side. The unfortunate outcome was the death of a 26-year-old student Tarun Kumar, a student of digital marketing who had a dream of supporting his family.
Even though the police acted fast, 14 individuals were arrested and two minors captured, the sorrow of a family has been exploited by external forces. The Kumar family loss has been institutionalized and methodically converted into a collective outburst in the weeks after the tragedy.
“We have lived here since the 70s. My children and I were playing with each other; Bilal Rajput (name changed), an advocate, whose family observed the evolution of the area over decades. but now, as I pass the street, the eyes which so habitually met my nod are not met with. Or worse, they look through me.”
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The Threats and Exodus of Fear
The choice to exit is not made out of one incident, but through a consistent beat of instigation. A major battlefield has been made to be in social media. There are videos which have emerged of people outside the locality, many of them recognized by police to be people of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, making chilling threats. There are videos where men are wielding weapons threatening to take part in Holi with blood on the Eid day.
Jameel Ahmad, a 55-year-old restaurant owner, says that his children are terrified. They watch these videos on their phones and then they peep at the barricades outside our door. They continue to say, Abbu we must go. Just for a few days.’”
Jameel isn’t alone. Some of the families in the smaller groups of Hastsal, especially those in rented premises, already have their bags packed. In their case, the danger of staying out would be greater than the holiness of doing it at home. What makes the fear even worse is the subscription of condolence meetings by religious groups which often degenerate into provocative rallies and the slogans are heard in the lanes where the Muslim families are seated behind closed windows.
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A Neighborhood Under Siege
The Uttam Nagar physical landscape has been altered to the psychological landscape. The Rapid Action Force (RAF) along with the Delhi Police has made the area a Fortress. All lanes are patrolled; all the movements are checked. Although police believe that such action is in the interest of the residents, to a large number of residents, the sight of the heavy weaponry is a constant reminder that they are on the side of being blown to smithereens.
To worsen the situation, there is the recent encroachment drive by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Even though the authorities argue the demolitions are not connected to the Holi confrontation, the time of the day, and the fact that a number of buildings were in the community of the accused, have added to the feeling of victimization.
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