NAYABANS,
India:  Nayabans isn't remarkable as
northern Indian villages go. Sugar cane grows in surrounding fields, women
carry animal feed in bullock carts through narrow lanes, people chatter outside
a store, and cows loiter. But this week, the village in Uttar Pradesh state
became a symbol of the deepening communal divide in India as some Hindu men
from the area complained they had seen a group of Muslims slaughtering cows in
a mango orchard a couple of miles away.

That infuriated
Hindus, who regard the cow as a sacred animal. Anger against Muslims turned
into outrage that police had not stopped an illegal practise, and a Hindu mob
blocked a highway, threw stones, burned vehicles and eventually two people were
shot and killed - including a police officer. The events throw a spotlight on
the religious strains in places like Nayabans since Prime Minister Narendra
Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power at the
national level in 2014 and in Uttar Pradesh in 2017. Tensions are ratcheting up
ahead of the next general election, due to be held by May.

The BJP said it
was "bizarre" to assume the party would benefit from any religious
disharmony, dismissing suggestions that its supporters were largely responsible
for the tensions. "In a large country like India nobody can ensure that
nothing will go wrong, but it's our responsibility to maintain law and order
and we understand that," party spokesman Gopal Krishna Agarwal said.
"But people are trying to politicize these issues."

Nayabans, just
about three hour's drive from Delhi, has about 400 Muslims out of a population
of 4,000, the rest are Hindu. Relations between the communities began
deteriorating around the Muslim holy month of Ramadan last year when Hindus in
the village demanded that loudspeakers used to call for prayer at a makeshift
mosque be removed, local Muslims said. "For 40 years mikes were used in
the mosque, calls for prayer were made five times a day, but no one
objected," said Waseem Khan, a 28-year-old Muslim community leader in
Nayabans.

"We resisted
initially but then we thought it's better to live in peace then create a
dispute over a mike," he said. "We don't want to give them a chance to
fan communal tensions." Reuters spoke with more than a dozen Muslims from
the village but except for Khan, no one else wanted to be named for fear of
angering the Hindu population. Several among a group of Muslim women and girls
standing outside the mosque said they have been living in fear since the BJP
came to power in the state in 2017.

They said that
Hindu groups now hold provocative processions through the village during every
Hindu festival, loudspeakers blaring, something that used to happen rarely
before. They said they felt "terrorized" by Hindu activists.
"While passing through our areas during their religious rallies, they
chant 'Pakistan murdabad' (down with Pakistan) as if we have some connection to
Pakistan just because we are Muslims," Khan said.

Hindi priest CM

The subcontinent
was divided into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-majority India at the time of
independence from British colonial rule in 1947. During the violence on Monday,
many Muslims in Nayabans locked themselves in their homes fearing attacks. Some
who had attended a three-day Muslim religious congregation some miles away
stayed outside the area that night to avoid making themselves targets for the
mob.

Muslim villagers
say they are particularly fearful of the top elected official in Uttar Pradesh,
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who is a Hindu priest and senior BJP figure.
Hindu hardliners started asserting themselves more in the village after he was
elected, they say. Uttar Pradesh sends 80 lawmakers to the lower house of
parliament, the largest of any state in the country. Considered the county's
political crucible, it has also been the scene for spiralling Hindu-Muslim
tensions.

Adityanath said
the lead up to the rioting in Nayabans was a "big conspiracy", but
did not elaborate. In the only statement from his office on the incident,
Adityanath ordered police to arrest those directly or indirectly involved in
the slaughter of cows and made no mention of the death of the police inspector.
He announced 1 million rupees ($14,110) as compensation for the family of the
other dead man, a local who is among those accused by police for the violence.

Both men were
Hindus and died of bullet wounds, although police said it was not yet clear who
shot whom. Police say they have arrested up to five people for the cow
slaughter but have not given their religion. Locals say all the arrested people
are Muslims. Four Hindu men have been arrested for the violence leading to the
deaths. "All invidious elements who may have conspired to vitiate the
situation will be exposed through a fair and transparent investigation,"
Anand Kumar, the second highest police official in Uttar Pradesh, told Reuters.

Asked if there
was any bias against Muslims, Uttar Pradesh government spokesman Sidharth Nath
Singh - who is also the state's health minister - told Reuters: "We
believe in equality and our motto is sabka saath, sabka vikas", using a
Hindi phrase often used by Modi that means "collective effort, inclusive
growth".

Relative harmony

The two
communities in Nayabans have lived in relative harmony for years, residents
from both groups said. But now Hindus in the village, who mostly say they
support Yogi, accuse the Muslims of trying to turn themselves into the victims
when they weren't. "Can't believe they are raising our processions with
journalists!" said Daulat, a Hindu daily wage labourer who goes by one
name. "They are making it a Hindu-Muslim issue, we are not. Their people
have been accused of killing cows, so they are playing the victim."

At a middle
school, metres from the police outpost near where the two men got killed, two
women teachers, sitting on a veranda soaking in the winter sun, said its 66
students stopped coming for classes in the first few days after the violence.
"We worship cows and their slaughter can't be accepted," said one of
the teachers, Uma Rani. "Two Hindus died here but nothing happened to the
cow killers." Both teachers were Hindus.

Political
analysts say relations between the two communities are likely to stay tense
ahead of the national vote, particularly in polarized states such as Uttar
Pradesh. The BJP made a near-clean sweep in Uttar Pradesh in 2014, helping Modi
win the country's biggest parliamentary mandate in three decades, but pollsters
predict a tighter contest next year because of a lack of jobs and low farm
prices. "Facing economic headwinds and lacklustre job growth, Modi will
rally his conservative base by selectively resorting to Hindu
nationalism," global security consultancy Stratfor said last month.

Muslims say they
increasingly feel like second-class citizens in their own country. "The
BJP will definitely benefit from such incidents," said Tahir Saifi, a
Muslim community leader a few miles from the area of violence who supports a
regional opposition party in Uttar Pradesh. "They want all Hindus to
unite, and when religion comes into the picture, other issues like development
take a back seat." - Reuters