On 13-14 October 2024, large scale violence and terror was organised by the state in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, targeting people of a particular community.
On the day of the incident, people who had gathered for Durga idol immersion in Maharajganj, Bahraich were instigated in a very planned manner to commit violence and crimes against people of the Muslim religion. The local administration gave a free hand to the procession to pass through the Muslim majority area. Songs insulting Muslims were played loudly on DJs outside their houses and mosques, even as the police looked on. Religious symbols were desecrated, etc. Meanwhile, a young man was instigated to climb someone’s house and remove the religious flag from there and put up a saffron flag. Following this, the young man was shot at and died from his injuries.
The next day, a terrible violence was unleashed by specifically targeting the people of the Muslim community. Violence and terror were spread; homes and properties were burned and damaged. Local residents, many of whom are Hindus, told journalists that the police had given a free hand to the killer gangs to spread violence, commit murders and arson for some 3-4 hours. Only after that the police came and started arresting and beating young people without any investigation and without presenting any evidence, on the basis of false allegations or mere suspicion. Hundreds of young people are reported to have been arrested. These include young people of all religions. Even two weeks after this incident, the process of intimidating them and their families. Threats to run bulldozers over their homes and to destroy their properties are continuing.
The Bahraich violence is a recent example of state-organised communal violence and terror. The Indian state repeatedly organises communal violence and terror, targeting people of a particular community in order to maintain the exploitative and oppressive rule of the bourgeoisie. This involves the entire state machinery — parliamentary political parties, bureaucracy, security forces, courts, etc. State-organised communal violence and terror is a favourite method of the rulers to break the unity of the people in their struggle against their common exploiters and oppressors. This is the way the cruel and illegitimate rule of the bourgeoisie is maintained.
The massacre of Sikhs in 1984, the violence and massacres that were organised in many places after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the genocide in Gujarat in 2002 and such repeated painful incidents prove this fact.
We must carry forward our struggle by strengthening our unity against state-organised communal violence and terror. We must raise our demand that state officials responsible for protecting people’s lives and property must be held accountable and given the harshest punishment. We must jointly confront state-organised violence by upholding the principle “an attack on one as an attack on all!”.
The only way to permanently get rid of this never-ending cycle of state-organised communal violence and terror is to replace the present rule of the bourgeoisie with the rule of the workers and peasants. The new state of the workers and peasants will end all exploitation and oppression and will protect the honour and the right to life, property and conscience of all people, regardless of their belief.