Outrage in India as shops told to display owners' names ahead of Kanwar Yatra

Opposition parties say police order before Hindu pilgrimage targets Muslims

Devotees of Shiva gather to collect holy water from the Ganges during the Kanwar Yatra pilgrimage in July 2023. AFP

Police in India's Uttar Pradesh state have caused outrage after ordering food shops and stalls in one district to display their owners' names only days before Hindu pilgrims begin passing through the area.

The order was issued in Muzaffarnagar district, which has a significant Muslim population and is a key part of the route taken by pilgrims for the annual Kanwar Yatra. The pilgrimage runs from July 22 to August 2 this year.

The local police chief said the order was so that "no law-and-order situation arises".

“In our district, about 240km route for Kanwar [procession] falls. We have asked all the proprietors and those working in eateries and restaurants ... to display their names so there is no confusion about the shop owners,” Abhishek Singh said.

“All are following this voluntarily."

Names in India are often clear identifiers of a person's religion and ethnicity, and opposition parties have condemned the move as reminiscent of apartheid-era South Africa and the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.

“Not just political parties, all right-thinking people and the media must rise against this state-sponsored bigotry. We cannot allow the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] to push the country back into the dark ages,” Pawan Khera, a leader of the opposition Congress party, said on X.

"As per the order of Uttar Pradesh police, now every food shop or cart owner will have to put his name on the board so that no Kanwariya [Hindu pilgrim] buys anything from a Muslim shop by mistake. This was called apartheid in South Africa and in Hitler's Germany it was called Judenboycott," said Muslim politician Asaduddin Owaisi, president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party.

Videos posted on social media and by press outlets showed fruit carts with names displayed, prompting outrage and concerns this could lead to their owners being targeted over their religion.

It is the first time commercial establishments have officially been required to display owners' names, something for which radical Hindu groups have long campaigned. They claim Muslim businesses, particularly restaurants and eateries, deliberately use Hindu or “religion neutral” names to mislead Hindus into consuming ritually unclean food.

Sections of Hindus follow strict dietary practices such as abstaining from eating onions, garlic, eggs, meat, and food cooked by non-Hindus, while pilgrims performing the Kanwar Yatra are required to follow a regimen that includes abstaining from meat and certain other foods.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims walk hundreds of kilometres to the city of Haridwar, about 80km north of Muzaffarnagar, where they collect water from the Ganges river, considered sacred by Hindus. The pilgrims return home carrying the water in two vessels fastened to the ends of a pole that they balance on their shoulders, and offer it to the Hindu deity Shiva at their local temples.

The Uttar Pradesh government, headed by the Hindu monk Yogi Adityanath from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, has made special provisions for the Kanwar Yatra in the past. It ordered the felling of 100,000 trees to create a dedicated corridor for the pilgrims, used state funds to shower them with flowers from helicopters and banned the sale of meat along the pilgrimage route.

The northern state, where about 38 million of the population of 220 million are Muslims, has been a historical hotbed of Hindu religious fanaticism but acts of violence and discrimination against the Muslim population have increased since Mr Modi’s ascent to power in 2014.

Muslim shop owners in Muzaffarnagar said they fear the police order will affect their businesses and could even force them to close temporarily because of low sales.

“We have got the order. For the next 15-20 days, our sales will drop. We make about 8,000 rupees [$95] a day, but such decrees cause fear among people who may not buy meat,” Mohammed Azim, owner of a meat shop, told The National.

“My shop is not even on the main road. We have been witnessing such a trend in the last few years."