India: Muslims encroach upon railway land, local Hindus fear for their safety

Indian winters are again heating up with Muslim protests; this time, it’s about land encroachment. Around 4000 Muslim families, making up a population of over 50,000 people, have illegally encroached upon railway land in Haldwani in Uttarakhand’s Kumaon district. The encroachment happened gradually and over several years, until the state government finally woke up to the fact that the illegal settlers had engulfed acres and acres of government land. The railways had appealed to the courts, asserting that over 4000 houses scattered between Haldwani and Kathgodam were illegal encroachments that the North Eastern Railways had tried to remove in 2007. The railway also claims that although ten of the 29 acres occupied by these houses were removed, new structures mushroomed up this year.

After several rounds of legal hearings, on December 20, 2022, the High Court issued its ruling, ordering the removal of the encroachments. It gave the residents a week to vacate the illegally occupied government land.

In response to the orders of the High Court, the illegal intruders flashed the highly potent victim card, which has brought the entire system of secular India to its knees. They staged a protest and made women and children sit out in the chilly winter weather, demanding that the government make agreements to settle them before clearing the encroached land.

While many Muslims take pride in protecting their women inside the four walls of their homes, their placement of women in Islamic garb surrounded by crawling toddlers in the anti-establishment protests was a masterful tactic to gain sympathy. They put placards in the hands of children that can barely recognize the letters of the alphabet. Taken in by this “movement,” the high court has stayed the demolition efforts, and held that there has to be rehabilitation before eviction. Who will bear the financial burden of this rehabilitation? The Hindus.

An average Hindu youth struggles to establish his career in the private or the government sector, or to set up a business; Hindus generally marry in the late-20s or early 30s after spending a decade paying taxes. Hindus also generally have small families; the maximum number of children a modern Hindu couple opts to have these days is two, while most couples settle for one.

These Hindus form the vast middle class of the Indian population; given that the government taxes even their temples, the Hindus make the largest taxpaying body in the country. The Hindus of India seldom reaps the benefits of the amount they part with in order to enrich the government treasury. Should their taxes be used to provide for those who multiply rapidly and expand their extent of encroachment across acres and acres of land, and when the legal authorities come knocking at their door, demand free gifts from the government, which demands the pro-minority institutions cordially oblige?

It’s mind-boggling to see how they claim to be poor and helpless despite having access to numerous government-funded welfare programs and policies that are meant to uplift their lives. It is easier to gain coveted victimhood status that way. Behaving responsibly and taking care of themselves would spoil the narrative.

All this doesn’t just stop at settling illegally on government land. It is an established fact that when Muslims become a sizable population in any region, they influence that region’s entire lifestyle and ecosystem.

Reports state that the Hindus in the area have now started to worry about the safety of their families. The encroachers have terrorized Hindu men, women, elders, teenagers, and children. Locals allege some of these intruders get drunk, show up at Hindu homes and kick the doors at odd hours. Reportedly, water pumps have been uprooted and stolen. Sales of drugs including hashish and cannabis have spiked following the rapid demographic shift in the area; Hindu-Muslim clashes have become frequent.

A Hindu mother recalled that a rabid mob, irked over a social media post by her son, surrounded her house. In that case, the family was unharmed due to the presence of police; others have not been so fortunate. Cases of love jihad and forced conversion are on the rise. A Hindu girl was abducted, taken to Hyderabad, and impregnated. Hindu residents have also been informed that the previous minority-pandering governments had forbidden them from celebrating their festivals freely in the region. There have also been instances of Muslims forcefully acquiring Hindu-owned property, demolishing a Hindu temple, and building a private home on the land.

Once a Hindi-majority region, Haldwani has lost its safety, security, and peace to Muslim land encroachers. Unfortunately, there have not been any effective measures by the authorities to stop this land jihad.