Muslims in India's capital are increasingly being isolated into communities due to security threats

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Indian Muslims in Delhi feel increasingly less safe and are forced to move to makeshift “enclaves” because they fear for their safety in the country. Reuters interviewed more than 20 people who talked about why they were forced to move to other areas.

In 2020, there were large-scale riots in India against amendments to the citizenship law. The new version of the law allowed people who fled religious persecution in their homeland to obtain Indian citizenship, but this right did not extend to Muslims: approx. After this, representatives of the Muslim community in India went out to protest. At least 49 people were killed and another 200 were injured during the clashes. The amendments themselves were initiated by the ruling nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of which the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a member.

Following the riots, pressure on Muslims and Islamophobic sentiments in India increased, forcing many people to move to more remote areas of Delhi. Many of them are traveling to Jamia Nagar, which has become the epicenter of clashes between protesters on both sides in 2020. The area is now overcrowded as many Muslims have chosen to return there.

There are no official segregation laws in India, and Muslims make up 14% of India's nearly 1.4 billion population. At the same time, according to political anthropologist at the London School of Economics Raphael Seuswind, the level of real segregation in India has recently increased.

Susewind associates the rise of Islamophobia with the coming to power of Narendra Modi’s party in 2014. His words are confirmed by representatives of Muslim communities in India who spoke to Reuters. The party itself denies a negative attitude towards Muslims, citing economic factors when choosing a place to live.

Hatred towards Muslims has also manifested itself in the form of a rise in Islamophobic comments and posts on social media in India. Local activists associated with the BJP regularly attack Muslims and seize their property.