Hindu groups target Indian Muslim family over home purchase
Far-right groups demand cancellation of legal property sale and accuse Muslim buyers of “land jihad,” exposing expanding segregation and anti-Muslim intimidation in India
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — A Muslim family in the northern Indian city of Meerut is facing organized intimidation after Hindu groups launched protests demanding the cancellation of a legally completed house purchase, in what rights advocates say reflects the rapid rise of residential segregation and anti-Muslim exclusion across India.
The confrontation began after Saeed Ahmed, a Muslim businessman, purchased a home in Thapar Nagar, a Hindu-majority neighbourhood, for 15 million Indian rupees ($167,000).
After the family moved in last week, far-right Hindu groups staged a sit-in outside a police station, reciting the Hanuman Chalisa — a Hindu religious hymn increasingly used in India as an aggressive political assertion — and demanding that the sale be reversed.
Protest organizers claimed, without evidence, that the presence of a Muslim family would trigger an exodus of Hindu residents.
Ahmed was reportedly pressured to appear at the police station and collapsed on the way, later being hospitalized. His wife, Afsana, said he had received repeated calls from police officials during the protest, causing fear and distress.
Local reports said members of the Sikh community had earlier expressed interest in buying the property, but the seller, Naresh Kalra, finalized the sale to Ahmed.
The protest prompted police intervention, but divisions emerged among the groups, with a faction led by Sachin Sirohi, national president of the far-right Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Suraksha Sangathan, refusing to compromise and demanding full cancellation of the sale.
He accused police of attempting to “protect Muslims” and insisted the family must vacate.
Analysts say the incident reflects a disturbing pattern of enforced segregation and collective punishment of Muslims, who increasingly face hostility when attempting to buy or rent homes in Hindu-dominated areas.
This incident comes after a 2017 case in Meerut where another Muslim family was targeted by mobs and accused of “changing demographics” after legally purchasing a home.
Central to this narrative is the conspiracy theory of “land jihad” — a term popularized by Hindu nationalist networks claiming that Muslims strategically buy property in Hindu neighborhoods to alter demographics. Critics say the term mirrors global far-right “replacement” propaganda used to justify discrimination and violence against minorities.
Human-rights advocates warn that such incidents have multiplied since the rise of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in 2014, as anti-Muslim narratives have moved from fringe discourse to mainstream politics.
They say mob pressure is increasingly overriding constitutional rights, including the right to property and protection from discrimination.
Legal experts say police in such incidents often act as mediators rather than enforcing constitutional guarantees. Activists argue that the lack of arrests or legal consequences emboldens extremist groups and normalizes exclusionary residential practices similar to apartheid zoning and red-lining in other parts of the world.
As tensions continue, civil society groups warn that India is witnessing the deliberate construction of religious ghettos, where minorities are pushed into isolation and denied access to mainstream economic and residential spaces.
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