Muslim man beaten in India, forced to chant Hindu slogans on Independence Day
Attackers beat and humiliated Rizwan Ahmad in Uttarakhand, forcing chants of “Jai Shri Ram” as anti-Muslim violence deepens
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — A Muslim man was brutally assaulted in northern India on August 15, the country’s Independence Day, after refusing to chant Hindu religious slogans.
The incident, captured on video in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, has since gone viral and drawn fresh outrage over rising hate crimes against Muslims.
The footage shows 30-year-old Rizwan Ahmad bleeding as three Hindu men beat him inside a tea shop, forcing him to chant “Jai Shri Ram.” The attackers—identified as Mukesh Bhatt, Naveen Bhandari, and Manish Bisht—were arrested over the weekend after the video spread widely on social media.
Ahmad, a resident of Saharanpur in neighboring Uttar Pradesh, told police that the men appeared drunk when they confronted him. One allegedly demanded that he chant “Jai Shri Ram,” a slogan increasingly weaponized by Hindu nationalist groups.
When Ahmad refused, they punched and kicked him, pulled at his beard, and threatened to cut it off — all while recording the attack and hurling Islamophobic slurs.
In the video, one of the attackers can be heard saying, “If you want to live in Hindustan, you must chant Jai Shri Ram,” while another declared that India is now a government “of Hindus.”
They eventually forced Ahmad to chant both “Jai Shri Ram” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai”—nationalist slogans that have become political litmus tests under the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. At one point, an assailant said, “We will cut you by halal, we will cut you by jhatka”—a reference to ritual slaughter methods in Islam and Hinduism, used here as a death threat.
Ahmad managed to escape through the back of the shop but said the men also tried to coerce another Muslim man from Saharanpur, Muhtiyar Puttan Islam, into chanting the same slogans that day.
Police in Uttarakhand registered a case under India’s new penal code, charging the accused with causing hurt, promoting enmity, criminal intimidation, and deliberately outraging religious feelings.
The assault underscores the precarious position of Muslims in India, where Independence Day—a celebration of freedom from colonial rule—is increasingly marred by hate crimes.
For many minorities, the call to chant “Jai Shri Ram” has shifted from a religious slogan to a weapon of intimidation, exposing the deepening fault lines in the world’s largest democracy.
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