By Waquar Hasan
NEW DELHI: An armed priest, Madhuram Sharan Shiva, has been holding hate rallies, delivering inflammatory speeches, urging people to pick up arms, and inciting violence and economic boycotts against Muslims for the past year in Uttar Pradesh, a new report has revealed.
The report, titled “Armed Monk Network Mobilising Hindus for Violence in Uttar Pradesh,” was released on Tuesday by the Washington-based think tank India Hate Lab.
According to the report, Shiva—formerly a prachark of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad—launched the “Shiv Shakti Akhada” on 22 October last year after declaring his monkhood. The Akhada is described as a group of armed monks who openly parade swords, guns, and other weapons.
“Since then, he has organised at least 173 rallies across 11 districts of Uttar Pradesh, featuring repeated calls for violence, displays of firearms, communal incitement, and the public administering of hateful oaths, including to children and students, to take up arms against Muslims and Christians, whom he labels ‘vidharmis’ and ‘adharmis.’ Both vidharmi and adharmi are derogatory communal slurs used to dehumanize minorities as outsiders and enemies of the Hindu order,” the report noted.
Across these rallies, Shiva moves with dozens of armed monks, drawing crowds ranging from several hundred to thousands. His speeches rely heavily on fear-driven narratives aimed at portraying Hindus as endangered by Muslims.
This story was originally published in thehindustangazette.com. Read the full story here.
