Muslim couple forced to sell their house after protests from Hindu residents

In India, a Muslim couple were kicked out of their newly purchased home by their Hindu neighbors who told them they would not allow them to live there because of their religion.

Hindu residents of the upscale TDI City neighborhood – an upscale residential block in the northern city of Moradabad – began protesting on Tuesday evening after news of the sale became public.

A video of the protest that went viral shows one of the residents, Megha Arora, claiming that Dr Ashok Bajaj, a resident, had sold her house to a Muslim family without consulting them.

“We cannot tolerate a Muslim family living right opposite our local temple. It is also a matter of the safety of our women,” she said.

“We want the sale revoked and ask the administration to cancel the registration of the house in the name of its new owners. We cannot allow people of another faith to come and live here. We cannot “We will not allow them to enter and continue protesting until they leave,” she added.

Many residents also went to the district magistrate's office to lodge a complaint. Outside, they chanted slogans against Dr Bajaj and the Muslim couple.

The protests had the desired effect. On Friday, Dr Bajaj told the BBC that a resolution, brokered by the town's elected representative, had been reached and the new Muslim owners would resell the house to a Hindu family already living in the housing society.

Dr Bajaj, who runs an eye hospital in the city and has lived in the society for over six years, said he sold the house to the Muslim couple, both doctors, and their families had known each other for 40 years. The Muslim couple, he said, were no longer comfortable moving into the house.

He added that the furor over the sale was “unwarranted” and that he did not expect it to make national news.

The protest began after he introduced the Muslim couple to his neighbors as a gesture of goodwill.

The negative reaction to the sale of the house, he said, “came out of nowhere”, because other Muslim families already live in the colony and “we have always had good relations with our neighbors” .

“Controversy changes the fabric of the city. Our intention was not to create any commotion with this transaction,” he said, adding that “there is no law” against this transaction.

The colony also does not have a residents' association that would have to approve the sale, he said. “Now they’ve woken up to make it happen.”

This is not the first time that Muslim residents have faced backlash in Moradabad for purchasing a house in a Hindu-majority area. In 2021, residents and radical Hindu organizations protested after two Muslim families bought houses from Hindus.

Segregation has long existed in rural India, where different castes and religions lived separately. Urban centers were meant to be melting pots where people could live together, regardless of their differences. However, in reality, many urban areas continue to experience segregation.

Discrimination against minority communities, particularly Muslims, is common in many Indian cities where many housing societies emphasize dietary habits such as vegetarianism to exclude them.

Muslims in states like Gujarat and Maharashtra have often said they cannot buy or rent houses in Hindu neighborhoods. A few years ago, Emraan Hashmi, a Bollywood actor, made headlines by claiming that he refused an apartment in Mumbai because of his Muslim faith.

Tanvir Aeijaz, professor of politics and public policy at the University of Delhi, believes that denying the Muslim couple the choice to buy the house they want is “discriminatory and completely unconstitutional”.

“It is a violation of their fundamental and legal rights. It is a violation of a person's right to equality and liberty and if such cases increase, they endanger the constitution of India .”

Professor Aeijaz says there are special rights to protect Dalits (formerly known as untouchables) and women considered vulnerable groups, “but how come there are no rights to protect Muslims who constitute the most vulnerable group in India”? he asks.

The incident also caused huge outrage in India, with many people taking to social media to express their anger.

“Welcome to #NewIndia,” comedian Akash Banerjee wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “A doctor sold his house to a fellow doctor…Why on earth would this lead to a massive protest/outcry in a posh housing society in Moradabad?” he asked.

“As a nation, we always boast of our unity in diversity. We should be ashamed of these incidents,” wrote Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas.

Those protesting the couple “were not anonymous or faceless individuals,” another user wrote on X. “They were people who were neither afraid nor ashamed to publicly display their bigotry and Islamophobia “.

Critics denounce incidents of violence and discrimination against India's Muslim community grew up over the past decade, under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Anti-Muslim hate speech incidents have increased, with a majority reported in BJP-ruled states – Moradabad is also located in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh. The BJP has always denied these claims.

Professor Aeijaz believes that the Moradabad incident “shows that religious polarization has taken hold, that it operates at the ground level.”

But he says he is hopeful that things will change for the better.

“Hinduism is based on pluralism. Most people I meet understand that hatred is against their religion. And that gives me hope.”

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