Tactics story
Calling for help to avoid a riot, India

Tactic: Call for help and warn

In 2007, Hindu nationalists tried to engineer a communal riot in the city of Panipat in Haryana state. They stealthily placed idols of Hindu gods inside a mosque in order to ‘claim the mosque’ as a Hindu place of worship where Hindu gods had ‘emerged’, convert it into a temple and incite a riot.

On finding the idols, the mosque leadership realised the danger and urgently contacted Bhagat Sigh Se Dosti, an organisation working to promote interfaith dialogue and peace in the city. Together they asked Muslim community members to remain calm and not protest, as this might result in a violent response. The interfaith organisation mobilised leaders from the Hindu community to remove the idols. The idols were respectfully removed and there was no rioting.

Source: Centre for the Study of Society and Secularism and Adv. Ram Mohan Roy