On Republic Day, patriotic songs were played on loudspeakers and the tricolor was hoisted in Kotdwar, the town known as the gateway to the Garhwal hills. Uttarakhand. The atmosphere was enthusiastic, celebratory and nationalistic. This didn’t work.
There was a crowd gathered outside a shop in a market near Jhanda Chowk. Voices rose and anger thickened the air. The mobile phone video – which later circulated widely on social media – showed a group of youths forcing a clothing seller to remove the word Baba from the name of his shop. The shop, Baba School Dress and Matching Centre, had been in existence longer than the people confronting its owner. As the elderly merchant trembled and struggled to speak under the bullying, a man, much taller than the youth, came forward to challenge the harassment. When he was asked to introduce himself, he said, “My name is Mohammad Deepak.”
In the days that follow, Deepak Kumar, who added ‘Mohammed’ to his name to make his point clear, will face an FIR for intimidation, rioting and disturbing peace. People were reluctant to come to his gym for fear of police stationed outside, and his daughter, wife, and mother received threats from people associated with right-wing groups.
Deepak says, “My 5-year-old daughter has high fever. My wife and mother cry a lot after hearing death threats. We suffered a lot when I did nothing wrong.” His eyes become moist.
Deepak is one of the few Uttarakhand residents who have stood up against hatred and spoken up for those who they believe are being treated unfairly.
The January 2026 report by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), which provides free legal aid to the marginalized, highlights the changing social landscape of Uttarakhand. Topic Excluded, targeted and displaced: Communal narratives and violence in Uttarakhand.The report documents an increase in communal violence, forced displacement and systematic exclusion experienced by Muslim residents across the state since 2021.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power in the hill state since 2017. Hours before protesters gathered outside Deepak’s gym, the chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, was in Kotdwar to inaugurate a bird festival. In his speech he said that any tampering with the rich cultural heritage and values of the state would not be acceptable. Be it a matter of encroachment or a land related matter Jihad or love Jihad…We have persevered,” he said.
Down the highway leading to Kotdwar, there are huge posters of the Virat Hindu Sammelan, a gathering of Hindus to discuss culture. It contains the line “I should wake up a Hindu; you wake up a hindu“(I will wake up one Hindu; you wake up another), the poster reads.
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Ahmed, a 71-year-old lawyer at the center of the controversy, says he never knew about the word. ‘Dad‘ Can be claimed by only one religion. Ahmed later told the media, “They told me that Kotdwar is the land of Baba Siddhabali, a form of the Hindu god Hanuman, and therefore being a Muslim I cannot use that name for my shop.” Since the incident, he has started spending more time indoors, avoiding the press and curious people, being wary of outside stress. He refused to change the name of a shop that has been a part of the city for decades.
The FIR against Deepak was registered on the basis of a complaint by members of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). He is sitting sadly in front of a huge poster of Lord Hanuman in his gym at Jhanda Chowk in Kotdwar. A 65-foot tricolor flag flutters in the sky at the intersection. He looks at the nearly empty client-entry chart.
Five days after the incident, and a day after India observed Gandhi’s 78th death anniversary, a group of around 150–200 reportedly gathered outside his gym and raised slogans of Jai Shri Ram and shouted that they would teach Deepak a lesson. Videos of this meeting were also widely circulated on social media.
“They have now deployed police outside my gym, but when I told the police about the calls being made by “kuch dal” (some organisations) to harm my family, no one paid attention to my complaint. They said they will come to Kotdwar to teach me a lesson,” he asks, where was the police when a group of people gathered outside his gym. Later the police registered an FIR against unknown people.
Deepak Kumar (left) with Vijay Rawat in his gym in Kotdwar. | Photo courtesy: Tayyab Hussain
Deepak’s co-accused Vijay Rawat is silent in the police FIR. He says that he was with Deepak both in body and mind. Since then his father is under stress. He says, “He calls me several times a day, just to check on me. My family agrees that I did the right thing, but their concerns are also real.” The concerns he talks about include the stress of being involved in a criminal case, threats from right-wing groups and ostracism in a small community.
Nandkishore, who runs a grocery shop in Jhanda Chowk, has known Deepak for at least a decade. He also knows those who threatened Ahmed. He doesn’t want to take anyone’s side. “I just want peace in my city,” he says.
BJP councilor Saurabh Nautiyal, seen in the angry crowd gathered outside Deepak’s gym, says, “Why can’t they name their shops so that we can know their religion? If they are not doing anything wrong, then why are they hiding behind Hindu names?”
Just a few meters away from Deepak’s gym, a signboard welcomes visitors to Kotdwar – a town recently renamed Kanva Nagari Kotdwar after a sage. In March 2025, Uttarakhand government changed the name of 18 places and areas It previously featured names associated with the Muslim community, saying this was done “to respect the sentiments of the public”.
Congress vice president Suryakant Dhasmana claims that with elections being held in 2027, the BJP has nothing to show. “The only way to win them over is to create fear, and tell Hindus that Muslims are a threat. Laws like the Uniform Civil Code, the Minority Education Bill which aims to abolish Madrassa Boards, and anti-conversion laws – all these are only aimed at polarization and division.”
voice against partition
less than nine months ago Kotdwar incidentAnother voice was raised against the communal divide in Uttarakhand – this time in Nainital, the city of lakes and one of the most visited hill stations of North India.
In April 2025, The city was shaken by communal unrest Following the arrest of Usman, a 72-year-old man accused of molesting a minor girl from the majority community. The police took immediate action and took the accused into custody. Right-wing groups together with local residents started protests which soon turned violent. Shops belonging to Muslims were vandalized, employees were attacked and a religious structure was pelted with stones.
As tension prevailed in Nainital during the peak tourist season, Shaila Negi, a 30-year-old woman, stepped forward alone to face the surging crowd heading towards shops. He questioned the logic of collective punishment, asking why an entire community was being targeted for the alleged actions of one person.
“Why are you killing everyone…(Why are you beating everyone), his voice is heard asking in a video which later went viral. Shaila, daughter of an office-bearer of the local traders’ association, decided not to pull down the shutters of her shop despite the call. Close Its purpose was to oppose Muslims. Keeping one’s shop open in a city plagued by fear became an act of resistance.
The reaction was swift and vicious. “Some comments on the viral video said that I should be raped and thrown in the lake,” says Shaila. “Other people abused me or said I should be killed for betraying my community. What wrong did I do by asking the mob to stop the violence?”
Now seeing the nationwide support for Deepak, he feels a quiet relief. “I had to fight alone,” she says. “Nobody stood with me except my family.”
Peaceful solidarity in Purola
Beyond viral videos and fleeting moments that briefly captured national attention, there are quieter stories of solidarity in Uttarakhand – acts of courage that went largely undocumented. One such story is that of 83-year-old Dharam Singh Negi, the oldest lawyer in Purola, a small town in Uttarkashi district that serves as the gateway to the pilgrimage sites of Gangotri and Yamunotri.
In the summer of 2023, Purola was in the grip of communal tension after a Two youths allegedly kidnapped a minor girl – One Hindu and the other Muslim. Local residents caught hold of the accused persons, who were later arrested and sent to jail. But the arrests failed to stop the growing hostilities.
Editorial Increasing tension: threat to social harmony in Uttarakhand
Several right-wing organizations including Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bhairav Sena launched protests targeting the minority community and called for social and economic boycott.
After this an atmosphere of fear was created. X marks seen outside Muslim houses. Residents were warned against purchasing goods from merchants in the community, and landlords were pressured to evict tenants from the community. As fear spread, many minority families were forced to leave Purola.
As law and order went out of control, the octogenarian lawyer refused to succumb to the wave of hatred. “Some miscreants pasted a poster outside my house ordering my Muslim tenants to vacate the house within a day,” recalls Negi. “I was angry. I confronted them and asked how they could demand that someone living on my property leave without my consent.” People raised slogans and made threats, but Negi says that he did not calm down.
Negi’s refusal to comply with his firm, public stance was echoed throughout Purola. Word spread quickly and, encouraged by their defiance, many other landlords decided not to evict their Muslim tenants.
Negi’s tenant Bale Khan, who has been living in the house for decades, says he remembers many milestones in the house. He also remembers the times when Hindu neighbors from Uttarakhand would guard Muslim shops during namaz and Muslim families would cook food for Hindu volunteers during floods.
“During floods and landslides, religion dissolves into urgency. No one asks about the religion of the hand that pulls strangers out of the debris,” says Khan, who runs a clothing shop.
Look Uttarakhand tension: Voices of hatred, fear and resistance on Republic Day
