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Image Credit: ANI, Twitter/Sadhguru
Sadhguru Falsely Claims That There Was No Communal Violence In India In The Past 10 Years
India, 9 Jun 2022 9:38 AM GMT
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Jaggi Vasudev also known as Sadhguru claimed that there hasn’t been a major incidence of communal violence in India for “at least 10 years”. However, according to the data of NCRB and MHA, India witnessed 3,399 incidents of communal riots in India from 2016 to 2020 alone.
A video of Jaggi Vasudev also known as Sadhguru has been circulated across social media and YouTube, where he claimed that there were no communal riots in India for the past ten years.
In the past, he has made several misleading claims which have been disproven by The Logical Indian Fact Check team. In one of our reports, we found that there were five instances where Jaggi Vasudev had spread unverified information regarding the anti-CAA protests.
Claim:
Jaggi Vasudev made the claim in an interview with the Indian news agency, ANI. A video titled, 'Religious intolerance only on TV channels': Sadhguru' uploaded on Jaggi Vasudev's YouTube channel, the interviewer asks Vasudev about his views on "rising religious intolerance in India." From the 1:20 mark in the video, Vasudev can be heard saying, "When we were in university, there was not a single year when there was no major communal riot in the country. Every year, somewhere there used to be major riots. I have not heard of communal violence in the 5-6 years, at least 10 years."
"Some flashpoints have happened, unfortunately. But large communal violence, as we thought is normal for this country, you are not hearing (about) that, which is a very positive thing," he added.
Media outlets, Times Now and NEWJ, had shared the claim on their official Twitter handles as well.
Jaggi Vasudev can be seen claiming that there hasn't been a major incidence of communal violence in India for "at least 10 years".
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian had reported on the communal clashes that took place this year in Karauli and Jodhpur. In Karauli, as per our reports, a series of communal clashes took place after a motorcycle rally celebrating the Hindu New Year passed through a Muslim-dominated area. The rally was allegedly pelted with stones, in the incident which took place in June.
Meanwhile, in Jodhpur, a violent communal clash took place at the Jalori Gate area due to the hoisting of a flag on a freedom fighter's statue on May 2. The incident led to stone-pelting amongst religious communities.
Communal clashes between groups took place in Delhi's Jahangirpuri on April 16. Incidents of stone-pelting took place and nine people were injured, including seven police personnel.
In 2021, the clashes in Tripura were one of the major instances of communal violence in the year. In October 2021, protests led by Hindutva organizations had clashed with the police and vandalized the properties of the Muslim persons in the state.
One of the major communal clashes that took place in recent years, was during the protest against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act in 2020. Protests took place across the country between supporters of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and those in opposition to the law.
The Logical Indian reported on the injuries and fatalities that took place during the anti-CAA protests, as can be seen in this report here. In UP and Delhi, the death toll due to the clashes reached 23 and 53 respectively, as per reports by The Wire.
We then conducted a keyword search on whether communal violence took place in India before 2020. We came across several reports such as this report from The Wire published on 29 March 2022.
These reports stated that 3,399 incidents of communal riots in India took place from 2016 to 2020. The reports quote Minister of State of Ministry Of Home Affairs Nityanand Rai. He had replied the following in response to a request in the Lok Sabha regarding a record of the riots and lynchings that have taken place in the country in recent years.
In our keyword search, we also came across this report by Business Standard, published on May 8, 2022, which contained graphical data on the reports by the National Crime Records Bureau of India. The report displayed a visual representation of the data of communal riots from 2014 to 2020.
India Spend had also published visualizations of NCRB data from the years 2008 to 2017. In the report published on Feb 9, 2018, the data indicates that 7,484 communal incidents have been reported between 2008 and 2017.
The IndiaSpend report also contained state-wise breakdowns of the data on communal riots.
We then conducted a keyword search for the data regarding fatalities and injuries during the communal riots that took place in the country across the years. Responses by the MHA in Lok Sabha showed that during the years from 2015 to 2017, a total of 294 deaths were reported.
Similarly, we came across another response by the MHA which presented data on the deaths and injuries due to communal riots in India. 322 total deaths were recorded due to communal incidents in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Conclusion:
Jaggi Vasudev can be seen claiming that there hasn't been a major incidence of communal violence in India for "at least 10 years".
This claim is contrary to the recent incidents of communal clashes that took place in Jahangirpuri, Jodhpur and Karauli. While Vasudev didn't clarify his definition of major communal violence, it can be observed that within the past 10 years, there have been in the thousands, with 3,399 incidents of communal riots in India from 2016 to 2020 alone.
As per media reports and data from NCRB and MHA, over 7000 communal incidents have been reported over the past ten years. It can be derived that 616 persons have been killed between 2012 to 2017. Hence, we can state that Jaggi Vasudev's claims that haven't been a major incidence of communal violence in India for "at least 10 years" is false and lacks context.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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