BBCIn an American city, a 15-year-old boy was killed by a classmate next month, suffocating one family’s grief and destroying another.
On 16 August, Heena* learned her young son Zakir*, 15, had been accused of stabbing a student at their class in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
Devraj, a Hindu son, was allegedly attacked by Zakir after he pulled a weapon from his handbag. He eventually passed away in a hospital three days later.
The incident sparked a torrent of pain and rage as well as a discussion about how to handle violence in schools.
The incident’s position authorities denied any spiritual significance. Investigative official Chhagan Purohit told the BBC,” The kids had an debate over books that turned ugly.”
However, the event sparked a wave of spiritual hostility.
False rumours that Zakir, a Muslim, planned the killing went viral on WhatsApp, sparking protests in Udaipur with right-wing Hindu parties burning cars and screaming anti-Muslim phrases, leading to a law and digital closure.
Zakir’s parents was detained on the costs of abetment to death, according to Mr. Purohit, while his father was detained and sent to a juvenile house.
The next day, following a familiar pattern in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled (BJP-ruled) states, bulldozers demolished Heena’s rented home, leaving her and her four daughters homeless.
Heena said,” I hope my child learns to be a better person, and I hope he receives abuse.” Why was his whole household punished by them?
Though the crime has subsided, Udaipur people are shaken by how a simple battle escalated. Many people now worry that their once-integrated Hindu-Muslim neighborhoods are being torn apart along spiritual ranges.
“Things are getting worse and we can feel it,” one of Heena’s neighbours said on condition of anonymity.
For Devraj’s household, all else pales in comparison to the pain of losing their brother.
His parents, Pappu Lal, told the BBC,” This is the information that every parent curls.”
While he was thousands of miles away from home, he learned about the event while he was a shoemaker in Kuwait. By the time he got home, his brother was incapacitated. Without having the opportunity to see or talk with his father, he passed away.
According to Mr. Lal, the pain caused him to become withdrawn and unable to cope with his wife and his crippling sadness.
” Their apartment was demolished but we lost our boy”, Mr Lal said. ” The property can be rebuilt, but our child is not” He did not arrive back”.
After some criticism leaders claimed the BJP, which governs India and Rajasthan, is promoting spiritual conflicts for political gain, the event has become a political hot button.
Specialists claim that Heena’s home was destroyed because it was built without permission on forest area. One time prior to the incident, Heena received a notice.
However, her brother, the house’s owner, Mukhtar Alam*, questioned how the dismantling may occur when only the tenants were informed. I worked very hard to build it, and it was my home. How are they able to simply travel and destroy it without even telling me?
If all of the nearby houses were constructed on forest property, he also questioned why any of them were still standing.
Ashish Saini, an established in Udaipur’s forest office, told the BBC that action would be taken against those institutions “at an appropriate time”.
” Right now the environment is not appropriate for that”, he said.
Critics have questioned the act’s schedule and claim that using laws intended for one person to punish one person for an alleged offense makes no sense.
In BJP-governed says like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Assam, tractors generally soon demolish the houses of murder suspects, with officials touting this as proof of their hard stance on law and order. Although Hindu families are among the victims, opposition leaders and activists contend that these demolitions proportionally target Muslims, particularly when they occur as a result of spiritual protests or violence.
Social scientist Asim Ali said,” There is no logic to it other than the social logic of collective punishment and the expert acting as the nationalist dispenser of hard vigilante justice.”
The Supreme Court of India recently criticized the destruction of attributes linked to crimes committed by those accused of crimes and issued instructions in response.
Manna Lal Rawat, the BJP’s Udaipur MP, told BBC Hindi that the destruction was not connected to the punching. He claimed that the accused student was influenced by “extremists” and that he had urged the officers to make sure the shooting was n’t a part of a “larger style.”
An uneasy calm has prevailed in Udaipur since 2022, when two Muslim men beheaded a Hindu man, filmed the assault and posted it online. They said the act was in response to his support for a politician’s divisive remarks about the Prophet Muhammad.
For weeks, the shooting had sparked extensive protests and crime in the area.
” The memories of that crime are still intact in the minds of people”, a mature Rajasthan police official, who wanted to stay anonymous, told the BBC. ” That’s why a battle between two babies turned into unrest. Due to politics, the harmony of the area has been damaged”.
However, Mr. Lal is unable to comprehend the origins of the conflict.
He says his child was a great boy- as playful as a 15-year-old may be, but likewise sweet and innocent.
” He always fought with anyone in college. He wanted to become a officer when he grew up, get the message of justice”, he said, his eye on Devraj’s image in the corner of the living space.
In a busy neighborhood where Hindus and Muslims have coexisted happily for many years, hundreds of people have visited Devraj’s small home.
But for Mr Lal and his grieving family, all sympathies feel pointless.
He says the administration must respond to the crime and what might have caused it. I simply want fairness for my child.
Additionally, concerns have been raised about how the school handled the case.
Devraj was taken to the hospital on a bicycle by two of his colleagues, according to Mr. Lal, and that no teacher accompanied him there.
The university’s director, Isha Dharmawat, who has since been suspended for neglect of work, denied the incident.
She claimed she and four additional teachers had already taken Devraj to the hospital and that she had requested the kids ride it on her motorcycle to prevent any delays in treatment.
The effects of the event are most clearly visible at the college where the children studied as the area recovers from its previous state.
After the stabbing, the university closed for a year and reopened with only one pupil attending.
Authorities interrogated the two students Devraj’s parents and forced them to leave the city citing safety concerns. Kids who are still sending their children to school are concerned about their health.
Children may not be a part of politics until they are ready to face the earth. A family who wanted to remain anonymous said,” This has shaken us all up.
However, Heena is desperately trying to part her life back together.
” Half of my things are still buried ] beneath the rubble of the destroyed house.” After the destruction, no some wants to hire me a house”, she said.
Even now, she wonders how her son got the knife or why he allegedly used it on his friend. Was it collapsing mental health, a childish rivalry or something else? She does not know.
She is aware, however, that she will always be seen as a bad parent and an facilitator of the violence and the subsequent hatred.
” My entire life has been taken.” Then if people want to drop my child, therefore drop him, what else can I state”?
*The accused’s and his family’s names have been changed because American laws forbid the identification of young criminals.