Mainstream WeeklyPolitical parties have always attempted strategies to consolidate the support of particular communities to remain in power in a democracy. Over the years we have seen that several political parties and their affiliated institutions have capitalised on the religious values, beliefs, traditions, and practices not only to win elections but also to gain legitimacy and exercise control. We see increasing allegations of religious conversions and cow slaughter resulting in troubling patterns of communal violence and hatred against the minority communities in Odisha.
Troubling Patterns of Communal Violence
Attacks on the minority communities due to widespread incidents of cow vigilantism and anti-Christian and anti-Muslim violence and atrocities based on caste and language have generated fear and insecurity amongst the minorities. Though such attacks were experienced in the past, the spate of attacks in recent times has become more frequent, resulting in widespread communal hatred across the state. Multiple identities based on the fundamental principles of secularism, multiculturalism, and pluralism are under constant threat by the gau rakhshaks (cow vigilantes), Bajrang Dal, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who have become more dominant and controlling after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ruled the state.
Soon after the BJP came to power in Odisha in June 2024, curfew was imposed in the Balasore district following a communal clash erupting along religious lines on June 17. A group of people alleged that the water in a local drain had turned red by the blood of animals sacrificed for Id-ul-Adha. They staged a protest at the Bhujakhia Pir area against animal sacrifice on public roads as unethical, as it hurt the Hindu sentiments. The Muslim groups opposed the protestors, leading to a violent confrontation. Communal tension erupted in Bhadrak on June 12, 2025, following the death of Santosh Parida, a member of gau rakshak, after a clash with cattle smugglers. On June 23, 2025, two Dalit men in the Ganjam district were reportedly tonsured, beaten, forced to crawl on their knees and consume grass and drain water by self-styled