Sar tan se juda: Origin of the anti-Hindu war cry after Nupur Sharma’s controversial Prophet Muhammad remark

New Delhi: Recent months have seen a sort of the anti-Hindu battle cry going viral in India. The ‘sar tan se juda’ gang have been scalping one victim after another following now suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma's controversial statement on Prophet Muhammad resulted in a widespread ruckus across the country.

A growing radicalised outcry has overtaken the streets of the country, with people found in support of Nupur Sharma’s statement getting condemned brutally. Six people across India have faced the wrath of the ‘sar tan se juda’ ideology.

The victims

In June, a 54-year-old chemist Umesh Kolhe, in Amravati city of eastern Maharashtra was stabbed to death for allegedly sharing a post on some WhatsApp groups in support of Sharma’s controversial comments on Prophet Muhammad.

On 28 June, Rajasthan Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor in Udaipur, was hacked to death by two Muslim men with a cleaver at his shop in the Dhan Mandi area to avenge an “insult to Islam”. The killers had also made a video of the murder of Kanhaiyalal in Udaipur. The killers gave a slogan at the end of the video, '...sar tan se juda' (sar tan se juda).

Nishank Rathore, a 20-year-old engineering student, was found dead on a railway track in Madhya Pradesh's Raisen district. The police ruled out any foul play but a mysterious text message from his phone - "Gustakh-e-Nabi ki ek saza, sar tan se juda” confounded authorities.

Most recently, a group of people allegedly attacked a man in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district with sharp weapons, accusing him of supporting suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. What links all these attacks and murders are the general line of thought and the use of the slogan.

But this slogan is not new

‘Sar tan se juda’ is not a new outcry in India. It was first used widely about 5 years ago, when Kamlesh Tiwari of Lucknow gave a statement about Pangbar Mohammad. Soon after, an outcry went viral, " Gustakh-e-Rasool Ki Ek Hi Saza, Sar Tan Se Juda, Sar Tan Se Juda” (Same punishment of Gustakh-e-Rasool, separated from the body, separated from the body.)”

Origins

According to a report by DNA, the slogan was first raised in Pakistan. In 2011, governor of the Punjab province of Pakistan, Salman Taseer was murdered by his own guard Mumtaz Qadri who disagreed with Taseer's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law.

Khadim Hussain Rizvi was a Maulana in Pakistan at that time who justified this murder and declared the killer Mumtaz Qadri as 'Ghazi'. Following Taseer's statements against blasphemy law, Khadim had raised a procession with thousands of people where two slogans were raised in large numbers. One was “Rasool Allah, Rasool Allah” and the other, “Gustakh-e-Rasool Ki Ek Hi Zaza, Sar Tan Se Juda, Sar Tan Se Juda.”

While Khadim may have passed away in 2020, but his slogans have garnered lives of their own, among fundamentalists in India as well.

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