170 Islamic education institutions sealed in India
BJP-led government in northern India’s Uttarakhand has shut down hundreds of Muslim institutes
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — In yet another escalation of its crackdown on Muslim identity and institutions, the BJP-led government in northern India’s Uttarakhand has shut down at least 170 Muslim seminaries (madrasas) in recent days.
Officials sealed these Islamic schools under the pretext of lacking registration with state authorities, but Muslim residents and clerics call it a thinly veiled campaign of targeted repression.
The assault on madrasas unfolded most aggressively in Banbhulpura, a Muslim-majority area of Haldwani, where state-backed teams involving district administration, municipal workers, and police raided local institutions.
Seven madrasas were sealed on Sunday alone.
Similar actions are being carried out in Dehradun, Haridwar, and Udham Singh Nagar.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, echoing Hindu nationalist rhetoric, labeled madrasas as potential centers of “radicalism” and defended the closures as “historic.”
In public statements, Dhami claimed Uttarakhand would not tolerate institutions that promote “illegal” or “society-breaking” activities—language long used by Hindutva forces to criminalize Muslim spaces of education and worship.
This latest wave of repression follows a broader campaign against Muslims in Uttarakhand under BJP rule.
In recent years, Hindutva groups across the state have openly organized economic boycotts of Muslim businesses, while the Dhami government introduced a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which seeks to override Muslim personal law—part of a nationwide effort to erase Islamic legal and cultural frameworks.
Many of the sealed madrasas are decades-old and have served as vital centers of learning for poor Muslim families.
Sources suggest that as many as 500 madrasas are under threat of closure in the coming weeks.
The state has already formed special survey teams to accelerate the purge, indicating that this is not a matter of administrative oversight but a coordinated Hindutva strategy.
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