Speaking to ANI on Monday, founder of ISHA Foundation Jagadish Vasudev, also known as Sadhguru, stated that he has not heard of any communal riots in India in the last ten years.
BOOM found Sadhguru's statement to be incorrect and false; according to data provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs, India has witnessed at least 3399 instances of communal riots between 2016 and 2020 alone. Furthermore, past responses from the MHA indicate another 2886 instances of communal riots happening between 2012 - 2015, bringing the overall number of communal incidents between 2012 and 2020 to 6285. Additionally, according to the data on communal riots recorded by the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 5415 reported instances of communal riots in India between 2014 and 2020.
Earlier this year, Union Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told a visiting European Union delegation that there has been "no major incident of communal violence in the past seven-eight years" under the NDA government in India. It was consequently fact-checked by FactChecker.
Note: The story takes into account separately the number of communal riots recorded and reported by the MHA, and the NCRB, with the latter indicating a higher number. According to a response in the parliament by former Minister of State of Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, the discrepancy arises due to the fact that the NCRB records instances of communal riots according to number of First Information Reports, whereas the MHA records them according to each incident of communal riot.
Speaking to ANI editor Smita Prakash, Vasudev said, "When we were in university, there was not a single year when there was no major communal riot in the country. Every year, there used to be somewhere, major (riots). I have not heard (of communal violence) in the 5-6 years at least or maybe 10 years."
Fact Check
BOOM looked for data provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs, who records instances of communal riots according to the number of such incidents (as opposed to the NCRB, which records instances of communal riots according to the number of FIRs registered for each such incident).
We found a response to a Lok Sabha question by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai on March 22, 2022, detailing the number of recorded communal riots.
According Rai's response, there were 3399 instances of communal riots in the country.
We also found two more responses to parliamentary questions by the MHA, one made on March 10, 2015, and one made on April 11, 2017, according to which India had witnessed 2886 incidents of communal riots between 2012 and 2015.
Compiling the various figures provided by the MHA, there were 6285 incidents of communal riots in the country between 2012 and 2020 alone.
Some of the more recent instances of communal riots have been widely reported. One of the worst such instances took place during the February 2020 Delhi Riots, which claimed the lives of 53 people. Along with the lives lost, BOOM reporters on ground found lives uprooted and houses burnt.
The incident was followed by a rise in misinformation around the riots, which were fact-checked by BOOM. Here are some of the fake news that spread after the Delhi Riots.
Last year, rampant communal misinformation during Durga Puja led to widespread communal violence in Bangladesh. Soon enough, the fake news spread over to bordering Indian state of Tripura, causing communal riots in the poll-bound state as well.
Furthermore, there were various major communal riots reported since 2021 - communal violence in Tripura following the Durga Puja communal riots in Bangladesh in 2021, a spate of communal violence in various states during 2022 Ram Navami celebrations, and communal violence in Delhi's Jahangirpuri during Hanuman Jayanti celebrations.
BOOM found several instances of communal riots breaking out during Ram Navami celebrations this year in Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal, and Maharashtra.
We also reported on how Hanuman Jayanti celebrations turned violent at Delhi's Jahangirpuri area on April 17, and the ensuing consequences of the riot.