A fact-finding report released by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) has concluded that recent incidents of communal violence and social tension across Telangana are not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of politically driven polarisation, institutional bias, and administrative failure, particularly affecting Adivasi, Muslim, Dalit, and other marginalised communities.
Titled “Belonging, Coexistence & Fractures: Documenting State Atrocities and Fractured Coexistence in Telangana”, the report is based on field visits, survivor testimonies, interviews with local residents and activists, and an analysis of official records across multiple districts, including Hyderabad, Medchal–Malkajgiri, Narayanpet, Medak, Nizamabad, Nirmal, Adilabad, and Bhainsa.
According to the report’s executive summary, many flashpoints in Telangana began as local disputes over land, religious practice, noise, interpersonal conflicts, or administrative decisions, but were subsequently escalated into communal confrontations through organised political mobilisation, misinformation campaigns, and provocative public actions.
The report attributes a central role in this escalation to right-wing organisations and affiliated local networks, particularly during politically sensitive periods such as elections.
A key outcome of the report is its finding that state institutions, especially the police and district administrations, have frequently failed to act impartially.
In several cases documented by APCR, members of Muslim and other minority communities faced delayed police responses, excessive force, false criminal cases, custodial violence, or pressure to withdraw complaints.
Oversight bodies such as the SC/ST Commission and the National Human Rights Commission were described as largely inaccessible or ineffective at the ground level, contributing to what the report terms a “climate of impunity.”
The report also highlights how communal narratives are being used to divert attention from structural issues such as land alienation, unemployment, erosion of public services, and unequal access to welfare schemes.
It notes that Adivasi, Dalit, and Muslim communities, despite sharing similar economic vulnerabilities, are increasingly positioned against one another through identity-based mobilisation, weakening possibilities for collective resistance.
Importantly, APCR’s findings do not portray Telangana as uniformly divided.
The report documents several instances where communities have resisted polarisation, continued everyday coexistence, and intervened to prevent violence.
Civil society groups, women, and youth initiatives are identified as playing a critical role in supporting survivors and de-escalating tensions in the absence of effective state intervention.
Concluding its assessment, the report states that communal violence in Telangana is neither inevitable nor driven primarily by grassroots hostility.
Instead, it argues that such violence is increasingly “manufactured and sustained” through political strategies that benefit from social division.
APCR said the report is intended to serve as a starting point for further public scrutiny, institutional accountability, and policy intervention aimed at safeguarding coexistence, dignity, and constitutional rights in Telangana.
Speaking to Maktoob, Nadeem Khan, national secretary of APCR, said, “Our findings show that communal violence in Telangana is not spontaneous or inevitable. In most cases, local disputes are deliberately escalated through political mobilisation, misinformation, and selective state action.”
He added, “What we repeatedly observed on the ground was the manufacture of communal flashpoints—small, resolvable issues being transformed into large-scale tensions through organised intervention by right-wing groups.”
He further said, attributing this to the report, “Adivasi, Muslim, Dalit, and other marginalised communities are being pitted against one another, despite sharing the same vulnerabilities—land insecurity, unemployment, and weak access to welfare,” and that “instead of acting as neutral protectors, state institutions often became part of the problem. Delayed responses, biased policing, and false cases against victims were recurring patterns across districts.”
“Communal violence in Telangana today is better understood as a political strategy than a social reality. Division benefits those in power, while ordinary people bear the cost,” Khan told Maktoob.
The report calls for independent investigations into cases of custodial deaths and alleged fake encounters, accountability for hate speech and inflammatory mobilisation, protection of land and housing rights, and reforms to ensure equal treatment of all communities by law enforcement and administrative authorities.
Ghazala Ahmad
Courtesy : Maktoob Media
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