Islamophobic Remarks :
Nisha Ritambhara, also known as Sadhvi Rithambara, is a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an extremist Hindu paramilitary organization in India that is notorious for planning attacks on the country’s religious minorities and detonating bombs throughout the nation.
Ritambhara is the founder of Durga Vahini, the women’s division of the RSS cultural branch Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which the CIA World Factbook classified as a militant religious organization in 2018.
She is infamous for her vehement anti-Muslim remarks, which in 1992 caused the Babri Masjid to be demolished, shaking India to its core. More than 2000 people were killed in the country-wide anti-Muslim riots that followed. Take a look at this video.
Ritambhara was accused by Delhi police in January 1991 for making provocative comments. She was the subject of FIR no. 19/91 after making an anti-Muslim speech in Chowk Vishwas Nagar, East Delhi, on November 29, 1990. This letter requesting the registration of a case was sent to the Delhi Commissioner of Police Special Branch by the then-Deputy Secretary (Home).
The Liberhan Commission, presided over by Justice M.S. Liberhan, reached its conclusion in 2009, more than 16 years after it was established to look into the circumstances surrounding the destruction of the Babri Masjid and the murderous rampage against Muslims that followed, that Sadhvi Ritambhara was one of several people responsible for pushing the nation “to the brink of communal discord.” In May 2017, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court filed charges against Rithambara. But in 2020, a different CBI court exonerated Rithambhara along with 32 other BJP leaders as a result of involvement from the BJP, which is currently in power and is the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Uttar Pradesh high court is currently hearing the revision plea filed in opposition to Rithambhara’s acquittal in the Babri Masjid destruction case.
Tanika Sarkar, a historian, said in the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars in 1993:
The destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, and the ensuing wave of anti-Muslim riots across India have brought attention to the very real threat of a right-wing takeover of the Indian state under the banner of the Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) movement.
Any such change would necessitate a new definition of the state—one that prioritizes Hinduism over secularism or multiculturalism. Additionally, it would signal a change in governmental policies toward ones that are far more autocratic, centralized, and militaristic than they are at the moment.
The single most effective tool for inciting anti-Muslim violence was Sadhvi Rithambara’s audio-cassette talks, a lady ascetic of the VHP.
Rithambara’s remarks were frequently broadcast at temples across the nation, recited in BJP assemblies, and dispersed within the houses of RSS followers, according to scholar Maya Azran in her article “Saffron Women: A Study of the Narratives and Subjectivities of Women in the Hindutva Brigade.” On street corners, her voice and its message could be purchased for one rupee. Priests in Uttar Pradesh even interrupted their regularly scheduled sermons from holy books to play the cassette nonstop.
Ritambhara was detained in April 1995 after criticizing Christians and referring to Mother Teresa as a “magician” in a public speech. 169 individuals were detained for arson as a result of her incendiary remarks, which sparked Hindu-led rioting against Christians.
Sadhvi Ritambhara was accused of making an inflammatory statement in 1998 and was then detained in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
At a gathering in Gujarat in 2006, Ritambhara remarked, “They [Christians] call us harvest. They want to remove us. And outsiders aim to harm us in this way. She continued by saying that in order to preserve their religion, Hindus must arm themselves.
Ritambhara was detained by the Jammu police in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2008 for attempting to conduct a gathering with the goal of making anti-Muslim remarks.
Ritambhara has also vilified and demonized Indian Christians for a lengthy amount of time. She said, “If a single choti or janeu (a Hindu thread) is cut, Christians will be wiped out from the face of India,” implying that the missionaries were trying to convert people.
Digvijay Singh, a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and former general secretary of the Indian National Congress, stated on August 13, 2010, “Sadhvi Ritambhara made an inflammatory speech at the same spot where VHP militants had slain a Christian nurse. She was taken into custody after the administration filed a case against her.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh, a pupil of Ritambhara, was one of the organizers of the Malegaon Blasts on September 8, 2006, which left 37 people dead and more than 125 injured. Singh had been vehemently supported by Ritambhara.
In a hate speech he gave on January 27, 2022, at a university in Surat, Gujarat, Rithambhara referred to Muslims as invaders and claimed that they were to blame for all the harmful traditions practiced by Hindus.
Ritambhara declared that every Hindu should have at least four children in April 2022. She claimed that two of the four kids should be sent to either the extremist religious group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or the paramilitary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Her opponents have referred to her as the antithesis of Hinduism.