The Pulse | Politics | South Asia

Muhammad Deepak: A Symbol of Defiance Against Hindutva’s Hate Politics

When a mob of Hindutva goons descended on a Muslim shopkeeper, a young gym owner stepped forward to defend him.

Communist parliamentarian John Brittas (right) with gym owner “Mohammad Deepak,” who stood up on Jan. 26, 2026, to Hindutva goons in Kotdwar, India.

In a climate of normalized hate politics, the brave act of a Hindu gym owner, Deepak Kumar, has become a powerful symbol of public resistance against rising communalism in India.

Deepak has now become famous as “Muhammad Deepak,” the name he used while standing up in support of a 70-year-old Muslim shopkeeper who was being heckled by a mob of right-wing Bajrang Dal goons in Kotdwar, a town in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. The Bajrang Dal is a fraternal organization of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been in power in Uttarakhand for close to a decade now.

It is indeed ironic that the ugly incident happened on January 26, the day that India celebrates annually as Republic Day, when its constitution, which emphasizes the values of secularism and pluralism, was adopted in 1950.

That day, Bajrang Dal goons threatened a shopkeeper, Wakeel Ahmed, and demanded that he change the name of his shop, Baba Dresses. According to them, the name “Baba” is a prerogative of Hindus as it refers to “Siddhabali Baba” — a local temple dedicated to the Hindu god Hanuman. Ahmed’s shop has been selling school uniforms in Kotdwar for 30 years.

While Ahmed pleaded with them, and a crowd of bystanders watched silently, 42-year-old Deepak stepped forward and confronted the mob alone. When the Bajrang Dal goons demanded to know Deepak’s identity, the latter, on the spur of the moment, answered, “Muhammad Deepak,” in a defiant act of solidarity with the elderly Muslim shopkeeper. Deepak is a Hindu name, while Muhammad is a Muslim one.

Someone in the crowd recorded the incident, and the video went viral on social media.

Deepak said that he was angry at how the mob was targeting an old man because of his religion and because he was a Muslim. “I wanted to show them we are all one,” he said subsequently. In a short video, Deepak has said: “I am not a Hindu, I am not a Muslim, I am not a Sikh, I am not a Christian. First and foremost, I am a human being.” This post has received five million likes on Instagram.

Deepak was successful in stalling the Hindutva goons that day. However, he soon faced a backlash from the Bajrang Dal members, who laid siege to his gym, raised slogans and issued death threats. Incidentally, the police were silent bystanders. Deepak and his family were harassed and threatened by the Bajrang Delhi goons; his child was forced to leave school. Deepak hails from an ordinary working-class background; his mother runs a tea stall. Three complaints were filed with the police, of which two are against the Hindutva mob. The third was a complaint registered with the police against Deepak by a Hindutva activist for alleged assault and........

© The Diplomat