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If you have ever lived in an Indian city, or observed Indian weddings or festivals, you can understand that all conversations about traffic disruptions due to Eid and Friday Namaaz are distractions.

If you have observed an election season in India, you know about the loud rallies and roadshows that go on for weeks. Why, then, is the Indian state so obsessed about restricting and criminalising only Muslim prayer in public space? What does this focus tell us about governmentality in India today?

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

Let us begin with a larger question: What is the role of festive congregation and prayer in public space? Conceptually, public space is a realm where everyone, as Hannah Arendt said, can appear as they are – with their beliefs, opinions, bodies and identities – and as equal members of the society. Public space – streets, sidewalks, parks and markets – is where members of a society interact with others and encounter differences, negotiate conflict, and learn tolerance and solidarity.

Festive congregation and religiosity form an integral part of this practice, especially across ethno-religious lines. Public space, when accessed responsibly and safely for public displays of religio-cultural expression, can be a site of inter and intra communal cohesion and learning.

Celebrating festivals like Diwali in your local park, having public iftar during Ramzan, going to a Langar, or sharing cake on Christmas eve in your neighbourhood Church, are some commonplace examples. By enabling festive congregation and prayer, these instances enable citizenship and solidarity beyond, across and within religious identities. Public space is, therefore, the canvas of this politics.

The role of the state in this........

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