By Adnan Ali
Indore: Madhya Pradesh’s commercial capital, Indore, celebrated widely across India for its top-tier cleanliness, civic infrastructure, and orderly public life, is currently grappling with a profound social unease that has very little to do with sanitation. Instead, the city is witnessing a steady rise in communal polarization and social friction, marked by growing reports of alleged discrimination, targeted economic boycotts, and organized exclusionary campaigns directed against the local Muslim community.
This growing friction highlights a stark departure from the city’s historical reputation for commercial openness and cultural coexistence. The latest flashpoints in Indore reveal how local political figures and right-wing groups are increasingly leveraging public platforms to push for the systematic exclusion of minority workers and business owners from mainstream commercial spaces.
The most prominent among these recent incidents involves Eklavya Singh Gaur, a right-wing activist and the son of sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Malini Laxman Singh Gaur. Eklavya Singh Gaur, who previously gained notoriety for his role in targeting comedian Munawar Faruqui, has launched a fresh and aggressive campaign in the city. He has openly urged local traders operating within the busy commercial hub of Sitalamata Bazaar to immediately remove all Muslim salesmen from their establishments. Furthermore, he has issued a direct ultimatum demanding that Muslim tenants operating shops in the area vacate their commercial premises within a strict two-month window.
To justify these exclusionary demands, Gaur has publicly invoked contentious and unsubstantiated narratives, claiming that the commercial environment of the market actively encourages what right-wing groups refer to as “love jihad.” He alleged, without providing concrete judicial evidence, that Muslim salesmen misuse their positions of employment within the market to obtain the personal telephone numbers of female customers, framing the routine interactions of daily commerce as a targeted social threat.
Despite the pressure from influential political circles, these calls for an economic boycott have not gone entirely unchallenged by the trading community itself, reflecting deep underlying pockets of resistance and pragmatic secularism in daily life. Several local merchants have openly rejected the allegations and distanced themselves from the divisive rhetoric.
Balwant Singh Rathore, a prominent shopkeeper operating within Sitalamata Bazaar, voiced his opposition to the campaign, emphasizing the shared economic interdependence of the market. “I believe that no one’s livelihood should be snatched away,” Rathore said. Highlighting his own business model, he added, “My partner is a Muslim, and together we run a shop.” His perspective underscores the traditional framework of cooperation that has historically sustained Indore’s bustling retail sectors.
Nevertheless, the ground reality remains volatile, and political fallout has been swift. On September 27, 2025, senior Congress leader, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, and Rajya Sabha member Digvijay Singh attempted to visit Sitalamata Bazaar to assess the situation firsthand. However, law enforcement authorities blocked his entry, citing pressing “security reasons” and the potential for deteriorating public order.
Following the denial of entry, Singh proceeded to the Sarafa Police Station, where he met with Additional DCP (Zone-4 Indore) Dishesh Agrawal to register formal protests and discuss a memorandum submitted by the Congress party regarding the escalating harassment of minority traders.
The situation outside the police station quickly turned confrontational. A group of Hindutva activists gathered to demonstrate against the senior opposition leader, openly displaying traditional glass bangles and hurling verbal accusations that he was actively supporting what they termed “jihadis.” Meanwhile, the atmosphere inside and around Sitalamata Bazaar had already been transformed by the insertion of polarizing symbols. Saffron flags were hoisted across public thoroughfares, and large posters were prominently displayed, aggressively declaring the commercial zone a “jihad-free market.”
The political opposition had previously mobilized against Eklavya Singh Gaur’s actions. On September 15, the Congress party formally submitted a detailed memorandum to district authorities demanding strict legal action and the immediate registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Gaur. In their submission, Congress representatives argued that Gaur’s public appeals constituted a deliberate and malicious attempt to dismantle Indore’s long-standing cultural fabric of communal harmony and mutual respect. However, local law enforcement agencies faced severe criticism from civil society groups and opposition leaders for their apparent inaction, having failed to file an FIR or initiate formal penal proceedings against Gaur in the weeks following the initial complaint.
This systematic push for segregation and exclusion has not remained confined to Sitalamata Bazaar. Similar tensions quickly spilled over into other public and cultural domains, notably manifesting at the Kankeshwari Mela ground over a routine contract awarded for hosting a public fair.
The controversy began when BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola awarded the official contract for organizing the fair to an individual named Mahesh Paliwal. Paliwal subsequently sub-contracted operational responsibilities to a Muslim youth named Firoz. This arrangement immediately drew sharp objections from the Hindu Jagran Manch, an organization that claimed the involvement of a Muslim contractor hurt Hindu religious sentiments and demanded immediate punitive intervention from local authorities.
The local political machinery quickly amplified these objections. On September 24, Jitu Yadav (also known as Jitu Jatav)—an expelled BJP councillor and vocal supporter of MLA Ramesh Mendola—publicly defended the intervention, articulating the core grievances of the protesting groups. “When contracts related to fairs and such religious and cultural events are given to non-Hindus, it creates resentment in the society, which can never be accepted,” Yadav stated. He elaborated on the specifics of the dispute, alleging that “Firoz took the contract in the name of Mahesh Paliwal and then gave permission to people belonging to the Muslim community to set up shops and rides in the fair.”
Taking matters into their own hands, Yadav and his supporters reportedly conducted physical inspections of the fairgrounds, meticulously checking identification documents to identify and purge vendors. According to accounts of the incident, Yadav oversaw the removal of shopkeepers belonging to non-Hindu communities from the fairgrounds, permitting only a select few Hindu women to retain their designated stalls. He further confirmed that the original organizing contract had been forcefully rescinded from Mahesh, also known as Guddu, due to his operational association with minority partners.
These successive episodes of economic exclusion, public intimidation, and forced segregation have triggered widespread alarm among civic intellectuals, human rights advocates, and ordinary citizens alike. For a city that has historically prided itself on cosmopolitan openness, commercial dynamism, and shared cultural traditions, the systematic marginalization of Muslim traders, vendors, and wage earners is increasingly viewed as an alarming indicator of a deeper social fracture. As these exclusionary practices gain institutional and political backing without facing decisive administrative pushback, Indore’s cherished identity as a peaceful mosaic of diverse communities faces an unprecedented and mounting challenge.