The Hindu Who Stood Up for a Muslim and Became a Hero

"My name is Mohammad Deepak." With these five simple words, a Hindu man who stood up for a Muslim shopkeeper has been catapulted to fame and become an unlikely hero in India.

Deepak Kumar has been praised as an "icon for secular India" and a "posterboy for India's pluralism". At the same time, he has faced noisy protests, been called a traitor to his Hindu faith and received death threats.

The incident that thrust him into the spotlight took place on 26 January in the small town of Kotdwar in the northern state of Uttarakhand. It has made headlines since a video recording of the incident went viral.

It shows the 42-year-old gym owner arguing with activists of Bajrang Dal, a hardline Hindu group that routinely makes news for harassing Muslims.

Deepak said he was at a friend's shop next door and intervened when he saw about half a dozen men heckling Vakeel Ahmed, the elderly owner of a clothing store called "Baba School Dress and Matching Centre". They were telling him to drop Baba from his 30-year-old shop's name.

Baba is a commonly used term in India to refer to mystics and religious gurus and also to fathers or grandfathers by both Hindus and Muslims.

The Bajrang Dal activists, however, insisted that Baba in Kotdwar could only be a reference to Siddhabali Baba - a local temple to Hindu god Hanuman - and that a Muslim had no right to use it in his shop's name.

Ahmed's son is heard pleading with them for more time, but they are told it must be done soon.

That's when Deepak walked in on the scene - drawn by "a lot of people crowding in front of the shop", he later told BBC Hindi.

"Are Muslims not citizens of India?" he is heard asking in the video.

Deepak said his intervention was spontaneous and not part of a strategy. "I did not like these young men talking so rudely with an elderly man. They were targeting him because of his religion. They were targeting Muslims."

Ahmed, 68, says it's difficult to say what would have happened if Deepak hadn't been there. "We were scared. They could go to any extent to get their point across."

After the push back from Deepak, the Bajrang Dal activists asked his name.

"By identifying myself as Mohammad Deepak, I wanted to tell them that I'm an Indian. That this is India and everyone has the right to stay here, regardless of their religion," he said.

- Authors: Geeta Pandey & Asif Ali, BBC

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