71reports suggested that the security agencies have put several hundred
Muslim youths under scanner for online radical activities and a few doz-
ens have been detained. Some have even been arrested during their
transit at airports in Gulf countries and Turkey and were deported back
to India (Singh 2017 ).
The phenomenon of radicalism is neither new nor confined to the
Muslim community of the country. In the early 1980s, India was nearly
wrecked by the militancy among its Sikh population, leading to the assas-
sination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Likewise, the spread of ethnic
conflict in Sri Lanka into the Indian soil resulted in the killing of former
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a Tamil female suicide bomber. Extremism
among the majority Hindu population culminated in the destruction
of the four-century-old Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in December 1992.
If Christian extremism is not uncommon in the north-eastern part of the
country, some of the anti-Tamil violence in Sri Lanka and anti-Rohingya
violence in Myanmar have been spearheaded by Buddhist monks.
Therefore, it is essential to be cautious while discussing extremism among
Indian Muslims.
India’s syncretic culture and secular polity largely kept the Muslim
secured and relatively immune from Islamic radicalism common in differ-
ent part the world, especially the Middle East and Europe. They have
eschewed from militant jihadi groups such as al-Qaida. Despite the fre-
quent militancy in Kashmir since the early 1990s, no Indian has ever
known to have joined the jihad in Afghanistan which attracted thousands
of Arabs who later came to be known as Afghan Arabs. While the menace
of terrorism has been spreading in different parts of the world, very few
have any Indian links or connections.
At the same time, many terror attacks within the country are linked to
various Muslim outfits and organization, supported or funded by Pakistan
with local logistical support. One such group, the Indian Mujahedeen,
had become notorious for carrying out small-scale attacks at crowded
public places in many parts of India. It remained active between 2007 and
2010 and was eventually neutralized by security measures.
In recent years, the ISIS has managed to attract many Muslim youths
to its ranks and this has been attributed to technological advancements in
communication and online radicalization. It has been argued that one of
the primary reasons for the success of ISIS in drawing the Indian youths has
been the spread of Salafi and Wahhabi Islam in certain parts of the country
(Safi 2016 ; Jaffrelot 2017 ). This is more palpable in Kerala due to close
ISLAMIC DIMENSION