Usage
The first known use of the term "Saffron Terror" is from an 2002 article in Frontline in reference to 2002 Gujarat Riots. However it was in the aftermath of the September 29, 2008 bomb blast in the predominantly Muslim town of Malegaon in Maharashtra that these terms came to be used widely. In late 2008, Indian police arrested members of a Hindu radical cell allegedly involved in an attack Malegaon which killed 7 Muslims. For incidents like these, Saffron terror has been used synonymously with "Anti-Muslim terrorism" or "Anti-Muslim reprisals" and also as Hindu terrorism.
Former Home Minister of India P. Chidambaram urged Indians to beware of "Saffron terror" on August 25, 2010 at a meeting of state police chiefs in New Delhi. This was the first time the word was "officially" used by the Government of India. Since making the remark, a Hindu Swami in the Patan district has filed a defamation lawsuit against Chidambaram, on the grounds that the saffron colour is a conventional Hindu symbol and worn regularly by Hindu religious clergy, and that Chidambaram has hurt the sentiments of Hindus by linking the symbol to terrorism. Chidambaram responded by stating "I cannot claim patent on the phrase." On September 6, 2010 a Gujarat court ordered a probe into the use of the term by Chidambaram. Chidambaram was also criticized by members of his own party (the Indian National Congress) for the use of the term, with Congress spokesman Janardhan Dwivedi claiming "terrorism does not have any colour other than black".
It has been debated that term saffron terrorism is a misnomer considering the historical descriptions of saffron colour compared to the definitions of terrorism. Saffron is the colour of the upper band of the Indian National Flag as specified by the Government of India. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was India's first Vice President and second President, described the saffron colour as follows.
Bhagwa or the saffron colour denotes renunciation or disinterestedness. Our leaders must be indifferent to material gains and dedicate themselves to their work.
— Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
The saffron colour appears in the party flags of various national parties of India like Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janatha Party. Saffron coloured flag is commonly seen in most temples in India. Buddhist monks typically wear saffron robes as a symbol of wisdom. The United States Department of Defense defines terrorism as “the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.” According to United Nations General Assembly the descriptions of terrorism is found as follows: "Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them."
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