![In February, anti-Muslim violence in Delhi claimed the lives 47 Muslims [Getty]](https://i0.wp.com/theforevermuslim.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/349.jpeg?resize=612%2C349&ssl=1)
It seemed that Indian Islamophobia, and the climax of vigilante violence that gripped Delhi for weeks, had reached its limit, but was soon to be superseded by a new turn of events. As the Covid-19 pandemic hit the headlines, and the novel virus claimed the lives of thousands, Hindutva leaders saw an opportunity to further justify their persecution of Indian Muslims: blame its spread in India on Muslims.
The term Islamophobia was coined during the 1990s, referring neither to labour, as with anti-black racism, nor capital, as with antisemitism, but a global arena without a politics of its own. Islamophobia has not supplanted its racist predecessors, but energised them in a context where nation states seem unable to display political mastery against non-state forces, whether environmental, economic or civilisational.