Ground Report: Khubbapur Villagers Reject Communal Narrative In Teacher Assault Case Amid A National Firestorm

In a remote village on the fringes of New Delhi in western Uttar Pradesh, a 40-second video has stirred a national political storm.

The village is under the governance of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the case has attracted opposition parties like moths to a flame.

Initially believed to be a hate crime against a Muslim boy, the incident has not only triggered a national conversation but has also caught the attention of international media.

Prominent foreign publications, including the Qatar government-owned Al Jazeera and the British public service broadcaster BBC, have picked up the story, amplifying its reach and impact globally.

As the political tug-of-war intensifies, Swarajya travelled to the village on Sunday (27 August). A lengthy line of parked vehicles — owned by politicians, activists, and news channels — welcomed us at the entrance.

At the residence of the seven-year-boy, Altamash Tyagi, who was seen in the video being repeatedly slapped by fellow classmates at the behest of a female teacher, the “waiting time” for a conversation with his father was three hours, family members told us.

Several news channels were in queue, they clarified.

In the video, the female teacher, 60-year-old Tripta Tyagi, was heard mentioning the word “Mohammedan” while conversing with someone and instructing the students to stand one by one and slap Altamash.

While the remainder of her sentence is not audible in the brief video, Muzaffarnagar Superintendent of Police Satyanarayan Prajapat stated that, after investigation and speaking with the individual who filmed the video, it was revealed that the teacher’s full statement was this: “I have said that all those Mohammedan children whose mothers don’t focus on their education, their education gets ruined.”

SP Prajapat said that Nadeem Tyagi, the boy’s cousin who recorded the video, provided the statement to the police. The officer indicated that the teacher was disciplining the student for making errors in his mathematics lesson.

However, several publications have reported different versions of the teacher’s statement, none of which are substantiated by evidence.

For instance, Hindustan Times claimed that the teacher stated Mohammedan children should be taught a lesson, while Al Jazeera reported that the teacher said, “I have declared that all Muslim children should go.”

While our correspondent waited for his turn to talk to Irshad Ali Tyagi, Nadeem confirmed SP Prajapat’s statement. He said, “She [Tripta] said that mothers of Mohammedan children go to their parents’ house and it ruins the studies of their children. I am heard in the video agreeing with her.”

Confirming that he was the individual Tripta was conversing with in the video, Nadeem said that although he verbally agreed with her at the time, he later realised her comment was wrong. “It’s not only Muslim women who go to their parents’ house. Even Hindu women do so,” he noted.

When questioned if Tripta called for Muslim children to be beaten up or specifically asked Altamash to be slapped for being Muslim, Nadeem denied it firmly. “She did not,” he said.

Asked if there was any “Hindu-Muslim” aspect to the case, Nadeem firmly rejected the idea. “No, there is nothing Hindu-Muslim about the matter. Everyone here lives peacefully with love,” he said. Watch his video statement to Swarajya here.

Nadeem, a mason, was working renovations at Tripta’s house when he found himself in the classroom. He filmed the video while conversing with Tripta, intending to show it to the boy’s father later, he said.

When Irshad was finally available to talk, he appeared exhausted and visibly irritated. Clad in a loose striped T-shirt, with a cloth tied around his head, Irshad mentioned his son had been attending Tripta’s school for two years. “No, there was not any issue in these two years,” he said.

However, the family withdrew him from the school after the slapping incident on 24 August.

“It left a bad taste in our mouth. Our child too does not want to go there anymore,” he said, adding that he had sent his son to a relative as he was having trouble sleeping at home due to the current atmosphere.

When questioned if Tripta orchestrated the assault on his son because of his religion, Irshad responded, “This is not a Hindu-Muslim matter at all. This is a matter of a teacher mistreating a student.”

When asked why the incident was being a communal colour, Irshad attributed it to politics. “Those wanting to benefit from the case politically are giving the incident a communal colour,” he said. Watch his statement given to Swarajya here.

Irshad earlier told the media that he had asked Tripta to discipline her son. He noted that his sole complaint in the matter was that Tripta should have slapped the child herself or instructed a senior student to do so. “We did not like it that it was his fellow classmates who slapped him,” he said. Watch his statement here.

Khubbapur is a small village of approximately 2,000 inhabitants, two-third of whom are Hindus while the remainder are Muslims. However, barring a dozen houses belonging to ‘lower’ Teli, Dhobi and Gadaria castes, all families are from the ‘upper’ Tyagi caste.

The contemporary Muslim community in the village, believed to have converted from the Hindu Tyagi community during Aurangzeb’s reign, has retained the Tyagi surname.

Although we did not observe this practice in the village, Tyagi Muslims in western Uttar Pradesh are occasionally referred to as ‘Mulla Brahmin’ as Tyagis claim Brahmin ancestry.

Irshad’s father Hukkum Ali Tyagi, clad in a white dhoti-kurta and sporting a green-and-white ‘Nehru cap’ — attire resembling that of Hindus except that he keeps his moustache shaved while sporting a beard — expressed concern for his grandson for being unnecessarily embroiled in a controversy.

When asked if he had ever witnessed communal violence or tension between the Hindu and Muslim Tyagis in the village, Hukkum Ali, aged 65, stated that he could not recall any such incidents from his lifetime, and that the two communities have always co-existed peacefully.

“We attend each other’s family functions,” he said, but added that intermarriage is strictly prohibited. When asked if there had been incidents of romantic relationships between men and women from the two communities, Hukkum Ali said, “Not in my time”.

Hukkum Ali mentioned that all his grandchildren from his two sons, Irshad and Imtiaz, attended Tripta’s school.

Irshad’s other son, Ayaan Tyagi, who is older than Altamash, told Swarajya that he had studied there for several years and did not recall any instances of religious discrimination. Watch his statement here.

Hukkum Ali and his younger son, Imtiaz, were seated on a cot outside their house in presence of several members of the village’s Hindu community. Prem Dutt Tyagi, a resident and a lawyer, said that the Hukkum Ali family and his family have been next-door neighbours for several generations.

They belong to the same lineage, he said.

“We have so much love between us that it is difficult to find such love between neighbours elsewhere. We visit each other’s houses and attend each other’s functions.”

Hukkum Ali’s ancestors converted during Aurangzeb’s time, said Prem Dutt in the family's presence, adding, “My father used to tell me that Hukkum Ali would mock [Lal Krishna] Advani’s rath yatra, saying — what does a Sindhi know about temples? He [Hukkum Ali] would say — ask us about temples instead! We know it better than him.”

While Hukkum Ali did not decipher what was said about him, his son Imtiaz and others in his family nodded.

Prem Dutt called the school incident “highly unfortunate”, and added, “If at all anything happened, it was a misunderstanding. Neither they [the Hukkum Ali family] nor we [Hindus] want any bad blood. Because we have to stay with each other twenty four seven."

"Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi or Jayant Singh are only interested in politics. They have not lived amid us," he said.

At Tripta Tyagi’s house, which is nearby, a group of people said she was not at home.

The ‘school’ was an empty plot with cemented floor and exposed bricks, with a poster saying ‘Neha Public School’ pinned on one of the walls.

In a later development on Sunday, the district administration told the media that they had sealed the school as it did not meet the criteria of the education department.

A day earlier, Tripta was booked by Muzaffarnagar police under IPC sections 323 (causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace).

Police told the media that as the sections were bailable, they had not arrested Tripta. Police further told the media that if any evidence of communal remarks emerged in their investigation, charges would be increased accordingly.

Outside the ‘school’, a person informed in a low voice that Tripta was inside her house but evading the media out of fear.

This correspondent met Tripta’s brother-in-law Vishnu Dutt Tyagi.

He said that after the video emerged and mediapersons started coming in, he went to Irshad to apologise on Tripta’s behalf for any wrongdoing. “I placed my turban at his feet. What more could I do?” he said.

On Monday (28 August), Tripta recorded her statement and released it, where she apologised for unintentionally hurting sentiments. She said in her defence that she is physically handicapped and has trouble getting up, due to which she asked her students to punish the child.

She said that she should not have done so, and there was no communal intention behind what she did.

While Irshad Ali and his son and nephews have refrained from giving a communal interpretation to the incident, and it is clear that the majority of the village’s Hindu and Muslim communities hold a similar perspective, the involvement of political figures in the case has led to a different narrative being presented outside the village.

On Friday (25 August) when the brief video of the incident went viral, the case took a political turn when several BJP-opposition leaders reacted to the video, holding the BJP responsible for “sowing seeds of hate” and claiming that "minority" communities are on the target.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posted on X (formerly Twitter), “Sowing the poison of discrimination in the minds of innocent children, turning a holy place like school into a marketplace of hatred – nothing worse a teacher can do for the country. This is the same kerosene spread by the BJP which has set every corner of India on fire. Children are the future of India – do not hate them, we all have to teach love together.”

Jayant Singh, Rajya Sabha MP and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader, wrote, “Muzaffarnagar school video is a painful warning of how deep-rooted religious divides can trigger violence against the marginalised, minority communities. Our MLAs from Muzzafarnagar will ensure that UP Police files a case suo moto & the child’s education is not disrupted!”

AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi wrote that the hateful thinking of Yogi Adityanath (Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh) was responsible for the incident.

Besides, several mediapersons jumped at the initial hazy details of the case to label the incident a hate crime.

Despite the media frenzy and political turmoil, Irshad expressed hope that the incident would not incite discord among Khubbapur's inhabitants. He appeared confident that the bond between Hindu and Muslim Tyagis, which has existed for centuries, would endure.

Many local inhabitants, regardless of their religion, criticised the incident and called for the teacher to be punished. However, they all concurred that the incident should not be communalised, saying the village has a history of Hindu-Muslim harmony that they wish to maintain.

The residents of Khubbapur hope that the situation will soon calm down, and that they can return to their daily routines without the media glare and political interference.

(Note: The ground visit was made by Prabhat, who interns with Swarajya. The report has been written by Swati Goel Sharma).