On April 1, 1933, the Nazis carried out their first planned nationwide attack against the Jewish people. This was a boycott targeting Jewish businesses and professionals. The Star of David was painted in yellow and black across thousands of doors and windows, with accompanying anti-Semitic slogans. The Jewish badge^[102] was then implemented between 1939-1945, identifying Jews within the society.

Signs were posted stating, “Don’t Buy from Jews’’ and “The Jews Are Our Misfortune.” There were acts of violence against Jewish individuals and Jewish properties throughout Germany. The police rarely intervened.

Although the national boycott organized by local Nazi party^[103] chiefs lasted only one day and was ignored by many individual Germans who continued to shop in Jewish-owned stores, it marked the beginning of a nationwide campaign by the Nazi Party against the entire German Jewish population. A week later the government passed a law restricting employment in the civil service to “Aryans.”

Economic boycott of Indian Muslims

Following the Nazi pattern, the RSS-affiliated Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) distributed pamphlets calling for the boycott of all Muslimowned businesses in the state of Gujarat. The booklets, using stereotypes, urged the Hindu community to take a vow to boycott Muslims. An example from the booklet is below:

“Economic boycott is the only solution! The anti-national elements use the money earned from the Hindus to destroy us! They buy arms! They molest our sisters and daughters! The way to break the back-bone of these elements is: An economic noncooperation movement.

Let us resolve –

1. From now on I will not buy anything from a Muslim shopkeeper!
2. I will not sell anything from my shop to such elements!^[104]”

A similar social and economic boycott of Muslim businesses was called for via social media in the aftermath of the Delhi Pogrom in 2020. People were asked to buy only from shops carrying saffron flags^[105].

An RSS-aligned Hindutva organization called the “Kranti Sena” patrolled markets in Muzaffarnagar, a city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, to ensure that Muslim men did not apply mehendi^[106] (hand decorations) to Hindu women on the occasion of the Hindu festival of Teej.106 On Twitter, hashtags such as #BoycottHalal, #EconomicJihad, #SayNoToHalal, trend frequently^[107].

A BJP member of the legislative assembly, Raja Singh, calling for a boycott of Muslim businesses to a cheering crowd, said: “Put this in your head, from today, if you buy anything, buy it from a Hindu person not from these traitors^[108] [Muslims]. If the 1 billion Hindus living in India follow this ideology, the remaining 250 million [referring to Muslims] will definitely want to convert into Hinduism.”

Emboldened by recent directives against the hijab of Muslim girls in the state of Karnataka, several the BJP-RSS aligned groups and temples banned Muslim traders during Hindu festivals and near Hindu temples. Citing a law banning non-Hindus from having stalls on temple premises, the BJP-RSS run state government defended this move to ban Muslims^[109].