Muslim bouncers in Hyderabad allege discrimination, denial of work at Dandiya events

A collective of bouncers in Hyderabad has raised alarm over discrimination and denial of job opportunities to Muslims for the Dandiya events during Dasara Navratri. “Earlier, we used to get contracts for most of the Dandiya events across the city. This year, most of my colleagues have been told that Muslims are no longer welcome to work as bouncers. My team has 10 members and some of them are not Muslims; how will I pay them now?” asked Mohammed Feroz who is part of the 200-member collective of bouncers.

“Our work involves crowd management and safety. The only things required for this line of work is personality, good physique and experience. We don’t even enter the venue for anything or interact with the guests,” said Mr. Feroz, puzzled about the change in society.

“Hyderabad was never like this. We have what is called the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb. This is strange,” he said.

“The bookings start at least a month before the Dandiya events in Hyderabad. There are thousands of events that are lined up but now many of the organisers are saying we don’t want Muslim bouncers. It is not fair to harm someone’s livelihood like this,” said Salige Prabhakar, who has been in this line of work for the past 10 years. 

Dandiya, once confined to western parts of India, has increasingly become a celebration of culture throughout the country with designers dresses, live performances by well known artists and splurging of money on various paraphernalia that goes with the event. But increasingly, there have been calls in the Gujarat and even in Mumbai to keep away Muslims.

The organisers are reportedly profiling and ensuring that Muslim bouncers are not involved during the nine-day event. “This discrimination began in a small way in 2024 but now they are openly saying ‘no Muslims’. They want people to put on a bottu. Some of them put it on while others don’t want to do it. The number of Muslim bouncers in this line of work is higher than the number of Hindus and we will have a shortfall of manpower,” said Mr. Prabhakar, expressing solidarity with his fellow bouncers.

“The government and the Chief Minister should step in as should the police force to ensure that this kind of discrimination stops immediately,” said Mr. Feroz, making a plea to the government and police officials to step in and stop the discrimination.