On September 28, Akhlaq, a 50 year old Muslim man was stabbed and stoned to death, by a vicious mob of Hindus over allegations of consuming beef. Some members of the ruling political party in the central government defended the incident. The media descibed it as another instance of communalism,the primordial conflict between the two monolithic communities of Hindus and Muslims. However, „Hindus‟ and „Muslims‟ became two socially distinct categories only in the late nineteenth century, as a result of the colonial state‟s understanding of the social reality along religious differences (Jones). This resulted into a mobilisation of the society according to these religious identities (Everett), which led to the emergence of a consolidated Muslim identity during the colonial period.