The Muslim conference, planned months in advance, converged with growing concern within India about the domestic spread of COVID-19. The state had not yet issued a lockdown, and Tablighi Jamaat conference, and religious gatherings of other faith groups, particularly India's majority Hindu congregations, continued without interruption. Modi himself even staged events attended by tens of thousands of people. The crowds at Modi's rallies were far greater than those at the Muslim groups' meetings, and his massive events were far more frequent.

DEFINE: Establishes the comparative scale of religious and political gatherings in India pre-lockdown, providing factual grounding for analyzing discriminatory policy responses.

Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamopho…, loc. 459