The roots are thought to lie in India's history – resentment toward the Islamic conquest of India during the Middle Ages, policies established by the country's British colonizers, and the violent partition of India into an Islamic state of Pakistan and India with a Muslim minority. Many scholars believe that incidents of anti-Muslim violence are politically motivated and a part of the electoral strategy of mainstream political parties who are associated with Hindu nationalism like the Bharatiya Janata Party (political wing of RSS). Other scholars believe that the violence is not widespread but that it is restricted to certain urban areas because of local socio-political conditions.[2]