At times, it is necessary to look into the past to understand any event fully. The same is true for the 2002 Gujarat riots in which about 1,169 people were killed after Godhra. Had the same number of people been killed in communal riots in, say, Nagpur city of Maharashtra state in India, it would indeed have been considered as ‘large-scale riots’. This is because Nagpur region has hardly seen any communal riots since 1927-28. But since the riots took place in Gujarat, the events have to be viewed in light of Gujarat’s history of communal violence.
If one looks at the past history of communal riots in Gujarat, one would understand that the Gujarat riots of March 2002 were much lesser as compared to the past communal riots in the state. The state saw worse riots in 1969 and perhaps 1985 too. It also saw riots of a large scale in 1980, 1982, 1990 and 1992.
In Gujarat, communal riots between Hindus and Muslims have been going on since as far back as AD 1714, i.e. since the medieval times. This was hundreds of years before the birth of any of the organizations of the Sangh Parivar. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was founded in 1925, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh was founded in 1951, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in 1964, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980. Even today, conflicts continue between Muslims and Hindus in India, Muslims and Buddhists in China, in Myanmar, in Thailand, Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, in Algeria, in Philippines, in Morocco, in Chechnya, etc. It is not the VHP or the Sangh Parivar that is common in all these places.
Hindus and Muslims have clashed in battles, wars and riots since as far back as AD 636, when Arabs invaded Thane (near Mumbai). The freedom fighter, Swatantryaveer Savarkar (1883-1966) wrote in his book, Saha Soneri Pane (Six Golden Pages of Indian History) that the Hindus kept on defeating and repulsing the invading foreign Muslims at India’s western borders for 300 years at a stretch, i.e. from 712 AD to 1001 AD, when Mahmud of Ghazni invaded India. Riots are nothing new to India. For the past 125 years, since about 1880, riots have frequently occurred in all parts of India. But among all the Indian states, Gujarat was by far the most communally sensitive.
Vishwa Samwad Kendra, Gujarat says:
“If we take the history of Ahmedabad for the last five centuries…coming to the incidents of communal riots during this era of five centuries, the major incidents are:
- The 1714 Holi Riots
A Hindu named Hari Ram, while celebrating Holi with his friends at his residence unintentionally sprinkled Gulal, a red powder, on one Muslim, and the casual frolic was strongly protested by some Muslims. A mob got assembled near Jumma Masjid under the leadership of Sunni Bohra Mullah Abdul Aziz. The Afghan soldiers of the Muslim viceroy also joined the mob seeing the situation. A Kazi interfered for cooling down the angry mob. But the mob set on fire the house of this Kazi. The rioters, thereafter, looted the shops of Hindu Mohalla and set their houses on fire. The rioters could be controlled only by armed guards of a Hindu, Kapurchand Bhanshali.
2. The 1715 Communal Riots
The 1715 communal riots were due to looting of shops of Hindus by Muslim soldiers. The riots came to an end with the replacement of the Muslim viceroy, Daudkhan.
3. The 1716 Id Riots
Consequently, during the third year also, communal disturbances broke out during Id in 1716. The Bohra community, a Muslim sect, gathered cows and buffaloes for Id celebration. A Muslim Havaldar just out of pity released one of such gathered cows. Some Muslims protested before the Kazi Khairullakhan, and seeing no outcome to their expectation, they resorted to riots, arson and mass looting of the Hindu establishments. The situation could come to normalcy with Hindu viceroy, Ajitsinh’s concerted efforts.
4. The 1750 Temple Demolition
The 1750 riots by Muslims were provoked with a reason cited that their Namaz was being disturbed due to the noise of the ringing of bell in an adjoining temple. The Muslims, while returning from the Masjid after Namaz, totally destroyed the temple.
5. The September 1927 Ahmedabad Riots
Muslim prayer in a mosque and Hindu song in a temple were the apparent cause of conflict.
6. The 1941 Riots
Communal disturbances broke out on 18th April, 1941. The Muslims diverted to the Muslim League programmes after the incident of these riots.
7. The 1946 Rath Yatra Riots
1st July, 1946 was the Rath Yatra day. Rath Yatra as usual was passing through Shaher Kotda police station area, on this auspicious day. There took a hot exchange between a Hindu Akhada man and a Muslim watching the procession. The incident turned into breaking out of communal violence, viz. arson, cudgelling, stone throwing, stabbing, etc. There was also a police firing and curfew was finally imposed to control the situation.
8. The 1953 Ahmedabad Riots
The Ganapati festival and Moharram were the occasions of riots in the city of Ahmedabad.
9. The 1965 Sikh Incident
The 1965 riots were resulted out of the murder of two Sikh rickshaw drivers by some Muslims. The aggrieved Sikhs took out funeral procession of both these dead bodies. The situation got disturbed at Delhi Darwaja and got converted into a communal riot soon.
10. The 1969 Historic Communal Riots
It was 18th September, 1969, the last day of Urs. The violence crept up in the evening time on the ground that Jagannath Mandir cows going back to temple premises disturbed the Urs. It may be mentioned that movement of cows was a daily routine irrespective of Urs celebration taking place simultaneously. A hot discussion took place that provoked communal tension with a series of violent incidents killing, linking, and soon in various parts of the city.
The riots of 1969 were the biggest of its type in Independent India, having taken lives of thousands of persons.
Among others were the 1985 bloody riots in Gujarat, the 1980, 1982 riots in Ahmedabad and Godhra, the 1990 and 1992 riots.”
What follows is a write-up by Hemant Babu published in Himal Southasian magazine of May 2002 reproduced by www.countercurrents.org:
“…A sign of this normalcy is the number of incidents of communal violence in the state as recorded officially. Judicial commissions of inquiry, the Justice Reddy Commission and the Justice V.S. Dave Commission, were instituted after two major riots, of 1969 and 1985 respectively. Both commissions referred in some detail to Gujarat’s history of communal violence. The Justice Dave Commission traced the history of communal violence in Ahmedabad as far back as 1714, when a bloody riot was sparked off during the Holi celebrations. The city then was still under the Mughal control. Subsequent riots broke out in 1715, 1716 and 1750…. Hindu-Muslim violence continued in the centuries that followed, with the pace and intensity picking up in the second half of the twentieth century. When communal riots broke out in 1941, curfew had to be imposed for over two-and-a-half months. The Justice Reddy Commission identified as many as 2,938 instances of communal violence in the state between 1960 and 1969, that is, an average of approximately three riots every four days during this ten-year period….
During this period, riots began to spread over a much wider geographical area of the state, affecting towns like Veraval, Junagadh, Patan, Godhra, Palanpur, Anjar, Dalkhania, Kodinar and Deesa, all of which have been hit by the ongoing violence.
…but violence of a different, more systematic and sustained order was inaugurated in 1969. The Hindu-Muslim riots of that year mark a major break with the hitherto prevalent pattern of steady, unspectacular social conflict…
…a riot of this magnitude, unprecedented in both scale and duration, had a foundational significance for the politics of the state …The 1969 riots had the critical mass that lent it state- and nation-wide visibility…
…the riots (of 1985) began on 19th March, the day after the newly elected Congress Government assumed office, and was directed against a policy measure declared more than two months ago. In January, the Congress Government had announced an increase in the quota of jobs in government and seats in public educational institutions reserved for backward castes. The riots lasted six months, much after the policy had been revoked by the government….The social base of the violence expanded to include gangsters, bootleggers and professional killers…
…Gujarat again witnessed riots in 1992 when the disputed Babri Masjid at Ayodhya was razed to the ground a few hours after the karsevaks stormed the monument. Surat experienced intermittent disturbances over a six-month period. In 1993, more riots followed, after the blasts in Mumbai, allegedly masterminded by the Muslim underworld D. Ibrahim…. Remarkably, for three years following its (BJP’s) assumption of office in Gujarat in 1995, the state was free from communal riots…”
The website that reproduced this article, www.countercurrents.org, is one of the most anti-BJP ones on the entire Internet. In this staunchly anti-Sangh Parivar article, the writer discloses Gujarat’s bloody history of communal violence.
We have seen the bloody history of Godhra town of engineering riots since 1927-28. The following is the report of the Vishwa Samwad Kendra on the comparisons between the 1969, 1985 and 2002 riots:
“Comparative analysis of the government response to communal riots during 1969, 1985 and 2002
The communal tension in the State of Gujarat is not an unknown phenomenon. Prior to the present situation, all communal disturbances before Godhra incident, two major communal incidents took place in 1969 and 1985.…
On 18th September, 1969, a major communal riot broke out in the Ahmedabad city and subsequently spread in the other districts of the State…Hon. Justice, Jagmohan Reddy inquired into the violence which broke out during the said communal disturbances. After 1969, a major agitation and communal riots broke out in 1985. Justice Dave Commission inquired into the incidents, which took place during the course of anti-reservation agitation and also communal disturbances during February 1985 to July 1985.
The response of the State Government in the earlier incidents and the recent incident brings to the fore certain important facts which are as under:
In 1969, the incident of violence reported on 18th September at 3:45 p.m. The Army was pressed into service on 21st September, 1969 at 16:30 hours in limited areas (three police stations only) while the Army was deployed in the entire city on 22nd September, 1969 at 18.00 hrs. In 1985, the riot broke out on 15th April, 1985 and the army was requisitioned on 16th April, 1985. By then, 177 deaths had already been reported. Compared to this, the Army was requisitioned on the same day, i.e. on 28th February itself (in 2002). It is very relevant to note that unlike the earlier occasions, the Army at this point of time (in 2002) is deployed on the border. Therefore, the deployment of Army was difficult at a short notice. However, Hon. Chief Minister (Narendra Modi) impressed upon the Hon. Prime Minister (A B Vajpayee) and the Defence Minister (George Fernandes) to deploy the Army forthwith in view of the prevailing condition in the State. The Central Government also reacted very fast and the Army was airlifted to Ahmedabad the same night. The Army was in action from the next day of the incident, having completed all the formalities of nominating Executive Magistrates, allocation of vehicles, etc. The incident in 1969 occurred on 18th September, 1969 but the situation was out of control, even on the fifth and sixth day. The violent incidents continued to be reported even after the sixth day. The disturbances in 1985 were spread over a period of five months, from February 1985 to July 1985. However, in the present case, the situation has been brought under control within three to four days only.
In the present case, the curfew was clamped within four hours in Godhra on the same day. (Actually within two hours, at 9:45 a.m.) Compared to this, there was delay in ordering curfew in the earlier incidents. The grievance for such delay was reported before the Inquiry Commission.
The complaint about inaction from the police authorities and the local administration were made before the Inquiry Commission. In the present case in Gujarat, the Law and Order Enforcing Authority has taken a proactive stand to curb the violence effectively. The police authorities have fired more than 3,900 rounds, they have used more than 6,500 rounds of tear gas shells and arrested more than 2,800 people (until 3rd March, 2002). One should also take a note of the fact that 90 people have been killed in police firing (the correct number is 98) which shows that police showed no lenient approach towards the elements spreading violence, arson and looting…” (Source: VSK, Gujarat www.vskgujarat.com).
NDTV-Star News had broadcast a programme The Big Fight live from Ahmedabad in December 2002, a week or so before the Gujarat Assembly elections held on 12 December. The participants were Harin Pathak of the BJP (BJP MP from Ahmedabad) and Shankersinh Vaghela of the Congress, and a victim of the Gujarat riots, Prof. J.S.Bandukwala. In that debate, quoting an article from The Hindustan Times of 1969, Harin Pathak said that the official death toll in the 1969 riots was around 5,000, but it was actually three to five times the number.
At that time, the Congress was in power with the Gandhian Hitendra Desai as the Chief Minister. The actual number of people killed in 1969 will thus range from 15,000 to 25,000, if the article quoted by Harin Pathak is correct. Contrast this with the 2002 riots with 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus and a total of 127 people missing, as per the figures given by a Congress Union Minister!
Devendra Swarup (1926-2019) wrote in Organiser dated 16th May 2004:
“…Gujarat has a long history of communal violence. During Gandhi’s life itself, Gujarat had burnt in such violence. His pain at the 1924 riots of Ahmedabad is visible in his complete works; since Independence, sparks of violence have been spreading in the Muslim-dominated areas of Godhra and Ahmedabad; Mohammad Ghazni was extended invitation to again prevent the reconstruction of Somnath temple, which caused unbearable pain to Gandhi. Gujarat has had a long history of riots during the Congress regime that called itself the sole inheritor of Gandhi’s legacy even after his death. In 1969, during Gandhian, Hitendra Desai´s rule as Chief Minister, Ahmedabad witnessed communal frenzy, in which more than 3,000 people were killed, i.e. much more than those killed in the riots of 2002. Hence, instead of getting caught in the quagmire of ideology, it is necessary to probe into the causes of this endless chain of communal riots in the state.”
(URL:http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&page=6&pid=23)
Here, however, Devendra Swarup says only 3,000 people were killed in 1969 in Ahmedabad. He has used this figure out of a sense of moderation and caution, and gives it only for Ahmedabad. The correct official figure could be 5,000 for the whole state, if the article quoted by Harin Pathak, former Union Minister of State for Home, from The Hindustan Times is correct.
The Times of India reported in its online issue dated 12th April 2002:
“Trivial Reasons Sparked Earlier Riots
Ahmedabad: If it took a shocking massacre like Godhra to trigger off massive communal riots in the state in the 21st century, history shows that trivial incidents caused most riots in the 20th century.
An inquiry report prepared by Justice V.S. Dave of Rajasthan High Court, who headed a commission of inquiry to investigate the 1985 anti-reservation and subsequent communal riots, devotes a special chapter to the ‘history of riots and agitations in Gujarat’. Tracing the riots way back from 1714, the report points out at the causes of riots as festivals and religious celebrations, aggressions and changing of the secular complex of the ‘pols’, ‘khanchas’ and ‘by-lanes’ within the walled city due to migration to areas of greater security.
On 18th April, 1941, communal riots broke out and curfew imposed in most localities, was in force for two-and-a-half months. As a result, the civil disobedience movement in the city engineered by the Congress was suspended till October 1941. Both communities suffered in varying degrees in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in the state. Tracing the records, the report observes an important consequence of the riots “after this sad episode, the Muslims of Ahmedabad turned their faces and embraced the programme of the Muslim League”.
This was followed soon by the communal riots on 1st July, 1946, during the rath yatra due to police firing. Curfew was imposed. Records suggest that the communal riots broke out at about 12:30 p.m., in the Sherkotda police station. One Sikandar, who was a well-known Muslim gymnast, accompanied by three or four members of his akhada was watching the performance of a Hindu akhada, which formed the part of a procession. Sikandar allegedly criticized the style of weight lifting adopted by one Chitranjan Chintamani. This led to a scuffle, in which Sikandar and Chintamani were injured; Sikandar and some sadhus, both of whom were excited, were arrested and put in lock-up. This led to riots.
This was followed by the 1958 riots and police firing at Khadia. The then district magistrate had eloquently described Khadia locality in connection with a firing on 12th August, in the following words, ‘The worst area was as it had invariably been in the previous disturbances, the Khadia ward in Ahmedabad city.’
However, it will be wrong to believe that the communal tension has always been between Hindus and Muslims. In 1965, the city witnessed the first- ever Sikh-Muslim riot in the city, when two Sikh autorickshaw drivers were murdered by some Muslims. On the following day during the funeral procession, some irate Sikhs broke open some Muslim shops and attacked them.
The riots in 1969 have become a history by themselves. The report held ‘…that there was never any riot in the state of Gujarat of magnitude as was witnessed in September 1969, which took a heavy toll of human lives and property belonging to both the communities’. Justice P.J. Reddy commission which inquired into this riot, found that at least 560 people died, while 561 were injured.
These riots were sparked by a trivial incident on 18th September, 1969, when a large number of people had gathered for ‘Urs’ of the Bukhari Saheb’s chhila. At about 3:45 p.m., when a herd of the cows accompanied by their keepers had almost reached the temple gates, some Muslims objected as to why the sadhus of the temple had allowed animals to disturb the fair. An altercation followed between some Muslims and the sadhus in which some sadhus were injured. Incidents of violence, thereafter, happened in rapid succession in various parts of the city, taking a heavy toll of lives and property.
This was followed by 1985 anti-reservation agitation, which took the colour of communal riots and then in 1992 occurred post-Babri riots.” (URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6611833.cms).
All these riots happened even without any cause as the Godhra incident. In the 1969 riots, curfew was imposed for 65 days in a row. And The Times of India is a newspaper which no one can ever accuse of having an anti-Muslim bias.
V. Gangadhar, a staunch anti-BJP person, wrote in August 1999:
“During the 1941 communal riots [in Ahmedabad], the Hindus took a terrible beating and never forgot it. Khadia, within the walled city, became a stronghold of Hindus, but there was no militancy in the area. The 1945 communal riots were milder…
The year 1969 was a watershed in communal relations. The Hindu-Muslim riots killed more than 5,000 people and Ahmedabad became a vast burial ground…For the first time in the city’s history, the labour areas were affected. The killings here were most brutal. Since then, Gujarat has never been the same.”
http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/aug/06abd.htm
Here he claims that the 1969 riots killed more than 5,000 people.
Eminent Congress leader K.M.Munshi wrote on the Ahmedabad riots of 1940-41 in his book ‘Pilgrimage to Freedom’ on pp. 75-76:
“Soon after [the passage of the Muslim League’s Lahore resolution of 1940, demanding creation of Pakistan], its leaders engineered communal riots wherever they could, those at Dacca [present-day Dhaka], Ahmedabad and Bombay [Gujarat was then a part of Bombay province, perhaps he doesn’t mean only the city of Mumbai] being the most brutal.
These riots were…intended to thrust Pakistan on the country by terrorizing the Hindus through mob violence. Against this mounting onslaught of communal frenzy in the country directed towards the Hindus, the Congress, under Gandhiji’s leadership, could offer no protection, much less resistance. …
The Pakistan riot in Ahmedabad was orgiastic. The local Hindus, a very peaceful community, looking all their life to Gandhiji and the Congress for leadership, were at the mercy of the rioters. In this situation, Bhogilal Lala, a leading Congressman of the city sought Gandhiji’s advice as to what should be done by Congressmen in the terrible situation which the Hindus were facing. Gandhiji advised him that Congressmen should not, directly or indirectly, associate themselves with akhadas (Indian style gymnasia) where training in self-defence was given; those Congressmen who favoured self-defence through violence should leave the Congress.
Gandhiji’s letter to Bhogilal Lala was published on May 25, 1941. The next day I wrote to Gandhiji from Nainital, where I was convalescing, that Hindus should not be prevented from defending themselves even by resorting to violence, when their women-folk, children and homes were the victims of planned communal frenzy…However, he advised me that, if I felt an honest urge to help organize such resistance, I should do so by going out of the Congress…”
Gandhiji thus advised Hindus to suffer quietly and not indulge even in self-defence, let alone retaliation, in these 1941 riots.
Vadodara also saw horrible riots in 1982, just like Ahmedabad and Godhra. According to IPCS Research Papers, Volume 3, March 2004 by B Rajeshwari, the following happened:
“Gujarat also saw riots in 1990, between April and December, which saw nearly 1,400 communal incidences, which left officially 224 people dead and 775 injured. Nearly 120 riots took place in Gujarat in 1991 between January and April, which left at least 38 people dead officially and 170 injured. Ahmedabad again saw riots in October 1990 after L.K. Advani’s Rath Yatra began, which saw 41 people dead officially. Vadodara again saw riots between April 1991 and July 1991, which was a result of a petty incidence of a boy getting hit by an autorickshaw. Surat saw bloody riots in 1992, which left about 200 people dead, after the demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya.”
The author B. Rajeshwari is also a professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and is a known anti-BJP, anti-RSS person.
Some claim that ‘only 660 people died in the 1969 Gujarat riots’ citing the Reddy Commission report. But the Reddy Commission said ‘At least 660 people died’ meaning the number could have been anything more than that. It did not give a total number of all people dead and of all missing, as is the case in the 2002 riots. Besides, the death toll as a proportion of the population was much higher too. The population of Gujarat as per the 1971 census was around 2.66 crore, while as per the 2001 census was 5.06 crore.
In 1399, invader Timur killed 100,000 Hindus in a single day. We saw in the first chapter that K.S. Lal estimated that the Hindu population decreased by 80 million between the years 1000 and 1525.
Godhra (and its twin city of Dahod) is famous in the subcontinent as the birthplace of Aurangzeb (1617-1707, ruled from 1658-1707), the fanatical Mughal emperor. It is also a well-known trouble spot. A large number of people of Godhra have links with people at Karachi in Pakistan, according to Rediff.com dated 2nd March, 2005 and The Times of India dated 30th May, 2002.
Communist fortnightly Frontline said: “The Rath Yatra has often sparked communal violence in Ahmedabad, including the worst massacre in 1969” (Frontline, 13-26th March, 2004).
The same fortnightly also reports in an article titled: “The Hindutva Experiment” (written by Dionne Bunsha): “The earliest recorded riot here dates back to 1714 during Mughal rule— it occurred in Ahmedabad. It was sparked by a minor incident— the accidental sprinkling of ‘ghulal’ during the Holi festival, according to the V.S. Dave Commission report on the 1985 riots. Several riots took place during the Maratha rule, which last until 1817. During the British Raj, riots broke out in 1941, following which the Civil Disobedience Movement was suspended. It also marked the time when Ahmedabad’s Muslims started supporting the Muslim League. In 1946, trouble broke out in the city again. In post-Independence India, there were riots in Ahmedabad in 1958, 1965 and 1969. The 1969 riots were also sparked by a minor event but led to one of the bloodiest riots in Gujarat.” (Frontline, 11-24th May, 2002)
Communist fortnightly Frontline admitted that Gujarat’s worst riots were in 1969 under the Congress, and not in 2002.
Rakesh Sinha wrote in an article in The Pioneer dated 20th April 2002:
“Give a Dog Bad Name and Hang It
It is not for the first time that Gujarat has witnessed communal riots. Its history is replete with communal tension and feuds.
In September 1969, Gujarat plunged into one of the severest riots after Partition. The immediate reason for the riot was attack on two sadhus of Jagannath Temple by a mob of about 1,000 Muslims, who gathered to celebrate Urs on 18th September, 1969, provoking organised violence in Ahmedabad and many other areas, including Baroda. The magnitude of riots could be gauged by the figure that 6,000 families lost their houses, properties and belongings. The Sampradayikta Virodhi Committee’s report “Gujarat’s Riot X-rayed” mentioned the figure of dead people as 3,000.
‘Religious-quake’ was witnessed during the riots…The 1969 riots were not transformed into a political battle to destabilise the government or to blame the ruling Congress or to settle scores with Hitendra Desai, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat. Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi’s short visit on 25th September was both preceded and followed by premeditated violence. Seventeen passengers were killed in the Janata Express near Ahmedabad the same day. But the institution of the Prime Minister was not trivialised or her stature was not questioned due to such horrendous incidents.
During 1969 riots, The Times of India reported, ‘Sabarmati Harijan Ashram too not spared’ as hooligans attacked the Ashramites and damaged the ashram. …”
http://www.hvk.org/2002/0402/171.html
An interview given by Narendra Modi to ‘The Times of India’ published on 30 March, 2002 was:
“Q. In your view, was the burning of 58 karsevaks in the Sabarmati Express at Godhra a planned attack or a spontaneous one? Was there an untoward incident on the station platform which sparked the attack?
A. If one looks at the nature of the heinous attack on the Sabarmati Express and the manner in which 58 innocent karsevaks were burnt alive in a compartment of the ill-fated train, it would be apparent that it was a deep-rooted conspiracy and a pre-planned, cold-blooded
The train arrived at Godhra at 7:43 a.m. and within five minutes, i.e. at 7:48 a.m., it left Godhra. It was stopped at Signal Falia about 500 metres away and a mob attacked the compartment collectively. How can such an attack be spontaneous? Moreover, the train departed from Faizabad and arrived in Godhra after 36 long hours, and no incident was reported on the behaviour of the karsevaks en route. But the president of the Gujarat unit of the Congress, Amarsinh Chaudhary, has alleged in a television interview that the attack took place because the karsevaks did not pay money for a cup of tea at the railway station. Is it not ridiculous to justify a ghastly incident such as this?
Q. There are reports that the Tableegi Jamiat of the Deobandi School of Islam has been fanning fundamentalist ideology in Godhra and that there were instances of members of the majority community being burnt in the past few years. Are these reports true? If so, on what dates were they burned and by whom and what is the action taken against the persons concerned?
A. The long history of communal violence in Godhra is not an unknown phenomenon, but it has taken an ugly and serious turn in the last 25-30 years. Two families have been burnt alive in the same area in the past in a ghastly incident. And ten years ago, four teachers, including two women teachers, were mercilessly cut to death in a school in the presence of children.
While the then Congress rulers have registered court cases in a routine manner, they have failed miserably to punish the real culprits. Not only this, the main culprit named Asaraf was done to death while in a jail by other accused persons and the whole event was pushed into a corner forever.
Q. Reports of the violence in Ahmedabad give the impression that it was well organised. The reports said armed mobs went around with voting lists targeting Muslims. An IAS officer, Harsh Mander, has given a chilling account of the violence in Ahmedabad. Why has the state not been able to tackle the situation? There are allegations that the police was partisan. Please comment.
A. Those who are acquainted with Gujarat know that this state is very sensitive to communal violence. There have been serious communal disturbances triggered by petty and minor incidents relating to kite flying or a cricket match. In the past, communal violence has broken out in 200 places at a time and curfew has been imposed in about 300 villages and towns for months Compared to this, the Godhra massacre was unparalleled in history, but we took all proactive measures to curb the violence within 72 hours. The police fired more than 3,900 rounds initially and the Army was airlifted from the border area and deployed within 16 hours in the disturbed areas. There was no complacency on the part of the government or the police….”
Imagine a state where communal riots take place at 200 places at the same time, and many more villages and towns affected by violence, and curfew in 300 places for many months together! Instead of thinking objectively and appreciating the spirited work of the Gujarat Government in controlling the communal violence, this section of the media has irrationally condemned the BJP Government. Someone who does not want to see the truth cannot see it.
A must read article is on the role of the Gujarat Government in controlling violence in the riots.
To read the full chapter, read the book “Gujarat Riots: The True Story”.
https://www.amazon.in/Gujarat-Riots-True-Story-Truth/dp/1482841649/
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