“Godhra”. The word is more than just the name of a town located in Panchmahal district in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word used also indicates an event. A mind-numbing one. A horrifying one. An unimaginable one. A barbaric one. The word “Godhra” records the gruesome killing of some 59 innocent people, including 25 women and 15 children and injuries to 40. Independent India saw many horrors. This was one of the worst of them.
This mind-numbing horror was also the cause of many more horrors, many more events, many more riots, many more political changes. It was also the immediate cause of rioting, which left some 1169 people dead (including those killed in police firing, and assuming all missing as dead).
But this was not the first time, nor the last time, that Godhra witnessed communal vandalism. The town had a long history of bloody communalism. It was well-known for it. Let us take a brief look at the town’s long history of communal violence.
Communal history of Godhra for the record
Panchmahal district, in which Godhra is located, is considered to be communally very sensitive. Chronology of a few communal riots/atrocities, as reported by various sources is appended below:
1928: Murder of P.M. Shah, a leading local representative of Hindus.
1946: Mr. Sadva Hazi and Mr. Chudighar, pro-Pakistani Muslim leaders were responsible for attack on a Parsi Solapuri Fozdar during communal riots. After partition, Mr. Chudighar left for Pakistan.
1948: Mr. Sadva Hazi conspired an attack on the District Collector, Mr. Pimputkar in 1948 but his bodyguard saved him at the cost of his own life. After that, Mr. Sadva Hazi also left for Pakistan in 1948.
On 24th March, 1948, one Hindu was stabbed to death near a mosque in Jahurpur area. Around 2,000 houses of Hindus (including at least 869 initially) were reportedly burnt, besides Hindu temples. After this, 3000 Muslim houses were also burnt. District Collector Pimputkar could save the remaining areas belonging to Hindus by imposing curfew, which lasted for six months.
1965: Shops belonging to the Hindus were set ablaze near police chowki No. 7 by throwing incendiary material from the nearby two Muslim houses, viz. Bidani and Bhopa. It could be possible allegedly because of the Congress MLA belonging to the minority community. His name was Taherali Abdulali, who had won the 1962 Assembly elections from Godhra. PSI of this police chowki, which was near the Railway Station, was also attacked by anti-social elements.
1980: A similar attack was made on the Hindus on 29 October, 1980, which started from the Bus Station of Godhra. This attack was planned by Muslim miscreants who were involved in anti-social activities near the Station Road area.
Five Hindus including two children of five and seven years of age were burnt alive. A Gurudwara was also set on fire, in Shikari Chal of this area. Forty shops belonging to the Hindus were also set on fire in station area. Due to these communal riots, Godhra was put under curfew for one year, which severely affected the business and industries.
1990: Four Hindu teachers, including two women teachers, were murdered (cut into pieces) by miscreants in Saifia Madarsa in Vhorvada area of Godhra on 20 November 1990 in front of children. One Hindu tailor was also stabbed to death in this area. All this was done by anti-social elements allegedly at the instance of the former Congress MLA of the area, Khalpa Abdulrahim Ismail who was the Godhra MLA (of Congress) from 1975 to 1990.
1992: More than 100 houses belonging to Hindus were set on fire near the Railway Station to snatch away this area from Hindus. This area in 2002 was lying vacant as most of the Hindu families had shifted elsewhere.
2002: The bogies of Ahmedabad-bound Sabarmati Express were set on fire on 27 February 2002 by Muslims. S-6 coach carrying karsewaks returning from Ayodhya was targeted as a pre-meditated plan/ conspiracy. 59 innocent men, women and children died and 40 sustained injuries. The attackers had a plan to set on fire the entire train but could not do so because the train was late for four hours and they could not take the advantage of darkness of night.
(Source: Vishwa Sanwad Kendra, Gujarat and The Indian Express dated 30 April 2002 http://archive.indianexpress.com/storyOld.php?storyId=1822, quoting Gujarat’s then MoS for Home Gordhan Zadaphiya)
2003 September: Ganesh idol immersion saw stone pelting and conflicts between Hindus and Muslims. This was reported by rediff.com and The Times of India, but was forgotten by everyone, including the Sangh Parivar leadership. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/riots-in-godhra-during-ganpati-immersions/articleshow/167494.cms
2002 March: On 13 March 2002, a mob of 500 Muslims again attacked Hindus in Jahurpura area of Godhra near the Old Bus Stand. The report of NDTV was:
“Mob Attack in Godhra, 12 Arrested
Wednesday, March 13, 2002 (Godhra): Within a fortnight of the February 27 railway station mayhem and subsequent violent fallout, tension escalated again today with a minority mob allegedly attacking people in the town, leading to police firing. Police said a ‘500-people strong mob of minority community’ attacked people in the Jahurpura area near the Old Bus Stand. They resorted to stone pelting and also ‘opened fire’ with private arms, police said. Police opened fire and hurled tear gas shells to disperse the mob. There was no report of any injury or casualty so far.
Additional forces of police, State Reserve Police and anti-riot Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel led by senior DSP, Raju Bhargava, rushed to the spot and carried out a combing operation. ‘Twelve persons including two women were picked up from a nearby place of worship,’ police said. The situation was under control but tense, police said”.
Thus Muslims attacked Hindus in Godhra again soon after the 27th February carnage. The Times of India also reported this PTI news, and it can be read today at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Mob-attacks-people-in-Godhra-12-arrested/articleshow/3682215.cms
All the above details of Godhra (except the 2003 stone pelting and mob attack of March 2002) are also mentioned in an article written on 16 March 2002 titled “Godhra in Ferment even before Independence” published in the Milli Gazette magazine. (Source: http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/15042002/1504200276.htm).
This magazine is considered as a voice of Muslims in India. This is the Indian Muslims’ leading English newspaper and it has also published these details about Godhra.
After the 2002 Godhra carnage, the Nanavati Commission was appointed to probe the carnage which was a full-fledged Commission of Inquiry under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952. It submitted its report on the Godhra carnage in September 2008. The report said: “Godhra town is a very sensitive place. There is a high percentage of Muslim population in various places in the district. Communal riots had taken place in Godhra in the years 1925, 1928, 1946, 1948, 1950, 1953, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992. The communal riots that had taken place in 1948 were very serious. Initially, the Muslims had burnt 869 houses of Hindus. Thereafter, the Hindus had burnt 3,071 houses of Muslims”.
The whole report can be read at:
http://www.home.gujarat.gov.in/homedepartment/downloads/godharaincident.pdf
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) had also written about the Muslim communalism in Godhra. The following are the exact words of Gandhiji in Young India, 11 October 1928:
“Two weeks ago, I wrote in Navajivan a note on the tragedy in Godhra, where Shri Purshottam Shah bravely met his death at the hands of his assailants and gave my note the heading Hindu-Muslim Fight in Godhra. Several Hindus did not like the heading and addressed angry letters asking me to correct it (for it was a one sided fight). I found it impossible to accede to their demand. Whether there is one victim or more, whether there is a free fight between the two communities, or whether one assumes the offensive and the other simply suffers, I should describe the event as a fight if the whole series of happenings were the result of a state of war between the two communities. Whether in Godhra or in other places, there is today a state of war between the two communities. Fortunately, the countryside is still free from the war fever (no longer now) which is mainly confined to towns and cities, where, in some form or the other, fighting is continually going on. Even the correspondents, who have written to me about Godhra, do not seem to deny the fact that the happenings arose out of the communal antagonisms that existed there.
If the correspondents had simply addressed themselves to the heading, I should have satisfied myself with writing to them privately and written nothing in Navajivan about it. But there are other letters in which the correspondents have vented their ire on different counts. A volunteer from Ahmedabad, who had been to Godhra, writes:
“You say that you must be silent over these quarrels. Why were you not silent over the Khilafat, and why did you exhort us to join the Muslims? Why are you not silent about your principles of Ahimsa? How can you justify your silence when the two communities are running at each other’s throats and Hindus are being crushed to atoms? How does Ahimsa come there? I invite your attention to two cases:
A Hindu shopkeeper, thus, complained to me: ‘Musalmans purchase bags of rice from my shop, often never paying for them. I cannot insist on payment, for fear of their looting my godowns. I have, therefore, to make an involuntary gift of about 50 to 70 maunds of rice every month?’
Others complained: ‘Musalmans invade our quarters and insult our women in our presence, and we have to sit still. If we dare to protest, we are done for. We dare not even lodge a complaint against them.’
What would you advise in such cases? How would you bring your Ahimsa into play? Or, even here you would prefer to remain silent!”
These and similar other questions have been answered in these pages over and over again, but as they are still being raised, I had better explain my views once more at the risk of repetition.
Ahimsa is not the way of the timid or the cowardly. It is the way of the brave ready to face death. He who perishes sword in hand is, no doubt, brave, but he who faces death without raising his little finger, is braver. But he who surrenders his rice bags for fear of being beaten, is a coward and no votary of Ahimsa. He is innocent of Ahimsa. He, who for fear of being beaten, suffers the women of his household to be insulted, is not manly, but just the reverse. He is fit neither to be a husband nor a father, nor a brother. Such people have no right to complain.
…Where there are fools there are bound to be knaves, where there are cowards there are bound to be bullies, whether they are Hindus or Mussalmans…The question here therefore is not how to teach one of the two communities a lesson or how to humanize it, but how to teach a coward to be brave…”
Thus, it is clear that Gandhiji mentioned the murder of Purshottam Shah, which happened in 1928. It shows that Muslims were ever aggressive against Hindus in Godhra- taking rice bags without paying, and insulting Hindu women after invading their quarters. These statements of Mahatma Gandhi can also be read in his Collected Works, Volume 43, pages 81-82.
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