Outwardly it may appear that this book attempts to highlight the attacks on the Hindus and to pinpoint the lies of the political opponents thriving on Muslim votebank, of the English media, and of the so-called social activists and human rights organizations. To read it so grossly, to assess it so superficially is to commit another serious mistake. This is not to suggest that the Hindus alone suffered in the Gujarat riots. The Muslims also suffered in retaliatory violence in the first three days- i.e. on 28th February, 1st March and 2nd March 2002. Despite this, in many cases, they were also on the offensive at some places even in the first three days, and in some cases were at the receiving end even after the first three days. Let us here deal with the attacks on Muslims in the Gujarat riots.
The cause of the retaliatory riots has already been discussed at length in the second chapter. But there were also many more causes. The weekly India Today in its issue of 18th March 2002 discusses many of these causes. This is what India Today correspondent V. Shankar Aiyar reported from Ahmedabad:
“The immediate provocation for the riots may have been the Godhra inferno, but the savagery of retaliation belies a resentment spanning years. The Hindu-Muslim gulf has been widening since the 1969 Ahmedabad riots, the 1989 rath yatra on the Ayodhya Ram mandir issue and has been fuelled by the Kashmir conflict. The heightening Indo-Pakistan tension and Islamic terrorism in the past two years—from cross-border terrorist attacks in Kashmir to the December 13 Parliament attack—have given Hindu militancy both momentum and respectability. In fact, Gujarat is perhaps the only state where the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) resembles a mass movement.
The past few months have seen mounting public opinion on the lack of action against Pakistan—over Kargil and more recently the Parliament attack. In fact, during his attempts last week to pacify Gujarat, Union Defence Minister George Fernandes was not only pummelled by stones, but also queries like, “Why isn’t India attacking Pakistan?”
Indifference to or perhaps ignorance of global compulsions has fuelled hostility and the state’s Muslim population is being held responsible for Pakistan’s jehadi policies.
Another aggravation has been the mushrooming of Deobandi madarsas in the border state over the past two years. The lackadaisical attitude of the Keshubhai Patel and Narendra Modi governments in curbing their growth has widened the gulf between the communities. In fact, police officials attribute the ferocity of attack at the Gulmarg Society and former MP Ehsaan Jafri’s house to the presence of one such madarsa in the complex”.
In the first three days in Gujarat, really, the Muslims were at the receiving end.There was unimaginable anger in the people’s minds after the mind-numbing Godhra carnage. As the same India Today correspondent put it in the same issue:
“Last week, what marked the slaughter of people was the unprecedented intensity as well as societal sanction. The underclass was supported in the looting by the middle and upper middle classes, including women. They not only indulged in pillaging but openly celebrated the destruction and mounting death toll. Residents from posh localities in Ahmedabad didn’t balk at taking to the streets at the slightest hint of an approaching mob. By the chief minister’s own admission, the pattern of rioting didn’t correspond at all to Gujarat’s 100 most sensitive localities. New areas joined the sectarian frenzy.”
This clearly shows that, in the first three days, the masses were enraged with Godhra. No Sangh Parivar organization could be blamed for the riots.If any was involved, it was purely incidental. And incidentally, 25 Congress leaders were also accused of attacking Muslims in the post-Godhra riots as per a report in The Times of India dated 9th August 2003.
The Council for International Affairs and Human Rights sent a study team to do field study and submit report on the communal riots in Gujarat. Justice D.S.Tewatia, Vice-Chairman of the Council and a former Chief Justice of Calcutta and Punjab and Haryana High Courts, was the leader of the team. Other members were:Dr.J.C Batra, senior advocate, Supreme Court of India, Dr. Krishan Singh Arya, Academician, Chandigarh, Shri Jawahar Lal Kaul, former Assistant Editor, Jansatta, Delhi, and Prof. B.K.Kuthiala, Dean, Faculty of Media studies, G.J.University, Hisar. The team left for Gujarat on 1st April and returned on 7th April,2002.
The report “Godhra and After” of the Council says:
“…3.Hindu mobs, especially during the first week of March, comprised a mix of people belonging to lower, lower middle and upper middle socio-economic strata of the society.
4.Involvement of upper middle class Hindus in arson and looting is a phenomenon seen for the first time in the country.
5.The Hindu mobs appeared to be more interested in destroying the property of selected establishments of Muslims.It was reported that a chain of restaurants with Hindu names and owned by a Muslim family was targetted because of the perception that lot of money from the gulf countries had been invested, thereby putting Hindu competitors at a disadvantage.
6.Another new phenomenon reported to the Study Team was the presence and active participation of women in the mobs.”
Attacks on Muslims
Attacks by large mobs began in the districts of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Saberkantha and, for the first time in its history, Gandhinagar on February 28. Violence spread to the largely rural districts of Panchmahals, Mehsana, Kheda, Junagadh, Banaskantha, Patan, Anand and Narmada the next day. Over the next two days, Bharuch and Rajkot and later Surat were hit.
To understand exactly the attacks on Muslims, it is necessary to read the English as well as the Gujarati newspapers of that time. The weekly India Today’s report on that in its issue dated 18th March 2002 is also useful. A report from that issue reads thus:
“… Aware that people would shy away from blatant aggression in their own areas, outsiders were recruited to attack pre-targeted localities. In most cases, the locals didn’t protest and actually egged on the rioters, so intense was the hatred of the “other”.
There was also a deliberate attempt to mar the economic interests of the Muslim community. Not only were shops and establishments with obvious Muslim names attacked, but in a chilling revelation of the meticulous planning, so were those with names like Aashirwaad or Saffron that were jointly owned by Hindus and Muslims. Armed with information on share-holding and partnerships, they swooped down on establishments that variously included a medical shop near EllisBridge, the Honda franchisee on Gandhi Nagar road and the truck operator who carted Opel cars at Halol. The approximate loss suffered by business in six days of violence: Rs 500 crore a day.”
The same report also says:
“In a week of a vengeful spree following the February 27 Godhra carnage, more than 600 people have died across the state and 20,000 rendered homeless in Ahmedabad alone. Mosques and dargahs have been burnt or damaged, and several have been converted into Hulladiya Hanuman temples or Godhadiya temples in honour of the Godhra victims. Fluttering saffron flags signal a perverse victory. Despite a past pockmarked by communal riots, Gujarat has all but lost its moorings as a tolerant society.”
… (End of preview)
The above is the beginning of the Chapter “Attacks on Muslims”. To read the full chapter, read the book “Gujarat Riots: The True Story”.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
You can follow us on twitter at https://twitter.com/Gujaratriotscom
After numerous requests from readers, we have opened a Facebook page as well, on 17 Feb 2014. You can ‘like’ our Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/gujaratriots2002?hc_location=timeline
Leave A Comment