Communal riots 2009
PakistanPal
The year 2009 also did not witness major riots and this pattern is
continuing since Gujarat riots of 2002. However, no year so far has
been riot-free year. Communal violence erupts on smaller scale in
different places throughout India. It is interesting to note that
since Mumbai riots of 1992-93 there was no major communal riot until
Gujarat riots in 2002 except in Coimbatore in 1998 in which about 40
persons were killed. Similarly since Gujarat riots of 2002 there has
been no major communal riots except in Kandhamal, Orissa, in which
also around 40 persons were killed.
The year 2009 began with the UN condemning slow progress of probe in
communal riots in Gujarat and called for speedy justice in its report
published on 7th February. "A large number of criminal cases relating
to the communal violence in 2002 remained uninvestigated or have been
closed by the Gujarat Police and the miserable plight of those
internally displaced from their homes continues" said the UN Report by
Human Rights Council. It was indeed matter of shame that the UN Human
Rights Council had to remind us of that. In fact it is Narendra Modi's
deep rooted communalism and arrogance of power which brought such
disgrace to our country.
Fortunately January remained riot-free but with February communal
situation began to slip down the slippery slope. It began with Nanded
in Maharashtra. Maharashtra is one of the communally most sensitive
states though it has been ruled by the Congress most of the time. In
the centre of Nanded town near Railway station two youth belonging to
Hindu and Muslim communities had quarrel and soon it acquired communal
overtones and five youth were injured and had to be hospitalized. It
began with eve teasing of girls belonging to one community and youth
of two communities came out on the streets and violence erupted. Sharp
edged weapons were openly used. One of the injured was in critical
condition. All shops in the area downed their shutters. However, the
police controlled the situation quickly.
It happened in Tanda town of Ambedkar Nagar when murder of Ramjor took
place communal violence erupted and one house and several shops of
minority community were set on fire. The police acted promptly and
police force and PAC were sent to control the situation. However, much
damage was not done and police controlled it in time.
M.P. is another sensitive state since BJP has taken over. On 11th
March communal violence broke out in Mahidpur of Ujjain district which
has considerable Muslim population. Some Muslims returning after the
Prophet Day's procession were asked to avoid a route where Ramayana
recitation was going on but they insisted on taking that route and
communal violence broke out in which one person was killed and 17
persons were injured. The police had resorted to firing and one person
was killed in police firing. About 24 persons were arrested.
Shahrukh (right) carries the body of his elder brother Imran, killed
by police firing in July 2009 in Indore
Festivals like Holi, Diwali or Ganesh Chaturthi generally witness
outbreak of communal violence in number of places. On 11th March on
the occasion of Holi four U.P. towns witnessed communal violence.
These towns were Benaras, Azamgarh, Lucknow and Bareli. In all four
persons were killed and more than 22 people were injured. Curfew had
to be imposed in several parts of two cities. Police bandobast was
made in all these cities to check further spreading of violence. Of
these two persons were killed in firing in suburb of Benaras after
colour was thrown on some Muslims. These incidents took place in
Vellur and Bazari Deh and two police officers in charge of these
police stations were suspended. The high police officials were camping
here to keep situation under control.
The other incident took place in Khilafatpur of Azamgarh district
where one person was killed and two persons were injured. In Lucknow
in Nawagaon area one person was shot dead. In Bareily old city also
two people of communities clashed on throwing colour and five persons
were injured. And in Faridpur area one person was killed during
Prophet day's celebration.
During Holi festival reports of violent clashes from other places was
also received. In Ghazipur U.P. a six year old girl was killed and
several persons injured. Also from Bihar there were reports of 3
persons killed in Chapra and Nawada districts. In Delhi too one tailor
was stabbed to death.
Again in Maharashtra in Rabodi area of Thane, near Mumbai, communal
violence broke out after road accident. Police fired more than 30
rounds when the mob refuse to disperse. According to the eye witnesses
about seven Autorickshaws, one milk van, four shops and three houses
were set on fire near Kranti Nagar and rioters hurled stones and soda
bottles at the police. Two police inspectors suffered serious head
injuries. Rabodi had witnessed violent communal clashes in September
2008 also on the occasion of Navratri.
In South Karnataka also communal violence broke out and some mosques
were seriously damaged on 15th March. It was alleged by the congress
members in the Karnataka Assembly that volunteers of the Sangh Parivar
(family) were in the forefront of the violence and police completely
failed to control violence. It was even alleged that Ram Sena leader
Pramod Muthallik and others were trying to convert Karnataka into
another Gujarat. Karnataka has been witnessing attacks on Christians
and churches also. It was also alleged by the Congress and other
secular activists that on the eve of General elections BJP was trying
to polarize Karnataka to win elections.
On 4th April Pusad witnessed communal violence in which a Muslim
couple and a Hindu boy was killed. Pusad and Digras in Yavatmal
district also had witnessed serious communal violence in 2008 on the
occasion of Holi and now on 7th April 2009 Pusad again came under
spell of communal violence. In 2008 it was in Digras that police
brutally assaulted Muslims and broke their homes, looted cash and
broke their T.V. sets, fridges and even water vessels. This time
Police repeated these atrocities against Muslims in Pusad. In 2008
R.R.Patil was Home Minister and in 2009 Jayant Patil was Home
Minister. Neither R.R.Patil took any action against the police nor
Jayant Patil though video clippings of police atrocities were shown.
So much for secularism of the Maharashtra Congress. And all this
happened on the occasion of General elections. It was because of such
communal violence that the seat went to the Shiv Sena. It was the
Congress's own loss. Many riots are organized just to win elections.
One can call it winning elections through murder and killing. Pusad
and Digras in Maharashtra have become communally highly sensitive
thanks to VHP, Shiv Sena and other communal organizations and
mysterious silence, nay approval of the congress. It appears congress
government deliberately posts rank communal police officers in these
places. Police becomes looters and rioters in uniform. Besides one
mosque 45 houses belonging to Muslims were set to fire. The Ram Navmi
procession comprising 20,000 people was taken out with loud speakers
loudly playing the tune Mandir Vahin Banayenge (we will construct
Mandir on that place only). The procession stopped near Mohammadi
Masjid and indulged in stone throwing and rioting broke out. And this
happened despite the fact that many Muslim leaders had welcomed the
procession in Lohar lane to promote communal amity.
Next Anand in Gujarat came under the spell of communal violence on
27th May. A 14 year old Muslim girl was murdered by a non-Muslim youth
who later committed suicide. The girl's throat was slit with sharp
edged weapon. This led to clashes between two communities. According
to the police there was massive stoning by both sides on each other
five houses were burnt down. However, no one was killed. The police
seem to have controlled the situation.
Assam which is normally not very communally sensitive witnessed
communal riot on May 28. In this riot five persons were killed and
hundreds more rendered homeless following communal clash in Western
Assam's Kokrajahr district. The police said that the trouble had
erupted over a piece of temple land, after some hooligans drove out
people living there. The residents alleged that a local police officer
had played partisan role and demanded his removal, which was opposed
by the members of another community.
In Nanded, Maharashtra communal violence broke out on June 18 when
some people from Chopala area of the town objected to drugs being
sold. The mischief mongers gave it a communal turn and members of both
communities began to attack each other in which about 7 persons,
including two women were injured and had to be admitted in the
Government Hospital. The electric connections were severed and
indulged in communal violence in darkness. However, police reached in
time and brought the situation under control.
Mysore has been a peaceful town but under the BJP rule whole of
Karnataka is turning communally sensitive. Mysore also came under the
wave of communal violence on 3rd July in which 3 persons were killed.
Communal flare up took place on the question of desecration of a
religious school. Police fired in the air and lobbed teargas shells to
disperse the mob. Prohibitory orders were enforced in four police
station areas. In Udaigiri scores of houses were set on fire in
Kyathanamaranahalli. However the incidents soon spread over to other
areas like Udaigiri, Gayatripuram II stage and Rajivnagar. The rioters
snatched the pistol of an inspector many houses were looted and set
afire, police said. The tension continued next day also and a BJP
leader who was seated in a car with a Muslim friend was stabbed
though, stabbing was connected with a financial dispute.
After Mysore it was Shahpur area of Ahmedabad which was engulfed in
communal violence on 17th August in which about 8 persons were
injured. The violence broke out after alleged desecration of an idol
in a temple. However, according to another source the real cause was
playing music before the mosque. The whole area was littered with
stones and pieces of glasses. Shahpur is a Muslim majority area of
Ahmedabad city.
Interviews with local residents showed that the trouble had begun a
week ago when some people tried to build a temple near the Ahmedi
mosque opposite the Nagoriwad police Chowkey. Yet another version was
that the mosque authorities objected to the noisy procession, as
evening Namaz was being offered. Nearly half a dozen houses were
torched and property damaged on both sides in the clashes and many
injured. Many police officers were also injured among others. It was
also reported in some newspapers that two people were stabbed from
minority community and were seriously injured.
A madrasa burned in Gopalganj, Bihar in February 2009
During the Ganesh festival in September Maharashtra again witnessed
communal violence in places like Sangli, Miraj and Icchalkaranji in
Kolhapur district on 7-9 September. Ichhalkaranji which has population
of 3 lakhs and is a textile town. Even after a month when I met some
Muslims from Icchalkaranji they were living in fear. In fact riots had
spread to other towns like Sangli and Miraj also. Extensive damage was
done to 60 Mosques and Dargahs in the whole region.
During the Ganesh festival in this region of Western region various
Ganesh Pandals were put up on which arches and posters showing Shivaji
killing Afzal Khan were shown and this was objected to by some Muslims
and it also became a controversy between the Congress and Shiv Sena-
BJP and communal violence broke out. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra
Mr. Ashok Chavan accusing the communal parties of fanning the riots
for a political capital.
Mr. Gopinath Munde, the BJP leader from Maharashtra on the other hand,
blamed the Congress for communal flare up exploiting it for electoral
purposes. There is a proof, if any proof is needed that communal
violence is used mainly for electoral purposes by political parties.
However, one hope-giving feature of these rioting was that Hindu women
in villages where mosques were damaged not only repaired these mosques
but also provided protection to the Muslims in villages and persuaded
them not to migrate to other places.
On 13th November we held one day workshop on Women for Secularism in
Icchalkaranji in which many women from these villages who repaired
mosques and saved Muslim lives in villages were also invited. I heard
them speak and was inspired from their determination to fight communal
forces. It gave me new confidence in the people of India to keep India
secular. They were mostly illiterate village women who came out so
strongly against communal forces. Again the communal riots were
sparked to exploit religious sentiments for electoral purposes.
Another thing to be noted is that Icchalkaranji, as pointed out, is a
textile town and was once stronghold of left trade unions. It went
into flames like Bhivandi, another textile town near Mumbai, went up
in flames in 1970 and 1984 communal violence. The Left trade union
workers get as easily polarized in religious camps as other people.
The left ideology hardly protects them from communal ideology.
On 23rd September Jaisalmer, Rajasthan saw communal frenzy in which
one person died and 10 persons were seriously injured when a religious
structure was demolished which was disputed in Fatehgarh area of
Jaisalmer. Also a dozen shops and four vehicles were burnt and offices
of SDM and Tehsildar were ransacked. Jaisalmer is a border town and
Pakistan is just a few kilometers away from there. The Muslims of
Jaisalmer can hardly be distinguished from Hindus culturally or
linguistically. It has no history of communal violence either. Yet the
BJP rule in Rajasthan gave Phillip to communal forces in the area.
On October 24 communal tension erupted in Shravasti town near Bahraich
in U.P. when meat pieces were found inside a mosque. The Muslims of
the town blocked the road and threw stones and attacked vehicles. The
protestors blocked the Bahraich-Shravasti road for hours and tried to
torch buses. According to the police, people noticed pieces of meat
near the mosque but when they entered the gate of the mosque they
found more pieces of meat and in no time some 500 people gathered
shouting slogans and demanding arrest of those responsible. Some
people of the town had dispute with members of minority community and
they might have left pieces of meat inside the mosque. Some 14 persons
were identified.
This was, in short, the account of communal violence in the year 2009.
In all during 2009 23 lives were lost and 73 people injured. It is
very difficult to estimate loss of properties but undoubtedly public
and private properties put together it would run into hundreds of
crores of rupees. Also, it would be observed that riots took place in
U.P., Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, M.P., Assam and
Gujarat.
However, there were no riots in West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand,
Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Also, very few riots
took place in this year in Gujarat and maximum riots took place in
Maharashtra. This year hardly any riot was reported from Baroda in
Gujarat which is highly communally sensitive state. Thus we can say
while there is some improvement in Gujarat in terms of occurrence of
communal violence in Maharashtra we witness no such improvement.
The government in Maharashtra is secular but has no political will to
curb activities of the Shiv Sena. Shiv Seainiks can get away with
anything. Also the Shiv Sena mouthpiece continues to be highly
abrasive and no law applies to it. About Gujarat touch communal
violence has gone down but not communalization. Since 2002 riots
brought great disgrace to Narendra Modi he is unwilling, at least for
the present, to have more communal violence but there is hardly any
let up in communalization and polarization on the basis of religion.
The great divide between Hindus and Muslims continues to be what it
was in 2002 and Gujarat continues to be Hindutva laboratory.
It is also to be noted as pointed out earlier, there has been no major
communal disaster after 2002 except in Kandhamal in Orissa. However,
there is one difference that in Orissa BJP was a junior partner in
Government and though it could inflict communal damage once in
Kandhamal, the process could not continue as in Gujarat. Navin
Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Orissa realized his mistake in allying
with the BJP and he broke with it after the Kandhmal riots. This
rupture stopped the process of Hinduization of Orissa.
However, in Gujarat, BJP was the real boss and hence after 2002 there
was no such rupture and hence the process of communalization remained
steady. If communalization goes on communal violence can be organized
when needed. Communal violence cannot go on, on major scale for
obvious reasons. And in U.P. and Bihar, the two states of Hindi belt
which often witnessed major riots during eighties, communal politics
there was seriously weakened due to emergence of caste-based parties
there like Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya
Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal (United) etc.
There has been great change in power equation in the Hindi belt though
small skirmishes continue there. Tamil Nadu and Kerala were always
dominated by caste and left politics respectively. But in both the
states there was eruption of communal violence temporarily. In Tamil
Nadu the Hindu Munnani, an OBC party experienced a temporary rise
after conversion to Islam in Meenakshipuram and because of clashes
between OBC and Dalits. However, communal politics could not be
sustained on a long term basis.
In Kerala too RSS tried to find its foothold in a section of society
which was left out of power equations. It did succeed to some extent
and apart from clashes between RSS and CPM, riots occurred between
Hindus and Muslims also but only on few occasions. Assam though not a
communal prone state but after ASSU movement in early eighties the
Rajasthani business community there felt highly insecure and hence
brought in RSS and communalized polity to some extent. However, it
succeeds in engineering communal violence here and there but it is
difficult to sustain communal discourse in Assam also for historical,
cultural and linguistic reasons.
All this abundantly proves that communalism is a political and not a
religious phenomenon and that communal graph goes up and down
depending on political dynamics of a region. It gives us hope that
bewildering diversity of Indian society cannot sustain communal
violence on long term basis. If communal violence erupts it is more
because of weakness of secular forces than the strength of communal
forces.
Secular parties often loose courage and political will in the face of
communal onslaught at certain junctures. If secular parties show
courage and strong political will there is no reason communalism will
have long lease of life.
Article Source : http://www.twocircles.net/2010jan02/communal_riots_2009.html