Muslim professionals moving out of Hindu areas .
Mo
the Islamic Paradise of Pakistan and Bangladesh . Once the
Muslim population stops growing a lot of these tensions will
disappear . Any kind of discrimination or harassment of
minorities is unacceptable..
rediff.com Aug 5
'Perhaps I would be safer in a Muslim locality'
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The first of a three-part series on the Ahmedabad riots.
The artificial division of Berlin is over. Beirut is more or
less peaceful. But the division of Ahmedabad city into
'Hindu Ahmedabad' and 'Muslim Ahmedabad' has begun.
<Picture: Ahmedabad>Because of frequent communal clashes and
tension, a gradual exchange of population is taking place in
the city. Ahmedabad's departure from convention is like the
famous Lata Mangeshkar song of the 50s, Mein tho chalu
paschim, purab tho chali duniya.
Ashraff Sayed, former chief reporter of the Times of India,
was pensive as he talked to me in his rented flat at
Gandhinagar, the Gujarat capital. A high-quality political
journalist and an easy-to-get-along individual, Sayed and
family lived at the Vijaynagar Patrakar colony for 19 years.
They were the only Muslim family in the neighbourhood.
During the 1985 and 1992 communal riots, his car was
attacked and family threatened by Hindu fanatics. The
government offered him protection, but as the tension rose,
he had to make a decision.
"I was often away from home on work," recalled Sayed. "And I
had to consider the safety of my family."
During the 1992 riots that claimed nearly 400 lives, even
his neighbours, all journalists, advised him to move to a
'safe' area. The distress sale of his flat fetched only Rs
150,000 against the going rate of Rs 350,000. For sometime,
Sayed stayed with his brother at Juanpura, a Muslim majority
area and then shifted to another Hindu-dominated locality.
"When I retired from The Times of India, I began to feel
more unsafe," explained Sayed. "Perhaps I would be safer in
a Muslim locality."
Sayed, a reputed journalist for nearly four decades, first
with the Press Trust of India and then the Times had his
application for a government flat turned down by Bharatiya
Janata Party Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel.
"I was entitled to government accommodation, my documents
were in order and all the bureaucrats had okayed the
papers," lamented Sayed. He also pointed out that the state
was quite liberal in allotting flats to several bogus
journalists.
<Picture: Ahmedabad>When he looked around for plots in mixed
localities to build a house, Sayed met with hostility from
the neighbours. In one case, 15 people, who had purchased
plots next to the one he was planning to buy, threatened
him.
"Finally, I was compelled to buy land in a totally Muslim
area," Sayed said. "If this could happen to a person like
me, can you imagine the plight of other Muslims? Yes, the
process of dividing the city into Hindu Ahmedabad and Muslim
Ahmedabad is in full swing."
There are many cases of the same kind. Professor Nizamiya, a
retired principal of a local college and a long time
resident of Azad Society, had to move to a Muslim locality
after his house was ransacked by vandals in 1994. Professor
Shaikh, formerly of the H K Arts College, faced a similar
experience.
In another instance, a Muslim resident of a posh locality
died after he was thrown down from his fourth floor flat. As
Hindu fanatics roamed the city with lists of Muslim
residents in Hindu localities, two Muslims of Akhbar Bhavan,
a journalist colony, were woken up by their neighbours at
0200 hours and told to move out immediately because their
homes were targeted by goondas.
Doctors, lawyers, professors and other professionals from
the Muslim community are no longer welcome in mixed
localities. A senior executive of the Housing Development
Finance Corporation, uneasy at the hostility directed
towards him, is planning to leave.
Of course, the same is true for Hindus. But very few of the
upper-class had opted to live in Muslim areas. Inside the
Walled City, criss-crossed by 'poles' (narrow lanes), Hindus
and Muslims do live cheek by jowl. There is generally peace
in areas where both communities have equal strength.
But trouble broke out in areas where one community
outnumbered the other, leading to large-scale migration. The
average Ahmedabad citizen does not seem to mind what was
going on. This is the effect of aggressive, communal
propaganda from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang
Dal. The BJP government has failed to control these extreme
elements. A large majority of Hindus have been brainwashed
to believe that their lives would be better off without the
presence of Muslims, and that it is their duty to make them
second-class citizens.
A small number of secularists, independent thinkers and
other minorities are, however, unhappy at these
developments.
"I find Ahmedabad stifling," complained Esther David,
novelist, art critic and columnist. "In fact, I no longer
meet so many of my friends because of their attitude towards
the minorities. I am a Jew and not welcome in many Hindu
areas. The Hindus, by and large, seem to be unaffected and
unmoved by communal killings, arson and looting."
But why was there such a transformation in this
once-peaceful city?
Tomorrow: 'It all began with the telecast of the Ramayan and
other Hindu religious serials'