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National / Cover Stories MAGAZINE | MAR 05, 2012

Feb 28, 2002 Nightmare on an Ahmedabad street

GUJARAT RIOTS

A Beast Asleep?Ten years after Gujarat 2002, Outlookasks if were likely to witness such horror again

SABA NAQVI , SMRUTI KOPPIKAR

ndia is a nation that was born in the bloodshed and displacement of the Partition riots. In its DNA, it inherited theschizoid gene of being a large Hindu nation with one of the worlds largest Muslim populations. It was a historical

faultline that was exploited for politics time and again. Ahimsa was the Gandhian ideal we paid lip service to but the

reality far too often was mass violence. In urban ghettos, in the old cities across the land, small riots were part of the

cycle of life. A religious procession would be taken out, a skirmish would take place, curfew would be clamped, a minor

riot would have just taken place or been barely averted.

But the Gujarat riots of 2002 marked the apogee of communal hatred. Ten years after the Sabarmati Express coach

was set afire in Godhra on February 27, and after the bloodbath that followed, we must pause and ask: can it happen

again? Many would argue that it cannot because, in the long term, Narendra Modi has had to pay a price for presiding

over a bloodbath afterthe advent of 24-hour television. In the immediate aftermath of the riots, however, he gained

enormously. Modi ran a communally charged election campaign six months after the violence, when he would famously

.outlookindia.com | A Beast Asleep? http://www.outlookindia.com/printarticle.aspx

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use Mian Musharraf as a rhetorical term for the entire Muslim community. Modi had been sent to Gujarat in October

2001, at a time when the BJP under Keshubhai Patel was doing badly and had lost a byelection. He began his first term

as CM on Oct 7, 2001; five months later, the carnage happened; later in the year, in December 2002, he won the state

election with a huge margin and began his second term. He has now been the longest-serving chief minister of Gujarat

and will contest later this year for a fourth term.

Bombay 1992-93 Babri demolition sparks off first phase in Dec. A rampaging Sena fans flames through incendiary articles and inciting attacks

on Muslim localities. (Photograph by Sherwin Crasto)

He most famously used communal polarisation as a political technique and it worked within the boundaries of Gujarat.

Sociologist Ashis Nandy says that the problem also arose because for months afterwards, Modi celebrated the riots.

He appeared to be showing off. Even the Shiv Sena, which had a decade before Gujarat orchestrated vicious riots in

Mumbai, looked like relative amateurs at the riot technique compared to the systematic method that was applied andrevelled in inside Gujarat. Nandy points out that the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 actually claimed the largest toll. But its a blot

the Congress always tries to live down and not celebrate. The whole psychology was different as Sikhs were a

prosperous community that people admired and envied, says Nandy. The Hindu-Muslim equation is another story.

As for Modi, he has become the development man, the business-friendly leader, but his image makeover as an

acceptable national figure has not worked. Even BJP president Nitin Gadkari says, What happened in Gujarat was an

unfortunate incident. I dont think it can or should happen again.

I dont think it can happen again, not because

of any growth in ethics but because the political

costs of riots have been rising since 1984 and

after 2002, Narendra Modi has blown anychance of ever being PM. Ashis Nandy,

Sociologist

Riots are regular occurrences at low levels

of national income. With rising incomes,

communal discontent does not fully

disappear, but it begins to take the form ofhi-tech terrorism as opposed to low-tech

mass riots. Ashutosh Varshney, Author

and academic

The possibility of a big riot happening cannot

be ruled out. We cannot forget that there is no

preventive law in place and those guilty of

orchestrating riots are not punished. But we

have faith in majority, civil society and the

media. Mahmood Madani, MP and cleric

Aggressive Gujarati middle class believes in

hard Hindutva; elsewhere middle class at

best believes in soft Hindutva. The only

place I can see it being replicated is

Karnataka but the middle class there is more

diverse. Achyut Yagnik, Author and


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historian

A Gujarat-type riot can happen only if theres

complicity between the Centre and state

government. Which is what happened in 02.

The Sangh has not given up on that kind of

mobilisation; they are trying it in Karnataka.

B.K. Hari Prasad, Congress leader

1992-93 wont happen in the same way in

the near future because the potential of that

particular anti-minority track has been

temporarily exhausted. Majority and minority

communities have become more self-

reflexive. Kamala Ganesh, Sociologist

There was a context to riots and places where

riots were habitual. Today there are different

concerns, the human rights industry has

emerged, media is more intrusive;

consequently administrations have to be more

responsive. Swapan Dasgupta,

Right-wing ideologue

Mumbai is even today a tinderbox and

vested interests can still play with

peoples emotions. The scale of violence

may be difficult but not impossible because

people who order such riots sit safe

somewhere and stand to gain. Julio F.

Ribeiro, Ex-police chief, Mumbai

There were always political motives to the

riots in Hyderabad. Sometimes Bajrang Dal,

sometimes MIM, sometimes the Andhra lobby.

Now things have changed because of themedia and Hyderabads expansion. Amir Ali

Khan, Siasat, Hyderabad

No riot can happen without tension being

built up by parties and outfits. Average

citizens and party workers react out of

insecurity, not animosity. That insecurity notonly still exists in Mumbai, at times its even

sharper. Asghar Ali Engineer, Islamic

scholar

Riots can happen again in Mumbai.

The rhetoric against north Indians is similar and

we have also seen sporadic violent attacks

against bhaiyyas although Mumbai moves on

our finance and enterprise. Sanjay Nirupam,

Congress MP

The poorer people of Mumbai have moved

northwards which means fewer paradoxes

exist. The spoils of power and office are

now distributed among the parties, which

means all shades of politicians are busy

getting wealthy. Aroon Tikekar, Historian

Modi is stuck with the taint because Gujarat was the first mega riot in the age of 24-hour TV. There were victims in

Mumbai, Surat, Bhagalpur, Jamshedpur, Hyderabad, Moradabad, Bhiwandi, earlier riots in Ahmedabad, a city that

actually recorded one of the first big post-Partition riots in 1969. But they were just numbers, death tolls, the faceless

victims of communal carnage.

But in Gujarat 2002, the stories were documented in heart-wrenching detail and etched in our collective memories. How

Bilqis Banos daughter was snatched from her hands, flung against a rock, killed, and the pregnant woman raped

repeatedly; how Zahira Sheikh survived the grisly burning of the Best Bakery in which her family was roasted alive; how

limbs of children were hacked and little boys flung to their death in Naroda Patiya; how Ehsaan Jafri begged for the life

of those who had sought his protection in Gulberg Society; how his widow Zakia Jafri still fights for justice and says her

husband called the CMs residence for help. The photograph of Qutubuddin Ansari begging for his life epitomises the

plight of an entire community in Gujarat; thankfully, Ansari survived.


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Flash points The Dec 6, 1992, Babri Masjid demolition; Sabarmatis burning coach

The 2002 Gujarat riots also marked the coming of age of anti-communal activism. Several citizens, activists and lawyers

who live within Gujarat have consistently fought against a state administration determined to block any probe. On the

national stage, individuals like Teesta Setalvad have never relented, losing one legal battle to come back with another.

Although Modi has been able to stay one step ahead of the legal snare, he is certainly bogged down by it. Outside

Gujarat, he may have appeal for the BJP cadre, but regional parties want to keep a distance from him. If the big

players of any regional front in the future are to be Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik and Nitish Kumar, the CMs of

Bengal, Orissa and Bihar would not like to share a platform with Modi even if realpolitik were to force any sort of

arrangement with the BJP. Indeed, one can argue that the political price of riots is now too high. Modi is quite stuck.

he perpetrators of riots are long-term players in the political landscape. The Thackerays have again bounced back

in the local polls in Maharashtra. But the city of Mumbai has changed under their watch. The ferocity and cruelty of the

violence that ripped right through Bombay (which became Mumbai later) in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition,

in two phases in December 1992 and January 1993, came to symbolise the worst face of a seemingly inclusive city. Till

then the city would be described as a cosmopolitan megacity where caste, class and religion were not the dominant

markers of public life. Bombay was the city of dreams, its streets offered anonymity, its pavements could turn into

homes, its constant whirring machine of enterprise and entrepreneurship played the great equaliser. Surely, such a

place could not be derailed by communal violence? This belief turned into a shattered myth in those two spans of 92-93

when nearly 850 people were killed, 575 of them Muslims; over 2,000 injured and nearly 1,00,000 displaced.

After that, Bombay became Mumbai and no one really calls it a cosmopolitan place any longer. Resilient, yes, but not

cosmopolitan. Bombay had its Hindu- and Muslim-dominated neighbourhoods but they were not community-insulated as

has happened in the post-riots era. The ghettoising effect of 1993, which continues even today, has made the divisions

sharper. In fact, its easier now to target this or that community and in many areas the other is not welcome at all,

says Farooq Mapkar, who was witness to five namazis being shot in Hari Masjid by policemen, was wrongly accused of

rioting and acquitted after 16 long years. A bank employee now, he says, There is now a Muslim Mumbai and a Hindu

Mumbai.


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Year Place Toll

Aug 67 Hatia, Ranchi 183

Mar 68 Karimganj, Assam 82

Sep 69 Ahmedabad 512

May 70 Bhiwandi, Mah. 76

May 70 Jalgaon, Mah. 100

Aligarh, 1990 125-150 people died in riots set off by killing of Muslims near a mosque by PAC. Misreporting, rumours, partisan PAC kept flamesalive for nine days. (Photograph by HT (From Outlook, March 05, 2011)

he Shiv Sena in 1993 called itself the defender of Hindus. The Srikrishna Commission report famously indicted

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and said that like a veteran general, he commanded his loyal Shiv Sainiks to retaliate by

organised attacks against Muslims, especially in January 1993. The Mumbai police registered four offences against him

for a communally provocative editorial exhorting such violence, but the go-ahead to prosecute was not given by the state

government; then CM Sudhakarrao Naik famously said if certain leaders were arrested, Bombay would burn; it escaped

his notice that the city had already burnt.

***

Riot After Riot

Fifty-eight major communal riots in 47 places since 1967

Ten in South India, 12 in East, 16 in West, 20 in North India

Ahmedabad has seen five major riots; Hyderabad, four; Calcutta, none since 64*

The 1990s saw the most riots in the last five decades: 23

The 1970s saw seven riots, the 80s, 14; the 2000s have seen 13

Total toll: 12,828 (South 597, West 3,426, East 3,581, North 5,224).

* In 64, a wave of rioting in Calcutta, Jamshedpur and Rourkela killed 2,500.

Note: Only riots with a toll of five or more included; deaths due to bomb blasts not included

Data: Alka Gupta

***

Till 92-93, the city police was seen as a proud force in khaki, worthy of

being compared to Scotland Yard; their brutality and vehemence during

the 92-93 carnage turned them in the public eye into a force that did not

hesitate to display the saffron beneath the khaki. As police officers and

constables told the Indian Peoples Tribunal in the immediate months,

they were Shiv Sainiks at heart and policemen of a supposedly secular

state by accident. As many as 32 policemen, including then joint


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Oct 77 Varanasi 5

Mar 78 Sambhal, UP 25

Sep 78 Hyderabad 20

Oct 78 Aligarh 30

April 79 Jamshedpur 120

Aug 80 Moradabad 1,500

Apr 81 Biharsharif 80

Sep 82 Meerut 12

Dec 82 Baroda 17

Feb 83 Nellie, Assam 1,819

Sep 83 Hyderabad 45

May 84 Bhiwandi, Mah 146

Oct 84 Delhi 2,733

Apr 85 Ahmedabad 300

Jul 86 Ahmedabad 59

Apr/May87 Meerut 70

Mar 89 Bhadrak, Orissa 17

Oct 89 Indore 27

Oct 89 Bhagalpur 1,161

Oct 90 Ahmedabad 41

Oct 90 Jaipur 52

Oct 90 Jodhpur 20Oct 90 Lucknow 33

Oct 90Chandni Chowk,

Delhi100

Oct 90 Hailakandi, Assam 37

Oct 90 Patna 18

Oct 90 Hyderabad 165

Nov 90 Agra 31

Dec 90Hassan, Mandya,

Mysore60

Dec 90 Hyderabad 200

Dec 90 Aligarh 150

May 91 Baroda 28

May 91 Meerut 40Oct 92 Sitamarhi, Bihar 44

Dec 92 Surat 152

Dec 92 Malpura, Andhra 24

Dec 92 Kanpur 254

Dec 92 Bhopal 143

Dec 92/Jan

93Bombay 872

Nov/Dec 97 Coimbatore 20

Feb 98 Coimbatore 60

Dec 98Surathkal,

Karnataka12

Mar 2001 Nalanda, Bihar 8

Mar 01 Kanpur 14Oct 01 Malegaon 13

Feb-May 02 Gujarat 1,267

May 02 Marad, Kerala 9

Apr 06 Aligarh 6

May 06 Baroda 6

Dec 07 Kandhamal 12

Oct 08 Bhainsa, Andhra 6

Sep 09 Miraj, Karnataka 5

Sep 11 Bharatpur 10

commissioner R.D. Tyagi, were severely indicted by the Srikrishna

Commission (SKC) for acts of omission and commission during the riots.

None was punished; in fact, Tyagi was promoted to the post of city

commissioner during the Sena-BJP regime in Maharashtra soon after.

Senior Sena leaders refuse to discuss the riots but point to the

thousands of illegal Bangladeshi migrants and Pakistani sympathisers

who live in the myriad lanes of the metropolis and sometimes need to

be put in their place. If at that time the Muslims were the target, today

the other is the bhaiyya or migrant from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Though political organisations may have found it increasingly difficult to

stoke such large-scale, mind-numbing violence in recent years, Mumbai

is still a tinderbox and vested interests can still play with people.

Besides, the question of justice cant be forgotten when we talk of riots.

It rankles the victims that justice has still not been done; not only is

justice a prerequisite for reconciliation, its also a necessary signal to

those who believe they stand to gain by engineering such violence,

victims say. The bomb blasts that followed in March 1993, killing 257

and injuring 800, have resulted in convictions, but no one has been

punished for the 92-93 riots except former Sena MLA Madhukar

Sarpotdar who was convicted in July 2008 and let off on a Rs 5,000 bail.

When the Shiv Sena-BJP came to power in Maharashtra in 1994, barely

a year after Bombay burned, the administration withdrew as many as

3,000 cases registered against their workers. The subsequent Congress

governments did not drop cases against Muslims that even the SKC

concluded were false.

This one-sided justice has exacted its price. The Muslims in the ghettos

are angry and often justifiably so. Every bomb blast and terror attack

since has meant comb-and-search-and-arrest operations in their

mohallas. Now after every major and minor terror attack on Mumbai,

mohalla committees mobilise their peace soldiers in bastis, community

elders come out requesting calm and peace, Muslims display their

patriotism through solidarity marches in case theyre perceived as

anti-nationals. The peace is kept but the tensions simmer.

Still, the cycle has been broken in other cities. Hyderabad, for instance,

has moved on. The old city is still a hothouse, but communal violence no

longer pays. Amir Ali of the influential Urdu daily, Siasat, recounts this

brief history of his citys riots. Before 1994, he says, violence took place

every year over processions of Ganesh Chaturthi, Moharram or Bonalu

(an Andhra festival). The violence stopped in 1994, when the TDP came

to power, though one could not pinpoint an exact reason. Then, in 1998,

a poster appeared in the old city of Hyderabad depicting Ganesh with

Kaaba under one foot and Medina under the other. Police investigations

revealed that the poster was the handiwork of a Hindu politician and

former mayor of Hyderabad. He was in fact a member of the Majlise-

e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen run by the Owaisi family that still has a grip on

sections in the city! The linkages are circuitous, to say the least.

hat this story illustrates is that an attempt to trigger a riot is a

political tactic. Paul R. Brass, author and political scientist from the

University of Washington, whos studied Indias communal tension and

violence, calls it the institutionalised riot system or IRS. This IRS, he

says, was created largely in northern and western India and it can be

activated by politicians during political mobilisation or elections, and the


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production of a riot involves calculated and deliberate actions by key individuals, like recruitment of participants,

provocative activities and conveying of messages, spreading of rumours. There are frequent rehearsals until the time is

ripe and the context is felicitous and there are no serious obstructions in carrying out the performance. Does such an

IRS still prevail in Mumbai, or Bhiwandi, Malegaon, Aurangabad, Nashik, Moradabad, Ahmedabad?

Recently, activists of the Hindu right were arrested in Karnataka trying to raise a Pakistan flag in a Muslim area. They

presumably hoped they would trigger a riot and blame it on Muslims. One must conclude that small riots can and in all

likelihood may continue to happen (there was recently a Gujjar-Muslim clash in Mewat not far from Delhi), but it would

take a certain conjunction of politics, intent and regime to trigger anything on the scale of the Gujarat riots.

Meanwhile, the political saga of Modi continues, with his national ambitions all too obvious. As things stand now, he can

be a national player only if the BJP gets a majority on its own. As that currently seems unlikely, Modi can perhaps

examine his predicament from a philosophical, moral or literary viewpoint. He could ruminate over that quote of Lady

Macbeths who kept washing her hands. Out, damnd spot! out, I say!

Riot Triggers

Social: The feeling of being left out of the discourse. Especially prevalent among minorities who are excluded,

deliberately or otherwise, from mainstream events and activities, leading to ghettoisation.

Economic: The feeling of being left behind. Poor education, unemployment lead to marginalisation of the

have-nots. Heightened by sense of deprivation and sight of conspicuous consumption.

Political: Parties and politicians play on the emotions of votebanks, often to expand it, by mobilising mobs andwhipping up passions and fears over illegal immigration and demographic change

Administrative: The feeling of being targeted and/or ignored by the immediate touchpoints of governmentthe

police and civic administration. Denial of rights and harassment spawn sense of injustice.

Religious: Perceived slights to sentiments. Can be sparked by a procession in a sensitive area; a loud prayer, a

road blocked for prayers, or an animals carcass thrown into a place of worship

Commercial: Rivalries sparked off by encroachment of traditional areas of business and economic activity

Verbal: Provocative speeches that stereotype and instigate the intended target on the basis of language, religion

and sexual habits. Rabble-rousing about appeasement. Sporting events as a test of patriotism and nationalism.

Global: Rumours and whispers that travel across the wired world about defacement or denigration of holy

scriptures and holy figures in books, movies, newspaper articles, posters, cartoons.

***

By Saba Naqvi in New Delhi and Smruti Koppikar in Mumbai

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