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Prof. J. S. Bandukwala [drbandukwala@yahoo.co.in]
Your Excellency the Apostolic Nuncio, eminent Church dignitaries, members of the clergy, the laity and invited guests. I am honored to be invited to address this august audience. It is rare that a Muslim delivers a keynote speech at an important Catholic function. It reflects the high level of ecumenism in keeping with the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. I pray I live up to the trust you have reposed in me.
A) Gujarat, Muslims and Hindutva
Gujarat is a coastal, border state. Being on the sea route, it had historical links with East Africa, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The Apostle Thomas may have first landed at Cambay, before proceeding to Malabar. Due to their trading links, the people of this state have always been cosmopolitan in outlook and accommodating in nature. The Parsis found refuge here. Sultan Ahmed Shah, who founded Ahmedabad six hundred years ago, was a wise, humane and liberal ruler. A later successor Mohammad Begda is considered a pioneer environmentalist. The State produced an epochal figure: Mahatma Gandhi. Gujarat population is about 50 million, of which about 5 million are Muslims. The latter are not a homogeneous group, being divided in a number of jamaats. The barriers between jamaats are quite rigid, and they reflect the pre conversion caste structure. Economically, socially and educationally the disparities are very wide. Communities like Khojas and Bohras are very advanced, to the extent that a non graduate may find it difficult to get married within the community. Further being entrepreneurs, they are spread all over the world, and constitute one of the richest ethnic blocs. The richest Indian, Azim Premji is a Gujarati Khoja. But in terms of numbers they hardly constitute a quarter of a million. Most other jamaats have a high illiteracy and poverty. Surveys have shown that their living standards are much poorer then that of Dalits in Gujarat.
The tragic communal pogroms of 2002 may have tarnished the good name of Gujarat for a long time to come. This was a state known for tolerance, moderation and non violence. One can grasp the world image of Gujarat till barely 40 years ago, from an anecdote involving the American Civil rights leader, Martin Luther King. While flying from New Delhi to Ahmedabad, he commented: I came to India as a visitor, but I go to Gujarat as a pilgrim. The land of Mahatma Gandhi became the bloody ground for a state sponsored killings, rapes and ethnic cleansing, never before seen in India. How do we explain that a people so identified with ahimsa and non violence, can suddenly become so cruel and inhuman? How do we account that a people who get upset at the sale of eggs, could gloat over trishuls being pushed up the private parts of women? More shockingly, this barbarity was inflicted on the hapless women, to the applauding cheers of other women. The Gujarati political, social, religious, and intellectual elite have mostly stood behind these murderers, rapists; and their patrons in the Government. K.K.Shastri, the former President of the Gujarat Sahitya Parishad, and also the President of the Gujarat VHP, publicly praised those who carried out the massacres, calling them ëmy boys who were trained to do these things.í The entire horrendous happenings are sought to be hushed up under the argument that exposure hurts the good name of Gujarat. Violence is being justified on grounds that Muslims had to be taught a lesson. In the last two years there has been so much public exposure of the nauseating torture inflicted in cases like Bilqisbanu, and yet there is a complete absence of sorrow and remorse. No prominent Hindu sant has yet denounced the brutality as morally wrong and a crime against humanity and God. Without remorse there can be no forgiveness and reconciliation. The horrors of those darkest days, may torture Gujarat and the country for a long time to come. How could such a gentle, decent people stoop so low? In the darkness of Gujarat, let us not forget those few brave souls, who stood against the communal hurricane, at great risk to themselves and their loved ones. I bow before Jagdish Shah, Kirit Bhatt, Chunibhai Vaidya, Indubhai Jani, Father Cedrick Prakash and many other brave friends.
I submit my own experiences of 2002. For me the episode begins on the late evening of February 26, 2002. I was invited as a speaker on the occasion of Savarkar birthday celebrations in Baroda. Savarkar is an icon of the Sangh Parivar. He was the author of cultural nationalism. I was specially called, on the plea that no Muslim ever speaks on Savarkar. I had reluctantly agreed, thinking it would cement Hindu Muslim relations in Baroda. Incidentally the invitation itself, speaks volumes of what the Sangh Parivar thought of me, prior to the tragedy of Godhra.
I concluded my Savarkar talk with the comment:
ëFriends there are only two paths before the country: the path of Mahatma Gandhi, which is inclusive, in which every Indian child will feel that this country belongs to him. The other alternative is the path of Savarkar, in which many Indians will feel that this country does not belong to them.í To my misfortune within twelve hours of this speech, on the morning of February 27, the Godhra train burning took place. I immediately condemned the dastardly act. This was widely reported by the print and electronic media. Yet I was the first victim of the post Godhra riots.
I lived in Sama, Baroda, having built my own house in 1983. At that time the entire area was just farm land. I was fortunate to get land very cheap, and despite my limited resources, build a house that was a dream come true for my wife and our two children. As the entire area developed very rapidly in the eighties, I soon became a pillar of Sama society. I was a rare Muslim in Sama. But they treated me with respect, bordering on affection, right until the Godhra tragedy. On that fateful and frightening February 28, the VHP gave a call for Gujarat bandh. Around 10 in the morning, about fifteen boys, their faces covered, barged into my compound and in a swift operation poured petrol on a car parked therein, and just ignited it. The car burned very fast. They then tried to enter the house. My daughter slammed the door, just in time. But she could clearly hear one of the boys, telling her by name, Umaima donít come in our way. In other words, these were boys who were familiar with the family. Fortunately neighbors rushed to our rescue, and the mob disappeared from the scene. I was so thankful to the neighbors, for their intervention, that I urged the press to highlight this point. The Police Commissioner sent two armed policemen for my protection. I thought the crisis was over, particularly when RSS members sent a message that it was a mistake. Little did I realize that the next day would be the longest day of my life.
That night a number of friends insisted on being with me. By morning it all looked normal, and they left. My daughter started assessing the damage caused by the events of the day before. Then around noon, panic again set in, as we received a number of phone calls urging me to leave the house, as a BJP leader, Pradip Joshi, was whipping up mob frenzy, just a kilometer from my house. He was using most foul language against Muslims in general and me in particular. I was puzzled and confused. For this very leader would be most polite whenever he saw me. Strangely all my immediate neighbors had closed their doors and windows. On phoning them, I was getting no reply, except one who just wanted to avoid me. This was unusual coming from people whom I considered as a family for about a decade. The road too looked unusually quiet, except for an occasional shouting coming from a distance. At this critical stage three University couples came home, insisting that they cannot leave us alone at such a time.. I urged my daughter to leave. But she was very confident that nothing will happen. Part of her confidence lay in the fact that she was engaged to be married to Maulin.. Umaima had an inner faith that the mob will never harm her. But there was a deep uneasiness and restlessness within me, I could sense serious danger in staying within the house. I begged leave of my daughter and the University friends and left the house, There was a frightening silence. I waved at the two policemen, just turned the corner, and begged a family we knew very well, to let me take shelter in their house. They were good and courageous enough to let me in. I was ushered into a bathroom and locked up. In a few minutes the mob arrived. From the bathroom curtains I could see trishuls, iron bars and rods. There was also a rickshaw carrying a gas cylinder. To my deep sorrow the mob consisted mostly of poor Dalits and Rabaris.
Even in that tension, my mind went back to February 1981, at the first outbreak of anti reservation agitation in Gujarat. I was Warden of a University hostel. The few Dalit residential students were feeling extremely insecure. To give them confidence, I went on a three day fast in a nearby Dalit locality. The day after I broke my fast, my house was attacked and ransacked, and I had to flee with my wife and little children. The trauma induced a mental depression in my dear wife. It lasted until she died in 2001.Ever since, I was looked upon with great respect by the Dalits, who felt that I suffered for them. I became a regular feature of Dalit functions, addressing over the years, a number of Ambedkar birthday rallies. Until that fateful day of March 1, 2002, when to my horror Dalits were brutally attacking my house. They responded to the saffron call, completely forgetting what I had done for them twenty years ago. My links with Dalit society abruptly snapped under Hindutva pressure.
The March 1 attack appeared far better planned and executed, as compared to the previous day. Later I was told all the neighbors had been warned not to help me. As the mob reached my house, the two policemen told them that I had left a few minutes ago. But they had no idea where I went, beyond the road corner. For the next about fifteen minutes, they spread out searching for me. They even came outside the house where I had taken refuge. I could hear shouts of Jai Sri Ram, interspersed with demands for my death in most vulgar language. I saw death staring in my face. I prayed Allah to help me die in dignity. Strangely the mob did not enter that house. What stopped them from barging in? Was it the Will of The Almighty? Those fifteen minutes inside that bathroom, was a defining moment of my life. The experience was intensely spiritual. There must be a divine purpose in sparing me, from a fate similar to that of Ahsan Jafri, who was literally cut to pieces. That day I pledged before Allah that the rest of my life will be dedicated to my unfortunate community.
The mob now moved to my house. At this stage another sickening development took place. The two policemen, deputed for my security, told the mob in Gujarati, ëYou have fifteen minutes, do whatever you wantí. The mob moved in with gas cylinders and iron bars to break down the front door. Fortunately they seemed more interested in loot, in particular the fine collection of silver and crystals, my late wife Shamim loved so much.
This gave my daughter and her friends, enough time to escape by the back door into a neighborís house. Gas was released in my bedroom, and ignited. The place just burnt down, destroying my clothes, books and personal documents. As if on cue, once the fifteen minutes were over, a police van reached my house, and the mob was allowed to walk away, with my looted possessions, past the waiting policemen. The officer called out for us, and we were shifted to a friendsí place. The next day, a national TV channel broadcast our appeal for sanity and compassion. That interview had a very positive impact in the rest of the country. But tragically it could not cool the fires in Gujarat. I was advised, that it was impossible to protect me in Baroda and that I should immediately leave the city. The day after I was driven down to the airport, in complete secrecy, and put on the plane for Bombay. All over I could see fires burning, and roadblocks to prevent any Muslim escape. By Godís Grace I was a respected figure in this city. But on the drive to the airport I felt like a hare being hunted by the hound, I shuddered at the thought of what must have happened to my fellow Muslims, mostly very poor, illiterate and completely at the mercy of a merciless mob. As I flew into Bombay, I cried and begged Allah to protect my community, from this Hindutva hysteria.
The following week as Gujarat continued to burn, I flew to New York to be with my son. Once in the US, I realized Gujarat had become a world issue. A childhood friend, in an important position in the American Government, suggested that I seek political asylum in the US. I refused, saying that Gujarat is my karmabhoomi. I can never abandon it while it burns.
I returned after a three month stay. A police inquiry
was held on the attack on my house. I declined any
reference to these two policemen, who had joined hands
with the mob, saying that I pardon them. Surprisingly the main instigator, Pradip Joshi, has not even been called for interrogation to the police station, even two years after the event concerned. If this could occur in a high profile case like mine, I am not surprised at the sickening manner in which the police joined hands with Hindutva elements to cover up all the ghastly rapes and killings. To be honest the problem was not just with the police. The poison had spread into almost every walk of life.
The rot was corrosive. Atal Bihari Vajpayee urged rajdharma on Modi on his visit to Ahmedabad. But three days later said exactly the opposite in Goa. Muslims were blamed for the killings of Muslims, while Modi and the RSS were exonerated. The argument was sickening, especially as it came from the Prime Minister of India. The Governor refused to even send a report on the massacres to the Centre. This was the same Governor, who in his earlier stint in Bihar pestered the Centre every week to dismiss the Laloo Yadav Ministry. The less said about the IAS and the IPS, the better. With rare honorable exceptions, they just caved in to the bloody demands of the Chief Minister. The steel frame just collapsed in Gujarat. The Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police saw to it that the entire bureaucracy and the police force was paralysed to give a free rein to the saffron mob. The Ahmedabad Police Commissioner, P.C.Pande, visited the hapless Ahsan Jafri before he was hacked to death. But he did not lift a finger to save him. This same Pande was rewarded by a promotion to the post of Additional Director of the CBI. To prevent any help reaching Muslims, Cabinet Ministers sat in Police Control rooms. First Information Reports were either not filed or completely watered down, so that no Sangh Parivar member name figured in any of them. The criminal justice system covered itself in shame and dishonor. VHP lawyers were appointed special public prosecutors. The defence and the prosecution became one. The judges looked the other way, as BJP muscle men intimidated witnesses in open court. The rot extended to the High Court, where two sitting judges branded those helping the riot victims as anti social and anti national. The only rays of hope have been the Chief Election Commissioner, the National Human Rights Commission and the Supreme Court. They redeemed our national soul. Not surprisingly, these august bodies became a target of Modiís vitriol.
Civil society too just plunged into a frenzy of Muslim bashing. The VHP leader, Pravin Togadia, a cancer super specialist, became a hero of Gujarati society. Spewing venom, in a style comparable to Hitler, he was acclaimed as the greatest Gujarati of all times. Prominent Gujarati intellectuals vied with each other to show that Muslims were a violent, inferior breed that must be civilized. This passion to civilize extended to even dead Muslims. Ustad Faiyaz Khan, perhaps the greatest musician Baroda ever produced, had his grave damaged. This sacrilege occurs in a city that prides itself as the cultural capital of Gujarat. Vali Gujarati ranks very high in the history of Gujarati literature. His eighteenth century grave, very close to the Ahmedabad Police Commissionerís office, was flattened and a metal road laid overnight. Modi was lionized in mythological terms as the savior of Hindus from the Muslim menace. The language media particularly Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar wrote highly inflammatory articles to incite more killings. The Press Council kept completely silent. So did the National Minorities Commission, whose wisdom pearl was to advise Muslims to talk to Togadia, and vote for the BJP. In contrast the role of the English and electronic media was heroic. No wonder they became a target of filthy abuse from Modi and his saffron acolytes.
An economic boycott of Muslims followed. Muslim stores were looted by wealthy people, driving posh cars. A tragic-comic video of a wife, sitting in an imported car and yelling at her husband to bring the correct size of Bata shoes from the ransacked store, was even shown on TV. Yet not one person was arrested. Muslims in service jobs, like shop assistants or car drivers, were shown the door. Poor self employed Muslims like auto rickshaw drivers, mechanics or electricians were ruthlessly boycotted. Even big business joined in. Today it will be difficult to find a Muslim employed in companies like Nirma. Ironically the poison reached even veteran Gandhians. The violence in Kawant, near Baroda, was engineered from the ashram of Hari Vallabh Parikh, a known disciple of Vinoba Bhave. On the flip side, the police and the judiciary did everything possible to arrest, torture and convict any Muslim even remotely connected with the disturbances. The draconian POTA law was applied on about 240 people, of whom 239 were Muslims. Note that POTA was not applied on any of those involved in the killings of over 2000 Muslims.
The most remarkable feature of Gujarat 2002 was that Muslims survived. It is a miracle that Muslims emerged from this pogrom, much stronger, wiser and economically stable. Hardly any Muslim left the state. The brutal reality was that the five million Muslims had no choice, but to stay. With intense poverty and illiteracy, migration was not an option. Praise God that Muslims instead of withdrawing into their shell, boldly came out of it. The community, not just in Gujarat but all over the country, united as never before, putting aside all sectarian divisions. Education and business became the in thing in Muslim homes. Religious obscurantism was out. The immediate priority was to bind the physical, economic and psychological wounds of a ravaged community. Note there was hardly any Government support. In a remarkable show of solidarity, millions of people, cutting across religious lines, all over India and even from abroad, poured out their hearts and opened their purses to put these victims back on their feet. There were countless widows and orphans to be taken care of. Moreover there were people in trauma, particularly the women who had been raped, and the children who had seen their dear ones killed before their eyes. It was made more difficult by the fact that the aggressors were moving about freely, issuing new threats. New homes were built, shattered businesses were reopened, boys and girls were sent back to schools and colleges. The Grace of God was very much on Muslims, as severe adversity put iron in their souls, with just one theme: Never Again, for the sufferings of the victims must not go in vain. In a literal sense all the 140 million Muslims of India united to confront the saffron challenge, and to assert that they have as much right to this country as anyone else.
The one big obstacle has been the ethnic cleansing that has become an ugly feature of urban Gujarat society. It is impossible for a Muslim to buy or rent a house in most urban areas. The result is segregation in housing, resembling the condition of South Africa fifteen years ago. Muslims can live only in Muslim or a few cosmopolitan areas, such as Fatehgunj in Baroda. No wonder Juhapura in Ahmedabad or Tandalja in Baroda have become ghettos. They receive less water, are rarely swept, drainages are not properly maintained. Worse there are no hospitals or good schools or trees around. Part of the problem is the deliberate neglect by civic authorities. Yet the elected representatives are Muslims, and they too generally fail badly. Enlightened residents must organize to make these areas very clean, healthy and livable.
The difficult question is why Gujarat is so susceptible to communal violence. Almost all social indicators are depressing. Violence against women, particularly the horrible dowry burning, is about the highest in this State. Same is true of female infanticide. In some districts there are barely 800 females to 1000 males. Similar is the treatment of Dalits and tribals. Unlike other states, Gujarat has not had a social revolution. The closest was the Gandhian movement, but it was more patronizing and paternalistic to the underdog. Any attempt to make the poor assertive and conscious of their rights, was frowned upon.
Communalism is most potent among the Patel community, though there are many honorable exceptions, such as the former RBI Governor Dr.I.G.Patel, and the former M.P. Manubhai Patel. Here is a community 12% in population, with a dominant control over the State. Almost every family has a member abroad, mostly in the USA and in Britain, Therefore there is a world exposure. Yet they are obsessed with Muslims. Why? Historically there is no known irritant between the Muslims and the Patels in Gujarat. This community was considered backward till just a century ago. By a combination of good leadership, enterprising spirit, and the abolition of the Zamindari system, they have acquired political, economic and social dominance in the State. But the driving force within the community is the passion to put their backward class status behind them. That may explain their violent feelings against Muslims. The Patels have cultivated it, to acquire acceptance as an upper caste. I pray Patel leaders would introspect on this Muslim obsession. It is in Muslim interests to establish healthy relations with the Patels. The tragedy of Gujarat is that all other castes are equally passionate for an upward social mobility. They are following the Patel path. The greater is the hatred towards Muslims, the more likely are they to rise up the caste ladder. In some areas of Ahmedabad, Dalits actually practice untouchability with Muslims. They claim they are clean, but that Muslims are unclean and dirty and should not be touched.
What should be the response to the hate laboratory of Gujarat? I do not want Muslims to answer hate with hate. I refer here to the Prophet Muhammadís response to the lady who used to throw her house garbage on Him, as He passed by her house, on the way to prayers. The Prophet would accept this humiliation with a silent prayer. One day the garbage was not thrown. The Prophet inquired of neighbors and was told that the lady was sick. He immediately visited her, and prayed for her recovery.
[Continued in Part II]
