THE political class in India and the governments have been treating terrorism as a major threat to the nation, whereas ‘communal riots’ are treated as events causing some disturbance, which can be taken in the national stride. Is this so because its victims are mostly minorities, i.e. ‘the other’?
Classifying and labelling of incidents of mass violence into ‘communal’ and ‘terrorist’ and the unlawful use of force by the state being treated as mere ‘excesses’ have caused serious distortion in public attitudes and the thinking of policymakers in India. Unless this is corrected, it will continue to impair the capability of the state and society to effectively deal with all varieties of violence, the victims of which are innocents.
It is well that the Administrative Reforms Commission’s fifth report on public order as well as the apex court’s observations on two occasions in the course of hearing of cases of the Gujarat carnage in 2002, have characterised communal violence as a greater threat to the state and society than terrorism. Even more important is the linkage between them as definitively established by Justice Srikrishna Commission for the Mumbai serial blasts of March 1993 and by Justice Gokula Krishna for the Coimbatore blasts of 1998.
The learned trial judge of Coimbatore blasts took cognisance of the targeted killings of Muslims by the police during the ‘riots’ in 1997, which made sections of angry, frustrated Muslim youth desperate, who having lost hope in the system, took recourse to terrorism.
How would one label the targeted killings of Muslims by state forces, the worst examples are provided by Hashimpura (Meerut) and Malliana (May 22-23, 1987)? The Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) of UP picked up more than 40 Muslims from their homes in Hashimpura under search orders, took them in a truck to the Ganga canal and Hindon river and shot them dead, throwing their dead bodies in the canal or river. It stirred the conscience of the nation.
There was expression of horror from all quarters and severe condemnation. Nikhil Chakrovarty called it a “Nazi pogrom to terrorise an entire community”. Such gruesome murder by the PAC is the worst but not the only example of state terrorism committed with hate motive.
How would one label the demolition of Babri Masjid? Was it a ‘communal’ riot? While deciding its label, it needs to be kept in mind that this act of state aided terrorism, which was spread over 48 hours, took place in the presence of full strength of the PAC. It brought in its wake a trail of blood in large parts of the country, and the first incident of retaliatory Muslim terror in Mumbai.
Acts of terrorism arouse an extreme sense of outrage, as its victims are always the innocent masses. However, the barbarism of rioters who can burn people alive, rape women and kill them is still worse. Terrorists’ designs are fiendish; but their acts are anonymous in the sense that they do not select individual victims and kill or burn them before their own eyes.
Whereas both terrorism and ‘riots’ cause undeserved suffering of the innocent, repugnant to the conscience, in ‘riotous’ acts communal hate motive is more intense and directed against weak and vulnerable members of the targeted community. Ripping open the stomach of a pregnant woman and crushing the foetus to death, as was done in Gujarat 2002, is definitely an outrageous deed. But so is planting a bomb at a place where those killed by splinters of the blast include children.
Is there a generic difference between ‘riot’ and ‘terror’? The nature and modalities of riots in pre-independence India could be treated as a distinct class from ‘terror’ as then practiced by some political groups against the British. But in post-1947 India, most major riots have been caused by the pursuit of the agenda of hate and revenge against Muslims by the Sangh Parivar, with varying degrees of complicity of the state’s law-enforcement system under political direction based on cynical calculations in the game of power.
What are the goals of those who engineer such ‘riots’? Apart from short term political and social gains, the organised Hindutva group wants to instil fear in the hearts of minorities, especially Muslims, so that they may submit to their will. The long term goal is to terrorise Muslims into submission, accepting to live in India as second class citizens.
Terrorism is inherent in the Sangh ideology of Hinduisation of polity and militarisation of Hinduism. Its leaders have showered praise over Hitler and his ways of dealing with the Jews. The Rashtriya Sawayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) is organised on the model of the military. Its constitutional scheme of the country is based on denial of rights as citizens to followers of religions of non-Indian origin, especially Muslims and Christians. Its leaders have made no secret of their faith in the use of force to achieve their goals. Nathu Ram Godse, who killed Mahatma Gandhi by his bullets, was inspired by this ideology.
Given this analysis of the role of different players in spreading communal terrorism by the Sangh and desperate retaliatory acts of terrorism by isolated Muslim youth, possibly with the support of non-Indian outfits, terrorism of this variety cannot be successfully tackled merely by more stringent laws and better intelligence. Thankfully acknowledging the current unanimous campaign of the Muslim community organisations and leaders in India against terrorism of all varieties, the majority community needs to demonstrate similar abhorrence of communal terrorism of the Sangh Parivar. It needs to undertake a vigorous campaign against all violence — by the state, militants and communal groups — whose victims are innocent persons, defeating the Sangh’s agenda of hate and revenge.
It is time for a common civil society campaign in India and Pakistan including Jammu and Kashmir for mobilisation over a common minimum agenda of peace in terms of protection of innocents in all situations of use of force by the state, the organised armed groups and communal organisations.
The writer is a retired professor of Aligarh Muslim University, India and a human rights activist based in Aligarh and Delhi