Persistence of
a Sore: Communal Violence Today
Ram Puniyani
The events
taking place in different parts of the country in October-November 2012 have been
very disturbing to say the least. It is the continuance and recurrence of
communal events, communal violence in different parts of the country, in UP,
Assam and Hyderabad in particular. In UP since the Akhilesh Yadav Government
has come to power there has taken place a series of acts of violence in UP.
Since Samajwadi Party took over the reins of the state in March 2012, in the
past few months’ communal violence took place in Mathura, Pratapgarh, Bareilly,
Meerut, Allahabad and Lucknow. The latest in the series has been the tragic events
of Faizabad, where On 24 October 2012, when
the immersion procession of Durga was going on, a girl was molested by few
miscreants. Making this as a pretext few people started stone throwing in the
nearby areas. A rumor was spread in Faizabad that Muslims are doing the stone
throwing. The mob went on to burn nearly 25 shops of Muslim traders. They also
rampaged the office of bilingual (Urdu and Hindi) paper Aap Ki Takat. This
paper is continuously giving the message of Peace and calling for Hindu-Muslim
unity. They also vandalized the mosque.
According to
activist Yugal Kishore Sharan Shastri, this was a pre-planned attack. The
editor of the paper Manzar Mehdi feels, this is an attempt to silence the voice
of peace. The police took long time to reach the spot and did not intervene
effectively. Similarly the fire brigade also took four hours to reach, by which
time the shops were totally destroyed.
In the far off Assam,
the recurrence of violence resulted in the death of six people, and it seemed
whether there is going to be recurrence of the tragic incidents of July 2012,
when nearly four lakh, mainly Muslims, were displaced and sixty people died.
Assam violence was a bit different than others as here the number of displaced were
much more and it seemed that there is a plan to get the Bodo areas cleared from
the presence of the Muslims. Here one also saw that in the process of
rehabilitation the Government is having a lopsided approach and Muslims are not
being rehabilitated as many of them do not fuilfil the criterion of proper
records due to various reasons. This was one case of violence where apart from
police playing its role of a mere onlooker, the propaganda, based on misconceptions
was made the base of violence. It has been propagated that Muslims are infiltrators,
Bangldeshis and have been encroaching the lands of Bodos. Lot has been written
to dispel this myth. Muslims have mainly been coming from Bengal from 18th
Century due to the British policy of reducing the pressure on overpopulated
Bengal and to ensure that the stretches of Assam, having low population density
are populated. Since the perceptions have made a deep root in social common
sense, the violence against Muslims, the citizens of Assam-India have gone on
and communal forces have taken full advantage of that.
The third incidence
is from the Southern state of Andhra, where the historic monument of Charminar
is being vandalized by putting up renovation of Bhagyalaxmi temple, which is
abutting the Charminar. This violates the norms of Archaeological Survey of
India. The plea of ASI that the changes in temple may damage the Minar and that
this an illegal act is falling on the deaf years and government has been
letting the act of desecration of Charminar going on, much to the annoyance of
the people of old city of Hyderabad and historic Charminar area. There have
been minor skirmishes due to which many a people have been injured and the area
saw the curfew for some time.
These three incidents
are very typical of as to what goes on to make a communal violence. There is
preplanning in these acts, as is clear in all these cases. The pretext and rumours
about violation of the modesty of women, is very much visible in the case of
Faizabad. In case of Faizabad, apart from intimidating the minorities, burning
their shops, the ransacking of the office of bilingual paper, Aap Ki Taqat is
very symbolic. This paper is bilingual, Urdu and Hindi. Its belief is that
Hindu Muslims are brothers and Hindi-Urdu are sisters. It has been talking of
peace in Ayodhay and is opposed the communal politics which led to Babri
demolition. In UP while the Samajvadi party (SP) is very much in the total
control of situation, how come violence is taking place? SP has been always
claiming to be secular and in past many a times it has come forward to protect
the values of secularism. There seem to be deeper forces which are beyond the
control of SP, or does SP sees a political benefit in letting violence happen
remains to be seen. It is painfully obvious in case of UP, Faizabad also that
police machinery is not interested in controlling the violence, even when it
can. It either helps the rioters or looks the other way round when the violence
is taking place. In Hyderabad one sees the use of historical places to incite
the communal tension. How systematically communal forces built up the Ram
Temple campaign leading to demolition of Babri Masjid is a sad reminder to what
can happen in Hyderabad. In Ayodhya also Babri Masjid was a monument under
control of ASI, but with political hysteria built around it, it was demolished
in the broad day light with state, police very much in the know of things.
The multiple factors
which lead to communal violence remain unaddressed so the recurrence of these
acts of violence goes on in such a painful way. Social activists and scholars
have pointed out the role of communal forces, state machinery, irrespective of
who is in power; the role of rumours, the ‘social common sense’ targeted
against minorities persists. It is very sure that unless the problem is dealt
with in its totality the country will keep suffering the pain of this violence
and minorities in particular will keep suffering. It also reminds us as to what
is the state of our democracy and the need for an effective and balanced
Communal Violence Bill? No democracy can be satisfactory unless the minorities
are safe and secure and are having equity in economic matters. These incidents
are reminders to all those having faith and longing for a peaceful, secular,
democratic society that we need to work against those who operate on communal
ground, we need to ensure that social misconceptions are removed and an
atmosphere of amity is created and that pressures have to bring in Communal
Violence prevention Bill to punish the acts of commission or omission by
political authorities and the police forces..
