India: New Research Reveals How Public Services Are Restricted, Denied To Muslims, Dalits In Ghettoised Localities

 

Segregated & Unequal: New Research Reveals How Public Services Are Restricted, Denied To Muslims, Dalits In Ghettoised Localities

KAVITHA IYER 04 Aug 2023 9 min read  

Based on evidence from 1.5 million highly localised neighbourhoods of 700 people each in urban and rural India, a paper finds Indian Muslims to be systematically disadvantaged, less likely to have public schools, clinics, sewerage, water supply and closed drains than in non-Muslim areas, a misallocation of government services that is comparable to the current situation of blacks in the United States. 

https://article-14.com/post/segregated-unequal-new-research-reveals-how-public-services-are-restricted-denied-to-muslims-dalits-in-ghettoised-localities--64cc7264b3852

India: Does a trader’s religion matter? Yes, says Karnataka - Editorial, The Times of India, March 24, 2022

 Editorial, The Times of Indi, March 24, 2022

Sanity goes south: Does a trader’s religion matter? Yes, says Karnataka, and sets itself and others up for a great fall

Karnataka government’s inaction over some temple authorities denying permission to Muslim traders to conduct business during Hindu festivals and annual temple fairs is unconscionable. The government cited a rule under the Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act 2002 barring leasing of land/building/sites near temples to non-Hindus. Rules drafted by bureaucrats straying beyond the intent of Acts passed by legislatures aren’t surprising: These rules aren’t subjected to scrutiny Bills receive.

Now imagine other communities like Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, applying this dangerous principle to exclude traders of other faiths from the vicinity of their religious places, festivals and fairs. What will self-styled champions of Hindus say then? What’s happening in Karnataka is not just violative of all democratic secular tenets, it is an invitation for future conflagrations. Let’s remember that among the Constitution’s fundamental guarantees is equitable access to public spaces for all citizens irrespective of religion, caste and gender and the freedom to work or trade subject to reasonable restrictions like public order. Plus, clearly there’s no ‘religious tradition’ for such a bar on Muslim traders, as that would have been in place long before 2002.

Karnataka is hosting too many of these combustible moments. The high court’s hijab judgment may have got the broad points right, but it is also true that only recently did hijab become an issue in Karnataka. Whatever may be the political calculation of those who wink at such aggressive attitudes, the social cost can be tragically big. Appeasing this new mood of zealotry at the cost of constitutional values brings India closer to neighbours like Pakistan and Afghanistan, which have patronised religious orthodoxy and partly as a result have killed their economic vibrancy. Also worth noting in this context is RSS’s worry about “elaborate plans by a particular community to enter the government machinery”. Everyone has equal rights to enter government, and if more minorities are joining the civil service it’s nothing but good news in a diverse country.

Karnataka’s law minister claimed Congress’s SM Krishna government framed the temple rules. Instead of a pointless blame game, the Basavaraj Bommai government should simply scrap the rule. Since when is BJP justifying a wrong by citing Congress?

Pratap Bhanu Mehta on India's Religious life - diversity and Segregation (Indian Express, July 2, 2021)

The Indian Express

The religious life of Indians, according to a recent survey

Indians are committed to religious diversity, but exclusionary and segmented in toleration, and tempted by authoritarianism

Written by Pratap Bhanu Mehta

July 2, 2021 4:10:19 am

This survey confirms the staggeringly high degree of religiosity that seems not to decline with education or class.

The just released Pew Research Centre Report, Religion and India: Tolerance and Segregation, based on serious survey data with almost 30,000 respondents, is a one-of-a-kind glimpse into the complex interplay of religion, identity and politics in India. All surveys have significant limitations. But this is the only major, relatively credible survey we have of Indian religious attitudes, and so it is worth reflecting on its findings, with all caveats in mind.

India emerges from the survey as an overwhelmingly religious country, across all religions. But this is also true of every dimension of religion from ritual observance to social identity, belief and practice. In his last book, Religion’s Sudden Decline, the doyen of value surveys, Ronald Inglehart had argued based on survey data that between 2007 and 2019, the world had generally become less religious; 43 out of the 49 countries studied showed a marked decline in religion. The big exception to this story was India, where religiosity increased. This survey confirms the staggeringly high degree of religiosity that seems not to decline with education or class.

The second stark fact is that the ideology of respect for religion is very high, nearly identical across all religious groups. For instance, 80 per cent of Hindus and 79 per cent of Muslims say that respecting other religions is a very important part of their religious identity; and 78 per cent of Muslims and 85 per cent of Hindus think it is important to being truly Indian. Twenty-four per cent of both Hindus and Muslims think religious diversity harms the country. Interestingly, there is little belief in reincarnation. But the numbers of those believing in the doctrine of karma is identical amongst Hindus and Muslims. The religious sensibilities are similar.

But then things get a bit more complicated. Religious sensibilities are similar, but they eschew anything common. Religious groups claim to know less about each other’s practices. As the title of the report indicates, Indian religious identities are segregated. India is committed to an ideology of toleration but practices what I elsewhere called segmented toleration: Each community has its place so long as each stays in its place. The drawing of boundaries is quite sharp. Stopping religious intermarriage for both men and women is a very high priority for almost 70 per cent Hindus and Muslims. While 45 per cent Hindus are fine with having a neighbour from any religion, 45 per cent do not want a member of another religion as a neighbour. Incidentally, 61 per cent of Jains would exclude Muslims, Sikhs and Christians from being their neighbour. The rate of inter-religious conversion is very low, less than one per cent, though Hindus gain as much as they lose. There is regional variation, with Christianity being a small net gainer in south India. Food practices remain the strongest marker of religious observance: Eating beef or eating pork is just about the only thing that two-thirds of your co-religionists believe will disqualify you from that religion.

The segmentation continues in terms of caste. Opposition to caste intermarriage is only slightly less than religious intermarriage, but declines more with college education. It is higher amongst Muslims, 70 per cent of whom oppose inter-caste marriage for men, compared to 63 per cent Hindus. Thirty-five per cent Indians self-identify as Other Backward Castes.

But the puzzle the data might throw up is on discrimination. In aggregate only 20 per cent Indians say caste discrimination exists; even amongst SCs, this number is only 27 per cent, and amongst OBCs 18 per cent. It is highest in the Northeast, and reported discrimination by Dalits is highest in the south at 30 per cent. But the numbers on religious discrimination are even more interesting. Only 24 per cent of Muslims say there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims; but 16 per cent of Muslims say there is discrimination against Hindus. Seventeen per cent of Hindus say there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims, but 20 per cent perceive discrimination against Hindus. So, on this basis, India does not come out as a hugely discriminatory society. But this finding could also be consistent with another interpretation — it might turn on how norms of discrimination are understood. In segmented societies, discrimination is not a category since exclusion is taken as an acceptable norm. The possibility of discrimination requires inhabiting same spaces, competing for same things, sharing social worlds. It is quite possible for an exclusionary society to think it is not discriminating. We have not even progressed from exclusion to discrimination.

Nationalism is very strong in India, across all communities. Eighty per cent of Muslims support all markers of national loyalty, and only on the national anthem is the gap between them and Hindus 11 points. More Muslims than Hindus think that the Partition of India was on balance bad, though this number is the highest for Sikhs, 66 per cent of whom think it was bad. A majority of Muslims are against triple talaq, though two-thirds would prefer their own courts in matters of personal law. About half of all Indians support authoritarian rule, but across communities. But the survey finds very strong evidence for Hindu nationalism. Sixty-four per cent Hindus think being a Hindu/or identification with Hindi is necessary for being a good Indian; this number rises with support for the BJP and is lowest in south India. But even there it is 42 per cent.

What implications this has for politics is an open question, but the potent combination of exclusionary benchmarks of nationalism and authoritarianism are present. In terms of issues that matter most to people, unemployment, corruption crime, and, very importantly, violence against women rank as the top issues of concern, but 65 per cent also name communal violence as a major issue of concern. And concern with communal violence seems to rise if the area has just experienced a riot.

Currently, there is a great appetite for fusing religion and politics — religious observance and nationalism are being increasingly identified. Interestingly, two-thirds of members of all communities think it is fine for politicians to get entangled with religion. Politics can, oddly enough, make a society profess religion more. But we know from comparative evidence that there is a flip side. That when deep disenchantment with politics sets in, it will also rebound on religion.

The overall picture of India in the survey is of a religious country, ideologically committed to religious diversity, but exclusionary and segmented in its toleration, with less support for individual freedom, increasingly committed to Hindutva benchmarks of national identity, and tempted by authoritarianism. Will this trend continue? God and nation will decide.

The writer is contributing editor, The Indian Express

India: Fahad Zuberi on How Hindutva works to create polarised segregated cities | (Indian Express, June 11, 2021)

The Indian Express

How Hindutva works to create an urbanity of hate

Socio-political rhetoric creates polarised cities through legislation and polarised segregated cities further contribute towards divisive politics

Written by Fahad Zuberi
June 11, 2021 10:55:37 pm

Over several decades and generations, as we see in Gujarat today, such a political and legislative system produces cities that are very starkly segregated on communal lines. (Illustration by C R Sasikumar)

On May 28, 2021, 11 houses in close proximity to the Gorakhnath Temple in Gorakhpur were proposed to be acquired by the Uttar Pradesh Government citing reasons of security. Later reporting revealed that most of the residents had signed their consent on the proposal under pressure and fear from the state apparatus. These houses have been occupied by Muslim families for nearly a century and it is important for us to reflect on the fact that exclusively Muslim households were shortlisted for the construction of security posts and other facilities in the area.

Alarming as it is, the incident in Gorakhpur is a small scale example of similar strategies of homogenising urban neighbourhoods on communal lines that the government has been implementing in many other cities and states across the country. An imagined threat to law and order and safety of the inhabitant of these areas always fronts these strategies as their rationale.

Take for example the election rhetoric in Assam. Page 13 of the BJP’s manifesto for the assembly elections in Assam featured their promise to enact “appropriate laws” to curb “the menace of love jihad and land jihad” in the state. Although it is granted only three lines in the entire manifesto, the issue of “land jihad” was featured prominently in the Union home minister Amit Shah’s speech on March 26 in Guwahati. The party emerged victorious in the polls, and therefore, these laws are likely to be formulated and implemented.

“Land jihad” is a conspiracy theory in the Hindutva narrative that claims that Muslims are waging a religious war on Hindus by buying real estate in Hindu majority areas with the aim of dominating the neighbourhoods and gradually executing a Hindu exodus. Just like the rhetoric that created legitimacy for the “love jihad” law preceded the legislation in Uttar Pradesh, the rhetoric around “land jihad” gained pace in BJP’s election campaign in Assam. More importantly, just like there are no records or legal definitions of “love jihad”, the “menace of land jihad” also remains undefined and unrecorded and targets consensual real estate transactions between individuals.

While we have seen in Uttar Pradesh what a law against “love jihad” looks like, it remains unclear what would a law against “land jihad” seek to achieve and how will it try to do that? If, however, we want to understand what kind of laws work the narrative of “land jihad” in our cities, we must look at Gujarat.

Gujarat has unique legislation concerning the buying and selling of real estate in its cities. The legislation is called The Disturbed Areas Act, 1991, and restricts the exchange of real estate between people of two different religious communities. In the areas declared as “disturbed”, the exchange can only take place if an application for the same is approved by the district collector.

The law was enacted in 1991 and sought to prevent distress sale following an event of communal violence. Over time, however, areas that have not seen communal violence in several years continue to remain categorised as “disturbed” and the state has since added more areas to the list — sometimes without an incident of communal violence.

In Ahmedabad alone, over 750 areas are covered under the Disturbed Areas Act, 1991. Later amendments in the Act have made it much easier for the district collector to declare an area as “disturbed”. The amendments state that an area can now be declared “disturbed” on the basis of just a “possibility” of communal riot or polarisation (‘What has changed in Gujarat’s Disturbed Areas Act’, IE, October 19, 2020).

The Act — in its vague language — is widely used to prevent Muslims from buying properties in “Hindu dominated” parts of a city, thereby segregating neighbourhoods. It is also a tool of communal politics. For example, Sangita Patil, the MLA candidate in Gujarat Assembly Elections, 2017, promised her voters to get her constituency of Limbayat declared as “disturbed”. Upon winning the seat, she fulfilled the rather ironic promise and the area was declared “disturbed” in October 2017 in order to “…stop them (Muslims) from spreading into Hindu areas”. Similar impositions were done in posh neighbourhoods of Rajkot in January 2021, and in some cases, like that of Bhayli in Vadodara, residents themselves demanded that their area be categorised as “disturbed” after some Muslim families were allotted houses in Bhayli under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. The coming of Muslims in Bhayli was seen as a disturbance in the “peace-loving Hindu neighbourhood” (‘Residents demand Bhayli under Disturbed Areas Act, threaten to boycott polls’, IE, February 13, 2021).

The characterisation of minorities as the unwanted other forms the socio-political space that allows for legislations like the Disturbed Areas Act to operate. And in most instances, we see the narrative of “land jihad” — an unverified, undefined and unrecorded problem — as an integral part of the rhetoric. We see this in the manifesto of BJP and in Amit Shah’s aforementioned speech in Assam as well.

The promise to enact laws against land jihad features under the heading “Protection of Civilisation in Assam”. As the suffix implies “land jihad” is allegedly executed by Muslims and therefore, the “civilisation” of Assam needs protection from Muslims buying real estate. It also implies that it is the Hindu population of the state that has the first right over the land and Muslims buying land in an area of their choice is a religious war waged by an illegitimate outsider.

Amit Shah also accused Badruddin Ajmal, the leader of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), of “changing the identity of Assam through land jihad” again implying that the identity of Assam is not inclusive of Muslims and Muslims buying land in Assam morphs its identity into something that it is inherently not. In this context, the Union home minister also used the word “infiltrator” to refer to the perpetrators of “land jihad”, further characterising the minorities as unwanted others.

Over several decades and generations, as we see in Gujarat today, such a political and legislative system produces cities that are very starkly segregated on communal lines. Polarisation of the people through hate speech, riots and propaganda provides the social consent to create and operate communal legislations in the city. As legislations legalise communal identity as the qualifier of the right to live in certain areas of a city, the divide is executed into the built form — in neighbourhoods, roads, apartment buildings and even government housing — preventing people from living in diverse neighbourhoods and reducing the interaction between communities to a minimum while also denying minorities the right to buy properties in the neighbourhoods of their aspirations.

What we do not know, we fear, and increased segregation, followed by reduced interaction and lack of familiarity, perpetuate and promote communal stereotypes. The dirty other — created through propaganda and political hate speech — is reinforced and the built environment — now segregated — creates a more expansive space to incorporate and sustain legislations like the Disturbed Areas Act, 1991, and potential legislations like the one the BJP has promised to enact in Assam.

Socio-political rhetoric creates polarised cities through legislation and polarised segregated cities further contribute towards divisive politics. Intolerance is created and sustained through a form of structural violence that gradually produces geographies of alienation and segregation.

Recent developments in Gorakhpur, the BJP’s manifesto in Assam and the political rhetoric of “land jihad” in the election campaign imply that the party intends to export the aforementioned politics of the built form from Gujarat to other states of the country where it sees the opportunity to translate the politics of Hindutva into an urbanity of hate.

Zuberi is an academic and writes about politics, culture, architecture and city studies

India: How Delhi, Mumbai Keep Muslim Tenants Out | Mohsin Alam Bhat

Bigotry At Home: How Delhi, Mumbai Keep Muslim Tenants Out 

Exclusion, segregation of Muslim tenants are the norm even in India’s most diverse, cosmopolitan cities, reveal findings of a three-year study on discrimination in housing. From owners to brokers, from flat-mates to social media, a web of factors limits Muslims to Muslim-only localities 

MOHSIN ALAM BHAT

https://www.article-14.com/post/bigotry-at-home-how-delhi-mumbai-keep-muslim-tenants-out

India: Why Lucknow, Jaipur don’t see communal riots but Delhi and Ahmedaba | Naveen Bharathi and Kashif-ul-Hudad do

the print


Why Lucknow, Jaipur don’t see communal riots but Delhi and Ahmedabad do
If you live in segregated neighbourhoods, it is easy to demonise the 'other’ — which often happens to Muslims in India.
Naveen Bharathi and Kashif-ul-Huda 13 March, 2020 12:10 pm IST

People walk by a sign that says 'hum ek hain' (we are one) in riot-hit Mustafabad in Northeast Delhi | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint


In light of the recent communal riots in Delhi when a few Muslim neighbourhoods were targeted by mobs, it has again become pertinent for policymakers and urban planners to look at urban residential segregation as one of the major factors that precipitates such communal violence in India.

Neighbourhood diversity, for Indian urban planners, mostly meant reserving a few low-income group plots/apartments in new housing projects. The dominant strands in Indian urbanism have not studied caste or religion as a significant factor influencing the politics of space making.

Also read: Left and liberals should stop looking for the perfect victim in Delhi riots
Why neighbourhood diversity is important

Any segregation, as research on race in US cities shows, is detrimental to economic growth, societal equity and economic mobility, and leads to alienation of communities.

A study by Harvard economist Raj Chetty and others has shown that the neighbourhood where one grows up has a major impact on their lifetime earnings and success later in life. The research found that less residential segregation results in upward social and economic mobility. Residential segregation aggravates existing socio-economic inequality. Children growing up in highly segregated and poor neighbourhoods are more susceptible to failure and are emotionally vulnerable.

There is enough empirical evidence to suggest that neighbourhoods with more diversity have lower crime rates, when compared to homogeneous neighbourhoods.

Segregation also results in ghettoisation of minority and poor groups, and this aspect of stratification spills over to next generations. In times of communal violence, it becomes easy to target individuals of a particular group or community — as it happened in Delhi recently.

The Los Angeles riots of 1992, for example, were also a result of highly segregated residential neighbourhoods with “unequal social and political endowments and economic niches”, as shown by a study conducted by the Rand Corporation.

Various studies have shown that people living in heterogeneous neighbourhoods are less discriminatory towards people belonging to other races and ethnic groups. If you live in segregated neighbourhoods, it is easy to demonise the ‘other’ — which often happens to Muslims in India.

Also read: Not a single Dalit in 60% of Kolkata’s neighbourhoods. How caste divides Indian cities
Residential segregation in Delhi

Previous research, by one of us, along with Deepak Malghan and Andaleeb Rahman showed that many Indian cities are segregated along caste lines. Our research found that at least 30 per cent of Delhi’s neighbourhoods (Census enumeration blocks) did not have any Dalits.

Since the Census of India doesn’t make enumeration block-level data of religions public, it becomes difficult to study residential segregation along religious lines.

Researchers like Raphael Susewind have tried to overcome this lack of data by using polling booth-level data to study residential segregation of Muslims in Indian cities.

In his research study titled ‘Muslims in Indian cities: Degrees of segregation and the elusive ghetto’, Susewind uses a probabilistic algorithm to deduce the religion of the person in the voter list. The findings show that Delhi and Ahmedabad are the most segregated cities for Muslims while Jaipur, Kozhikode and Lucknow are the least segregated.

Lucknow and Jaipur have not experienced communal riots in the past many decades. As scholar Ashutosh Varshney notes, Lucknow’s only major communal riot took place in 1924, and there were no communal riots during India’s partition in 1947, or even during heightened tensions after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition. According to him, the economic integration of Muslims and Hindus in the city is the major reason for the absence of communal riots.

Whether economic integration leads to diverse neighbourhoods or diverse neighbourhoods result in economic integration of communities requires further research.

Another study by Kashif-ul-Huda and Kamrun Nehar looked at the membership records of all housing societies (around 2,000 societies) registered in New Delhi in 2012. They identified Muslim names from the membership records and calculated the percentage of Muslims in each housing society.
Source: Research study by Kashif-ul-Huda and Kamrun Nehar

Almost 70 per cent of housing societies (1,345 out of 2,000) did not have Muslim members at all. Around 96 per cent of societies had less than ten per cent of Muslims. If one looks at the number of Muslim housing society members, then 58.8 per cent of them are associated with societies that have more than 90 per cent Muslims as members.

This means that 31 societies account for 59 per cent of Muslims in housing societies. This data pertains only to registered societies, and the situation is starker in unregistered housing colonies and settlements. While this might not be very surprising to many of us, the extent of segregation this data demonstrates is quite stark.

Also read: Why Jungle Raj Bihar kept out communal riots for 3 decades but Delhi and Gujarat couldn’t
Discrimination against Muslims by real estate agents

There may be many reasons for segregation of Muslims in Indian cities. One major aspect is the discrimination they face in urban real estate markets. A study by Sukhadeo Thorat and others on the rental housing market in five metropolitan areas of the National Capital Region of Delhi recorded the discrimination that Dalits and Muslims face while renting a house.

Almost 60 per cent of the Muslim home seekers received negative responses from landlords compared to 40 per cent for Dalit home seekers and only 3 per cent for upper-caste Hindus.

In 2013, news website TwoCircles.net found out about discriminatory ads posted on real estate website 99acres.com. A search on their website revealed 88 past and active ads with the term “only Muslims” in them. However, search for “no Muslims” resulted in 774 hits. There were 1,470 ads when one searched for “only Hindu” on the same website. The website led a campaign that forced 99acres to commit to removing the discriminatory ads and putting filters for future ads.

Also read: Rumour has it that riots are breaking out in your neighbourhood. What would you do?
Riots and residential segregation

Another major reason for segregation of Muslims in Indian cities is communal riots. Successive communal riots have alienated Muslims and they have been forced to move into Muslim majority neighbourhoods seeking safety.

In early 20th century Europe, Jews lived in ghettos for safety reasons. These ghettoes became easy targets during the Nazi occupation of Europe. In Ahmedabad, successive communal riots have forced Muslims to move into the old city and live in ghettos.

Communal riots drive residential segregation, and residential segregation helps in inciting violence against minority groups. Now, the images of Muslims moving out of riot-hit areas of Delhi to safer neighbourhoods are fresh in our minds.

Also read: Are communal riots a new thing in India? Yes, and it started with the British
The road ahead

Many countries have strict laws that prevent discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, familial status, disability and sex while renting or buying a home.

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Federal Fair Housing Act Amendments Act of 1988 in the US were major steps taken by the government to reduce segregation in US cities based on race.

The time is ripe in India for such laws to be enacted to outlaw any discrimination in real estate markets based on caste and religion to break the vicious cycle of residential segregation and communal riots.

Naveen is a Fellow at Harvard University. Kashif is an independent researcher based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Views are personal.

India: The Gujarat government is enforcing communal segregation and criminalising property transfers | Nileena MS

The Gujarat government is enforcing communal segregation and criminalising property transfers
Nileena MS
21 August 2019

Around one hundred and eighty members of Sardar Kunj, a residential society in the Shahpur neighbourhood in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad city, have been trying to sell their houses for over two years now. The only obstacle to the sale is a Gujarat land-transfer law that prohibits the sale of immovable properties in areas designated as “disturbed areas” without the concerned district collector’s sanction. The law empowers the state government to designate an area as disturbed when it deems it to be impacted by riots and violence. Shahpur, a Muslim-dominated area, is listed as a disturbed area under the law despite not witnessing such incidents since 2002. “Shahpur is a backward area where we don’t have access to facilities like good schools,” Sanjeev Patel, the president of Sardar Kunj’s residents association, said. “It is also a socio-cultural problem as people don’t prefer to have even marriage relations with residents here.”

The law is titled the Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Eviction from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act, 1991—commonly known as the Disturbed Areas Act. It was passed to check distress sale of properties—when properties are sold at a rate lower than the market value—in light of recurring communal violence in the state. The Act prescribes a lengthy and tedious process to transfer properties. For the collector’s approval, the parties to the sale have to confirm their consent to the registrar, and the local police to examine the area and sanction the transfer. After this, the collector issues the final stamp of approval.

In practice, however, the state has weaponised the law to disincentivise property transactions with Muslims, causing spatial segregation on religious lines. Generally, when property sellers approach the collectors for carrying out transactions with Muslim buyers, Patel said, “the permission is denied or the applications are kept pending for months or even over a year.” An official at a sub-registrar office in Ahmedabad confirmed on condition of anonymity that “most cases of pending or delay in approvals are when the buyer happens to be a Muslim.”

The state’s agenda of communal segregation became transparent in July this year, after the Gujarat legislative assembly amended the law to give the state more leeway to interfere in property transactions and determine areas with the possibility of communal violence. Discussing the amendment later that month, Vijay Rupani, the chief minister of Gujarat, told the Economic Times, “A Hindu selling property to a Muslim is not okay. A Muslim selling property to a Hindu is also not okay.” He added, “We have set this rule in areas where there have been riots to tell them (Muslims) that they must buy property in their own areas.” [ . . . ]
https://caravanmagazine.in/policy/the-gujarat-state-is-enforcing-communal-segregation-and-criminalising-property-transfers

India: Religious segregation in a North MCD Boys’ School, Wazirabad village, in Delhi - Report in Indian Express, 10 Oct 2018

The Indian Express

Delhi school divided: Hindu and Muslim students assigned to separate sections

“Of course children this young don’t know about religion, but they squabble over things. Some children are vegetarian, so there may be differences, and so on. We need to look after the interests of all teachers and students," a staff member said.

Written by Sukrita Baruah | New Delhi | Updated: October 10, 2018 7:06:36 am

X

A source in the school, however, said that the reshuffling of sections based on religion began only in July this year after Sehrawat took over. (Representational Image)
 
A section of teachers employed by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has alleged that a primary school in Wazirabad is segregating Hindu and Muslim students in different sections.
Attendance records of the North MCD Boys’ School, Wazirabad village, Gali Number 9, accessed and analysed by The Indian Express, as of October 9, show the section-wise break up of students:
* Class IA: 36 Hindus, IB: 36 Muslims
* IIA: 47 Hindus, IIB: 26 Muslims and 15 Hindus, IIC: 40 Muslims
* IIIA: 40 Hindus, IIIB: 23 Hindus and 11 Muslims, IIIC: 40 Muslims, IIID: 14 Hindus and 23 Muslims
* IVA: 40 Hindus, IVB: 19 Hindus and 13 Muslims, IVC: 35 Muslims, IVD: 11 Hindus and 24 Muslims
* VA: 45 Hindus, VB: 49 Hindus, VC: 39 Muslims and 2 Hindus, VD: 47 Muslims
MCD schools offer education only till Class V and according to the Right To Education Act, each section should ideally have 30 students at the primary level.
C B Singh Sehrawat, the teacher put in-charge of the school on July 2 after the principal was transferred, denied deliberately segregating the students on the basis of religion. “Reshuffling of sections is standard procedure which happens in all schools. This was a management decision to try and do the best we can to see that there is peace, discipline and a good learning environment in the school. Children fought sometimes.”
Asked if the fights were on the basis of religion, he said, “Of course children this young don’t know about religion, but they squabble over things. Some children are vegetarian, so there may be differences, and so on. We need to look after the interests of all teachers and students.”
A source in the school, however, said that the reshuffling of sections based on religion began only in July this year after Sehrawat took over. The academic session began in April. “The principal was transferred on July 2, after which a teacher was put in charge until a new principal is posted. He initiated these changes and teachers were not consulted in the matter. When some teachers tried to bring it up with him, he responded with aggression and told them that it was none of their concern and that they should do their assigned jobs,” the source said.
According to the source, some teachers from the school went to the MCD zonal office in Civil Lines around 20 days ago to tell authorities about the matter, but they did not put their grievances in writing for fear of being targeted.
A senior official from the education department of the North Municipal Corporation of Delhi said, “Now that this has been brought to our notice, we will definitely inquire about it. If the allegations are true, strict action will be taken.”
Parents of students studying at the school told The Indian Express that they were not aware of this reorganisation. A mother of a Class IV student denied that such segregation was taking place until her son said, “There are no Hindu boys in my class. We were together until a few months back. A good friend of mine is no longer in the same classroom.”
The mother of a Class I student, who was not aware of this development, said, “This is extremely wrong, if true. We believe all children are equal. What is going to happen if they are treated like this at the school level itself? This is very disturbing.”

India - Demand for segregated seats for vegetarian and non-vegetarian passengers in trains in Gujarat

A public interest litigation (PIL) filed in Gujarat High Court has sought the court’s intervention in having segregated seats for vegetarian and non-vegetarian passengers in trains.

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/gujarat-pil-in-high-court-seeks-separate-seats-for-vegetarians-in-trains-5379769/

India: It’s High Time Gujarat Government Recognises the Communal Elephant in the Room ] Nidhi Tambi (The Wire)

https://thewire.in/228736/its-high-time-gujarat-government-recognises-the-communal-elephant-in-the-room/

It’s High Time Gujarat Government Recognises the Communal Elephant in the Room

BY NIDHI TAMBI ON 01/03/2018

It is not uncommon for Muslims to be denied a house in Hindu-dominated areas and vice-versa, and one of the chief culprits of this blatant apartheid is the regressive Disturbed Areas Act, 1991, which is fuelling distrust.
Children play in Citizen Nagar, which houses Muslim victims of communal riots in 2002, in Ahmedabad, India. June 20, 2017. Credit: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Rina Chandran

Children play in Citizen Nagar, which houses Muslim victims of the 2002 riots, in Ahmedabad, India. June 20, 2017. Credit: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Rina Chandran

It has been 16 years since the 2002 riots, which serves as a reminder to the Gujarat government for a policy overhaul if it sincerely wants to address the glaring demarcation and ghettoisation of the Muslim residents in the state.

Gujarat has residential areas demarcated for Hindus and Muslims. Within Ahmedabad, for instance, Muslim residential areas such as Juhapura and Jamalpur have clearly defined boundaries with other Hindu residential areas. I have witnessed this phenomenon as a child and an adult in this state through the lived experiences of Muslim friends. It is not uncommon in Gujarat for Muslim citizens to be denied a house in any of the Hindu dominated areas and the other way around.

One of the chief culprits of this blatant apartheid is the Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Eviction from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act, 1991 or commonly called the ‘Disturbed Areas Act, 1991’. It is a law that restricts sale of immovable property in “disturbed” areas with the justification to avert an exodus or distress sales in neighbourhoods hit by inter-religious unrest in Gujarat. The Act is currently implemented in many parts of Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat city. In Ahmedabad alone, more than 30 areas are declared disturbed. Almost 40% of the areas in the state fall under this Act. Most of these areas still declared “disturbed” have not seen mob violence since 2002.

The various clauses of the Act have been thoroughly misused by the state government, beginning with the very interpretation of Section 3(1) of the Act on the declaration of disturbed areas:

“Where the State Government, having regard to the intensity and duration of riot or violence of mob and such other factors in any area of the State is of opinion that public order in that area was disturbed for a substantial period by reason of riot or violence of mob, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, – (a) declare such area. to be a disturbed area (b) specify the substantial period (hereinafter referred to as “the specified period).”

Section 3(1) indicates invoking the Act only in areas “disturbed for substantial period by reason of riot or violence of mob.” The latest imposition of the Act is in October 2017 in Surat and Vadodara, where the central zone of Surat Municipal Corporation and several residential colonies within Bopad police station were declared “disturbed”. These declarations were not a result of “reason or violence of mob” but because of religious intolerance among communities, not willing to share residential spaces. Vadodara police had conducted a survey in August 2017 based on various applications requesting for invoking the Act and submitted a report to the Home Department, enlisting the demands of the residents. According to Police Commissioner Manoj Sashidhar, many Hindus in the area were apprehensive about “Muslims acquiring the residential properties”.

The BJP MLA from Surat, Sangita Patil, had demanded imposition of the Disturbed Areas Act in August 2017 in her constituency of Limbayat, on the following grounds (in her own words):

“Limbayat was once a Hindu area. But now, many societies, such as Govind Nagar, Bharati Nagar, Madanpura and Bhavna Park, which go by Hindu name, are now dominated by Muslims. If they do not get the house easily, they even threaten Hindus and force them to sell it……The way Muslims are using various tactics to acquire Hindu properties, I am of the opinion that the ‘Disturbed Areas Act’ should be imposed here to stop them from spreading into Hindu areas. I requested the collector to do so after many residents made their representations to me”.

She also won the MLA elections held in Gujarat in December 2017. The misuse of the Act for inciting intolerance and creating a vote bank is quite apparent in the close timing of these events.

There are other sections in the Act which are problematic and have been misused in the state.

The Act gives a lot of power to the collector to hold an inquiry and reject an application to transfer immovable property in disturbed areas even when the transfer of immovable property was made “by free consent of the transferor and the transferee (and) for a fair value of the immovable property so transferred.” (Section 4(2) of the Act).

2002 Gujarat riots. Credit: Reuters/Files

In such instances, despite free consent and fair value of the transaction, if the collector invalidates the transfer, there is no judicial recourse for those aggrieved by such a decision. The only recourse is an appeal to the state government and all proceedings before the collector and the state government shall be deemed judicial proceedings (refer Section 6 and 7 of the Act). The decisions of the collector and the state government on the appeal, according to Section 8 of the Act “shall be final and conclusive and shall not be questioned in any Court”. These provisions often leave the communities at the mercy of the inclinations (religious and political) of the state machinery.

This act is not only ill-drafted, archaic and regressive but also a tool of social engineering of the society by the state. The Act has no place in a modern society and should be abolished. The Chief Justice of Gujarat high court also called for a repeal of the Act in 2011, which fell on deaf ears of the state administration.

Invoking this Act, as recently as 2017, only reflects on the failure of the state machinery to promote communal harmony.

Memories of the 2002 riots still linger in the continued distrust among the communities. The Act perpetuates this distrust by adhering to the status quo. Gujarat desperately needs a communal harmony policy with clear objectives and action plan on promoting religious pluralism in school, colleges, government offices and residential colonies.

Dr Damini Shah’s thesis called “Muslim Ghettoisation – A tragedy”, received a lot of attention in 2015. She studied Muslim communities within three districts in the state  –  Anand, Ahmedabad, and Sabarkantha – and found that 92% of Muslim residents (respondents) who earlier had some contact with Hindu communities, do not have contact with the majority (Hindu) community after coming to the ghettos. The state government should, therefore, ensure more interaction between and across communities, through de-stigmatisation campaigns and promoting co-existence of communities within residential colonies, than declare more areas as “disturbed” under this Act.

The state government can also look at creating a Minority Commission (with members from all communities and judiciary) to look into these matters that can also serve as a platform for grievance redressal. In Gujarat, while such a commission exists in name, an RTI enquiry to the department of social justice and empowerment on the same in 2014 received a response that no such commission exists.

The need of the hour is to acknowledge the communal elephant in the room, learn from past experiences and memories of the 2002 riots and find solutions to create a more plural society in Gujarat.

Nidhi Tambi is a public policy enthusiast and a former LAMP fellow.

India: Guj Assembly panel recommends separate crematoriums for Dalits (Outlook - 20 March 2017)

20 March 2017 Last Updated at 8:42 pm
Guj Assembly panel recommends separate crematoriums for Dalits
In another scrutiny report on state Education Department, the committee sought to know if the government implements reservation system for the recruitments conducted in self finance colleges in line with the reservation in place for granted colleges [. . .°

http://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/guj-assembly-panel-recommends-separate-crematoriums-for-dalits/1010977

India: At Banaras Hindu University, boys can have non-veg food but not girls

National Herald

Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

The Banaras Hindu University campus in Varanasi

At BHU, boys can have non-veg food but not girls

This is just one of the several bizarre decisions taken by BHU VC Girish Chandra Tripathi—who boasts of his association with the RSS—exposed by JD(U) MP Ali Anwar Ansari in the Rajya Sabha on Monday

NH Political Bureau

Feb 07th 2017, 02.04 PM

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Non-vegetarian food is not allowed in the girls’ hostels at Banaras Hindu University, a central university, while there are no such restrictions for boys, said Janata Dal (United) Member of the Rajya Sabha, Ali Anwar Ansari during Zero Hour on Monday. The issue was raised during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha on Monday with no response from the Government

There was no response from the Treasury benches even as the MP listed several indiscretions of the VC. The MP drew attention of the HRD Ministry and sought the Government’s intervention while citing some of them.

• Prospectus of the BHU holds out the promise of a 24-hour cyber library. But a year ago the VC stopped the library from functioning at night. Some students sat on a dharna in protest and nine of them, most of them Dalits, OBCs and from minority communities, were expelled from the college.
• A scuffle between two groups of students led the university to file an FIR and invite the police to the campus. Several students have been arbitrarily debarred from appearing in examinations and guardians of several others are being called and threatened with expulsion of their wards.
• Besides the bar on non-veg food, girls at BHU are being prevented from using mobile phones after 9 pm. They are also subjected to curfew hours and asked to report to their hostels before 8 pm.
• There is no Wi-fi (Internet connection) in the girls’ hostel.
• Students are being forced to submit an affidavit at the time of admission and commit that they would not take part in any protest or agitation in the campus.

While the MP also tried to raise the issue of students’ unrest in JNU, he was not allowed to do so for paucity of time.

India: Students who question gender segregation in Kerala's Farooq college suspended

Student who questioned gender segregation in Kerala's Farooq college suspended
When the parents met college authorities, the management asked students to submit an apology letter
Haritha John| Tuesday, November 3, 2015 - 08:15

Dinu V, a first year Post Graduate student of the reputed Farooq college in Kozhikode, Kerala has been suspended indefinitely. His crime? He was one of the students who questioned the college over its policy of segregating female and male students. And unlike other students, who were perhaps forced to, Dinu was not ready to give a written apology.

Dinu and a bunch of students had questioned the college's decision of not letting female and male students sit together in class or canteen.

On October 20, Dinu and eight friends were asked to leave the class and warned not to enter the campus till they brought their parents, as the boys and girls had shared benches during their Malayalam language class.

Later, when the parents met college authorities, the management asked students to submit an apology letter.

Though the others apologised, mostly yielding to compulsion from their parents, Dinu refused as he staunchly believed he had done nothing wrong.

While speaking to The News Minute, the student said this was not the first time the college authorities had shown discriminatory and sexist behaviour.

“In the benches placed in college corridors, only boys are allowed to sit. In the canteen, there are separate sections for boys and girls and in between that is the staff section to ensure that we don't break the rules," he says.

Dinu, an IIT dropout, adds that there are strict instructions from the management that girls and boys cannot do a stage performance together in which prior rehearsals are needed.

"They think that only a physical relationship can develop when a boy and girl sit or talk together,” he says.

He also alleged that authorities had been mentally torturing the parents of these students, forcing them to give an apology.

When the controversy had first broken out, the college had said that boys and girls sitting together on a bench doesn’t suit the ‘culture’ of the 67-year old institution.

After the incident, there were many protests inside the campus both in support and against the management action. Many political leaders like VT Balram MLA and Thomas Isaac MLA had criticized the management for its action.


- See more at: http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/student-who-questioned-gender-segregation-keralas-farooq-college-suspended-35649

Usha Ramanathan’s Dissent on Human DNA Profiling Bill that is coming soon in the Parliament

http://sacw.net/article11388.html

Dalits are segregated, and have unequal access to public goods in India’s biggest cities

livemint.com
June 30 2015

The stark inequality within Indian cities
Dalits are segregated, and have unequal access to public goods in India’s biggest cities

Pranav Sidhwani

Calling the Indian village a ‘den of iniquity’, the founding father of India’s constitution, B.R. Ambedkar, exhorted Dalits to migrate from villages to cities to escape the shackles of caste. Ambedkar’s view continues to influence the dominant narrative on caste in India.

In the popular imagination, caste is the key marker of identity only in villages. In contrast, cities are often seen as sites of emancipation, where even the lowest in the caste ladder has better access to public goods, and greater opportunities in life. Much of this is been based on anecdotal evidence, and has rarely been backed by empirical research.

 

An analysis of the latest ward level census data for the 10 most populous cities in India shows that we may need to rethink how we view cities. Most of these cities display a high level of residential segregation, with scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) concentrated in a few areas of the city. Further, access to public goods such as tap water is much lower in these places.

 

Focussing on wards with an unusually high proportion of SC/STs relative to the city (outlier Census wards), and analysing the level of access to in-house water, a basic public good, and in-house toilets, a basic private good, a stark picture emerges, as the chart below shows.

In the 10 cities analyzed, these “extreme” wards have at least twice the proportion of SC/STs compared to the city average. Moreover, in all cities barring Delhi, these “extreme” wards do worse in terms of household access to in-house water and in-house toilets.

Kolkata merits special mention. Out of a total of 141 wards in the city, with SC/STs making up 5.6% of the total population, it is only in 12 of these wards that more than 40% of the city’s SC/ST population resides in. These wards do significantly worse than average in terms of household access to in-house water, with 43% of households of these wards without water supply in their homes, as compared to 27% of households overall in the city. Even a naïve study of the politics of the city would lead one to expect a different outcome. This finding merits a deeper study of the dynamics at play in the city.

 

Urban sociologist Robert E. Park noted in 1926 that social relations are inevitably correlated with spatial relations. His insight has driven almost all studies of residential segregation. While there are many studies on segregation of the black community in the US, comparable studies for Dalits and tribals in India are rarer.

 

As India urbanises, we need to understand that Indian cities are not just spaces for buildings, streets and offices. The city is a space for dispute, citizenship and politics. Cities can offer residents an opportunity to take part in the resources of the city or can restrict the same. The choices that we make would determine whether we would end up with a more inclusive city, as Ambedkar envisioned, or an exclusive, unequal city.

 

Pranav Sidhwani is with the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

India: Study shows National Capital Region homeowners turn away Dalits and Muslims (Seema Chishti)

In both the methodologies, the home-seekers had the same credentials but for their names that indicated their caste and religion.

The methodologies included contacting the “home-providers” via telephone or meeting them face to face.
Written by Seema Chishti | New Delhi | Updated: June 16, 2015 9:17 am

A study on discrimination in urban housing rental preferences, to be published in a forthcoming issue of Economic and Political Weekly, shows high levels of exclusion of Dalits and Muslims in the five metropolitan areas of NCR.

The team of researchers, led by Prof S K Thorat, chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, and comprising scholars such as Anuradha Banerjee, Vinod K Mishra and Firdaus Rizvi, covered attempts to get houses on rent in Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Noida between January and March 2012.

The methodologies included contacting the “home-providers” via telephone or meeting them face to face. In both the methodologies, the home-seekers had the same credentials but for their names that indicated their caste and religion.

The telephonic audit had a total of 1,469 home-seekers, 493 each bearing upper-caste Hindu, Dalits and Muslim names. While not one of the 493 high-caste home-seekers received a negative response, about 18 per cent of Dalits and 31 per cent of Muslims faced outright rejection, found the study. Together those receiving either a negative response or a positive one with conditions attached worked out to 41 per cent in the case of Dalits, and around 66 per cent for Muslims.

tenantsThe face-to-face audit covered 198 home-seekers, with 66 high-caste Hindus, Dalits and Muslims each. While 97 per cent of upper-caste Hindus got a positive response, 44 per cent of Dalits and 61 per cent of Muslims faced rejection. Together those receiving either a negative response or a positive one with conditions attached worked out to 51 per cent in the case of Dalits, and 71 per cent for Muslims.

In other words, the chances of Dalits and Muslims finding a house fell in the case of face-to-face contact. It also means that a significant number of Dalits and Muslims have to spend much more to stay in accommodations in NCR than their upper-caste counterparts.

“This indicates a clear case of market failure,” says Thorat, “where even prosperity does not allow you to buy your way out of discrimination… The studies do reveal that Muslims are even worse off than Dalits as far as the rental housing market goes.”

“Non-monetary motive often prevails among landlords renting out houses,” says the study, which chose Delhi for the research as it is often considered amongst the most migrant-friendly and cosmopolitan cities in India.

“While about 18 per cent of Dalits faced outright refusal from upper-caste landlords due to their caste, 23 per cent of them did get houses on rent but with differential terms and condition such as high rents and other restrictions. In case of Muslims, about one-third of them faced outright refusal from the landlords due to their religion, another 35 per cent managed to get houses on rent but with differential terms and conditions.”

The study focused on identifying discrimination in the NCR areas from both the supply and demand ends. The demand side included Dalit and Muslim home-seekers facing unequal treatment; and the supply side included discrimination practised by the “house providers”, including landlords, real estate agents and brokers.

While the broad results were categorised as positive and negative, positive was further broken down into differential demands (in terms of rents and security).
Tenants rejected

After phone interaction:

Upper caste Hindus: 0%
Dalits: 18%
Muslims: 31%

After meeting:
Upper caste Hindus: 3%
Dalits: 44%
Muslims: 61%

source: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/rentals-ncr-homeowners-turn-away-dalits-muslims/99/

Rana Ayyub on Discrimination and Denial in Access to Residential for Muslims in Metropolitan India

http://www.ndtv.com/opinion/muslim-in-the-city-766613?pfrom=home-opinion

Muslim and the City: Flats Rented to Us Become Off-Limits Overnight

by Rana Ayyub (ndtv.com, 28 May 2015)

I saw some outrage yesterday on social media and news channels about a young woman in Mumbai asked to vacate her flat because of her surname. Misbah Quadri, who had moved into a three-bedroom apartment in Wadala, was allegedly told by her broker that she could not move in the flat as the society was averse Muslim tenants.

The girl was interviewed by various news channels, and we pretended that we woke up to a phenomenon . Really ? How many of us have Muslim friends who haven't shared stories of not being able to get an apartment because of their surname in "cosmopolitan" metros like Delhi and Mumbai?

I remember arriving at a Greater Kailash apartment in South Delhi with my bag and baggage all the way from Mumbai to find the door locked. I had met the family who owned the flat a week before that - the son, a doctor who was in Delhi for vacation from London, the father a businessman from Haryana. When I landed at the gate, the watchman said he had no instructions to allow me in. I had a contract; a deposit had been paid to the owner, and brokerage to the concerned broker. I called the broker half a dozen times and he pleaded ignorance. He reached the house half an hour later to return the deposit and the brokerage commission.

"Madam, kuch Nizamuddin mein dikhaoon, aapke type area mein," he said, pointing me in the direction of a neighbourhood popular with Muslims in Delhi." I don't think I have ever felt so humiliated. Others have shared this crisis. A photo journalist from the city had to stay in a sort of hostel in Daryaganj in Old Delhi for two months because the owners who promised to rent him their flat were concerned about terror links - after all, he was both a Muslim and a Kashmiri.

The incident of Misbah Quadri has shocked us because it took place in Mumbai, a cosmopolitan city. Apologies, but I am hugely surprised at the outrage. Remember, this is a city where brokers tell you that certain pockets of Nariman Point are only meant for occupancy by Jains, and an owner of a popular penthouse in Walkeshwar has said he wants no Muslim to enter his house for fear of Goddess Lakshmi walking out in protest.

For a moment, let's forget the upmarket, elite, educated South Mumbai circle. My family stays in Navi Mumbai; my younger brother will be moving into a three-bedroom apartment close to where my parents stay in Vashi. For the last eight months, the builder and his broker have been trying to convince him to sell the flat, with the owner of the apartment building personally willing to placate him with a wholly unexpected profit margin. The reason - out of about 60 flats in the fifteen-storey building, the rest belong to non-Muslims and they "would not want any display of flesh during Bakri Eid" in the words of the builder.

In the last six months, my brother has had the humiliating experience of being called to the society's office and being asking to vacate, though the requests are now less aggressive with my brother threatening to file a police case should there be any attempt at intimidation.

His friends tell him he is lucky to have managed an apartment in a posh locality in Navi Mumbai because mostly, Mussalmans stay only in 'their' areas, which would mean pockets in dirty localities owned by fellow Muslims. Yes, this is the same city which is forever in homage to the Khans, the troika of Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh. But unfortunately, that's the extent of cosmopolitan Mumbai on far too many occasions. Remember a less popular Emraan Hashmi complaining of being refused an apartment by virtue of his faith.

I feel nauseous when I am told these are exceptions to the norm for this is the city of Manto from where he gave us his best work. Manto wrote about the colourful brothels in the city while staying in the famous Arab Gully in Byculla (a Muslim-dominated suburb). He wrote from Lahore "I am a walking, talking Bombay. Wherever I happen to be, that is where I will make a world of my own". But the same Manto who wrote his seminal work in then Bombay had to be saved by actor Ashok Kumar with whom he was riding in a car during post-partition riots in the city.

Yes, this was a city of the liberals, a city where Muslim actors like Dilip Kumar, Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Mehmood, Johny Walker were revered with realms written about their iconic status. Who made Bandra and Andheri posh suburbs to live in.

The same suburbs where you can easily identify the pockets inhabited by Catholics and Muslims. And for those who are disappointed, my earlier defense of this city's cosmopolitan character was shredded naked during the Mumbai riots, when the two main communities sought blood. Urban, classy Mumbai ends somewhere near Byculla, and the less-educated perceived-as-crass Mumbai is represented by pockets like Nagpada and Mohammed Ali Road, where liberal and fashionable Mumbaikars make a trip during Ramzan to eat that lavish spread awaiting them . That is when every non-Muslim in the city flaunts that Muslim friend who will provide a tour of the Ramzaan iftaar spread of firni and bheja fry and dal ghee at Mohammed Ali road . The same locality where my friend from Peddar Road has been asked not to venture into unless it's very urgent and she is accompanied by a driver.

This is a city where most non-Muslims would get goosebumps while watching Naseeruddin Shah perform at Prithvi Theatre and lose no time in outraging over his 'friendship with Pakistan' remark.

The unfortunate news for my friends who appear naive about this ugly face of the glamorous Mumbai is that much as we may pretend otherwise, Mumbai is as guilty as far less modern parts of the country when it comes to the 'us' and 'them' demarcation. We have as a city accepted it, though we rarely acknowledge it. I did too, when, after the Mumbai riots, my family moved from the 'cosmopolitan' Sahar Colony in Andheri East to Deonar, another Muslim suburb. This was not very long ago.

There are a thousand Misbah Qadri cases that take place in this metropolitan city, only many like me, do not have the time , energy and zeal to fight it. And for this, we are all complicit.

(Rana Ayyub is an award-winning investigative journalist and political writer. She is working on a book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which will be published later this year.)

India: No flat for her in Mumbai because she is Muslim

No flat for her in Mumbai because she is Muslim
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/no-flat-for-her-in-mumbai-because-she-is-muslim/article7248607.ece?homepage=true
Growing up in Gujarat post-2002 riots exposed her to religious prejudice and forced ghettoisation.

Growing up in Gujarat post-2002 riots exposed her to religious prejudice and forced ghettoisation. So when Misbah Quadri moved to Mumbai, she hoped the city, known for its cosmopolitan culture, would treat her better.

However, the 25-year-old communications professional is today knocking on the doors of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) after she was denied a flat in the city just because she is a Muslim. After a hard search, Ms. Quadri found a tidy 3-BHK apartment at Sanghvi Heights in Wadala. Her new flatmates — two working women, in their early twenties and Hindu — found her on Facebook.

However, a day before Ms. Quadri was to shift, the apartment’s broker warned that the housing society did not accept Muslim tenants. Even if something worked out, the broker told her, she would have to sign a “no-objection certificate” declaring that if she faced any harassment from her neighbours because of her religion, the builder, the owner and the broker “would not be legally responsible.” She was also asked to submit her resume. Though she disagreed with the terms, she moved in because the notice period at her previous flat expired and her flatmates supported her and she hoped for a compromise later.

But within a week, the agent contacted her again. “He threatened to call the cops and throw me out of the flat. It got very ugly.” When she approached the representative of the builder, she was told that it was “a policy” of the company not to have Muslim tenants. She was then served an ultimatum to vacate the house. Ultimately, she was forced to leave the flat. Incidentally, the other women had to pay a price for sheltering a Muslim; they have vacated the house unwillingly.

Divided colours of Ahmedabad: Saffron uniform for Hindu kids, green for Muslim

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/saffron-green-ahmedabad-municipal-body-schools-colours-apart/

Divided colours of Ahmedabad: Saffron uniform for Hindu kids, green for Muslim

Written by Ritu Sharma | Ahmedabad | Updated: April 14, 2015 3:36 am

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s Shahpur Public School and Dani Limda Public School are unique for being its only English-medium schools. They also have another distinction.

While the uniform at Shahpur school where most of the students are Hindus is saffron-coloured, the Dani Limda school where almost all the students are Muslims has a green uniform.

The other 454 schools run by AMC, all non-English-medium, have the same blue-and-white uniform.

“The selection of green (as uniform for the Dani Limda school) was a random decision and has nothing to do with any community. We had other options, of pink and blue, too but, keeping in mind the suitability to children, green was finalised,” AMC School Board Chairman Jagdish Bhavsar said.

He termed the selection of saffron for the Shahpur school as a “non-partisan decision” too, taken without any “prejudice or preference” towards a community or organisation.
Dani Limda Public School in Ahmedabad. (Source: IE photo by Javed Raja) Dani Limda Public School in Ahmedabad. (Source: IE photo by Javed Raja)

Asked if the colour choices had anything to do with the religion of the students, Bhavsar said, “There is no such thing about communities and colours associated with them.”

More than 98 per cent of the students at Dani Limda Public School, located in the middle of the Muslim-majority Kanubhai ni chali slum in Dani Limda village, are Muslims. At Shahpur Public School, more than 95 per cent students are Hindus.

AMC introduced the English-medium schools with the hope of containing declining enrolment in municipal schools. Both the Shahpur school, opened in June 2013, and Dani Limda, opened last year, were till Class I initially, with classes added every subsequent year. Beginning this academic year, the Dani Limda school is till Class II and the Shahpur one till Class III.

The Shahpur school uniform, comprising a saffron shirt and shorts, incidentally is sponsored by a “social organistation” called the Shahpur Seva Sangh, of which Bhavsar himself is a member. Its president is a former BJP corporator of Shahpur ward, Atul Bhavsar.

“This sangh works for education and social causes. Rotary Club and Sharda Trust have also donated uniforms for schools and this time we have requested the Swaminarayan sect to do so too,” said Jagdish Bhavsar.

In case of Dani Limda Public School, money for uniforms has been collected from local donors. It had no uniform till six months after its start, and the decision to have a green uniform was taken in December 2014.

On Republic Day this year, the AMC School Board started distributing the new uniforms, comprising a green T-shirt and black shorts. Recently, the final lot of uniforms was distributed, barring one student of Class I who is expected to receive it soon.

“A factory owner in Narol area, a businessman known to us and involved in charity work, and a few parents sponsored 10 uniforms each. Two Muslim teachers of a Gujarati-medium school running in the morning shift on the same premises gave Rs 2,000 each,” said Principal Kalpana Jadav.

A school teacher and administrator Vaishali Parmar at the Dani Limda school said they were dependent on donations for uniforms as the school does not have a District Information System for Education (DISE) code that is mandatory to get scholarships or grants.

Shah Bano Javed Pathan, both of whose children are enrolled in Dani Limda Public School, says she has no problem with the colour of the uniform. “As the school is different from the remaining municipal schools, the uniform stands out,” she said.

Shahpur Public School, inaugurated by Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama on June 6, 2013, has had a saffron uniform since the beginning. The school building is called ‘Prahlad Patel Shikshan Sankool’ after the BJP leader who fought elections from Shahpur in 1980 and who taught at Ahmedabad’s M N Shukla College of Education.

Said Shahpur Public School Principal Rekha Desai, “At present, the school strength is 233. Out of this, more than 95 per cent are Hindus from lower middle class while less than 5 per cent are from other communities such as Muslims, Jains and Marwaris.”

India: VHP, RSS force Muslim to sell home in Hindu locality

VHP, RSS force Muslim to sell home in Hindu locality

Written by Gopal B Kateshiya | Bhavnagar

Barely a year after he bought a bungalow in a predominantly Hindu neighbourhood of Bhavnagar, prompting Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Pravin Togadia to ask neighbours not to allow him to move in, a Muslim businessman was forced to sell it off with functionaries of Hindu Right-wing groups brokering the deal.

Scrap dealer Aliasgar Zaveri had bought the bungalow in Bhavnagar’s posh Sanatorium area on January 10, 2014. But under pressure from Hindu neighbours, VHP and RSS, Zaveri, a Bohra Muslim, sold his bungalow to real-state firm Bhumiti Associates on December 30, 2014.

Bhumiti Associates, a partnership firm of three Jains, razed the bungalow a few months ago.

“Zaveri tried many things to gain a toehold in the area. He suggested renting the bungalow out to Hindus but we rejected it. He also tried to give it to a firm for shooting a film, but we did not allow that. Meanwhile, we were in touch with real-estate developers. Having realised that neighbours would not relent, he agreed to sell it,” a senior RSS functionary who lives nearby and was among those leading the protests, said.

Sanatorium near Meghani Circle is a Hindu-dominated locality. Out of around 150 bungalows, only four have Muslim owners. Out of the four, two migrated to the Shishoo Vihar area after the 2002 riots. Two months after Zaveri bought the bungalow from hotelier Kishoresinh Gohil for Rs 49 lakh, Hindu residents of the area started protesting, saying the food habits of Muslims may offend them and that it could open the floodgates for the entry of other Muslims into the area.

They started holding Ram Darbars, gatherings at which they would play Hanuman Chalisa and bhajans on a music system, outside the bungalow every evening. They invited Togadia to their darbar on April 19, 2014. Togadia reportedly asked residents to attack Zaveri’s office in Bhadevadi Street if he did not give up the bungalow within 48 hours.

Following the alleged hate speech, Togadia was booked for inciting communal passions and police were deployed at the bungalow. Zaveri, who lives in a Muslim-dominated area, could never move in.

Zaveri refused to comment on the development.

“He (Zaveri) wanted to get rid of it. We got the plot at market rates. I can assure you, it was not distress selling on his part,” said Chetan Kamdar, one of the partners of Bhumiti Associates. While Bhumiti Associates said the deal did not involve any political or religious group, RSS and VHP leaders said they had facilitated it.

S D Jani, president of VHP’s Bhavnagar city unit, said: “Due to our agitation, the vidharmi (one from another faith, Zaveri) realised he would not be able to settle in and eventually gave in.”
With the plot having gone to Jains, Hindu residents of Sanatorium are relieved. “Many of the present residents migrated from Muslim-dominated Prabhudas Talav to

Sanatorium two-three decades ago. Now, if Muslims follow us here, our lives will become difficult due to their food habits and other customs,” said a retired teacher who lives in Sanatorium.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/vhp-rss-force-muslim-to-sell-home-in-hindu-locality/