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The Rediff Special/ V Gangadhar

Suddenly many Hindus saw Muslims as foreign aggressors

This is the last of a three-part series on the Ahmedabad riots. Click to read from the beginning.

I guess I was lucky.

During my 20 years in Ahmedabad from 1958 to 1978, I met with nothing but love, affection and friendliness. Unlike the Shiv Sena in Bombay, the Gujaratis did not mind when people from outside cornered most of the jobs in the private and public sector. They were keener to do business and were ready to hire clerks, typists, stenos and office assistants from other states. Those years I was focussed on getting a good education and making a career. Politics did not interest me then.

But long-time residents of the city now point out that Ahmedabad had always been 'communal'. They are not surprised at the growing gulf between Hindus and Muslims, and the ultimate division of the city on communal lines.

Lawyer and human rights activist Girish Patel said communal feelings were always strong in Ahmedabad. The Muslim League was a powerful factor before Partition and many of the future leaders of Pakistan, like its former foreign minister Chundirgar, lived here.

The city had two strong political camps, led by the Congress and the Muslim League respectively. The Muslim League often bagged most of the seats in the municipal election.

During the 1941 communal riots, the Hindus took a terrible beating and never forgot it. Khadia, within the walled city, became a stronghold of Hindus, but there was no militancy in the area. The 1945 communal riots were milder, but when India became free, it was hoped that Hindus and Muslims could live together in peace. This happened for some time. Unfortunately, the average Hindu citizen of Ahmedabad was highly communal, anti-progressive and anti-dalit. He did not like Gandhi for being soft on Muslims, idolised Sardar Patel and tolerated Nehru. Yet Hindus and Muslims fought together in the Mahagujarat Movement which established a separate Gujarat state in 1960.

The Congress has always been the major force in the city. The socialists and communists could never get a foothold. The Congress split of 1968-69 had a major impact on the political, economic and communal future of Gujarat, which was the bastion of the traditional Congress-O led by Morarji Desai.

Prior to this, the Swatantra Party had made an impact in the state, but so long as senior leader Bhailalbhai Patel -- Bhai kaka, as he was known -- was its leader, it remained secular. But it brought together two communities that were bitterly opposed to Muslims and the lower castes, the Patels and the Rajputs.

The year 1969 was a watershed in communal relations. The Hindu-Muslim riots killed more than 5,000 people and Ahmedabad became a vast burial ground. The riots were aggravated because of the conflict between the Congress government led by Indira Gandhi at the Centre, and the state government led by Hitendra Desai of the Congress-O. Muslims suffered horribly because the state government presumed they had supported Gandhi during the Congress split and was keen to punish them. They faced the hostility of the police, the army and the caste Hindus.

Congress-O leader Morarji Desai was not personally communal, but he hardly did anything to control the situation. For the first time in the city's history, the labour areas were affected. The killings here were most brutal. Since then, Gujarat has never been the same.

The Nav Nirman agitation of the early 1970s was directed by students against the corrupt government of Chimanbhai Patel, the Congress chief minister. But in certain areas, it took a communal tinge and was taken over by reactionaries who opposed the Indira Congress, Muslims, land reforms and other progressive reforms. During and immediately after the Emergency, the state became a bastion of anti-Congress forces and united all the communities. But this was only a temporary lull in the communal situation.

Under Madhavsinh Solanki, the Congress chief minister during the early 1980s, the state introduced the recommendations of the Bakshi Commission granting additional reservation to the other backward classes. This was nothing new; the recommendations had been made several years ago. But the reservation now applied to seats in professional colleges and promotion in government jobs. The reaction was furious and once again Gujarat was burning.

Very soon, the anti-reservation agitation became communal. In fact, Muslims were sympathetic to the demands of the OBC and this was held against them. They became the targets of mob fury.

The Bharatiya Janata Party that had remained on the sideline for several years now adopted a new strategy of militant Hinduism. For the election to the Ahmedabad corporation during the mid-1980s, it fielded only Hindu candidates and won a comfortable majority of seats. Since then, it has continued in the same vein.

Former RSS and BJP stalwart Shankarsinh Vaghela, who later quit the party and started his own Rashtriya Janata Party, initiated moves to isolate Muslims from all walks of life. This policy is still very much in force. The Congress was slowly becoming a spent force. To counter the extreme Hindu communal forces, the extreme Muslims forces came forward. Gangster Abdul Latif contested the civic polls from five constituencies as an independent and won all five! The fate of Ahmedabad was now in the hands of extremists.

Chimanbhai Patel, whose past sins were forgiven and forgotten, was once again the chief minister. The state touched a nadir. The communal poison continued to grow. There was a bloodbath during Advani's rath yatra which was flagged off from Somnath. Suddenly many Hindus saw the Muslims as 'foreign aggressors' who had burnt, looted and pilloried Hindu temples and culture.

While the BJP played its aggressive Hindu card, the local Congress was made up of leaders like Ghulam Hyder Momin, a former Muslim League stalwart, who had opted for Pakistan at the time of Partition and returned to India only because he was made to be feel unwelcomed by Jinnah.

The Babri Masjid destruction was the last straw. That one act divided the communities on a permanent basis. Hindus did not feel safe in Muslim areas, and the Muslims opted to live with their own people. The VHP and the Bajrang Dal continued with their offensive, militant communal propaganda.

They always focused on issues like Article 370, the Uniform Civil Code and the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits. Then came Kargil, and the fanatics got another stick to beat the Muslims. The VHP, Bajrang Dal and sections of the BJP found nothing wrong in linking Indian Muslims with the Pakistani infiltrators in Kargil.

It is generally admitted that after the 1950s Ahmedabad Muslims were not aggressive and would have welcomed a degree of assimilation. They knew their future lay in India. This, however, was not possible because of the recurring communal riots. The BJP, VHP and the Bajrang Dal realised they could not drive Indian Muslims out of the country. But they saw to it that there was no integration between the two communities and Muslims were reduced to second class citizens.

The BJP-led government in Gujarat felt it could always cause pinpricks to the minorities. One of the ministers in the Chimanbhai government introduced a ruling that puja be performed for the newly-installed machines at government hospitals during Dussera. The order was withdrawn when the issue was taken to court.

The move to change Ahmedabad's name to Karnavati is in limbo. The court again intervened to stop a move to appoint BJP, VHP and BD cadres as invigilators at the SSC examination centres to prevent copying! The proposed 16-day ban on slaughter of animals during certain Jain festivals was finally reduced to nine days.

Riots always followed the occasional Hindu-Muslim wedding. Even the traditionally gentle Jain community, which frowned upon the killing of even insects, turned hostile to Muslims. Some wealthy Jains allegedly financed Hindu extremist organisations and there was no reaction from them at the killings of Muslims. Unfortunately, Gandhians, intellectuals and progressive citizens could not play an effective role in preventing the communalisation of Ahmedabad. There was too much of fence-sitting. Some of the progressives were so blinded by their anti-Congress feelings that they failed to act against the communal poison.

But the Babri Masjid incident made some changes. Today, there is some awareness of the dangers posed by fanatical elements. A huge rally against communalism in 1993 brought some hope. But there was no follow-up action; the so-called Gandhians chose to remain quiet.

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