Search the Internet          Tips

NGO invited to bridge Hindu-Muslim
gap in Gujarat

After successfully bridging the gap between Hindus and Muslims following the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai, Salokha, a non-governmental organisation, has been invited to Gujarat to ease tension between the two communities.

"We have got invitations from different places in Gujarat and people are asking us how to solve the communal problem in their state. Different groups also wanted to be a part of Salokha and asked about our various programmes, which we conduct in Mumbai," Dr Jalindar Adsule, Project Director, Salokha, told rediff.com.

Salokha, which means friendship, came into existence as an experimental project of Nirmala Niketan, a college of social work, on July 2, 1993. Its aim was to unite people of different religions in the wake of the Mumbai riots.

Salokha conducts programmes in schools of Mumbai and targets children between class V to class VII. The organisation makes the children understand the importance of religion and their role in the society by providing them secular education.

"We try to bridge the gap between the children of different communities and make them understand the secular ethos of our country. For example, we make children understand that Chattrapati Shivaji protected lot of Muslims and many Muslims were with him against Aurangzeb," Dr Adsule said.

So far, Salokha has trained nearly 5,000 students in Mumbai, and the results have been very positive.

But why children only?

"After Bombay [Mumbai] riots, we worked with young generation and old people, but found out that their [the older generation's] mind was too conditioned... So, we targeted children from 1995. When we followed up with our case studies on children after seven years we found out that the results were quite encouraging," he said.

The organisation has 25 volunteers all over Mumbai. They stay in touch with different mohalla [area] peace committees to maintain calm in the city when communal outbursts take place elsewhere in India.

Asked whether it is possible to achieve lasting peace in Gujarat, Dr Adsule said: "Peace can be achieved in Gujarat, but it takes time to change people's opinion. People respond positively if you sustain your peace programme with determination. However, a small fire of communal incident can change everything in a day's time. But one has to keep trying."

"At present we are considering the proposed invitation to Gujarat. We have to work logistics on how we will begin our work in Gujarat. But for that we will need more resources and dedicated [and] trained volunteers," he added.

However, Dr Adsule feels that the state has the most important role to play in prevention of riots. In his opinion a state machinery can control the violence if it wants to.

"When riots broke out in Gujarat, our volunteers were on Mumbai streets and in constant touch with different mohalla peace committees to maintain peace... But I must also give credit to [the] Maharashtra state government and Mumbai police who prevented riots when Gujarat was burning," said Dr Adsule.

The Sabarmati in Flames: Complete Coverage

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report