People's Democracy

Nalini Taneja

WHILE the secular and democratic forces in India are busy protesting the American war on Afghanistan, the Sangh Parivar is engaged in its own private war against the minorities. Spine-chilling acts of intimidation have been taking place in states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Orissa and Rajasthan --- neglected by the mainstream press but documented by many citizens groups and by magazines brought out by secular groups. These incidents have not always followed the September 11 events, as is generally believed, though the events around the war did widen the scope of Sangh Parivar’s actions by allowing for a more visible support to these forces from the BJP-led government in the name of "fighting terrorism."

The "either with us or against us" hysteria is also a part of another pattern that has been unfolding in various parts of the country prior to these events. This is a pattern that, by turn, includes changes in education, campaigns for the Ram mandir, and various forms of discrimination against and intimidation of minorities. There has been a series of attacks on Muslims, their homes, businesses and places of worship, in small villages or qasbas (small towns) where they are numerically small. Attacks on Christian nuns and priests too continue, with little protection to the victims from the law and order machinery. The Maharashtra unit of the VHP is systematically distributing literature in far-flung villages and districts to mobilise local communities around the proposed Ram temple issue.

A few examples from a report that appeared in the October 2001issue of Communalism Combat are sufficient to give an idea of the gory proportions and absolutely inhuman forms that this intimidation takes. They are a demonstration of the situation the minorities have been facing in far-flung areas, away from the big cities and from the gaze of the mainstream media.

In Thane, Maharashtra, Bajrang Dal men mercilessly beat up Father Oscar Mendonca of the St John's Baptist Church on August 6, leading to a statewide protest from Christian schools. On August 26, the local Shiv Sena went on a rampage in Thane, completely destroying a hospital after their leader Anand Dighe died within its premises. The total loss estimated was around Rs 9 crore; several hundred hospital staff are now jobless.

In a series of incidents in village Mangle (in Sangli district of western Maharashtra), the Muslims had their religious rights curtailed and were made victims of brutal attacks. And their fault? That they had complained to the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission of intimidation, abuse and threats. On September 7, "peace committees" in the area passed ‘fatwas’ and ‘decrees’ that forced the heads of all 35 Muslim families from the village of over 1,000 homes to shave off their beards. Other ‘decrees’ were --- no dress of "Muslim appearance," no wearing of a cap during namaaz, no five times namaaz a day as once is enough, no azaan on loudspeakers, and so on. On September 8, at a Gram Sabha meeting held within the premises of the Mahadev temple, at which 1,500 villagers were present, Muslim members and their faith were subjected to filthy abuses. In utter fear, they had shaved off their beards before attending the Gram Sabha meeting. Ten homes, two timber marts and one saw mill belonging to the Muslims were burnt, and 80 years old Zainuddin Muhammad Sattar was burnt to death in the second week of October. And when it was all over, the local administration and police ‘persuaded’ the affected Muslims to sign a statement stating that "the shaving of the beard had been done voluntarily."

The Communalism Combat also reported an incident from village Saswad, barely 40 km from Pune. Here, following a jalabhishek programme on October 7, organised by the VHP and Bajrang Dal, a mob attacked a dargah and the sheds located within a graveyard. In the pre-planned destruction that followed, Muslim-owned bakeries, shops and homes were also destroyed. Saswad had no history of communal tension before this incident.

During Ganeshotsav celebrations in Ahmedabad in late August, Bajrang Dal activists went on rampage, murdering a Muslim youth after members of the Muslims refused to shell out money for the Ganesh celebrations (The Asian Age, August 26). Predictably, the police did nothing, even as two others succumbed to the injuries they received from this attack.

In another, more chilling incident in September, around 550 Muslim men, women and children of a small town, Chanasma of Patan district in Gujarat, were forced to migrate. A report authored by Indu Kumar Jain (editor, Naya Marg), Valjibhai Parmar (secretary, Council for Social Justice) and Raju Solanki (a journalist-activist) says:

"Dead bodies of Muslims have been dug out and the land well surfaced with saffron flags flying high over it..… Chanasma’s age-old Muslim-owned dargah land called Navgajapir has now been forcibly taken over by a saffron gang of local Bajrang Dal’s lathi-wielding men. The green sheet spread over the Navgajapir Dargah has been replaced by a white one; a Hindu temple has been constructed after removing a tomb-shaped light-house after colouring it saffron and covering it with white flag and the Bajrang Dal symbol of a trident. An iron pagoda (chabutara) has been constructed and a saffron flag fixed over it; a slogan like "Bharat Mata ki Jai" has been written down all around the dargah; a new fencing of bricks without plaster can be seen having been constructed afresh to grab this land belonging to the Waqf Board."

The local Bajrang Dal unit attributes this attack to popular anger against the burial ground being used for "anti-national purposes." According to the report of the fact-finding team, a few Bajrang Dal men had surrounded Indiranagar Muslim homes with naked swords in their hands, hurling violent threats at the Muslim women. As the Communalism Combat report says, "If local Dalits had not come to their rescue and sheltered them for a night, we may have yet seen a repeat of the gruesome events that took place in Surat in December 1992."

Earlier, on August 25, the VHP-Bajrang Dal as well as the police attacked women officials and children from the I P Mission orphanage at Jobat village in Madhya Pradesh, when these people were on their way for a picnic at Kali dam in Dahod. This comes out in a complaint monitored by the AICC. When the children were washing their faces at a hand pump, Bajrang Dal and VHP activists surrounded them, took the keys of their jeeps, and beat up women with sticks.

And now, from a report that was pushed by newspapers into corners, we discover that more than 12 people have been killed in Malegaon, in a clash between the police and the Muslims, following the attempts to distribute pamphlets calling for boycott of American goods. After five days of madness there, we are told that things are still not safe for Muslims. According to an Indian Express report on October 31, the driver of a bus entering Deola town, under curfew for two days, turned his face around and asked: "Is there any Muslim on this bus?" He then asked them to remove their caps and other tell-tale signs. Just then a mob of fifty climbed on to the bus, shouting "Jai Bhawani, Jai Shivaji" and peering at passengers to find any Muslims there. There were burning vehicles and buildings all around.

Small "clippings" inform us (Hindustan Times, October 28, 7 single-column lines, p 7) that curfew was imposed in Gonda after "clashes" during the immersion of Durga idols; five were injured in Gaya and two in Bhadohi district in the same context. Similar incidents took place in two districts of Assam.

As we can see, to use the phrase of an observer, the Sangh Parivar is engaged in a "wholesale re-writing of the ground-rules of democracy," as the NDA allies have proved themselves incapable of taking a stand. While the Sangh Parivar is consistently transgressing the constitution, the minorities are faced with a situation where they dare not express their opposition to the Sangh Parivar’s intimidatory policies (or the American war now, for that matter) without being branded and ‘punished’ as anti-nationalists and terrorists. Even a call for boycott of American goods is being interpreted as a sign of fanaticism on their part.

The minorities have thus been pushed to a corner, and denied their right to freedom of speech. Muslim localities have been characterised as ‘sensitive,’ their madrasas are being dubbed as the ‘breeding grounds for terrorism,’ and, out to hunt potential terrorists, the state administration has turned the entire AMU campus into one big police camp. Muslims all over the country are being asked to "support" the war against ‘terrorism’ or risk the fury of the local Sangh Parivar units. Not many Muslim processions have been visible in the country, barring one in Delhi and another in Hyderabad. The people have hardly expressed themselves even in Kashmir. It is unthinkable that Muslims in India do not feel strongly about the American attack on Afghanistan. Today the situation is that any two Muslims found talking to each other can be picked up and charged with anything. The Outlook reports that, in Bombay’s Mohammad Ali Road, no one wants to discuss bin Laden or Afghanistan with outsiders, for fear of a backlash.

That this fear is not unfounded, is clear not merely from the de facto ban on expression of anti-American sentiments and the reports of attacks on minorities, but also from the statements emanating from the horse’s mouth. VHP leader Praveen Togadia threatens: "Wait for the Hindu backlash!" Advani is clear that the Ram mandir issue paid and would pay political dividends to the BJP. The maximum they say as a gesture of ‘grace’ is that not all Muslims are terrorists. But they do say that all terrorists are Muslims --- a statement that is factually incorrect. RSS chief Sudarshan has now asked the Hindus to arm themselves.

As for the BJP-led government, it has simply unleashed the Bajrang Dal terrorists on the hapless minorities, who have little protection from the state when it comes to the crux. If millions of our people find themselves victims of state-sanctioned violence, and feel that they have nowhere to turn to, the situation is undoubtedly fraught with danger for secular India, and speaks volumes for the limitations of Indian democracy.