[Tensions between the
majority Hindu population and the Muslim minority go back centuries. Half a
million people died in rioting during the partition of India in 1947, when
Pakistan was created as a Muslim homeland. Although religious violence has
dropped dramatically since then, the number of incidents is ticking upward of
late — from 668 last year to 725 in the first 10 months of this year, causing
143 deaths, official data show. And many Indians are concerned that divisions
between religious groups could deepen with the national elections scheduled for
next year, especially because the main opposition party is led by a controversial
Hindu nationalist, Narendra Modi.]
One night this month,
the youngest of her four children, 9-month-old Sufian, who had been shivering
in the cold, suddenly went still. He was dead.
“My heart cannot bear
this anymore. It will explode,” said Rashid, 32, fighting back tears as she ran
her fingers over the image of her son’s face on a cellphone — the only
photograph of him her family still has. “As a mother, all I want is a safe home
for my other children, to stay healthy, to stay alive. Is that too much to
ask?”
Rashid was one of
50,000 people forced from their villages in and around the Muzaffarnagar
district of northern Uttar Pradesh state during the September rioting. In its
wake, there is new momentum to pass a long-
discussed bill aimed at curbing religious and ethnic violence.
discussed bill aimed at curbing religious and ethnic violence.
Tensions between the
majority Hindu population and the Muslim minority go back centuries. Half a
million people died in rioting during the partition of India in 1947, when
Pakistan was created as a Muslim homeland. Although religious violence has
dropped dramatically since then, the number of incidents is ticking upward of
late — from 668 last year to 725 in the first 10 months of this year, causing
143 deaths, official data show. And many Indians are concerned that divisions
between religious groups could deepen with the national elections scheduled for
next year, especially because the main opposition party is led by a controversial
Hindu nationalist, Narendra Modi.
“Each government has
dealt with communal rioting in a completely arbitrary and prejudicial manner,”
said Farah Naqvi, a member of the National Advisory Council, a
government-appointed group of academics and activists, some of whom have worked
on the bill. “Hundreds of thousands of people who have been permanently
displaced by rioting are not even counted and recognized by the government. And
those who incite riots from behind the scene are rarely brought to justice. It
is unconscionable if the new, 21st-century India continues to look the other
way.”
The bill, yet to be
introduced, would put in place policies to prevent and limit communal and
ethnic rioting. It would establish fines and jail sentences for public
officials and police officers for failure to control violence. It would also
guarantee speedy investigations and trials in special courts, and it would set
guidelines for reparation for victims.
The legislation has
been in the works since riots in Gujarat state in 2002 left
more than 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslims. The measure could finally
pass in the coming year, because it is being supported by the Congress-party-led
governing coalition.
The bill has been
strongly criticized by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition
party, which has called it a maneuver to garner the votes of religious
minorities. In a recent letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Modi called
the measure a “recipe for disaster,” saying it would lead to ordinary fights
being labeled as communal violence.
Modi is accused by
human rights groups of not doing enough to stem the 2002 riots in Gujarat, his
home state.
Broken trust
The recent
Hindu-Muslim rioting in Muzaffarnagar, the worst such violence in India in more
than a decade, was sparked by an incident in which a Muslim youth was killed by
two Hindus after he was alleged to have sexually harassed their female cousin.
This set off a cycle of reprisal attacks across the district.
Sixty-five people
were killed, more than two-thirds of them Muslim. Members of the Bharatiya
Janata Party were accused of trying to stoke passions during the riots by
spreading fake photos and videos of killings via the popular chat application
WhatsApp. But the Hindu nationalist party wasn’t the only one accused of
fanning the flames: A Muslim leader from the Bahujan Samaj Party was alleged to
have given inflammatory speeches during the melee.
More than 6,000
Muslims who fled the violence still languish in tent camps a few miles from the
Hindu-majority villages.
In one camp in the
village of Loi, large families huddle in informal tents made of old shawls,
glittery veils and sheets stitched together. Barefoot children shiver in the
cold and eat fly-infested food. There are not enough toilets. About 11 children
have died in the camp because of unhygienic conditions and the cold, villagers
say. Officials dispute the figure.
Shahnawaz Islam, a
35-year-old brick-kiln worker, recalled how his father’s bleeding body was
dumped in the courtyard of his home by a Hindu mob during the riots. “How can
we even think of returning to the village where our neighbors turned on us?” he
said.
Although he has
received financial compensation from the government for his father’s death, he
said, he will not feel justice is done until the killers are detained.
In Islam’s village,
Phugana, Hindu farmers said Muslims were free to return but added that the
trust between the two communities was broken. Before the rioting, the two
groups lived cheek-by-jowl in narrow lanes, and Muslims worked in sugar-cane
farms and brick kilns owned by Hindus. Muslims owned businesses making jaggery,
a sweetener made out of sugar cane.
Some Hindus said the
Muslims had leveled false charges against them.
“We did not harm
them. The Muslims want money from the government; that is why they burned their
homes and mosques,” said Tham Singh, who is accused in 20 complaints to police
— including about murder and rape — but has not been arrested.
Post-riots life
After the riots,
about 6,400 people were named in police complaints in connection with killings,
rapes, looting, arson and inciting riots. But police have arrested only 200
people.
“We have gone out to arrest
the men at least 10 times, but the women came out armed with axes and sickles
and blocked our entry into the villages. They pile bricks and stones on the
dirt paths to stop our vehicles. They surround the villages with tractors,”
said Kaushal Raj Sharma, the district magistrate in Muzaffarnagar.
Activists say that
after each riot in India, diverse neighborhoods have shrunk in population as
residents have moved to areas where people of their own faith and ethnicity
live.
“That produces its
own kind of polarized politics, something a developing country cannot afford,”
said Naqvi, of the National Advisory Council.
Although activists
have high hopes for the proposed law, some Muslims said it may not change much
on the ground.
“We have enough laws
in this country; what we need is people who have the will and the heart to
implement the laws,” said Abdul Jabbar, a real estate agent who runs the camp
in Loi.
