More than a year
after the Gujarat massacre, The Guardian
correspondent in Delhi, Luke Harding,
wrote a moving piece about how his "love
affair with India" had ended. Harding could
walk away to another country, another
assignment. Sensitive Indians, such as Harsh
Mander, have to confront the colossal
tragedy day after day. And how does one even
describe what happened in Gujarat in
February 2002? Massacre? Carnage? Genocide?
Pogrom? Regrettably, many western
journalists have described the Gujarat
events as Hindu-Muslim 'riots'. Riots,
however, indicate a conflict with two sides;
in the case of Gujarat the Muslims were only
at the receiving end.
Harsh Mander's account was the first coming
out of Gujarat that brought attention to the
level of brutality inflicted on Muslims,
particularly women and children. A former
civil servant, Mander is obviously pained by
the blatant denial of justice and protection
to the vulnerable that has apparently become
the norm for those who administer Gujarat.
Very few come out of the Gujarat massacre
without being a collaborator, either by
abetting actively or passively through an
unwillingness to get involved.
The writer is particularly critical of the
indifference of many non-governmental
organizations in Gujarat that are,
otherwise, so active in bringing about
social change - among them being the much
celebrated SEWA (Self-employed Women's
Association). Gujarat also failed to get the
kind of western media attention that
genocides in other places (Srebenica, for
example) have received. Nor did the victims
get assistance from rich Muslim countries.
Succour for the survivors came mostly from
outside the state and from within the
country. Mander writes movingly about the
Aman Pathiks (the peace workers), the
several hundred young people who volunteered
to work for rehabilitation of the victims
and heal some of the wounds inflicted by
communal frenzy. Many came from other
states, aware that the Gujarat government
itself was not lifting a finger to provide
any kind of relief to the thousands who were
brutalized and rendered homeless, huddled
together in dargahs or in camps set up by
Muslim charities. Among the volunteers were
Saddam Badshah and his team of auto-rickshaw
drivers from Andhra Pradesh.
However, more than two years later the
reconciliation and acceptance of Muslims
into their old neighbourhoods seems distant.
On a recent visit to Delhi, a young activist
working in Gujarat told me how a village
headman had threatened her when she
suggested he facilitate the return of Muslim
families to their homes. Another volunteer
spoke of the resilience of the survivors -
their ability to reconstruct their lives in
the midst of all the horrors they
experienced, even managing to laugh off some
of the threats hurled at them. The only
silver lining is that the young volunteers
refuse to be discouraged or intimidated and
carry on courageously.
Several eminent citizens' groups from India
- from judges to journalists - have done
commendable work in recording the atrocities
of Gujarat. Cry, My Beloved Country
records their reports of eye-witness
accounts. The narratives of children,
innocent witnesses to the rape and burning
of their mothers and sisters, makes reading
most disturbing. Then there are mothers'
heart-wrenching accounts of how their
children were tortured to death before their
eyes. Quoting from the report of the
Concerned Citizens' Tribunal (CCT), Mander
describes a macabre incident:
"The burning alive of victims was
widespread. A particularly tragic incident
was one in which six-year-old Irfan asked
for water, his assailants at Naroda Patiya
made him forcibly drink kerosene, or some
other inflammable liquid, before a lit match
was thrown inside his gullet to make him
explode within. (CCT: 2002: 6)"
Other fact-finding missions strongly
indicted the state government for its role
in the pogrom and its indifference later.
The Independent Fact Finding Mission noted:
"Certain crucial aspects of the carrying out
of the pogrom required systematic planning
well in advance of the Godhra incident. The
lists the rioters possessed and used must
have been compiled over time. The targeting
of Muslim homes, institutions,
establishments and shrines was very precise
and accurate. Even when there was one Muslim
home or shop in a congested Hindu-dominated
area, it was attacked, ransacked and burnt."
The evidence seems to imply that Godhra was
staged to instigate the anti-Muslim pogrom.
To add salt to the survivors' wounds, the
Gujarat chief minister, Narender Modi,
returned to power with an even bigger
majority. The prime minister himself,
shortly after the tragedy, blamed the
Muslims at a party meeting in Goa. What is
missing from Harsh Mander's otherwise
thorough account of events, is an analysis
of the reasons why such bestialities took
place in Gujarat - a relatively prosperous
and educated state and home to several
social movements. While he has discussed the
dangers of the politicization of religion,
the arguments do not fully explain the level
of hatred and barbarism. This, however, does
not detract from Mander's honest chronicle.
In the final analysis, the rise of Hindu
fundamentalism and, consequently, the events
of Gujarat are also failings of the liberals
of secular India. They did not, ultimately,
challenge the monster when it was beginning
to raise its head in national politics.
Some, in fact, were quick to board the BJP
bandwagon on its yatra of communalism. They
must share the burden of guilt as long as
justice is denied to the victims of Gujarat.
For somewhere the men, who ripped open the
womb of a pregnant woman and slaughtered her
foetus, are walking free. |
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