Communal violence has been the bane of Indian society, more so from last three
decades. One can see its coming up prominently from 1893 to begin with and then
it went through different phases. It became stronger after 1937, peaked in 1946
and then the post partition holocaust shattered the lives of lakhs of people.
After a gap of a decade it started coming up again from 1961, Jabalpur violence, later anti Sikh violence
of 1984 was not just violence, it was genocide. At different levels after this
we see the big surge, Meerut, Maliana, Bhagalpur, Mumbai, Gujarat
(post Godhra) being the worst of them. Pre partition it was both communal
parties Muslim League-Hindu Mahasabah, and the communal patriarch RSS, which
were major players in this dastardly game. This phenomenon led to the
polarization along religious lines. This polarization was the hallmark of this
violence which kept going up. The stereotypes about ‘other’ community kept
worsening up; still the intercommunity rupture was not total or complete. The
intensity about adverse sentiments about ‘the other’ went going up gradually,
remaining at subcritical level till probably 1992, after which the
ghettoisation of minorities started becoming a prominent urban phenomenon, and
the misconceptions about minorities became a major part of social common sense.
The other observation was that the communal violence, which is the superficial
manifestation of politics in the name of religion, is predominantly and urban
phenomenon. Many a social scientists made it the fulcrum of their understanding
and blamed urbanization as the bane of our society, which was responsible for
this type of violence.
As the matters stand after the recent Muzaffarnagar violence, it is clear that
communal violence being a major phenomenon in urban areas was just a phase of
this process. Having polarized the urban populations, the agenda of communal
outfits has now targeted the rural areas. Its implications surely are going to
be more disastrous for our nation as a whole and it is time that the dangers are
assessed of the trajectory of this process. There are many factors about
Muzaffarnagar violence, which should make us sit up and take notice. So far the
communal violence in different parts of the country benefitted the RSS-BJP in a
major way and the litmus test of this was the increased social presence of RSS
affiliates in those areas affected by violence and increase in political
strength of BJP in electoral arena. Gujarat is
a classic case where after the post Godhra violence, BJP has dug its heels in the
state, and RSS affiliates are ruling the streets.
As the political players calculate on the political chess board, this time
there were two players who thought they will benefit. On one side from the
usual beneficiary, the BJP associates, which in the aftermath of 84 Kosi
Parikrama, activated its workers in this game of polarization. The other player,
the Samajvadi party, probably calculated on the similar lines, if Hindu
polarization benefits BJP, Muslim polarization should benefit Samajvadi party
was their thinking, which let the violence happen. It is also true that since
Samajvadi party came to power a year and a half ago, communal violence has gone
up in Uttar Pradesh.
violence, it started as three boys got killed on the pretext of teasing of a girl or
a skirmish on the road (there are two versions of the beginning of the
episode). There was enough time to see the dangers of such an inter-religious
violence and control the same. But that was not to be. The officers in violation
of the rules and even the imposition of 144 in the area let the Mahapanchayat
of over a lakh people take place. The caste-communal outfits are patriarchal to
the core and slogan-theme ‘Bahu Beti Bachao’ (save daughters and
daughters-in-laws) was enough for the village Jats to turn up in large numbers
with weapons. Communal propaganda is taken to the higher pitch. And so the
communal violence enters the villages. And here the BJP communalizes the social
space. Though it did not have much base amongst Jats, this occasion was
cleverly manipulated to introduce divisive politics. Two factors were made use
of. One the image of Modi as the savior of Hindus. Now Jat goes from the caste
identity to Hindu identity. In communal politics religious identity is the foremost.
The Muslim crowds also confront, play some role in violence but as is the usual
case the partisan police machinery does not do its job in an objective manner
and the result is a lopsided violence more against minorities, displacement and
increase in the sense of insecurity amongst minorities follows.
pay or not, time alone will tell. During the reign of Samajvadi party the
monster of communal violence has been permitted to come out as is obvious from
the observations that during Akhilesh Government every month nearly two acts of
violence have taken place. How come during previous regime of BSP, the monster
of communal violence had been restrained? Same officers, same people. Surely it
is up to the ruling Government to let the violence take place or not. Communal
forces, BJP and company, always keep instigating it and looking for opportunity
to unleash violence. In UP the additional factor of course has been the
presence of Amit Shah, who is on bail and who has the experience of Gujarat
carnage, his role will have to be watched, but as such the RSS-combine
machinery is in place and can take such assignment on the drop of a hat. While
at one level, the instigation used was to propagate that ‘our’ daughters,
daughters-in-laws are not safe, on the other hand a BJP MLA uploaded a video
clip showing some people dressed like Muslims killing two young men brutally.
This was a video shot few years ago in Pakistan when two young persons
were lynched by the mob with the suspicion that they are dacoits. It went viral
on the social media, which is reaching villages in good measure, and created a
hostile atmosphere.
has affable relations, but from some years few tensions cropped up and the
recent violence drove a deep wedge amongst these two communities and violence
could spread to the villages. The tragic factor is the propagation of Modi, as
a ‘strong’ leader who can save us (Hindus). The major back up of communal
forces is to promote an autocrat, on the backdrop of the massive propaganda
that majority community is not safe due to the miniscule minority. So Modi is
supposed to fill the gap of a powerful leader which can protect the majority
community. All this is far from true but popular perceptions have gone on and
on and the contestation to these misconceptions has neither been effective nor
far in reach.
police and administration the better. The administration has powers enough to
ensure that such violence does not take place and if at all it takes place, it
can control it in a day or two. Many of those in top echelons of
administration-police have a biased mindset, and this if supplemented by the
calculating Government, that violence will benefit their electoral prospects,
the tragedy takes no time to flare up. UPA Government had promised to bring a
Communal Violence Prevention bill. The subcommittee of NAC did lot of home work
has submitted a draft of the bill. Surely there may not be a consensus on the
draft, but probably by putting it to the grill of different mechanisms, the
grain of the draft can be saved from the chaff to ensure that the officers and
those in seats of power who do not do their job as per the norms of
Constitution are punished. The provision for punishment to the officers guilty
of dereliction of their duties, acts of commission and omission are a must. The
political leadership has to be taken to the task for its inaction at the
crucial time. The communal forces have to be combated at ideological, social
and political level if we wish to have the country with communal peace and
amity.
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