Religious Identity of the Perpetrators and Victims of Communal Violence in Post-Independence India

 

K. Jaishankar*

Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, India

 

Debarati Haldar**

University of Madras, India

 

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Abstract

Before independence of India and after there were many occurrences of communal violent incidents. Predominantly it is the Hindu and Muslim religious communities who are always at loggerheads. Even after fifty-seven years of Indian independence, the seeds of hate between the two religious communities continue to sprout. To assess the communal violence scenario in post-independence India, some fundamental questions need to be answered. Can we discard that communal violence is purely a political problem and religion has no role to play in it? What is the perpetration and victimization pattern of communal violence in India? What is the role of religious identity of the perpetrators and victims in the communal riots? What is role of police in assessing the religious identity of the perpetrators and victims of communal violence? This article tries to analyse the state of affairs of communal violence in India from the religious, criminological and victimological perspectives.

 

Key words: Religious identity; Communal violence; Religious Symbols; Perpetrators and Victims  

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Religion plays a vital role in India’s way of life. Religious laws govern the people’s clothing, food, marriage, and even occupations (Shah 1998). Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis are the major religious communities of India. According to the 1991 Religious Census[1], Hindus constituted 82.2%, Muslims 12.12%. Christians 2.34%, Sikhs 1.94%, Buddhists 0.76%, Jains 0.40% and others 0.44% in India. Religion as an element of personal belief remains the biggest force in India. There is, of course, absolutely nothing in that. The trouble arises when the personal faith is converted into communal antagonism. Religion comes into fray because it is a part of the social order in which men live. Religion cannot be disassociated from the modes of thought that characterize a society. While religion as such has not been responsible for the origin and growth of communalism, religiosity, that is deep emotional commitment to matters of religion, has been a major contributory factor and at the popular plane, imparted passion and intensity (Ghosh 1987).

Religious tolerance in India finds expression in the definition of the nation as a secular state, within which the government since independence has officially remained separate from any one religion, allowing all forms of belief equal status before the law. Although India has been committed, to what is referred to as ‘unity among diversity’ there have been frequent clashes between the different linguistic, regional, and religious groups in the country. Of these conflicts, the relationship between Hindus and Muslims has been particularly salient (Hewstone and Voci 2003).

 

 

Communal Violence in India: The Historic perspective

The roots of communal disharmony and violence between the Hindus and the Muslims in India go back to the history of several centuries. Historical analysis of Hindu-Muslim communal conflict, its causes and preconditions, has been highly contentious in character. Contemporary historians of India do not even agree that there were Hindu or Muslim communal identities before the nineteenth century, and Hindu-Muslim conflict were endemic (Brass 2003). Historians like Sirkar (1983) view that, Hindu and Muslim conflicts are essentially modern phenomena, as communal riots do seem to have been significantly rare down to the 1880s.

On the other side are historians who argue that there is more continuity between past and present, extending backward at least to the early eighteenth century and, in some arguments, into the earlier period of Mughal rule. In this view, inter religious strife and riots that resemble contemporary Hindu-Muslim conflict were present, even endemic, in pre-modern times (Brass 2003). The victimization of one religious community by the other started as the suppression of rulers who invaded India. In 712 AD, Mohammad Bin al Q’asim overran Sind. The Arabs, the Turks, the Afghans and the Mughals invaded India in hordes from 1206 onwards, reducing temples to rubble putting hundreds of thousands of Hindus to the sword, and forcibly converting the survivors to Islam. Later during the Mughal period relations between Hindus and Muslims were not cordial during the regimes of Babur, Jehangir, Shah Jehan, and Aurangazeb (Ghosh 1987).

Among the Mughal emperors, Aurangazeb reversed the enlightened policy of Akbar, the Great, and he was determined to make India a strictly Muslim empire. Under his orders, several Hindu temples were destroyed (Ghosh 1987). In 1669, a circular order was addressed to all appropriate officers in the Mughal Empire directing them to destroy all newly built temples and forbade the repair of old ones. Thousands of temples at Prayag, Kashi, Ayodhya, Hardwar, and other Holy places were destroyed. When these temples were destroyed, there were disturbances at many places on account or resistances of the Hindus against the demolition of temples. There was a prolonged fight between the Hindus and Muslims around the Mosque built on the ruins of the Veni, Madhava or Bindu Madhava temple at Banaras. The rioters destroyed some mosques in retaliation and when the Muslims got reinforcements, they destroyed all temples whether new or old (Mahajan 1993). From Mahajan’s (1993), analysis it can be noted that communal rioting and victimization of both the religious communities started during Aurangazeb period.    

Eventually, the imposition of colonial rule in India ignited animosity and conflict between the Hindu and Muslim communities. After the decline of Mughal power, the British often utilized “divide and rule” tactics in order to maintain governance over the vast area. In essence, the Hindu-Muslim conflict has existed in earnest since the British rule (Girdner 1998). The British organized communal violence because it provided them a pretext to further suppress the people and declare that it was not the colonial rule that was the cause of the problems of the Indian people, but that religion was the problem. They blamed the victims and their religions for the situation created by the colonial rule, and said that it is the policy of the British to be fair and pursue a Secular policy to "do justice to all religious communities" (Eh Din 2002).

Widespread Hindu-Muslim violence occurred during the ensuing years, until in 1947, Indian and British leaders agreed to partition the country into India and Pakistan in hopes of ending the violence. Both nations became independent, yet more bloodshed followed the partition as one of the largest population transfers in history occurred as many Muslims left India to reside in Pakistan while Hindus moved to India (Shah 1998). Thus communal violence was institutionalised in the state structures, used to weaken the unity and resistance of the people and used as a pretext to further attack them and cause diversions. This communal nature of the institutions and state structure did not change with the transfer of power in 1947 and this transfer of power itself was done in the midst of a communal carnage (Eh Din 2002).

The birth of Pakistan in 1947 did not settle Hindu-Muslim differences or end conflicts. To the contrary, all the old problems remained. However, the problem is more complex and involves more than simply a difference in values. Violence and communal strife have defined the relationship between Muslims and Hindus since partition (Shah 1998). India has regularly experienced communal rioting, particularly between Hindus and Muslims, but has occasionally involved other minority communities, since its independence in 1947. Even before Independence, there were serious communal riots in Varanasi (1809), Bareilly (1871), Lahore and Delhi (1825), Kolkata (1851), Azamgarh (1893), Ayodhya (1912), Kolkata and Dhaka (1926), Ahmedabad and Mumbai (1941) and of course, the horrendous countrywide riots of 1946 and 1947 (Dhar 2002).

 

Communal Riots: 1947 -  2002

The India-Pakistan partition in 1947 led to widespread violence resulting in the death or displacement of millions of people. Since then, communal riots have occurred every year, with varying degrees of severity. The death toll has ranged from seven people per year to over 3000. After Independence, there was a deceptive lull but communal riots again broke out in Madhya Pradesh (Jabalpur) in 1961, which is considered as the first major riot between Hindus and Muslims after partition. It was shortly followed by riots in Uttar Pradesh, and later in Gujarat (Ahmedabad) in 1969, where approximately 1000 people were killed, due to a national level political dispute (VIC 2002). The other major riots were Ahmedabad (1965-66), Bhiwandi (1970), Jamshedpur (1973), Meerut (1973, 1987), Moradabad (1980), Bhagalpur, and then the large-scale post-babri riots in 1992-93 in Bombay and other places (Dhar 2002).

Numerous occurrences and issues have perpetuated the religious conflict between Hindus and Muslims over the last decade in India, and the outlook for now remains rather bleak. At the heart of the present-day dispute is the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya, in North-central India (Shah 1998). On December 6, 1992, a sixteenth-century mosque in Ayodhya, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was demolished. During the preceding months, a movement of political parties, religious groups, and cultural organizations, including the BJP, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)[2], Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)[3] and Shiva Sena[4], had called for the construction of a temple on the site of the mosque as an integral move in their struggle for Hindutva, or Hindu rule. Over 150,000 supporters known as kar sevaks (voluntary workers) converged on Ayodhya, where they attacked the three-domed mosque with hammers and pick-axes and reduced it to rubble (Human Rights Watch 1996).

The destruction touched off Hindu-Muslim rioting across the country that has killed thousands in the past few years. Within two weeks of the destruction of the mosque, 227 were killed in communal violence in Gujarat, 250 in Bombay (Maharashtra), 55 in Karnataka, 14 in Kerala, 42 in Delhi, 185 in Uttar Pradesh, 100 in Assam, 43 in Bihar, 100 in Madhya Pradesh, and 23 in Andhra Pradesh (Week 1992).

It is interesting to note that the number of major communal riots in post-Babri Masjid demolition period went down considerably. Three major riots took place in this period, besides several small riots in which 2 to 6 persons were killed. These three major riots are Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu in1997, Kanpur in U.P. in March 2001 and Malegaon in Maharashtra in October 2001 (Engineer 2001). However the post-babri riots saw the growth of communal terrorism and the spread of Communal virus to the southern part of India in Tamil Nadu in 1997 by the way of Coimbatore communal riots. Violence replaced terrorism to kill innocent citizens.

Communal violence in India reached unprecedented level in 2002. The communal violence that occurred recently in Gujarat (2002) is considered as genocide of Muslims. The violence in Gujarat began after a Muslim mob in the town of Godhra attacked and set fire to two carriages of a train carrying Hindu activists. Fifty-eight people were killed, many of them women and children. The activists were returning from Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, where they supported a campaign led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council, VHP) to construct a temple to the Hindu avatar[5] Ram on the site of a sixteenth century mosque destroyed by Hindu militants in 1992. The Ayodhya campaign continues to raise the spectre of further violence in the country (Human Rights Watch 2002).

Between February 28 and March 2, 2002, a three-day retaliatory killing spree by Hindus left hundreds dead and tens of thousands homeless and dispossessed, marking the country’s worst religious bloodletting in a decade. The looting and burning of Muslim homes, shops, restaurants, and places of worship was also widespread. Tragically consistent with the longstanding pattern of attacks on minorities in India, and with previous episodes of large-scale communal violence in India, scores of Muslim girls and women were brutally raped in Gujarat before being mutilated and burnt to death. According to the official records, since February 27, 2002, more than 850 people have been killed in communal violence in the state of Gujarat, most of them Muslims. Unofficial estimates put the death toll as high as 2,000 (Human Rights Watch 2002).

 

Major communal riots: Perpetration and victimization patterns

In the post independence India it is found, that majority of the riots have started as a clash between the two communities on issues related to religion. It is either clash over desecration of religious places, demolishing religious identities and rumours related to these issues. The rise and growth of fundamentalist outfits from both the communities have fanned the communal violence more in the post independence India. Here it is to be seen whether the 82% of Hindus are against the 12% of Muslims in India and vice-versa. The fact is it is not.  The following map shows the concentration of Muslims and Hindus in the country.

               A cursory look at the Table 1 and 2 gives the clear picture of perpetration and victimisation pattern of communal violence in post independence India. Majority of the riot victims were Muslims. However, when it comes to perpetration of communal violence, Muslim fundamentalists are no less either. The communal riots in India also reveal a discernible pattern, blurred and unformed in the initial decades, evolving gradually into a clear-cut design that today has assumed a frightening shape. The pattern reveals a distinctly soft approach by the state and its armed manifestation, the police, towards Hindu communal organisations whose fomenting of communal venom months before the riot actually erupts goes unchecked. The Hindu communal organizations like the RSS (indicted in the Tellicherry, Bhiwandi and Ahmedabad riots), the Jana Sangh[6] (held responsible in Ranchi, Ahmedabad), VHP and Bajrang Dal[7] (in Meerut and Bhagalpur) the Shiva Sena in Maharashtra, the Hindu Munnani[8] in Tamil Nadu played a great role in the perpetration of communal riots in India (Setalvad 1998).

In riot after riot the Hindu Fundamentalists have attempted to absolve themselves of any blame by projecting that it is the Muslims, who have in every communal conflagration cast the first stone, that is then followed by “justifiable retaliatory acts by Hindus in self-defence.” Detailed investigations by most judicial commissions that have investigated communal riots since Independence have in their findings held the systematic poisoning of the atmosphere through provocative acts by Hindu communal organisations. The RSS, Jana Sangh, Shiva Sena, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and affiliates are responsible for injecting the poison of communalism into the atmosphere that manoeuvres Muslims into apparently throwing the first stone (CJP 2002).

There was rise and decline of Muslim fundamentalist organizations like Jihad Committee, Al-Umma, and Islamic United Front, but no organization could be so strong and spread its roots like RSS. However, the role of Muslim fundamentalists in the perpetration of communal violence in India cannot be undermined. The Bombay (1993) and Coimbatore (1998) bomb blasts are telltale examples of the orgy left behind by the Muslim extremism. The Mumbai blasts of March 1993 were a sequel to demolition of the Babri Masjid and what followed later. It was the first planned and proven terrorist attack by a group of Indian Muslims. The target of attacks was Mumbai stock exchange. More than 300 people were killed and hundreds injured. The country suffered huge financial losses (Haque 2000). Coimbatore was subjected to the most devastating attack of terrorist bombings on February 14,1998 in which 58 persons were killed. The attack, by Al-Umma a Muslim fundamentalist group, came barely three months after 18 Muslims were killed in the city in November-December 1997 in a pogrom unleashed by a section of the police in concert with Hindu militants following the killing of a police constable, allegedly by three Muslim youth (Subramanian 1998).

 

Table 1. Perpetrators and Victims in some of the Major Communal riots in Post-Independence India

Communal Riots (Place and State)

Years

 

Perpetrators

(By Community)

Deceased Victims

(By Community)

Rourkela (Orissa)

1964

*Political groups of Hindus

*Inaction by the District Administration

More than 2000 persons of both the Hindu and Muslim communities were killed in which Muslim victims formed the majority

Ahmedabad (Gujarat)

1969

*Hindu Fundamentalists

More than one thousand people, a large majority of them Muslim, lost their lives

Bhiwandi, Jalgaon and Mahad (Maharashtra)

1970

Hindu fundamentalists and Muslims

59 Muslims

17 Hindus

Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh)

1978-79

Hindu Fundamentalists

5 Hindus

2 Muslims

 

Sambhal (Uttar Pradesh)

1978

*Muslim fundamentalists

23 Hindus

2 Muslims

Moradabad

1980

Muslims in first instance and later Hindus

400 Muslims

Biharsharif (Bihar)

1981

Muslims at the first instance

71 Muslims

2 Hindus

Hazaribagh (Bihar)

1983

*Hindu Fundamentalists

*Negligence on the part of Administration

1 Hindu

1 Muslim

Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh)

1983-84

*Muslim Fundamentalists

*Negligence by Administration

*Certain Ethics less newspapers publishing religious identities of the victims

14 Hindus

9 Muslims

Bhiwandi and Bombay  (Maharashtra)

1984

Hindu fundamentalists and Muslims fundamentalists

More than 100 persons of both the Hindu and Muslim communities were killed

Bombay (Maharashtra)

1992-93

Muslim Fundamentalists and Hindu Fundamentalists

Dead - nine hundred (575 Muslims, 275 Hindus, 45 unknown and 5 others).

Bombay (Maharashtra) Bomb blasts

1993 (March)

Muslim Fundamentalists

Two hundred and fifty seven persons, mostly Hindus

Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu)

1997

Hindu Fundamentalists and Muslim Fundamentalists

18 Muslims

Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu)

1998

Muslim Fundamentalists

58 Hindus

Godhra in Gujarat and all major places in Gujarat

2002

Muslim Fundamentalists in Godhra and later Hindu Fundamentalists with full support from the state administration

Over 2000 persons were killed-around 90%of the victims were Muslims. By official reports it is 552 Muslims 168 Hindus

Source: Ghosh (1987) Communal Riots in India –Meet the challenge unitedly. New Delhi: Ashish Publishing House.

 

 

 

 

 

Table 2. Hindu-Muslim Causalities of communal riots in a decade in India

Year

No of Incidents

Hindus

Muslims

1968

346

24

99

1969

519

66

558

1970

521

68

176

1971

321

38

65

1972

240

21

45

1973

242

26

45

1974

248

26

61

1975

205

11

22

1976

169

20

19

1977

188

12

24

1978

219