Human Rights- Islam & Asia

7/28/2019 Human Rights- Islam & Asia

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ISLAM & ASIAHINDU-MUSLIM COMMUNAL VIOLENCE IN INDIA

Varun Tomar 146021

Human RightsProf. Augustine SaliFebruary 28, 2013


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ISLAM & ASIA

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers Aristotle

A healthy democracy requires a decent society; it requires that we are honorable, generous, tolerant and respectful - Charles W. Pickering

Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisionsthat affect their lives. Democracy allows eligible citizens to participate equallyeither directly or throughelected representativesin the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economicand cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination. 1 The termdemocracy originates from the Greek (dmokrata) "rule of the people", which was coined from (dmos) "people" and (kratos) "power" in the 5th century BCE. Democracy also finds its origin in the Magna Carta, England's "Great Charter" of 1215 which is considered to be the first document tochallenge the status of the king, subjecting him to the rule of the law and protecting his people from abuse atthe hands of the feudal class. The term democracy as we know it in modern context, was not defined until the

Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, during which time the U.S. Declaration of Independencecame into existence, followed by the U.S. Constitution (which borrowed heavily from the Magna Carta). Theterm evolved to mean a government structured with a separation of powers, provided basic civil rights,religious freedom and separation of church and state. 2 In todays modern society, the word democracy meansthat it is the people who rule. The notion of democracy sets no limits on what the people may choose to do intheir sovereign capacity, other than making them exercise some restrain over their freedom of speech, freedomof religion and equal access to ballot, both of which are an indispensible aspects of self-rule.

Indians take great pride in announcing India as the worlds largest democracy. Despite the largestdemocracy tag India, a nation with deep linguistic, ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, till date experienceschallenges in establishing a pluralistic nation, even though it was not conceived in terms of shared ethnicity,culture or religion, but in terms of shared allegiance to liberal ideals. India," Winston Churchill once remarked,"is merely a geographical expression. It is no more a single country than the Equator." Though his argument

has now been invalidated, one still cannot deny the fact that no other country in this world embraces such ahuge number of ethnic groups, abundance of mutually incomprehensible languages, varieties of geography,climate, and religions and practices as much as India does.

In the last twenty-five years or so, however, the vision of India as a pluralistic nation has faced a potent challenge from a vivified religious nationalism. One recent result has been some of the worst communalviolence since partition. The nation Gandhi and Vivekananda which taught peace and non-violence to theworld saw a series of genocides and blood-sheds during the partition era due to religious conflicts and till nowcontinues to soak in the blood of the innocents. Whenever such ethical and communal violence takes placehuman rights are the first which are violated and put at stake. India has seen numerous such communalconflicts since independence. Religious violence in India, especially in recent times, has generally involvedHindus and Muslims, although incidents of violence have also involved Christians, Jews, and Sikhs. Despitethe secular and religiously tolerant constitution of India, broad religious representation in various aspects of society including the government, the active role played by autonomous bodies such as National HumanRights Commission of India and National Commission for Minorities, and the ground-level work being out by

Non-governmental organizations, sporadic and sometimes serious acts of religious violence tend to occur asthe root causes of religious violence often run deep in history, religious activities, and politics of India.

1 Http://En.Wikipedia.Org/Wiki/Democracy2 Http://Www.Livescience.Com/20919-Democracy.Html


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India and Communal Violence

India till the 10th century saw no communal or ethnic violence. Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduismseem to have co-existed peacefully with almost all Buddhist temples being built under the rule and patronageof Hindu kings; and other religions and there were no anti-religious bloodshed. It was after the Islamicwarriors started knocking at the western frontiers, that India experienced its first communal violence. Islam

since its inception has seen series of battles, blood-shed and violence. In India, the Islamic rulers demolishedHindu temples and built mosques in their place, subjected Hindus to inhuman treatment, collected Jaziya taxfrom the non-Muslims and raped Hindu girls. Muslim invaders like Muhammad bin Qasim, Mahmud Ghazni,Iltutmish, Timur, Tughlaqs, and Aurangzeb etc. left no stone unturned to oppress and prosecute the Hindu

population. Human rights, which was an unknown term in those days, were put at stake in every Muslimkingdom and violence and severity was adopted while dealing with the Hindus. For thousands of years Hinduswere oppressed by the Muslim clergy and this did not stop even after India gained independence. Muslimoppression took form of terrorism and militancy, and Kashmiri pundits were forced out of their homeland andforced to take refuge in other states. in these conditions, the Indian government failed to protect the humanrights of these people and soon the whole of India came under the cloud of Islamic extremism and terrorism.The Islamic militants for almost two decades killed people, not only in the Kashmir valley, but the whole of India. The irony here is that these terrorists seriously undermined the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

but when these terrorists are on the receiving end they talk of the human rights.

Out of the many communal violence incidents which took place in the 2002 Gujarat communalviolence can be termed the darkest of them all, in which 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were ultimately killedand 223 more people were reported missing. Let us take a look into the case and analyze how human rightswere violated, and who can be held responsible for such a big loss of life and property.

2002 Gujarat Violence

On 27 February 2002, the Sabarmati Express train was attacked at Godhra by a Muslim mob. 58Hindu pilgrims, including 25 women and 15 children, returning from Ayodhya, were killed in the attack. Thisin turn prompted retaliatory attacks against Muslims and general communal riots on a large scale across thestate of Gujarat, in which 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were ultimately killed and 223 more people were

reported missing. 523 places of worship were damaged: 298 dargahs, 205 mosques, 17 temples, and 3churches. Muslim-owned businesses suffered the bulk of the damage. 61,000 Muslims and 10,000 Hindus fledtheir homes. Preventive arrests of 17,947 Hindus and 3,616 Muslims were made. In total 27,901 Hindus and7,651 Muslims were arrested.

Background of Godhra Carnage: Babri Masjid demolition

Communal politics and corruption have dominated the political system of India since the very beginning, and the nature of politics changed into a more visceral politics based on Caste/ Other BackwardCastes and a communal agenda. One such politically motivated move by the V.P. Singh (1989-9990)government in 1990 was to implement the Mandal Commission report, under which the decision to reserve

jobs for the other backward castes excluding caste Hindus led to a great upheaval in the country particularlyamong the youth. The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), which was waiting for an opportunity to garner the Hindu

votes, saw this as an opportunity and started a national campaign to build a Ram temple at the site of BabriMasjid in the historical city of Ayodhya. The BJP was of a strong view that a mosque had been allegedly built

by the Mughals after pulling down the temple which existed in the past. In 1528, after the Mughal invasion, amosque was built by Mughal general Mir Banki, who reportedly destroyed a pre-existing temple of Rama atthe site, and named it after Emperor Babur. In order to gather the Hindu votes, the BJP started attacking theCongress for its soft attitude towards the Muslims of India and also attacked the Nehruvian concept of secularism by labeling it as Pseudo Secularism. It started a strong propaganda saying it was a sham and wasmeant only to create a Muslim vote bank. In order to expand its political base in rural areas, which was untilthen confined only to urban upper- caste Hindus, the BJP launched an aggressive movement for the


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construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya by taking the Ramjanmabhoomi movement into rural India. TheBJP propaganda easily caught on and began to pay rich political dividends and the party gained all Indiastature.

On December 6, 1992, the BJP and its other constituents like Sangh Parivar, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal (BD) entered Ayodhya with thousands of Kar

Sevaks (religious workers) from all over the country and demolished the Babri Masjid, which shook the nation.This was followed by communal riots in Mumbai, Surat, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Bhopal, Delhi and several other

places. Its impact could be felt even outside India - where Hindus were attacked in neighbouring countries.Mumbai witnessed one of the worst riots in the post independent India. 3 It was a black day for human rights inthe history of modern India. Over the years, the VHP and BD became more militant and started attacking bothMuslims and Christians under one pretext or the other. This was in the view that Christian missionaries are

bent upon converting the low caste Hindus into Christianity. The Gujarat riots must be seen in this background.

Godhra Train Burning and its Aftermath

The date which marks the beginning of similar atrocities was 27 February 2002, when the state of Gujarat erupted into incomprehensible violence. On this day, fifty-eight people were tragically burnt to deathat Godhra Railway Station in the Panchmahal district of Gujarat, on the Sabarmati Express. This train wastravelling through Gujarat, carrying Hindu activists who were returning from the disputed site of a Hindutemple in the town of Ayodhya, Northern India. They were returning from supporting a campaign led byVishwa Hindu Parishwad (VHP), to build a temple on the site of the destroyed Barbari Mosque. It was allegedthat Muslims were behind the attack on the Sabarmati Express. It all started with a group of Muslims in a fit of rage over an heated argument with kar sevaks who were returning from Ayodhya, set fire to coach No.6 of Sabarmati Express in which they were travelling.

The State government ordered an enquiry. Even before the investigations could be completed to knowthe reasons for the incident, the Gujarat government jumped to the conclusion that Muslim militants at theinstance of Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan (ISI) planned this incident well in advance. The next dayVHP announced Gujarat bandh and the government assured the police officials that it would be peaceful. Onthe contrary violence broke out on a large scale and by the end of the day more than 100 persons were done to

death. The Chief Minister, Mr. Modi justified that violence subsequent to the Godhra incident was keepingwith Newtons law of action and reaction. In the coming days, thousands of Hindu mobs mobilized and gearedfor vengeance for what happened in Godhra. This was followed by a three-day retaliatory massacre of thousands, with many more rendered homeless and dispossessed. Places of business and worship were looted,ransacked and demolished; girls and women were brutally raped, mutilated and burnt. 4

The violence continued unabated for more than 60 days with mostly the Muslim section of the population becoming the prime targets. Reports confirm that there was presence of the communal elementeven in the police force itself. The administrative apparatus was no different. People were burnt alive, womenraped in front of their own children and family, infants were done to death before their mothers. By the timethe state government, coming under severe criticism both inside and outside the country realized its blunder,and the violence spluttered to a halt, about 4000 people had been killed and about 200,000 driven from their homes, and property belonging to the minority community worth about Rs.3000 crores was lost. 5

3Engineer, Asghar Ali (Ed). The Gujarat Carnage. 2003. Orient Longman, New Delhi.

4Chandrasekaran, Rajiv, Milli Gazette, What Really Happened At Godhra, 16-31 March 2002.

5 Justice H Suresh. Combat Law: Human Rights Magazine , Vol. 1, No. 1, April-May 2002.


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The Blame Game

The Gujarat government chose to characterize the violence as a spontaneous reaction to theincidents in Godhra. The attacks on Muslims are part of a concerted campaign of Hindu nationalistorganizations to promote and exploit communal tensions to further the BJPs political rule a movement thatis supported at the local level by militant groups that operate with impunity and under the patronage of the

state. many extremist Hindu organizations have promoted the argument that because Hindus constitute themajority of Indians, India should be a Hindu state. Human Rights Watch and Indian human rights groups havewarned of the potential scale of death and destruction resulting from the activities of Hindu extremist groups. 6

If the activities of these groups remain unchecked, violence may continue to engulf the state, and may spreadto other parts of the country.

The state of Gujarat and the central government of India initially blamed Pakistan for the trainmassacre, which it called a pre-meditated terrorist attack against Hindus in Godhra. On February 28, onelocal language paper headline read: Avenge blood for blood. Muslim survivors of the attacks reported thatthey were told to go back to Pakistan. The state government initially charged those arrested in relation to theattack on the Godhra train under the controversial and draconian Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO,now the Prevention of Terrorism Act), but filed ordinary criminal charges against those accused of attacks onMuslims. Muslims in Gujarat were denied equal protection under the law. In almost all of the incidentsdocumented by Human Rights Watch the police were directly implicated in the attacks. At best they were

passive observers, and at worse they acted in concert with murderous mobs and participated directly in the burning and looting of Muslim shops and homes and the killing and mutilation of Muslims. In many cases,under the guise of offering assistance, the police led the victims directly into the hands of their killers. Many of the attacks on Muslim homes and places of business also took place in close proximity to police posts.Panicked phone calls made to the police, fire brigades, and even ambulance services generally proved futile.Many witnesses testified that their calls either went unanswered or that they were met with responses such as:We dont have any orders to save you; We cannot help you, we have orders from above 7; If you wish tolive in Hindustan, learn to protect yourself; How come you are alive? You should have died too; Whosehouse is on fire? Hindus or Muslims? In some cases phone lines were eventually cut to make it impossibleto call for help. Several witnesses have testified that lodging FIRs was made as difficult for them as possible

by the police. It has also been recorded that the police very often did not register the case against those named

by the victims .8

In some cases, the police themselves lodged the FIR before private parties could do so in order to control the investigation. The FIRs are thus devoid of the details required for a successful prosecution of thecase. 9 The trial of the numerous cases registered has also encountered several problems and has failed to

punish the perpetrators in a speedy and effective manner. 10

On April 3, Indias National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) released the preliminary findings of its report on the violence, a strong indictment of the failure of the Gujarat government to contain the violence.As the commission awaited a response from the state government before releasing a comprehensive report, itsvery authority to intervene in the matter was being challenged in the states High Court based on the fact that astate-appointed judicial commission of inquiry was already in place. The state government has failed to

provide adequate and timely humanitarian assistance to internally displaced victims in Gujarat. Human RightsWatch report shows serious delays in government assistance reaching relief camps, inadequate state provisionof medical and food supplies and sanitation facilities, and lack of access and protection for non-governmental

(NGO) relief workers seeking to assist victims of violence. Government authorities are also reported to beabsent from many Muslim camps. In sharp contrast to the international and Indian communitys response

6 Human Rights Watch, Politics By Other Means: Attacks Against Christians In India, A Human Rights Watch Report , Vol. 11, No. 6, September 1999; And Smita Narula, Indias Minorities Are Targets Of Government-Abetted Violence, International Herald Tribune , March 20, 2000.7

An-Naim, Gort and Vroom. Human Rights and Religious Values (Editions Rodopi, 1994)8 Citizens For Justice And Peace, Concerned Citizens Tribunal, Gujarat 2002: An Enquiry Into The Carnage In Gujarat (2003)9 Grover, Vrinda, The Elusive Quest For Justice In GUJARAT-THE MAKING OF A TRAGEDY (2002)10 The Gujarat Riots: A Year Later, February 26, 2003 . http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/dec/05godhra.htm.


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following a massive earthquake in the state in January 2001when millions of dollars in aid from theinternational community and civil society poured into the statethe onus for providing food, medical support,and other supplies for victims of violence rests largely on local NGO and Muslim voluntary groups. Thedisbursement of financial compensation and the process of rehabilitation for victims of the violence has been

painstakingly slow and has failed to include all of those affected. The biased nature of the Gujarat governmentcan be easily seen from the fact that initially compensation was disbursed on a communal basis: the state

government announced that the families of Hindus killed in Godhra would receive Rs. 200,000 while thefamilies of Muslims killed in retaliatory attacks would receive Rs. 100,000 a statement that was later retracted, in part due to widespread criticism from non-governmental organizations and Indian officials outsidethe state of Gujarat.

On April 4, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited Gujarat and announced a federal relief package for riot victims. Vajpayee, who earlier described the burning alive of men, women, and children, as ablot on the countrys face, stated that the Godhra attack was condemnable but what followed wasmadness. 11 All of the communities affected continue to live with a deep sense of insecurity, fearing further attacks and a cycle of retaliation. The violence in Gujarat has triggered widespread outrage in India. Civilsociety groups from across the world have also mobilized to condemn the attacks and appeal for justice andintervention. The Gujarat pogrom was unprecedented in the history of communal riots in India. Never suchcommunal violence took place with so much active collaboration of the state. There never was so much hatecampaign against minorities in the history of Independent India as in Gujarat. The police is generally partial

but in Gujarat it acted almost like a Hindutva force. It openly took part in killing and looting. Much of theviolence unfolded with the full collaboration of the police. In some cases, police fired at Muslims seeking toflee the mobs. When asked to help a group of girls being raped on the roof of a building, police officersdemurred, explaining: "They have been given 24 hours to kill you." Subsequent investigations confirmed that

police knew in advance of the pogrom and had been instructed not to interfere with it. 12

Human Rights Watch also confirmed in its reports that What happened in Gujrat was not aspontaneous uprising, it was a carefully orchestrated attach against Muslims. The attacks were planned inadvance and organized with extensive participation of the police and state government officials. Human RightsWatch concluded that The groups most directly involved in the violence against Muslims include the VishwaHindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), the Bajrang Dal, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya

Janata Party (BJP) that heads the Gujrat state government. Collectively, they are known as the sangh parivar,or family of Hindu nationalist organizations. 13 Amnesty International reported in 2005 that lack of progressin bringing the rapists to justice in Gujrat adds insult to victims injury and that the gross failure of the local

police and the Bharariya Janata Party-led Gujrat government to protect Muslims especially women and girls and the refusal of the central government to censure the state government in Gujarat is inexcusable.

Effect on Lives of the People of Gujarat

The genocide of 2002 in Gujarat has adversely affected the education of Muslim girls and boys.Thousands of Muslim families have not been able to return to their original homes. Many do not go to schools

because schools are far away or because of fear of new areas and school. It is very difficult for Muslims to getloans from the Banks to start or expand business or for housing. Large areas of Muslims are branded as"negative zones" by Banks and credit cards companies. Any Muslim from these areas is denied loans without

any investigation into his/her paying capacity. The situation in the relief camps were not fit for human survivalat all and were desperately lacking in government and international assistance. Camp as big as 6,000 residentswas located on the site of a Muslim graveyard and the residents were literally sleeping in the open, between thegraves. There are no employers for the Muslim youth and they are seen with a sense of animosity. 14

11 http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/india/India0402.htm12 Human Rights Watch. We Have No Orders to Save You . Hindu-Muslim Violence in India13 Ibid 14

An-Naim, Gort and Vroom. Human Rights and Religious Values (Editions Rodopi, 1994)


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Conclusion

What happened in Gujarat is condemnable and should not have happened. The Godhra incident whichresulted in loss of Hindu lives, or the riots which succeeded Godhra, all led to growth of distrust and discordamong the people of Gujarat. Based on the above analysis, it is quite evident that history cannot be re-writtenand the pain and suffering which the people of Gujarat have endured cannot be taken away from them. So the

government should atleast now take up responsibility to rope in the victims of 2002 into the main-stream life.Here is what the government could least do to bring in a change in life of the victims and build a relationshipof trust which has been lost.

Hand in the investigation to CBI, which has not been done so far.Politicians whose names are involved in the riots should be removed from the office temporarily, tillthey get a clear chit from the judiciary.Police Commissioner and other responsible personnel should be immediately sacked and charged of criminal offences for failing to do their duty and supporting the violent mob.The government should distance itself from religious groups and try to look into the problems of Gujarati people as a whole, and not in groups of Hindus and Muslims.False cases against all people should be dropped, and fast track courts should be set up to speed up the

justice process.Exercise strict control over the mass media, when it spreads wrong information.Rebuild destroyed property and give grants and subsidiaries to schools and universities for admittingmore students.Build proper relief camps for the refuges and ensure health of residents and hygiene of the area.

Though the Muslim community suffered more, it is not correct to say that Hindus did not suffer at all. Infact most of the Human Rights reports seem to have a biased stance towards the Hindus. Whenever theMuslims kill Hindus the media usually does not cover those reports, but even if a Muslim dies accidently it istermed as an act of communal violence. Recently there have been large scale violent attacks by the Muslims onHindus in Bengal. People have been killed, houses burnt, businesses looted and temples desecrated.Administration had given a free reign to the fanatics until it was too late. The question is why is there only fewmentions of this carnage in the National News that too in remote columns? We have to get out of thisfactional politics and stop pleasing a particular section of the society. There is an issue of prejudice in thecountry and this selective secular bias will only make matters worse. This will instill sense of injustice in onecommunity and may result in another riot. Injustice, done by any community should be treated equally andwith utmost severity. Like in the recent case of violence in Assam, the people in Assam were fighting againstthe illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and the Muslims fuelled by some politicians declared it a war onIslam and staged nation-wide protests, which also resulted in violence. Government should take strict andstringent action against any violent mob, irrespective of their social or religious background. Until we rise over

petty politics such act of violence will never stop. All the perpetuators of past riots must be brought to justiceand a clear message should be sent to the war mongers that the government will not tolerate any act whichdisturbs or breaches the social and communal integrity of the society.


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Bibliography

An-Naim, Gort and Vroom. Human Rights and Religious Values (Editions Rodopi, 1994)

Chandrasekaran, Rajiv, Milli Gazette, What Really Happened At Godhra, 16-31 March 2002.

Engineer, Asghar Ali (Ed). The Gujarat Carnage. 2003. Orient Longman, New Delhi.

Grover, Vrinda, The Elusive Quest For Justice In GUJARAT-THE MAKING OF A TRAGEDY(2002)

Justice H Suresh. Combat Law: Human Rights Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, April-May 2002.

Liam and Gearon. Human Rights and Religion . (Sussex Academic Press, 2002)

Little, Kelsey, Sachedina. Human Rights and the Culture of Conflicts: Western and Islamic Perspectives on Religious Liberty (Univ of South Carolina, 1988)

Mayer Elizabeth, Islam and Human Rights Traditiiion and Politics (Westview, 1999)

Thomas and Galligan. Human Rights in Asia (Edward Elgar, 2011)

Verma and Mehta, Human Rights Under the Indian Constitution (Deep and Deep, 1999)

Citizens For Justice And Peace, Concerned Citizens Tribunal, Gujarat 2002: An Enquiry Into TheCarnage In Gujarat (2003)

The Gujarat Riots: A Year Later, February 26, 2003.http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/dec/05godhra.htm .

Internet
http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/dec/05godhra.htmhttp://www.rediff.com/news/2006/dec/05godhra.htm

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