Teams of
Reference of the Study Team
a. The fascist mobilization, planning, training
(militia) and pogrom in Gujarat.
b. The conditions of victims of the genocide/pogrom.
c. The role of the state.
d. The issues and concerns for social action
groups and the anti fascist mobilization. It was resolved that the study team
would spend more time in the rural areas of Eastern Gujarat which have remained
largely untouched by earlier investigations/studies.
Study Team Members
·
Kalpana
Kannabiran, Professor, NALSAR, Hyderabad
·
Dayamani
Barla, National President, INSAF, Jharkhand
·
Chittaranjan
Singh, PUCL, Allahabad
·
Shashi
Sail, Chhattisgarh Mahila Jagruthi Sangathan, Chhattisgarh
·
Manimala,
Journalist, Delhi
·
Wilfred
D’Costa, INSAF, Ahmedabad
Published on
12th April
2002
by
INSAF
H-12, Anupam Nagar, PO: Shankar Nagar, Raipur - 492 007,
Chhattisgarh
Tel : 91-771- 283387; Fax : 91-7723-23289, e-mail : insaf@vsnl.com
National
Affairs Office :
F-93, Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi – 110 016
Tel: 011-6968121, e-mail : insaf@vsnl.com
The communal carnage in Godhra, the build up of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, and
the genocide in Gujarat are reasons enough to bow our heads in shame. 'We the
people of India' who have proclaimed ourselves to be a secular and democratic
republic, and profess the right to a life with no communal violence.
As a national forum of about 500 social action groups, social movements and intellectuals INSAF is committed to resist globalization, combat communalism, and defend democracy. Since its inception in November 1993, INSAF has taken up Secular Action Agenda as its main plank of programmes. All member organizations have been involved in action to ensure peace and harmony in the midst of communal carnage in the country, especially during 12th and 15th of March 2002.
At its Lucknow Convention on
"Citizen's Agenda to Strengthen Secular-Democratic Polity" in March
2002, it was decided to send a team to study
a. The fascist mobilization, planning, training (militia) and
pogrom in Gujarat
b. The conditions of victims of the genocide/pogrom
c. The role of the state
d. The issues and concerns for social action groups and the
anti-fascist mobilization.
It was resolved that the
Study Team would spend more time in the rural areas of Eastern Gujarat which
have remained largely untouched by earlier investigations/studies.
The report and
recommendations of the Study Team would be placed before the National General
Body of INSAF between 12th and 14th
April at Hyderabad, and would form the basis for formulations of a
long-term strategy and action plan for INSAF to intervene in the Gujarat
situation in particular, and the country in general.
A team of seven persons from
different parts of the country toured the rural areas of Gujarat from 2nd to
5th of April, met with affected people, visited villages and relief camps, and
discussed the issue with intellectuals and social activists in Gujarat. The team consisted of:
· Dayamani Barla, National President, INSAF, Ranchi, Jharkhand
· Chittaranjan Singh, PUCL, Allahabad, U.P.
· Shashi Sail, Chhattisgarh Mahila Jagruthi Sangathan, Raipur,
Chhattisgarh
· Manimala, Journalist, New Delhi
· Kalpana Kannabiran, Professor, NALSAR, Hyderabad, A.P.
· Wilfred D'Costa, INSAF, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Akshay Sail from
Chhattisgarh did the Video filming & documentation for the Study Team.
Visit to the Relief Camps and Villages:
We went to Chhota-udepur town, which is surrounded by several
villages of which 48 villages have been directly affected by violence. We
visited two villages and met people from several of the other villages at the
relief camp in Chhota-udepur. There are
2300 people in the relief camp here. In
three or four villages, Muslims were asked in advance to leave their villages,
by the adivasis.
The facilities at the Relief
Camp at Chhota-udepur were at its basic minimum. We visited the people at the
Relief Camps on 2nd March at night while they were having their evening
meal. We saw that all the people were
housed in an open tent with no protection from either the heat of the day or at
night.
We spoke to many men, women and even young girls in the camps. All of them shared that they had to run from their homes at the last minute with just the clothes that they were wearing. Even though in some villages, Muslims had been initially assured safety by their neighbours, but in the face of the mob this support was withdrawn. Almost every Muslim - man or woman - we spoke to, claimed to having good relations with the adivasis in their village and were of the opinion that these adivasis had been used by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Sangh Parivar outfits to attack the Muslims. We were also informed that the adivasi youth had been offered money and also assured that no police action would be taken against them when they loot the property of the Muslims. Many mothers of young school-going children expressed concern about their studies and also shared with deep pain their inability to assure their children of being able to go back to their homes and villages.
The people at the relief camp in Chhota-udepur are mostly
from village Panvad. All of them have
been there for a month. There were no
incidents of killing or rape in any of these villages in the tribal belt. Only damage to property and looting on a
large scale. The Saba Charitable Trust is running the relief camp with food
grain supplied by the government, though their rehabilitation is the major
issue. Local leaders like Professor
Pathan have already begun to have meetings with the displaced people, preparing
them for return to their villages, and are planning meetings with the Adivasi
leaders so as to create an atmosphere that would facilitate the peoples' return
to their homes.
We then visited village Joj that had only 7 or 8 Muslim
families. On 5th March the Muslim families in this village packed their
belongings in three trucks and left the village. But their trucks were stopped on the way in Chorwana village.
And, in front of their eyes the truckloads of belongings were looted and burnt
by a mob armed with guns, trishuls, and bows and arrows. Mr. Dalsinh Rathva, an
adivasi school teacher says: “All the people here are adivasis. They
are innocent. They were given liquor and money and threatened with dire
consequences if they did not participate in the arson and looting. The people did not even know why they were
doing this. Two tempos came carrying weapons and men. The police did not give any protection to the Muslims. I called them thrice and was told the police
was on its way. At 3:00 a.m. they had
still not come and we were asked to stay indoors. The adivasis were drunk and
acting on instructions. The Muslims who
were fleeing were stopped and the trucks carrying their belongings were burnt
by the mob. They came armed with swords, sickles, trishuls, guns and whatever
they had. We later spoke to the
adivasis who took part in the loot & arson, who also admitted that they had
been used. There were young boys and men.
No women! The women stood and
wept silently, watching the destruction. One woman from the blacksmith
community asked the rioters to stop the violence. Her house was also burnt down”.
Syed, s/o Kasimbhai Malik of Joj said to us: " We were told after the 28th February
that the VHP would come for us. We had
lived in this village for 38 years. It was
the people from our village who asked us to leave. They were all members of the BJP - karyakarthas. The Sarpanch in our village incited everyone
- Tersinhbhai Rathva. Even those who
wanted to help could not come near us.
We left on 6th March and have been staying in the relief camp since
then".
The other village in this area that we visited was Panvad,
which has a population of 11,000 of which Muslims number about 1000. There are Muslims, Adivasis, Baniyas, Lohars
and Prajapatis in the village, the Adivasis being in the majority. Muslims were engaged in vehicle business -
renting trucks, tempos, jeeps- brick business, and a few families were engaged
in agriculture. Around Panvad there
were several villages with just two or three Muslim families in each village
like Karajawant, Ummadia, Ummaswada, Baidia, Kochwad, Goongalia, Raicha,
Panawala, Asar, Amrol, Modga Jeevri, Singla.
As the trouble began on the 28th and there were many rumours against the
Muslims so these families started leaving their villages and coming to Panvad
for shelter. At 2:30 p.m. on 10th March, adivasis from neighbouring villages
began gathering in Panvad. Then the attack began. Local leaders Maheshbhai Joshi, Kiritbhai Shah and Ashokbhai
Sharma, all non-adivasis were directing the adivasis, and offered no protection
to the Muslim families. Thirteen vehicles (of which two trucks and six jeeps
were parked in the police station for safe custody, and the rest were parked
right in front of the police station even before the trouble began) were burnt
even while the police watched. All the Muslims in Panvad were forced to leave
the village that day.
When we as a team visited the village on 3rd
April, we found the devastation shocking.
All the houses of the Muslims were burnt and broken to rubble after
being looted, written on the soot of the walls of the devastated homes were
slogans declaring Hindustan to be the land of the Hindus, and abusive language.
While we were video-shooting and photographing the burnt down houses in this
village we were told that there were instructions from Kiritbhai Shah that
nobody should take photographs without his consent and that there should be a
written permit to do so. Because
Kiritbhai’s house is located between two Muslim houses, those houses were
broken down and not burnt, due to the fear that his house may also catch
fire. All the Hindu houses in Panvad
prominently displayed a small picture frame of Radhakrishna, possibly to
identify it as a Hindu house. Karimbhai
Ismailbhai from Panvad was one of the people we met.
On 2nd March, Fifty-five houses were destroyed in
Kadwal. The Masjid, which was under
construction, was razed to the ground and the books in it were burnt. "Jai
Siya Ram" was inscribed on the debris.
We met Mahboob Bhai, the Mukhia of Kadwal and Shakera Bibi, both now at
the relief camp in Chhota-udepur. Shakera Bibi said: "We were assured that
nothing would happen to us. But on 3rd
March the people were given kerosene and they burnt our homes. It is the people in our village who
identified our houses to the rioters who were mostly from other villages. We were running and they threatened to kill
us. They looted our house and carried
everything away. They burnt our
animals. But we want to go back. After the Sabarmati Express was burnt, we
didn't sleep even for one night. The
adivasis had been given money to do this eight days earlier. What do they know of the difference between
a Mandir and a Masjid.
Kawant village has a population of 10,000, of which 1200 are
Muslims. Although there was no trouble
initially in Kawant, but every day the pressure on the adivasis of the village
began mounting. Everyday one or two
families would be attacked. On 11th
March, the police told the Muslim families that they must move to a safe place,
if they were to be protected, and they were all sent from Kawant to Bodeli town
about 40 Kms., under police protection. Then at 11:00 a.m., they got word from
the village that their animals had been taken away. The 300 Muslims who
remained back in Kawant were then shifted on 12th March to Baroda, about 115 Kms.. The looting went on for four
days. 104 homes of the Muslims and 50 homes of the Bohras were burnt down.
Khureisi Ghulam Ahmed Bannubhai, the Mukhia and Panchayat Member of Kawant village said: “Although
we were sent with protection to Bodeli, the PSI there told us that we were
creating problems for them. A police
jeep was stationed in front to put pressure on us to leave Bodeli also. So 900 of us took off in different
directions.”
The relief camp in Godhra town is located in the Iqbal Girls'
High School and has 4000 refugees.
Unlike the Chhota-udepur camp, this camp receives no support from the
government. There are people from the
Panchmahal district in this camp and although the official figure of the dead
is placed at 60 in each of the four badly affected villages, unofficial
estimates put the death toll at a minimum of 200 per village. The attacks on
the people in Panchmahal began on the night of the 27th February itself i.e.,
immediately after the Godhra carnage.
Unlike the Chhota-udepur camp, people in the Godhra camp have suffered
loss of life, sexual assault and loss of property, the attacks on them
mirroring the assaults in urban areas like Ahmedabad.
People of Randhipur experienced the worst face of the
genocide and ethnic cleansing. Bilkis, who is now six months pregnant at the
relief camp in Godhra, met us at the camp. On 28th February, seventeen members
of her family fled from Randhipur village and reached Chunri village, from
where they fled to Puvajir. After
staying at Puvajir for an hour, they moved on and went to a masjid close by
where her sister Shamim delivered a baby. From here the whole family moved to
Bilkis' uncle's house in Khudra village.
Here, Bilkis' mother asked all the men to leave immediately to a safe
place, saying that since they were women they would be safe. After the men
left, these eight women stayed in the house of an Adivasi for two days. After
which the family that offered them shelter felt they were not safe, so they
gave these women adivasi clothes to wear and took them to Chhaperwad village on
3rd March. From here, as they were on
their way to Panivela village they were accosted by a group of 20 men from
their village in two vehicles. Groups of three men each carried away one woman
and raped them and killed them. They
also killed Bilkis' three-year old daughter and Shamim's newborn child. Bilkis, who was pregnant when she was raped,
lost consciousness and when she recovered consciousness she saw that she had no
clothes on and hid herself in the hillock for twenty-four hours. After this, on
seeing a police jeep approaching she came down for help. The persons who raped Bilkis were Jaswant
Naik, Govind Naik, and Naresh Moria, all from her village, Randhipur. They have
been identified in the FIR by Bilkis. She was kept in the police station for
one night before being brought to the relief camp. In the relief camp, she was absolutely quiet for four days, after
which she told one of the volunteers in the camp of her experience. Two days before we met Bilkis, her husband
had been traced and he was also at the camp.
Sabera, also from Randhipur, lost her husband Ayub in the
genocide. Ayub, his younger brother,
Siraj, and Siraj's son Sikandar were attacked by a mob. Ayub and Sikandar were killed, hanged on a
tree and burnt while Siraj watched helplessly. Sabera has five children, all
less than ten years of age.
Six-year old Saddam saw seven members of his family being
killed. Both his parents were
killed. Before his mother died she gave
him sixty rupees. He has not yet fully
registered the implications of what he has witnessed, and just smiles in answer
to questions. Yet, there are moments
when the smile leaves his face, especially when he sees Bilkis and Sabera and
all the other women crying inconsolably.
He has no answer to questions like, "what do you want to be when
you grow up?" A volunteer suggests
to him, "You want to become a police officer, don't you? So you can beat up these people", and
he smiles and nods. When one of us
suggested that be he could probably become a doctor, the volunteer said,
"Where is he going to be able to study?
At least if his mother was alive he had some hope. With both parents gone, what is he going to
be able to do with his life?"
The women at Godhra relief camp shared with the team that in
Vadivamanpur village, the police went to each Muslim house in the village and
beat up and humiliated the women without any provocation, on Moharram day.
Adivasis and the Genocide in Gujarat
The very difficult question before us was the fact that the
adivasis in the entire tribal belt were directly involved in the violence
against Muslims this time. With this
forming a major part of the Hindu defense [“it was not us, it was the
adivasis”], our primary effort in the investigation was to attempt to
understand what seemed to us to be a paradox.
While we did find that adivasis had in fact been involved in the looting
and arson in large numbers, the people who had been affected by the riots did
not hold the adivasis responsible for the violence. It was clear to them that
the adivasis had been paid and used for the job by the more powerful political
forces. They also recognized that the adivasis did not really have the choice
of refusing and were threatened and coerced into participating in the
arson. Liquor and money was freely
distributed in addition to the entire share of the loot. And this information,
in several instances was given to the displaced people by the adivasis
themselves.
In the village hierarchy in this entire region, the adivasis
were the most disadvantaged sections, while the Muslims were better off, mostly
moneylenders, traders and small and medium businessmen. To a great extent, the
adivasis were economically dependent on the Muslims and the goodwill between
the two groups was largely one of patron-client and had an economic base that
went back several decades in most instances. This relationship between the
Muslims and the adivasis, and the traditional positioning of the adivasi
communities leads us to clear patterns in the violence in the tribal
areas.
With one exception, no Muslim was killed in the violence. The
involvement of the adivasis was limited to economic crimes — looting and arson.
No rapes or any assault on women were reported from these areas. Muslims in the
relief camps were emphatic in their assertion that the adivasis did not touch
them. In Bilkis’ case, an adivasi
family offered shelter and gave her clothes to wear, while Hindus of her
village raped and killed all the women in her family with unimaginable
brutality. In Panvad, while the
adivasis were responsible for arson, the affected people in the relief camp in
Chhota-udepur named Kiritbhai Shah, Maheshbhai Joshi and Ashokbhai Sharma, all
non-adivasi Hindus of giving orders during the looting. This fact was further borne out during our
visit to the village when we were told that Kiritbhai had said that no
photographs should be taken of the village, while the person who accompanied us
to the village and showed us the aftermath of the violence was an adivasi
activist from the village.
Against this history, the reasons for the turnabout by the
adivasis could have two facets. One,
the relationship of economic dependence is a class relation that has the clear
potential of being exploitative. And
here the community identity of the person with economic power is largely
irrelevant – the Bania and the Muslim moneylender fulfill identical needs in
the village economy in an identical manner. This potential conflict then can be
channeled in any direction. This is where it becomes necessary to look at the
mobilization of adivasis on the fascist Hindutva agenda.
A very important trend in the mobilization strategies of the Sangh Parivar that has not received as much attention as it should is the mobilization of dalits and adivasis across the country against Muslims. In Jharkhand for instance, adivasis have been co-opted into the Hindu fold and asked explicitly to protect the Hindu faith, the Ram Mandir, and have been mobilized to go to Ayodhya in large numbers armed with their traditional weapons. In Gujarat in Vadi Vamanpur, for instance, Dalits and fisherfolk, were mobilized against Muslims, and in Chhota-udepur in Baroda District, Adivasis, mostly belonging to the Rathva group were paid and mobilized to attack Muslims in village after village. In the process of mobilizing dalits and adivasis in this manner, the VHP is successfully accomplishing its other, more central agenda which is to homogenize culture and Hinduise it. Thus obliterating the identity and individuality of the Dalits and Adivasis, situating them firmly in the lowest rung of the Hindu hierarchy. This is compounded by the fact of their illiteracy, poverty and unemployment and their consequent inability to comprehend in any depth the process that they are being co-opted into Hindu fold, and Muslims in this manner are wiped out by their elimination through genocide.
Our meeting with those involved in the Shanti Abhiyan in Baroda on 3rd April confirmed our view on the Adivasi involvement in the genocide as also our thoughts on the planned pogrom that was carried out by the Sangh Parivar in February – March 2002.
Can faith and hope be restored and sustained?
Twelve year old Safina, a class nine student, stood
close to her mother watching as we spoke to the women at the relief camp in
Chhota-udepur. Will you write the exams this time, we asked her. Yes she
replied firmly. What will you become
when you grow up, we asked her. “Doctor” she said.
Allauddin Fakruddin of Bodeli, who is now at the relief camp in Chhota-udepur
raised several critical questions, even while he is in this deep crisis with no
resolution in sight. “We do not want to live separately. After all this is what led to the formation
of Pakistan? It is not our desire. They call us traitors. Did we kill Gandhi?
Did we kill Indira Gandhi or even Rajiv Gandhi? Hindus alone did not win freedom for this country. Muslims, Christians, Adivasis, everyone
fought together to free this country, and all of us take the responsibility to
safeguard it. We must live together
with discipline. Ultimately all of us
must return to the ‘mulak’. This is our homeland. While we are here, we have
responsibilities which we must fulfill in harmony”. That such a reflection is
even possible in such a hopeless situation shows us the way for the future!
Our hope and faith is also immensely restored after witnessing
the way in which the entire Muslim community has pulled together in this
crisis. The people from the community were exclusively running both the relief
camps we visited. The people of Godhra have been pooling together community
resources to run the relief camps, spending Rs.30,000 per day for more than a
month now, even conscious of the fact that they might need to do this for some
more time to come. The people of Tejgarh, who wanted to set up a relief camp,
were not allowed to do so by the administration. They said money was not the
problem. They would raise it, and take
the entire responsibility. But does
this not hold the threat of a long lasting polarisation of the community and
its ghettoisation? That it can be checked only if secular and democratic
initiatives intervene to share the responsibility at this moment, so that
providing relief and support does not remain a community affair but transcends
to become a social responsibility?
Our faith is also restored when we hear Muslim elders in Godhra
saying they did not believe all Hindus were responsible for this situation.
They also informed us that even after so much had happened that not a single
Hindu worker in factories owned by Muslims in Godhra was removed from work!
Even Bilkis, who has suffered so much in this genocide that she will have to
cope with the trauma for the rest of her life, said stoically, when asked what
she would do if those who raped her and killed her people were brought before
her, “ I won’t do anything. He
[pointing upwards] will do what is necessary.”
None of the people we spoke to used the language of revenge
and retribution. All of them said “
Hamare dil mein rahem hai. What is the difference between us and the
perpetrators of this violence if we speak and think and behave like them”. This
is not to say that there is no anger or hurt.
The encouraging fact is that in the middle of all this insanity, reason
prevails!
Challenges
There are several challenges before us. The ones that
immediately come to mind are:
Ø
How can these people, who
have been displaced, be rehabilitated meaningfully? It is perhaps impossible to compensate the losses fully. Yet, the
government and administration have to be pressurized to fulfil their responsibilities;
Ø
What are the effective ways
in which the propaganda against Muslims can be countered? Hate publishing
especially in the media should be made a target of democratic resistance;
Ø
Long term security for children
and women survivors, who are without any support;
Ø
Effective measures to fight
the criminalization of Adivasis and Dalits and also to resist the growing space
for confrontation between Adivasi Vs "Hindu" adivasi;
Ø
How do we build solidarity
between Dalits, Muslims and Adivasis? How do we build a more broad based
solidarity that brings people of the working classes together in ways that are
strengthened in times of crisis;
Ø
Resistance to the rapid
growth and spread of fascist communalism in India in general, and in Gujarat in
particular, and the need to work towards a national programme to combat fascism
in Gujarat.
Conclusions:
1. The manner in
which Muslim houses and business establishments have been systematically
targeted and destroyed is not possible without elaborate long term planning.
2. The scale of
violence and the sheer volume of inflammable substances used are out of reach
of adivasis. The adivasis were obviously supplied all these materials and used
to perpetrate the violence on behalf of other forces;
3. Police inaction in
some places and active agency in other places indicates a certain level of
autonomy and strength, which adivasis do not possess. Witness the large-scale dispossession of tribals and the widespread
repression unleashed on them by the armed forces and the police in different
parts of the country. A crucial
question that arises is what is the source and cause of this unusual
“collaboration” between adivasis and the police?
4. The events in the
past five weeks are state-sponsored genocide. Poverty, unemployment and social
negligence have been used to draw in marginalized communities into the
implementation of this pogrom.
5. The survivors know
that adivasis are not capable of such a level of organized violence. They have
identified the Sangh Parivar clearly as being responsible for this violence.
6. Survivors are also
stunned by the adivasis involvement. This entire genocide is the result of
careful planning, propaganda and indoctrination over ten years. If this is not stopped immediately, the
walls of hatred will only grow.
7. The Sangh Parivar
has hit two birds with one stone: Muslims have been eliminated, and adivasis
have been shown as criminals responsible for that elimination.
8. The gain has been
that of the Sangh Parivar! The
responsibility has been fixed on the adivasis!
9. The forces of
Peace are very few and need to be enormously strengthened in order to combat
successfully this dangerous politics. We need to move from a position of
feeling ashamed and powerless to a position of strength.
Demands:
·
This state government must
go. Wherever we went the ruling party and its affiliates have been clearly and
unequivocally identified as being directly responsible for the violence.
·
The rehabilitation package
announced by Atal Bihari Vajpayee is absolutely disproportionate to the needs
of the people, who have been affected.
Compensation entitlements should reflect state liability in the loss.
·