COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
ELECTIONS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

The Rediff Special/ V Gangadhar

'Perhaps I would be safer in a Muslim locality'

The first of a three-part series on the Ahmedabad riots.

The artificial division of Berlin is over. Beirut is more or less peaceful. But the division of Ahmedabad city into 'Hindu Ahmedabad' and 'Muslim Ahmedabad' has begun.

Because of frequent communal clashes and tension, a gradual exchange of population is taking place in the city. Ahmedabad's departure from convention is like the famous Lata Mangeshkar song of the 50s, Mein tho chalu paschim, purab tho chali duniya.

Ashraff Sayed, former chief reporter of the Times of India, was pensive as he talked to me in his rented flat at Gandhinagar, the Gujarat capital. A high-quality political journalist and an easy-to-get-along individual, Sayed and family lived at the Vijaynagar Patrakar colony for 19 years. They were the only Muslim family in the neighbourhood. During the 1985 and 1992 communal riots, his car was attacked and family threatened by Hindu fanatics. The government offered him protection, but as the tension rose, he had to make a decision.

"I was often away from home on work," recalled Sayed. "And I had to consider the safety of my family."

During the 1992 riots that claimed nearly 400 lives, even his neighbours, all journalists, advised him to move to a 'safe' area. The distress sale of his flat fetched only Rs 150,000 against the going rate of Rs 350,000. For sometime, Sayed stayed with his brother at Juanpura, a Muslim majority area and then shifted to another Hindu-dominated locality.

"When I retired from The Times of India, I began to feel more unsafe," explained Sayed. "Perhaps I would be safer in a Muslim locality."

Sayed, a reputed journalist for nearly four decades, first with the Press Trust of India and then the Times had his application for a government flat turned down by Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel.

"I was entitled to government accommodation, my documents were in order and all the bureaucrats had okayed the papers," lamented Sayed. He also pointed out that the state was quite liberal in allotting flats to several bogus journalists.

When he looked around for plots in mixed localities to build a house, Sayed met with hostility from the neighbours. In one case, 15 people, who had purchased plots next to the one he was planning to buy, threatened him.

"Finally, I was compelled to buy land in a totally Muslim area," Sayed said. "If this could happen to a person like me, can you imagine the plight of other Muslims? Yes, the process of dividing the city into Hindu Ahmedabad and Muslim Ahmedabad is in full swing."

There are many cases of the same kind. Professor Nizamiya, a retired principal of a local college and a long time resident of Azad Society, had to move to a Muslim locality after his house was ransacked by vandals in 1994. Professor Shaikh, formerly of the H K Arts College, faced a similar experience.

In another instance, a Muslim resident of a posh locality died after he was thrown down from his fourth floor flat. As Hindu fanatics roamed the city with lists of Muslim residents in Hindu localities, two Muslims of Akhbar Bhavan, a journalist colony, were woken up by their neighbours at 0200 hours and told to move out immediately because their homes were targeted by goondas.

Doctors, lawyers, professors and other professionals from the Muslim community are no longer welcome in mixed localities. A senior executive of the Housing Development Finance Corporation, uneasy at the hostility directed towards him, is planning to leave.

Of course, the same is true for Hindus. But very few of the upper-class had opted to live in Muslim areas. Inside the Walled City, criss-crossed by 'poles' (narrow lanes), Hindus and Muslims do live cheek by jowl. There is generally peace in areas where both communities have equal strength.

But trouble broke out in areas where one community outnumbered the other, leading to large-scale migration. The average Ahmedabad citizen does not seem to mind what was going on. This is the effect of aggressive, communal propaganda from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal. The BJP government has failed to control these extreme elements. A large majority of Hindus have been brainwashed to believe that their lives would be better off without the presence of Muslims, and that it is their duty to make them second-class citizens.

A small number of secularists, independent thinkers and other minorities are, however, unhappy at these developments.

"I find Ahmedabad stifling," complained Esther David, novelist, art critic and columnist. "In fact, I no longer meet so many of my friends because of their attitude towards the minorities. I am a Jew and not welcome in many Hindu areas. The Hindus, by and large, seem to be unaffected and unmoved by communal killings, arson and looting."

But why was there such a transformation in this once-peaceful city?

'It all began with the telecast of the Ramayan and other Hindu religious serials'

The Rediff Specials

Tell us what you think of this feature