Communal riots: Punishing the guilty

MOST judicial commissions that have investigated communal riots since Independence have unequivocally held Hindu communal organisations guilty of spreading the poison of communalism that corners Muslims into "throwing the first stone".

* * *

Justice Jagmohan Reddy Commission of Inquiry, Ahmedabad riots, 1969:

"Gujarati newspapers and most leaflets, handbills and appeals 'connected' the story of a stray incident, the hitting of a glass panel by a streetchild who happened to be a Muslim, to the 'historical' role of Muslims as destroyers of Hindu temples and dharma (religion). They also spread rumours of the rape and molestation of Hindu women, again an oft-repeated technique..."

* * *

Justice Venugopal Commission of Inquiry, Kanyakumari riots, 1982:

"The RSS adopts a militant and aggressive attitude and sets itself up as the champion of what it considers to be the rights of Hindus against minorities... by... rousing communal feelings in the majority community by the propaganda that Christians are not loyal citizens of this country; deepening the fear in the majority community by a clever propaganda that the population of the minorities is increasing and that of the Hindus decreasing; infiltrating into the administration and inducing the members of the civil and police services by adopting and developing communal attitudes; training young people of the majority community in the use of weapons like dagger, sword and spear; spreading rumours to widen the communal cleavage and deepen communal feelings by giving a communal colour to any trivial incident."

Justice B. N. Srikrishna Commission of Inquiry Report, Bombay riots, 1992-3:

"From or about July 1992, the Bharatiya Janata Party orchestrated its campaign for construction of a temple at Ayodhya by holding Ram Paduka processions, Chowk Sabhas and meetings, using these occasions for delivering inflammatory speeches exhorting the Hindus to become united on the issue. Not only were these occasions used for exhorting Hindus to unite, but some speeches and slogans on such occasions were downright communal, warning the Muslims that dissent on the Ranjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute would be an act of treachery for which the Muslims would be banished from the country...

* * *

Causes

We ride through life on the beast within us. Beat the animal, but you can't make it think.

Luigi Pirandello

December 1992

The immediate causes of the communal riots on 6 December 1992 were:

The demolition of the Babri Masjid

The aggravation of Muslim sentiments by the Hindus with their celebration rallies.

The insensitive and harsh approach of the police while handling the protesting mobs which were initially not violent.

January 1993

The Commission does not accept the theory that it was merely a backlash of the Hindus because of the stabbing, Mathadi murders incidents and the Radhabai Chawl incident.

The events which took place between the period December 12, 1992, and January 15, 1993, indicate that there were attacks going on against the Muslims and their properties in different areas; there were also several stabbing incidents carried out by professional criminals... with the intention of whipping up communal frenzy, in which the majority of the victims happened to be Hindus (two notorious Muslim criminals were subsequently identified to be behind the Hindu stabbings); the communal passions of the Hindus were aroused to fever pitch by the... print media, particularly Saamna and Navakal...; rumours were floated that there were imminent attacks by Muslims using sophisticated arms.

* * *

Is the Indian police biased?

Justice Shiv Dayal Srivastava's report on the riots of Jabalpur, Sagar, Damoh, and Narasinhapur, February 1961:

"The Intelligence department was entirely inefficient and the law and order authorities were responsible for a laxity in investigation and prosecution which resulted in large acquittals. There is also a visible tendency towards formality rather than reality..."

Report of the J. R. Mishra Commission of Inquiry, Delhi riots, November 1984:

"The riots occurred broadly on account of the total passivity, callousness and indifference of the police in... controlling the situation and protecting the people of the Sikh community... Some instances, though few in number, have also been noticed where policemen in uniform have participated in the looting. The Commission found that there were incidents where the police wanted clear and definite allegation against the anti-social elements in different localities to be dropped out while recording FIRs."

TEESTA SETALVAD

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Communal violence
Next     : Media reportage: Interview with Mark Tully