Gujarat Two Years Later: Time for Collective Introspection for Indian Muslims

By Arshad Alam

A little over two years ago, the “prosperous” Indian state of Gujarat became a laboratory of the fascist ideology of the Hindu Right, also known as Hindutva. On February 27th, 2002, a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was burnt down, and sixty people were charred to death. The Hindutva forces were quick to blame Muslims for the carnage allegedly done in connivance with “outside” (read Pakistani) forces.

Three days of pillage, plunder and orchestrated rape and murder of anything even remotely connected to Muslims followed. Officially 800 Muslims were killed, but unofficial independent reports put the number as high as 2,000. Hundreds of Muslim women were raped then killed. In acts of unparalleled barbarity, even fetuses were not spared. Thousands of Muslims became homeless and refugees in their own state.

Hindus who protected Muslims were properly warned, threatened and even killed when they did not comply to the Hindutva demands. The fascist government of the state, led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, shamelessly justified the pogrom citing Newton’s third law: for every action, there is a reaction. The so-called statesman Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, decided against visiting Gujarat; instead, by publicly focusing on the train torching, he put the blame for the carnage solely on Muslims.

Two years later, the same party is back in power in Gujarat, and the same Prime Minister is being compared to the visionary Nehru.

We still do not know who torched the train. Indeed, the government’s own forensic department had concluded that the fire was a result of internal explosions and not due to extraneous factors.

Yet, Muslims are still regarded as the culprits behind the incident. Hundreds are routinely harassed by the police, and hundreds are in custody. Psychologically scarred Muslim refugees have been unable to return home. To this day, no compensation has been paid to them for the loss of their property.

The fascists who were responsible for the carnage remain at large, despite the continued untiring efforts of some sections of civil society. In fact, some of those who should be behind bars move around with police protection.

We also know now that what happened in Gujarat was not a mere retaliation from the Hindus, not a mere Hindu-Muslim riot. Independent reports indicate in no uncertain terms that it was a state-sponsored pogrom. The European Union termed the incident an “ethnic cleansing” of the Muslim minority. The connivance of the police and local politicians is well documented, yet no one has been brought to justice.

The Gujarat Massacre was all the more disturbing because of the participation of all sections of society in the killing of Muslims. It was the first time that members of the Dalit and the Adivasi castes had participated in such large numbers against Muslims. What makes it ominous now after two years is the collective amnesia of Indians currently glued to TV sets for the mother of all India-Pakistan cricket series.

So what have Indian Muslims learned from the Gujarat Massacre? Perhaps nothing.

Their political discourse remains the same two years later, blaming others for their plight and arguing that they are discriminated against in India. There is certainly a basis to these allegations--the fact remains that majoritarian fascism is the number one challenge before Indians today.

But Indian Muslims need to do some collective introspection as well. For fifty years, the religious and political Muslim elite has not shown any interest in the socio-economic betterment of Muslim masses. The pet agenda of Muslim politics has always been religious. Instead of demanding more government schools in Muslim localities, Muslim leaders have been more interested in opening madrasas which teach nothing except inanities when compared to modern canons of knowledge.

The religious establishment has deliberately ignored calls for reform in Muslim Personal Law which puts women at considerable hardship in the event of divorce or even within an unhealthy marriage. The communalist Hindu groups highlight these rigidities of Indian Muslims and paint them as pampered minorities--a viewpoint which has considerable following in India.

Moreover, the Muslim leadership has never shown much interest in fighting together with other oppressed sections of Indian society. They have never empathized with the plight of Dalit (ex-untouchables) and tribals. As if a Muslim lives by prayer alone, they have always agitated on purely Muslim religious issues.

Now another election is around the corner, but the Muslims have yet to arrive at any understanding to share a common agenda with other struggling sections of Indian society. Sadly, the ulema continue to understand Gujarat as a riot between Hindus and Muslims. Far from it. They forget those Hindus who saved many Muslim lives. They forget that the most vociferous critics of the Gujarat government were the liberal Hindu journalists. Until today, they are assisting the victims heroically despite receiving numerous threats from the Hindutva brigade.

Muslims need to understand that the aim of Hindutva is to destroy the secular space and the sense of composite nationalism which all Indians share. We need to rescue nationalism from the myopic vision of Hindutva. And this can only be done by forging greater solidarities with other oppressed sections of Indian society. But for that to happen, we need to question our own attitudes towards a lot of things. In other words, we can’t fully participate in secular society without secularizing ourselves.

Arshad Alam is a research scholar at the Department of Muslim Religious and Cultural History at the University of Erfurt, Germany.