Chronicling Communal Violence
Book Review: By Ram Puniyani
(Book Reviewed-Communal Riots After Independence-A Comprehensive Account by Asghar Ali Engineer, Published by Center for Study of Society and Secularism, and Shipra, Delhi, 2004, Pages 253)
10 February, 2004
Communal violence is the bane of Indian society. It is a most superficial
manifestation of the communalism prevalent in India. In a way this
politics and the violence began during the colonial period and the British
policy of divide and rule had a great role to play in this phenomenon
coming up in the society. The violence has been preceded by the Hate
propaganda which the communal organizations spread against the other
communities. Muslim League spread the venom against Hindus and Hindu
Mahasabha-RSS spread the same against Muslims in particular and lately
against Christians also in a big way.With India adopting a secular constitution, the stench of communal
violence, which was worst in the post partition riots, was supposed to die
down. As a matter of fact the decade of fifties witnessed a great amount
of calm, though the undercurrents of hate ideology continued even during
this period. Jabalpur riot of 1961 reminded the Nation that communal
ideology is not dead. And since than it kept visiting this or that part of
the country at frequent intervals. It was like a saturated solution,
solution of communal hate in an ever ready society and any crystal, which
is minor or major, can spark the process with great amount of ease. And an
atmosphere, which looks calm for the time being, turns into a scene, which
should not be part of civilized society.The progressive movement and intellectuals took this issue very lightly.
Along with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru most of them believed that it is a
passing phenomenon and with the rise of industrialization it will die its
death. And that is the reason as to why the documentation of these is not
as meticulous as it should be. It is to the credit of Dr. Asghar Ali
Engineer, who as a lone ranger took up the investigation of riots with a
single minded sincerity. He began the investigations, study and analyses
of riots in the right earnest. This area became one amongst many of
Engineers contributions to the society, its thought and progressive
intervention. After the Babri demolition and the post demolition riots he
went to lay the foundation of Center for Study of Society (CSSS) and
secularism, totally devoted to the issue of communalism. And documentation
and investigation of riots became the central focus of this center. The
present study is the outcome of the painstaking documentation work done by
the center. It is a pity that the book which aims to present a view of
communal riots has to base itself on the newspaper reporting as the major
source. But that reflects more on the available sources and lack of
transparency of the agencies involved rather than the authors planning.
The raw meticulous data is not available in a comprehensive way, so the
fall back on the available newspaper reporting.Engineer does well to take a birds eye view of the riots and try to
correlate the changing social scene with the decadal change and the causes
of riots. With his vast experience in this area he classifies them broadly
as per the decades. The decade of sixties see the riots in Jabalpur,
sparked by the elopement of a Hindu girl with a Muslim boy. Incidentally
the parents of both happened to be Bidi (Leaf Cigarette) merchants and
also rivals in a sense. Two other factors provoked riots during this
phase. In Eastern India, in Jamshedpur, Rourela and Ranchi, most of these
were sparked by the tales of refugees coming from East Pakistan. In
Gujarat, Ahmadabad the riots were engineered due to opposition to the
policies of Indira Gandhi, Bank Nationalization and abolition of privy
purses, to which Morarji Desai the strongman from Gujarat was opposed. He
was subtly supported by the Bharatiya Jansanhgh, the previous avatar of
BJP, and the then right wing party, Swatantra party. At the same time
riot was sparked in Bhivandi due to a provocative speech by Balasaheb
Thackeray, the Shiv Sena chief. Late seventy riots in Jamshedpur, Aligarh
and Benaras were mainly due to instigation from RSS, which wanted to
assert its presence during the dual membership issue. In Moradabad riot
the business rivalry was one of the major factors.The decade of eighties has been the worst in the period of Indian republic
as far as communal riots go. During this phase, one can also witness the
rising communalization of society. The next phase is also the one, which
begins with the demolition of Babri demolition and during this phase the
political ambitions of Shiv Sena in Mumbai and machinations of BJP in
GujaratSince the formation of CSSS a meticulous documentation has been done. The
home ministry data could not be accessed as it is treated as confidential.
Engineer makes an interesting point. The riots, which are spontaneous and
un-planned come under control very fast. While those simmering for longer
duration are the ones where the political forces are operating from behind
the scene. Another interesting point on these lines, is made by Vibhuti
Narain Rai, a top police official who has done good analysis of riots from
authentic sources. Rai points out that no riot can sustain beyond
forty-eight hours, if the authorities decide to control it. Laloo Yadavs
policies in a way concretely demonstrated the absence of communal violence
in Bihar and The CPMs policies in West Bengal to some extent demonstrate
the similar point. On the point that communal violence is an urban
phenomenon, Engineer concludes that communal riots erupt more often in
medium and small towns, though Mumbai may be an exception in this. Also
places like Ahmadabad and Surat have become sort of permanent foci of the
communal violence. Also villages are no more immune from the communal
poison. Being a pioneer of riot investigation, he provides an excellent
commentary on the analysis of riots dealing with the dynamics of riots.The book has a detailed break up of the riot from 1950 till 2002. It also
gives the valuable year wise break up of the data, religion wise deaths,
arrests etc. These clearly show the trends and biases of the state
machinery as well. The book while strong on data is not as strong on the
deeper analysis. The rise of communalization and role of hate propaganda
could have been highlighted better. Despite these flaws it is a valuable
addition to the study of communal violence in India. The book leaves one
wondering as to what is confidential in the data of communal violence? Dr.
Engineer would have done well to give the detail analysis of few sample
riots demonstrating the mechanics of those. A brief glimpse of the inquiry
commissions, which have studied these riots and their major findings would
have increased the worth of this contribution.