States: Gujarat

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It's a legacy so violently thrust on Gujarat, a chronicle so smeared with communal gore that the sheafs of conflict must need be rifled several times over before the tragedy is unravelled. For, among the overwhelming figures of death and destruction unleashed by riots lurk patterns freshly formed, areas newly covered by hate, unsavoury precedents set. For the first time in the state, and in India, the demography of riots has altered, moving from urban to a rural spread, bringing the tribals in its fold.

SCENE OF CRIME: As many as 450 Muslim homes were destroyed by tribals at Sanjeli

Take Sanjeli. In the carnage that ensued after the February 27 Godhra killings, 8,000 armed tribals descended on the town of 8,000 in the tribal heartland of Dahod district. Bows, stones and gunshots rained on the fleeing Muslims, killing 15. Police intervention meant another 2,500 were spared a savage death. Today, all the 450 Muslim houses in Sanjeli are destroyed, the town sanitised of Muslims, almost all of whom were followers of the radical missionary group Tableeghi Jamaat. The village mosque run by the Jamaat is wrecked; at the nearby madarsa torn and burnt books are strewn all over the floor.

VICTIMS OF A NEW WRATH: The Muslim refugees at one of the relief camps at Dahod

In an identical display of insanity, around 7,000 armed tribals marched into Bodeli town in Chotte-Udepur tribal area of Vadodara district intent on massacring the Muslims who had taken shelter there after being driven out of the neighbouring villages. While hundreds were saved by the police, Vadodara District Collector Bhagyesh Jha and other senior officers were fired upon by tribals as they tried to rescue the trapped Muslims.

Tragedy was also averted by the police and army at Viramgam town near Ahmedabad where over 15,000 Hindus, mostly armed OBC Thakores, burnt 250 Muslim houses. The attack has caused large-scale Muslim migration.

The tribal belt that witnessed communal violence

It is an occurrence new to the country. Hundreds of villages in rural areas of central and north Gujarat, particularly in the tribal belt, have been wiped clean of Muslims by the tribals and OBC Hindus. "Riots have largely been an urban phenomenon in India," says political analyst Vidyut Thakar. "What is intriguing is that for the first time mobs have attacked Muslims in rural areas, particularly in the tribal belt."

Of the more than 800 people killed in rioting (140 in police firing), nearly 150 people have died in tribal-related violence in the state, over 90 per cent of them Muslims. Combined with the violence unleashed by OBC Thakores in rural areas, the toll is 400. Brutalised Muslims now stationed at camps in Dahod and Jhalod are also bewildered at the unexpected magnitude of reaction in small towns.

"We are doomed. Temporarily or forever, only time will tell." ABDUL KARIM, grocery store owner

Most of them blame the Sangh Parivar for the zealous Hindu identity that the tribals have recently acquired. When a newspaper carried an article saying the "tribals were on a warpath against Muslims" it received over a dozen calls from tribals. "Don't call us tribals. Refer to us as Hindus," they said. "For what they did to Hindus at Godhra, they should be taught a lesson," said another tribal.

Incredible as it may seem, Muslims believe the Godhra killings were, in fact, orchestrated by the Hindutva brigade to trigger an anti-Muslim upsurge. "It was not a communal riot but a plan to wipe us out," says Mushtaq Masken of Sanjeli whose shop and house were destroyed before he fled the town with his family.

The tribals believe otherwise. For the unprecedented reaction they blame their exploitation, especially that of women, by Muslims. Says Dalsukhdas Maharaj, a tribal sadhu and a VHP member whom the Muslims accuse of playing a key role in triggering anti-Muslim violence: "It was a spontaneous upsurge. All we have done is spread awareness among the tribals about their exploitation and their rights." The repressed antagonism combined with disapproval over alleged communal teachings spread by Tableeghi Jamaat to unleash the tribal outrage.

The Tableeghi movement was launched in 1926 by a Deobandi maulvi, Maulana Mohammed Ilyas, a descendent and a follower of medieval Islamic radical Shah Valiullah. The school doesn't recognise national boundaries, only pan-Islamic brotherhood. In the tribal belt stretching from Dahod to Chotte-Udepur, a majority of Sunni Muslims have been Tableeghi followers, with towns like Sanjeli even hosting radical Islamic preachers from Gulf countries for the propagation of puritanical Wahabi Islam. According to Hindus, the Muslims in the region were followers of the moderate Islamic school, Ahil-e-Sunnat, before the movement reached the area about two decades ago. The Muslims, however, defend the Jamaat. Says Masken: "It is a progressive and apolitical movement that tackles issues like misuse of Islamic divorce laws."

"If the violence was due to the Tableeghi teachings why were followers of other Islamic schools like Bohras attacked?" asks Akram Qureshi, a relief worker. But tribals like Surmabhai Damor counter the argument, "The tribals are ignorant of various Islamic schools which is why they have reacted against all Muslims even though the hatred was spread by Tableeghis."

Though the violence has abated in the tribal belt primarily because there are no Muslims left in the villages, rehabilitation of the affected has become a dilemma. Last week, as government officials arrived at Kawant village near Chotte-Udepur to plan the resettling, tribals threatened the Muslims against returning to their villages.

The Muslims in relief camps in the tribal belt are also divided over whether they should go back to the villages or simply migrate. While the poorer people refuse to return, the more affluent ones like Masken who have land and property in the villages want to. In a sharp departure from Tableeghi belief, Masken says, "It is our matrabhoomi (motherland). Where else can we go? We will return to our villages even if it means getting killed." Adds Salimbhai who runs a relief camp at Chotte-Udepur: "At least 40 per cent of the displaced Muslims don't want to go back." On the other hand, the presence of the refugees is being opposed by Hindus.

The tribals and OBC Hindus, meanwhile, are remorseless, often outrightly triumphant. It may be an exhilarating feeling for them but has opened up fresh frontiers of hate for the entire country.