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What Makes Them Different?
Asif Iqbal
“Our village was surrounded by a mob of 10-15 thousand people who damaged and burned our tube wells, tractors and shops for 2 days” said Mohd. Ayub, a middle aged man from a village viz. Sindhiyon Ka Kheda . The village with 200 households is located in Block Kapasan, District Chittorgarh, of Rajasthan. 22 nd and 23 rd of December 2007 witnessed first ever incident of communal conflict during the history of past 800 years of the village existence. Cow slaughter was the cause of conflict. An age old trick of cow slaughter was used to provoke the religious sentiments of the Hindus of the region. According to Hazari Das Vaishnav, the owner of the deceased cow, he was shown the remains of his cow on the agricultural land of a Muslim on 22 nd morning. His village, Jawan Pura shares agricultural land with the Sindhiyon Ka Kheda. He was informed by a group of people from his village who detected the cow remains that they have already informed the police about it. He was too upset to see the remains of his cow and was willing to file any police complaint for his loss. He was forced by his villagers to file an FIR for killing of his cow.
Villagers of Sindhiyon Ka Kheda, narrating their experience of riot
Natte Khan of the deceased village informed that 2 constables were sent to summon elders of the village on the fateful day. They were taken to the Thana Prabhari (police station heads) of 3 places, Akola , Kapasan and Badsoda who were sitting together at the local market place. They were asked to identify and hand over the culprit from their village. 6 shops and 1 bus in the market were arsoned immediately after they left for their village. Very soon the villagers felt the impact of mob attack as they saw the billowing smoke from their fields. Property worth 20 lakhs was lost within 2 days and they remained hostage in their own village for 8 days. Thankfully no life was lost as the administration called additional forces of MBC and RAC.
The Lone Saviour
Ram Singh Rajput from Pipal Khedi, bravely protected several Sindhi families on the days of attack by providing refuge around 150 individuals. He proudly told me that, he had performed the “duty of a Rajput” by helping the Sharnarthis (refugees) who sought his refuge. He feels that nobody is such a fool to leave a killed cow in open. He has never heard about Sindis eating cow. Ram Singh infers that the incident is an attempt by Jat community to assert its political supremacy in region. The region has Jat majority and both the present MLA and Pradhan are from the same community. They are interested in ensuring a Jat candidature for the MP seat in the forth coming elections. The incident was maliciously planned to test an identity based mobilization and it also proved helpful in curbing a community that is a socio-economic rival that was easy to target due to its few different faith based practices.
Both the Sindhi and Jat community offer loans to the needy by mortgaging their land and the land is lost to the money lender in case of any irregularity during payment of returns. They also help the loan seeker for release of his land in case the loan giver is from other community. Therefore, both the communities have common economic interest. Sindhis are Congress supporters whereas Jats are BJP supporters. Their economic and political rivalry has manifested in a riot. The social evils of money lending, bullying and looting are common in most of the dominants communities of the region but now such animosity is being used by latter to alienate the former on the basis of its strength and political patronage.
Ram Singh showing an idol that was put on his land for encroachment
No comparisons please..
I tried to enquire the reason of this incident as this was the only one in the regions history. Om Mali said, “Ab ye rasta chod key baithney lagen hai, Pahley to rastey mey hi baithtey thai”. He is a tea and snacks vendor at a trivia near Sindhiyon Ka Kheda. He meant that, earlier they used to bully around and had no socio-political threats from others but, they have behaved a lot after the attack. I asked that whether he offers them tea now. He said, “Yes, but as long as they remain in their limits”. Unfortunately, the poor victim of hatred had no reply for similar misbehavior faced by him from the other dominant caste men of his area. Probably he thinks it is nonsensical to draw a comparison. He can very well sense his wellbeing by favouring the dominants from “same faith” and so does the other petty service providers of the area. Thankfully the situation has not reached to the level of Gujarat where social boycott is obvious but it will certainly move in that direction if the promoters of religious hatred are left free to promote their discriminatory ideology.
Views of other Muslims
Sher Khan feels that the attack on Sindhis should not be given a communal colour. According to him, such an attack on a particular community is not a unique feature. Communities like Kanjars, Bagadiwas etc. that are considered anti social by the other communities in their vicinity are often attacked to restrain them from their rouge practices. Sher Khan is a renowned personality of the region who doesn't rethink for religious charities. In fact, he never says no to anybody in need. He sends several Muslims for Haj and donates heavily for activities of other religions. He proudly narrated his benevolent deed of contributing Rs.5 lakhs for cow's fodder during a meeting held at DMs office. His contribution was applauded by members of VHP who organized the meeting. Sher Khan is interested in getting Congress ticket for MP, for which he gifted a book on Rahul Gandhi to Sonia before last elections. He will pursue his demand for the forth coming election in 2009. He thinks that the incident cannot be considered an alarming sign to other Muslims of the region but their illiteracy and misdeeds are a cause of concern. However he is ready to help those who can work for literacy of Sindhis.
Sher Khan's palace in making
Syed Ashfaq Ali, a practicing as a lawyer in Session Court, Kapasan, also holds similar views about the Sindhi Muslims. He was approached by the people from the Sindhiyon Ka Kheda for help against police detention of 80-90 men from their village after the uprising. He helped them in filing FIRs against 32 people and release of men under illegal detention. According to him, no action is taken against the 32 culprits who were booked under Section 435, 436 and 147 of FIR no. 450/7. He is ready to help in filing a case in the High Court with villagers help. But, he feels that the villagers cannot pursue the case. Ashfaq Ali also felt the heat of the riots as his farms were under immense threat of arson.
Sindhis were called by Ari Singh
Ali Mohd. Sindhi Bareizo is President of Sindhi Mahasabha, an unregistered body existing for last 7-8 years. He is a practicing lawyer in the Udaipur Court . He is highly concerned about the plight of his community in consideration to its glorious past. According to him, his ancestors had won honorific title of 17 th Umrao in the Udipur dynasty. The Udaipur dynasty had 16 Umraos (lineages) and Sindhi Muslims were invited from Sindh (presently in Pakistan ) for help by Ari Singh during 1766-65. They helped him wining his Crown back and they were requested to settle in the region with pride. Successors of the Sindhi warriors kept serving in the armies of Princely states and the village Sindhiyon Ka Kheda is one such habitation with maximum Sindhi families. Ali Mohd. is trying to organize his community for past 2 years and at present he is collecting baseline data of Sindhi families located in different areas of the region.
Socio-economic status
There are 5 graduates and one 12 th pass girl in the 200 families of the village. 218 children of the village go for schooling to a middle level government school in the village that has 4 teachers. 20-25 children go a Senior Secondary Govt. school where the children from other communities and teachers have a strong bias against. I witnessed bashing of a Sindhi boy by his schoolmates over a confusion related to teasing of a girl. To my surprise no elder intervened after they learnt that the boy is from a Sindhi community. 66 families are listed under BPL category and there are 250 job card holders in the village. No job is initiated under NREGA till date. Average land holding per family is of 1-2 acres. Some of them are into money lending business to other communities.
Politics of polarization
Meeting with Govardhan Sharma, Ex-Sarpanch of Umand, village adjacent to the Sindhiyon Ka Kheda was helpful in understanding the religious under currents of the region. He feels that if Muslims of the region lead their life “properly” then there wouldn't be any problem. According to him, slaughtering of cow is a public matter therefore, the rioting took place. But, people don't have any objection to their personal issues. On enquiring about measures for non repetition of such hostile situation in future he replied, “nothing will happen if they (Muslims) don't do such an activity in future”. I wanted to meet the RSS head of the Block but managed to meet Bhupender, the RSS president of a different Block viz. Bhadesar. He didn't make any comment about the incident but he proudly narrated the activities of RSS in his Block.
He informed that boys from Muslim, Dalit and Adivasi families are also part of RSS although, their strength is limited. The group of youths associated with RSS, volunteer their services for any socio-religious program held by any organization. They actively participate in health camps/programs organized by the government health department. According to him, RSS is against caste discrimination and during their Vargs (training program organized by RSS) special emphasis is paid to overcome the caste biases amongst the participants. He referred to his method of introduction to me in which he had avoided telling his second name to hide his caste identity. Since caste is a crucial factor in the state, therefore the technique used by him helps in building a relationship with an unknown person beyond caste based identities. The approach is appealing to educated youth of the region who easily gets attracted to RSS.
Conclusion
The BJP government in Rajasthan, at present is not in favour of religion based carnage and its intention cannot be questioned because nobody from the Sindhiyon Ka Kheda died during the 2 days of captivity by a hostile mob of 10-15 thousand people. Similar incidents at other places in the state were also put under control in past. The instant assemblage of such a huge mob had proved helpful in gauging the worth of communal card (if needed) that can be played during forthcoming elections in the year end and next year. Massacre could have won bad name to the BJP like Gujarat genocide. The aggression of the mob was pacified by allowing them to destruct all major sources of livelihood.
Level of knowledge of RSS leaders of the region is enough to motivate the educated youth of the small towns. Such youths are vital opinion makers in the region therefore their practices and beliefs are aped by others in the absence of any alternative secular ideology. Their activities don't reflect any apparent caste or religion based differences, in fact, in practicality, I doubt that the leadership in RSS is in favour of dissolving the Varna system. Their activities reflecting egalitarianism is only for the sake of building a sangathan (organization). Infact, it is a cause of concern for the people's organization that actually believes in equity and non discrimination for social change but, is not highlighting it in their activities.
An influential and rich man like Sher Khan can play a crucial role in creating an atmosphere of socio-religious coexistence in the region. But, he unfortunately is only interested in keeping his role confined to socio – religious charities because it helps in sustenance of his economic interests. He feels that he is too occupied with endevours for his economic empire. But his present unbiased philanthropic image is in contrast to his aspirations of becoming a political leader. I wonder his indifference to any incidence of social unrest like Sindhiyon Ka Kheda in his area can hardly help him in getting a MP ticket from Congress. However, if he manages to win an election on the basis of his wealth, he can hardly protect his seat for long.
The Sindhi Muslim community has no political representation and has a Mahasabha (forum) that is not at all active. The present President of the Mahasabha realize the importance of organization of his community therefore he is doing a baseline survey of Sindhi families located at different places of Rajasthan. He is interested in seeking recognition to his community from the royal Rajputs and others of the city. Hope he can maintain the identity of the community without getting sucked in the larger religion based politics.
Elders from Sindhiyon Ka Kheda feels that now only the almighty can save them if such a situation reoccurs. They are unable to understand the reason for such an attack on them. They believe that they are very much a part of the region. Besides their faith, all other daily needs, chores, livelihood activities are similar to other villagers of the region and their faith had never ever became a topic of dispute within them. Any act of misbehavior by youths, land disputes or other social issues that were related to Sidhi community was earlier settled amicably by the elders of the two communities involved. They are confident that nobody from Sindhi community was involved in cow slaughter as they have several goats of their own to be slaughtered if required. Considering the socio-political scenario of Rajasthan, it is surprising to believe that a small community of 200 families can dare to challenge the majority Hindu communities in their vicinity. Moreover, the facts and findings related to the slaughter are too vague to hold any Sindhi responsible for the misdeed.
Perhaps it is time for the people who believe in secularism to think about a strategy to deal with the dirty religious politics being promoted by Hindu and Muslim fanatic groups particularly in rural India . My concern for rural India is more because of 2 major reasons i.e. its might (60-70% of population) and its state of neglect. Most of the villagers hold biased views about Muslim and Christian communities due to their limited or no exposure. Such prevalent myths are further being strengthened by the religious groups working for their political interests. It is obvious that the results are in favour of those religious hardliners that are spreading their ideology by working with villagers. Our failure in promotion of secular ideology as individuals and people's organization is leaving people with no choice but to accept the only available ideology being promoted by others. It is high time for us to act rather terming it as one of the incidents resulting from struggle for common economic interests between 2 communities.
