Gujarat: Four Years After
The Genocide
By Azim Khan
25 February, 2006
Countercurrents.org
http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-azimkhan250206.htm
Last month, during a visit to Ahmedabad I befriended the owner of a tea-stall, a policeman and a businessman. My vendor 'friend', a wonderful man, was an innocent victim of systematic saffron propaganda against Muslims. After a few days of our friendship, when I asked him about the carnage of 2002 in Ahmedabad he narrated how people from the posh CG Road looted showrooms belonging to Muslims. To my surprise, the policeman wanted to know if I could help him, through a senior police official friend of mine, to secure a place in the Crime Branch or Anti-Terrorist Squad. Before my Gujarat visit I had assumed that postings in these special cells were considered punishment postings in police circles. I did not know that these agencies had been turned into a new extortion industry. My third 'friend', a disciple of Murari Bapu, was very happy because, he said, under Modi's regime Hindus 'taught a lesson to Muslims'.

The state-sponsored pogrom in Gujarat was a systematic effort to terrorise Muslims and reduce them to the status of second-class citizens by destroying their lives, livelihood, homes and self-respect. Beginning on 27 February 2002 the spate of violence continued for well over three months. Coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express train was burnt down at Godhra, taking a toll of 59 persons and leading to violence on an unprecedented scale and magnitude directed against Muslims in Gujarat. The profound human tragedy resulted in more than 2000 Muslims dead, many more grievously injured, orphaned, sexually abused, rendered homeless and without any source of livelihood, and property worth billions burnt or looted. Reports from several independent sources corroborate that the state was actively involved in the massacre of innocent Muslim citizens.

The physical violence ended within six months, but thereafter it was time for violence of another kind. This violence was through a systematic subversion of justice and denial of human rights of an entire community. The entire legal system was subverted to protect the culprits and to work against the interests of the victims, almost all of whom were Muslims. Out of the 4000-odd cases registered, more than 2000 were summarily closed without any trial. In other cases, witnesses were compelled to turn hostile in the face of threats by state-supported criminals who perpetrated the killings. Further victimization and terrorization of the Muslims continued by picking up innocent people, detaining them illegally before being charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). The fascist goal of reducing the Muslims to second-class citizens has thus been accomplished in Gujarat. There is enormous human suffering that still remains to be healed-insecurity, homelessness, ill-health, economic distress, obstacles in securing justice, denial of human rights and state apathy.

Ahmad Husain, a 32 year-old teacher and social worker, is the second eldest son of the late Allah Rakkha who fought the British Raj. Under colonial occupation Allah Rakha was charged for treason but now his son has been charged for the same offence in 'independent', 'secular' and 'democratic' India. His family had no clue until they were told by the officials of the Crime Branch of Ahmedabad that he was detained under POTA. The officials threatened another accused to identify Ahmad or be ready for the detention of his son under POTA. They wanted a confession from Ahmad, and so they took his youngest brother Mohammad Ali into custody. Ahmad was told by the officials that it was in his family's interest to sign the confession papers prepared by the police, or else, they said, they would detain his younger brother under the same charges. A police officer sarcastically told Ahmad that if his younger brother was also detained her mother would die. In a letter to the magistrate Ahmad wrote, "Whenever, I asked about the reason of severe beating and torture by the crime branch personnel they told me your destiny has brought you in this condition, we know you haven't done wrong in this life but you are being punished for your sins in your previous life." He further states, "Policemen used to say, 'the law is ours and judges are ours, we can book anyone under POTA"

Khatoon Bibi is the mother of three boys who are detained under POTA for being allegedly involved in the Godhra incident. Her 68 year-old husband Sultan Khan Pathan is suffering from throat cancer. She and her daughter in- law are the sole bread earners in the family. In deep anguish and frustration she continuously requested to be taken to the residence of Gujarat's chief minister, who played a key role in engineering the anti-Muslim genocide. She says in anguish, "Why doesn't Modi's government detain my whole family so at least we will not face suffering and humiliation?" She is unable to understand what her sin was. In fact she is guilty of a 'crime'-a 'crime' not defined in the Indian Penal Code-the 'crime' of being a Muslim mother in Modi's fascist Gujarat.

Another unfortunate mother, who lost her eyesight while crying for her detained son for years, asked me about the draconian anti terrorist law POTA. She says, "My innocent son is languishing in jail and the butchers are roaming freely. What kind of law is it which punishes the innocent and acquits the guilty?" She wanted to know when her son would be released. I, of course, had no answer to her queries because the present regime in Gujarat does not even pretend to be remorseful for the heinous crimes that it perpetrated against the state's Muslims. The questions raised by these victims of state terrorism are shaking the foundations of rule of law and justice to all as enshrined in the Constitution of India. How can we still claim to be world's largest 'democracy'? Theirs is a story of unimaginable sufferings. The voiceless victims are losing their faith in every institution including 'democracy'. As Mukul Sinha, a prominent social activist from Ahmedabad, says, "I am convinced that Muslims will not get justice in Gujarat under the present regime. The entire legal system has been sabotaged by the fascist government."

Abdul Rashid Machiswala, father of a detainee under POTA, asks me, "95 Muslims were killed in Naroda Patia alone but no one was booked under POTA for the heinous crime. Yet, all POTA detainees are Muslims. What kind of justice is meted out to the poor Muslims in Gujarat?" One of the detainees narrates his own traumatic experience at the hands of the state authorities thus: "A policeman took us before the Magistrate, Mr Rane, in Ahmedabad. We complained about the torture in police custody. He shouted at policemen and said, 'How you have prepared them? Take them back and come with good preparation?' By this he meant using more third degree torture so we should not complain."

These innocent detainees have been subjected to the worst forms of physical as well as mental torture. One detainee wanted to remove his trousers before Ms Sonia Gandhi when she visited the Sabarmati Central Jail to show what he had suffered in police custody. The Gujarat police are almost completely saffronised. In the name of combating terrorist activities and to please their political masters, the Gujarat police have been cooking up false cases of sedition, illegal arms and criminal conspiracy against young and innocent boys of the Muslim community. Extending illegal detention of poor Muslims by the Anti-Terrorist Squad and Crime Branch is an everyday affair. In Modi's Gujarat equality before the law and equal protection of the law have no meaning. Courts are proactive in granting bails to Hindu accused and jail to Muslims. The posts of Public Prosecutors are filled with fanatic members of VHP and sympathisers of the BJP. In short, three years after the genocide, justice for Gujarat's Muslims still remains a far cry.


*The writer is a Delhi-based human rights activist. He may be contacted on azimsherwani@gmail.com

Gujarat Bill: Denying Religious Freedom In Freedom's
By Yoginder Sikand

21 September, 2006
Countercurrents.org

The recent passing of a controversial bill by the Gujarat Assembly has, understandably enough, generated a storm of protest. Ironically called the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill 2006, the Bill, critics argue, represents a major assault on religious freedom, particularly of non-Hindus, in Gujarat. The Bill follows closely on the heels of similar legislative moves on the part of BJP governments in other states as well that, it is claimed, aim at clamping down on conversion of Hindus to other religions in the name of upholding 'religious freedom'.

The Bill, critics contend, is a direct violation of the freedom to practice and propagate religion as guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. The Bill requires that if a person wishes to convert to another religion he or she has to first inform the local district magistrate, who is charged with verifying his or her case. Why this should be so is beyond one's understanding. Since religion is an intensely personal matter, between an individual and the Supreme Being, and a question of one's understanding of the world and Ultimate Reality, there ought to be no need to inform, leave alone secure the approval of, anyone about one's change of religious allegiance, just as one does not need to seek permission or inform anyone about a change in one's political allegiance, culinary habits or dress code, equally personal issues. Rather than promoting religious freedom, as the Bill ostensibly seeks to, this clause can easily be used to suppress it. Informing anyone, including a government functionary, before one's conversion can easily lead to pressure, witch-hunting and persecution by those, such as Hindutva supporters, within the governmental apparatus and in society at large who are vehemently opposed to Hindus converting to other religions. This is no mere speculation, for such persecution of religious converts and those seeking to convert has been happening on a frighteningly large scale in recent years.

In large measure, the Bill reflects the fierce opposition of the Hindutva lobby, and, more generally, of many 'upper' caste Hindus, to the struggles for emancipation of the dominated and marginalized castes, who have historically accounted for the vast majority of converts to various non-Hindu religions in India. The history of religious conversion movements in India is, by and large, the story of numerous struggles of Dalits, Adivasis and other similarly oppressed caste groups seeking a new, more positive identity for themselves that Brahminical Hinduism has denied them. Brahminical Hinduism has branded these communities, who, together, form the vast majority of the Indian population, as 'low' and 'despicable', as is evident in almost all the key Brahminical texts. The subordination of the oppressed castes that Brahmincal Hinduism clearly legitimises is central to the maintenance of the hegemony of the 'upper' caste Hindu elite. In protest against Brahminical chauvinism, large numbers of people from the oppressed castes have chosen religious conversion as a powerful means of protest. This explains why the majority of non-Hindus in India, including Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Sikhs, are of oppressed caste background. Even today, most converts to non-Hindu religions are from these castes.

Since conversion to non-Hindu religions is a potent symbol of defiance of the caste system and 'upper' caste religious, cultural, social and economic oppression, it is obvious that many 'upper' caste Hindus, including those affiliated to the Hindutva lobby that defends 'upper' caste privilege while claiming to speak on behalf of all 'Hindus', are vehemently opposed to the freedom of Hindus, particularly those branded as 'low' caste, to convert to other religions, because it threatens 'upper' caste hegemony.

At the same time, ironically, the Hindutva lobby is a vociferous advocate of the conversion of non-Hindus to Hinduism, or what it calls shuddhi ('purification', reflecting, probably, the Brahminical belief that non-Hindus are 'impure') or 'ghar vapasi' ('returning home'). Not much is talked about this in the press, which prefers to focus, instead, on conversions to Christianity and Islam. But this agenda is real enough. To cite just one instance, a recent article in the RSS-mouthpiece Organiser (17 September, 2006) by a certain Ravi Shanker Kapoor, bearing the revealing title 'Shuddhi Movement Needed: Hindus Should Promote Religious Conversion', exhorts Hindus to convert Indian Muslims to Hinduism. Conversions of Muslims, and, to a greater extent, Christians, to Hinduism has been happening in India in recent years. Predictably, these have been lauded, rather than condemned, by Hindutva advocates of a ban on or strict regulation of religious conversion.

A crucial issue in the conversion debate is the question of who precisely is a Hindu. There is no ready, textbook definition of what Hinduism is or what a person needs to believe or practice in order to be considered a Hindu. Most often, attempts at producing such a definition project Brahminical Hinduism as laying down what Hinduism is all about. This, of course, ignores the religious traditions of vast numbers of Dalits and Adivasis, which, on crucial points, have nothing to do with Brahminical Hinduism and are diametrically opposed to it. And if Brahmnical Hinduism comes to be seen as defining Hinduism, large numbers of people from the oppressed castes can hardly be said to be Hindu at all, or, at the very most, 'imperfect' Hindus.

Almost all the classical Brahminical texts do not even once mention the word 'Hindu', and for centuries the dominant castes did not consider Dalits, Adivasis and other such oppressed castes as fellow Hindus in practical terms. Even today, widespread prejudice against the oppressed castes makes the notion of Hindus as a single community, united by a feeling of brotherhood, equality and oneness, quite meaningless in empirical terms. It is the British who first categorized Hindus as a single community, but the definition they deployed was a negative one: Indians who were not Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain were treated as 'Hindus'. It was thus by default that Dalits and other such oppressed castes came to be considered as 'Hindus' in the administrative or legal sense of the term. In actual fact, however, in large parts of India these caste groups are still not treated by 'upper' caste Hindus as co-religionists ideally should be. Hence, to argue that Dalits or Adivasis converting to, say, Christianity, are abandoning Hinduism is problematic, to say the least.

The Indian state, following the British, continues with this definition of 'Hindu', thus effectively converting to an amorphously-defined Hinduism large numbers of Dalits and Adivasis, whose 'Hinduness' is doubtful going by what the Brahminical scriptures teach and by the practice and attitudes of many 'upper' caste Hindus. An ostensibly secular state has, therefore, taken on itself the right to define what and who is a Hindu. One can easily discern in this creation by the state of the legal definition of a single Hindu community the 'upper' caste Hindu quest for the preservation of caste Hindu hegemony. This legal definition of a Hindu has created the notion, not seriously sustainable empirically, of Hindus as the 'majority' community, by co-opting Dalits, Adivasis and so on, into the 'Hindu' fold. This definition and the logic of Hindu majoritarianism is then used in different ways to legitimize the domination of the 'upper' caste minority, with the 'upper' castes presenting themselves and accepted by the 'upper' caste-dominated state and society state as the spokesmen of the entire Hindu community as it has come to be legally constructed. And to further sustain 'upper' caste hegemony, Dalits, Adivasis and other such marginalised communities are subjected to what is effectively a process of religious conversion to Brahminical Hinduism, subtly, through the state, which insists on defining them as Hindus, through the Hinduised state education system and, more overtly, through a range of 'upper' caste-led religious groups, including those associated with the Hindutva lobby, through roving ' sadhus', bhajan-mandalis and temples that are, in a planned way, being actively promoted among these communities. In this regard, why, one might well ask, is it that the ongoing religious conversion of such communities to Brahminical Hinduism is not considered a form of religious conversion that the Gujarat Bill ostensibly seeks to control. The answer, of course, is obvious: the framers of the Bill probably seek to prevent conversion to non-Hindu religions while remaining silent, if not encouraging, non-Hindus to convert to Hinduism.

Another related problem with the arrogation by the state of the right to decide what or who as Hindu is, critics of the Bill point out, relates to the Bill's arbitrary and unwarranted clubbing of Jains and Buddhists as 'Hindus'. Gujarat's Minister of State for Home, Amit Shah, who introduced the Bill, is on record as having arbitrarily announced that Jainism and Buddhism were 'construed as parts of Hinduism'. How and why the state, especially one that claims to be secular, should have that right is a crucial question. Numerous Buddhists and Jains do not consider themselves as Hindus, particularly in theological terms. The state, therefore, has no right to declare them so against their will. Indeed, Indian history is replete with instances of bloody persecution by Brahmins and their royal supporters of Jains and Buddhists, declaring them to be anti-Vedic heretics. Brahminical hatred for Jainism and Buddhism was rooted in the fact that these two religions, in their inception, were stiffly opposed to Brahminical hegemony and the oppression of the non-Brahmins that classical Hinduism legitimised. Clubbing together these religions with Hinduism is thus a clever means to deny their separate identity, paper over their historical contradictions with Brahminism, and, ultimately, to absorb them into the Hindu fold. In a sense, this is tantamount to another form of religious conversion but on a massive scale—converting entire religious traditions and their followers to the status of mere branches of the amorphous Hindu religion and community.

Clearly, then, the Gujarat Bill is deeply flawed. It is an assault on religious freedom while claiming to protect it. It is a violation of the right of marginalized communities to struggle for new, more positive identities that Brahminical Hinduism has denied them. It is a subtle means for preserving 'upper' caste hegemony and stave off threats to it. It is also a devious means to co-opt large numbers of non-Hindu Jains and Buddhists into the Hindu fold against their will. In short, those denouncing the Bill are amply justified in their opposition.


The author works with the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He moderates an online discussion group 'South Asian Leftists Dialoguing With Religion' ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saldwr/)

Naseem's Story
By Azim Sherwani
http://www.countercurrents.org/guj-naseem061006.htm
06 September, 2006
Countercurrents.org

Naseem Mohammad Shekh is an activist working with victims of the state -sponsored anti-Muslim carnage in Gujarat in 2002, in which more than 3000 people were killed. She is based in the Qasimabad Colony, near Kalol in the Panchmahals district of Gujarat. Eleven members of her own family, including her daughter and husband, were slaughtered in this most large-scale wave of anti-Muslim violence in India in recent times, the victims of which are yet to get justice. Here she narrates to Azim Sherwani the traumatic murder of her family, her struggle for survival and her present involvement in seeking to promote peace and communal harmony in communally-polarised Gujarat.

I was born in a fairly well-off family. I grew up with my grandparents and parents. My grandfather wanted me to marry in the same village. So he found a boy of my own village who was my cousin from my mother's side. He had done his secondary schooling but the economic condition of his family was not very sound. I was 13 at that time and told my family that I would commit
suicide if they forced me to marry him but they did so. Initially, I hated to live with my husband's family but my grandfather convinced me and emotionally blackmailed me. I started supporting my husband by helping him sell vegetables. Once my husband had an offer of a government job but he was asked to pay a hefty bribe. My parents were willing to pay the bribe to help my husband have a better future but he refused. He felt it was against his honor to borrow from his in-laws to pay the bribe. He promised me a good life with his hard labor. Because of our hard work our business flourished and finally we had to employ some local youths as helping hands in the business.

On 27th February 2002, I had a gynecological operation. I was in the nursing home. The next day my husband told me about the burning of the train coach in Godhra. I was frightened but he told me that police had been deployed and that nothing untoward would happen. He told the doctors to take care of me and not to worry about the money, promising to be back the next morning.

On 1st March a Hindu mob attacked the Muslim houses in my village Dahlol. I intuitively did not want my husband to go to the village but, owing to his repeated insistence that the children were alone, I could not stop him. A Hindu customer of ours sheltered my husband and the children in his house when the mob went on a rampage. He insisted on sending our children to the hospital, which he thought to be a safer place.

My husband reluctantly agreed. My 13-year old daughter stayed with her father. The Hindu customer dropped my son Suhail at the nursing home. I was worried. I wanted to know where my family was. He told me not to worry. Very soon, he said, everybody would join me, and he assured me that they were safe in his house.

In the evening this Hindu man took my family with him, telling them that he was arranging for safe passage for them. He took them towards the river and on the way started shouting that there were Muslims around. This was a trap that he had laid. All at once, a Hindu mob, armed with sharp weapons, surrounded my family members. One of my nephews ran to save his life and hid behind huge bushes. But the mob killed everybody one by one. They begged for their life to be spared but in vain. My 13 year-old daughter was gang-raped and cut into pieces. After killing everybody they
burnt their bodies. My nephew, who narrowly escaped, was watching everything, shaking with fear. He fled the place when the mob went back to the village. He came to the main road, which connects Kalol, a town with a substantial Muslim population. The police found him, and asked him to remove his trousers to see if he was a Muslim. They kicked him and abused him for being a Muslim. He was thrown out of the police jeep. Upon arriving Kalol he narrated the incident to our relatives and family friends.

I was still in the hospital and was not told anything by our relatives. The next day the mob came to the hospital in search of me. The doctor told them that I had been discharged and had left the hospital. After this incident the doctor was afraid that the mob might come again in search of me. He provided a set of clothes normally worn by Hindu women to hide my identity in case I was stopped on my way to a safer place. After 15 days I was sent to a relief camp in Qasimabad in an Army vehicle. When I reached the camp, my sister and other people started crying. I wanted to
know about my husband, daughter and other family members. They told me that they were in a different relief camp. I insisted that I want to speak to them. One of my family friends phoned me, pretending that he was my husband, but I could easily make out that it was a different voice. I guessed that I lost everything. My life was completely destroyed. My brother-in-law started crying and revealed to me that only thee members of our family of 11 had survived.

The atmosphere in the relief camp was depressing and frustrating. I had lost everything but I had to live for my son Suhail. We had to face so very many problems. We could not go back home. My brother-in-law wanted the compensation money to be deposited in his name. He thought I might take the money and get married to someone else and might not take care of my son. I convinced him that I would take care of my son for he was everything to me now. In case I got married again, I said, I would deposit the money in his account.

I had so much pain in my heart and was worried that I might go mad. I started volunteering in the camp. At that time some women's group and an NGO came to work for the rehabilitation and access to justice for the victims of the carnage. I joined them as a volunteer initially. There was a lot of opposition from some conservative maulvis. They tried to force me not to go out because I was a widow and I had to perform the religious duty of being isolated from men for four months. I told them categorically that I needed to work for women like me who had lost everything in the
carnage. They needed my support. There was also some opposition from some of my distant relatives.

It was really difficult to engage Hindus, Dalits and Muslims in peace-building initiatives. There was complete mistrust of and hatred for each other. Muslims said that the Hindus had destroyed their life. What kind of reconciliation, they asked, is possible? But some people started appreciating our work. They would tell me, 'You lost everything in the carnage but you still don't hate Hindus. Rather, you try to engage them. So, we should follow your path of trying to promote peace and counter hatred'.

Today, I have no one in my life except Suhail. I am sad but now I am a confident woman. I can relate to and understand the problems of all other women, Hindus, Dalits and Muslims.

Constant preaching of hatred against Muslims for political purposes is the root cause of communal violence in Gujarat. The Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad are the main instigators of anti-Muslim hatred in India and use any opportunity to instigate violence against them. During the mass violence against Muslims there were some good Hindus who helped their Muslim neighbors in providing shelter or safe passage. Unfortunately, however, in Gujarat today the communal divide has increased. We need to work hard in engaging youth, women, Dalits and Adivasis to mobilize for communal harmony.

In fact, all religions teach tolerance and peace but some people interpret religion with narrowness and to generate hate against fellow human beings. At times I ask myself that if the different religions were made to serve humanity then why are people all over the world killing each other in the name of religion?

I have devoted my life to the struggle against communalism and for empowering women. This and the hope for a better future of my son are my strength. I want to educate my son and would like him to join government service in Gujarat. There is so much pain in my heart but I want to channelise it to prevent a repeat of what happened in Gujarat in 2002.


Azim A.Khan Sherwani is based in Delhi and writes on human rights and Muslim-related issues. He may be contacted on azimsherwani@gmail.com

Guajarat 2006 Is Deadlier Than 2002
http://www.countercurrents.org/guj-jha191006.htm
Guajarat 2006 Is Deadlier Than 2002

By Prashant Jha

19 October, 2006
Countercurrents.org

Short, stocky, and balding, Babubhai Rajabhai Patel can pass off as a normal, middle-class trader. Only, he isn't one. Babu Bajrangi, as Patel likes to be called, says he runs an NGO, Navchetan Sangathan. Sitting in his 'office' in Ajanta Ellora Complex in Naroda in Ahemdabad, Bajrangi is surrounded by images of RSS ideologues KS Hedgewar and Guru Golwalkar, a map of Akhand Bharat, and his own photographs, with politicians or in public meetings.

Bajrangi claims to be a social worker. "I rescue Hindu women who are lured by Muslims. I hate such marriages." As soon as Bajrangi gets to know of any such union, he kidnaps and sends the girl back home; and beats up the Muslim boy. "It's fun. Only last week, we made one such man eat his own shit thrice," he says. Bajrangi's operation is ruthless and effective. He claims to have 'saved' 725 Hindu women this way. And what about the law? "What I do is illegal, but it is moral. And anyway, the government is ours."

Perhaps that is the reason that Bajrangi, chief accused in the Naroda Patiya murder case (during the Gujarat carnage), is out on the streets and not behind bars. "People say I killed 123 people," says Bajrangi with a grin. Did you? "How does it matter? They were Muslims - bloody Pakistanis. They had to die. They are dead."

"The government is ours." Few will doubt Bajrangi's claim. Not Muslims for sure, for they know Bajrangi might be more extremist than most, but he represents a mindset that is widespread: the mindset of the Gandhinagar government's ministers. The mindset of several Hindus, from the waiter to the auto-driver and the middle-class, across Gujarat.

The discourse among Muslims has a striking unity. There is no one who speaks for us. This is not our government. This is their rule - Hindu rule. What do we do? As an elder in Shah Alam, a Muslim area in Ahmedabad, puts it, "Our crime is we pray to Allah."

The emotions of Muslims across Gujarat revolves around alienation, helplessness, and anger. Understandably so, large sections of the Hindu society, led on by the BJP government, ensure that Muslims remain second-class citizens.

And that is the story of Gujarat 2006. A tale of a society that is sharply polarised and prejudices about the 'other' deeply entrenched, and a state that happily engineers everyday hatred. In its wake, lies a community that lives in fear. The Gujarat of today is in some senses more dangerous than the Gujarat of 2002. For here, the violence is invisible. It operates systematically, as well as subtly, at the establishment and social level.

The truth is, the Gujarat government has seceded from the Indian Constitution. It did so in 2002, when the state sponsored mass violence against Muslims. And contrary to what many think, it has
consistently done so and flaunted it since then. It has tried to completely subvert the process of justice for 2002 victims, from distorting FIRs and ensuring faulty investigation, to letting the accused get away free. With office-bearers of the Sangh Parivar affiliates doubling up as public prosecutors, it is little surprise that only 13 out of the 345 cases decided so far have resulted in convictions.

Even as it fulfils its promise that no harm should come the way of rioters, the government continues its campaign to harass innocent Muslims. The fact that the UPA government in Delhi did not ban the draconian legislation, Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), retrospectively has meant that those charged under that law in Gujarat before 2004 remain in jail. This effectively means that the secular UPA government, backed by the Left, is playing Narendra Modi's game.

Maulana Omarji's house is, ironically, on the Station Road in Godhra. But he doesn't live there. Along with others accused of hatching the conspiracy and burning the train compartment at the Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002, he stays some distance away - in Sabarmati Jail in Ahmedabad. Omarji was arrested one year after the incident took place - a period in which he was active in organising relief camps for Muslims, and petitioning national leaders who came visiting about the injustice meted out to minorities in the state. Clearly, someone powerful did not like that. A well-respected man and community leader against whom there is no evidence, Maulana Omarji is charged with POTA.

His young and articulate son, Saeed, is quite frustrated. "What is the fault of Muslims in India? I am so angry with the system here, including the judiciary." Everything is stacked up against Muslims in India, feels Saeed. "I am an Indian and will never be disloyal to my country. But I feel our parents and grandparents made a mistake by staying on here. We should have gone to Pakistan." It is a striking comment, revealing the manner in which a fascist state is pushing
people into a corner.

Half-an-hour from Godhra lies Kalol -- a site of major violence in 2002. This reporter met Mukhtar Mohammad at the Kalol police station. Active in organising relief camps, Mukhtar has been working to get justice for the victims. Something that did not go down too well with the state authorities. Framed under, what by all accounts, is a false 'rape case', he is stuck making rounds of police stations and magistrates and has to spend occasional nights, and at times, extended periods in jail. He says, "They want to break any kind of leadership that emerges among the Muslims, especially those who are moderate, and want to fight politically, constitutionally and legally."

Indeed, there is a pattern in which the Gujarat government is acting against Muslims. The Hindutva forces have no problems if the influence of the Muslim conservative religious organisations increases because it helps strengthen their stereotypes about Muslims. What they do not want is an articulate, liberal voice among Muslims that speaks the language of democratic rights and claims equal citizenship.

The regime targets innocent Muslims not just by framing false cases. Discrimination is spread across all realms. Juhapura is the largest Muslim ghetto in Ahmedabad with more than 300,000 people. Yet, it has no bank, state transport buses take a detour to avoid crossing through it, and there are no public parks or libraries. OBC communities among the Muslims in Gujarat find it difficult to get certain certificates. The saffronisation of the bureaucracy and local power structures, points out scholar Achyut Yagnik, has meant that panchayats, co-operatives, agrarian produce markets and government schemes have become sites for discrimination against Muslims.

What is more alarming is the fact that this discrimination has larger social sanction. There is pride about the 2002 toofan among many Hindus - we taught them a lesson, crushed; the world should learn how to deal with miyas from us, are oft-heard remarks. And the increasing distance between the two communities, both in the minds and physically, has not helped matters.

Most cities and towns in Gujarat are completely divided into Hindu and Muslim areas; a street corner, a divider in the middle of the road, a wall, or just a turn acting as borders. If it was difficult for a Muslim to find a house in Hindu areas before the killings, it is impossible now.

Sophia Khan is a well-known woman activist in Ahmedabad. Her office was in Narayanpura, an upmarket Hindu area. A month ago, when neighbours in her office complex got to know of her faith, they asked her to vacate immediately. Putting up a fight was no use in the face of constant harassment. She has now shifted to Juhapura. "My house is in a Muslim area. My office is now in a Muslim area. My Hindu employee is being pressurised by her family to resign, because they don't like her coming to a Muslim area. And my work revolves around Muslim women. This is how they want to push an entire community into a corner," says Khan.

The segregation has spread to other realms as well, leading to absence of contact and interaction between the two communities and breeding stereotypes and intolerance. The most visible realm is the fewer number of mixed schools in Ahmedabad which have a fair number of Hindus and Muslims. Discrimination on religious lines, coupled with the desire of parents to send children to schools where there are 'more of our people' has further boosted this trend. Pankaj Chandra, professor at Indian Institute of Management, is worried. Brought up in the composite Ganga-Jamuni culture of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, he says, "My children may graduate from school without knowing a single Muslim. Imagine how easy it will be to build stereotypes then."

When this reporter, with his long, unkempt beard, walked into an elite government colony in Ahmedabad to meet a senior official, three kids parked their bicycles right in front. One screamed aloud, "Terrorist." Why? "Because you are a Musalman," he responded. So? "All Muslims are terrorists. My father is a judge. He will call you terrorist in court." Really? "Yes. And get out of here. This is a Hindu area." Sauyajya is 12-year-old and has not met a single Muslim in his life. No one knows how many Sauyajyas are in the making in Gujarat.

The writer is Assistant Editor, Himal Southasian, Kathmandu. He can be contacted on prashantj@himalmag.com