Sunday, May 12, 2002		Article

If only there was a messiah in all of us
Suverchala Kashyap

STILL swaggering under the impact of a killer quake that spelt havoc a year ago, Gujarat recently witnessed a death dance of the worst kind, in the aftermath of the Godhra inferno. Mindless violence—that seemed to show no sign of abating for more than a month—is still rearing its mean head in the most unlikely of places.

It is the common people who can make a difference by listening to the voice of sanity.

Logic and reason are qualities that have taken a backseat in the current scenario and there is a strong underlying wave of hatred and fear of a particular community. It gets worse by the day under a chief minister who has all along supported and approved the backlash, and has in more ways than one justified what he calls "a reaction."

Several appeals and calls for his dismissal from intellectuals and other quarters have come to naught. The situation, hence, even today is far from normal.

Though the media had to perform the role of an informer, bringing to the people gory details from areas as urban as Ahmedabad and as remote as Lunawada every single day, there was a focus primarily on incidents of arson, violence, looting, lynching, murder and the worst form of terrorising—rape. Graphic details of each were strewn across the morning papers only to be reinforced in the evening by the omnipresent electronic media. What they did not do in the early days of the carnage, was to highlight stories of resilience, of co-existence and of trust. Such stories did emerge at a point when the damage was beyond repair, the wounds too deep to heal by mere rhetoric. All the same, parts of Ahmedabad, Vadodara and even Chotaudepur (in the tribal belt, about 90 km. from Vadodara ) have had cases, wherein due to the concerted efforts of a couple of ordinary individuals and groups, extraordinary results have been achieved in maintaining some semblance of normalcy. But, all this at a cost, at a price that they are having to pay for their own safety and that of their families. Says Rohit Prajapati of Vadodara, "One has to rise above all this. I am not afraid of death and when I can take my little son along with me to address an agitated crowd, it gives others courage to step in and stand by what is right." Rohit and his small group have relentlessly worked to form peace committees and prevent any kind of untoward incident in their area which is time and again referred to as sensitive by the media as well as the administration.

Tandalja, is a pocket in Vadodara, with a total population of about 40,000 consisting of about 7.000 Hindus, 800 Christians and the rest Muslims. On the periphery there are pockets mainly of Hindus, punctuated by a sprinkling of mixed population which is a negligible number and they have all coexisted in peace for years. Says Illiasbhai Patel, a known and respected figure in Tandalja, "Even in the most sensitive times such as 1985 and 1992, no curfew was imposed in our area. Because there was no need. To maintain the same we held meetings and decided to protect each and everyone within our area."

This year was no different for them, when all hell broke loose in the entire state. Even 15 days after the Godhra incident there was no untoward incident in this area, but efforts were made by outsiders to break this peace and unity. Says Truptiben, Rohit's wife and an active member, "We immediately established hotlines with the residential areas around us and liasioned with the Commissioner and the police. We asked people to be wary of rumours and react only after cross-checking. " Says an old man who'd rather not disclose his name, "I am so pained, I have absolutely no words to express what I feel when I see my very neighbours turning against me, had it not been for the support of this group I may not have survived."

"We deliberately undertook the responsibility of escorting people, who just assumed that Tandalja was full of sword-wielding people, because they belonged to a particular community," said Illiasbhai. We have been living here for the past several years in complete harmony and we held public meetings to explain to people that all this was being done by a handful of outsiders, he elaborated. Volunteers were sent to sensitive areas to spend the night to show the Hindu brethren or vice-versa that there was no threat from within, added Trupti. "We consolidated our positions at all entry points of the area, to keep a watch on anti-social elements and immediately informed the police and the Army when required," says Rohit.

On the other hand are stories of immense courage and selflessness emerging from Ahmedabad, but the people concerned would rather remain anonymous, as they have already been victimised for doing what they've been doing since day one—helping the minority community to get a hold of their lives. "I request you not to disclose my name said a youth from Ahmedabad as he collected money from friends and colleagues to buy medicines for the affected people. We would rather work in the shadows and try to bring some respite to the lives of these unfortunate people, who's only fault is their religion, says an enthusiastic volunteer who spares at least an hour every day to give his services at relief camps. Move focus to the far-flung area of a once-beautiful village Tejgadh, in Chotaudepur. Still beautiful at the outset, but a place where the war cries from the cities have infiltrated and disturbed the delicate balance of humanity. Says Ganesh Devy of Bhasha, who is now a name to reckon with in the field of tribal uplift,

"There are several questions that come to mind about the tribal involvement in the March riots. Tejgadh took five days to react and Panvad nearly nine days. Besides, the awareness about Kashmir, Ayodhya and cross-border terrorism has been almost negligible in the tribal villages. Many villages in the region have sarpanches who are illiterate or semi-literate; and the electronic media is almost absent in these areas." It is thus clear to see that the tribals were instigated by outside forces with vested interests. The sarpanch of Tejgadh was approached by some trouble makers on March 1, and asked for his participation in burning Muslim families, but he did not relent. The last tribal bastions fell, five days later, when the seemingly innocent tribals were provoked to take up arms as they were told that they were being wronged by the economically stronger Muslims.

So a business angle replaced the communal angle. Ironically, the day the chief minister declared with great pride that riots were brought under control in a record 72 hours, the first Muslim shop was set on fire here.

"In such a situation," says, Dr Devy, "we have to tread very carefully in order to restore the faith of the people in each other and explain to them that Hindutva is something they could well do without in the current situation. We are thus focussing on rehabilitation and consolidating the peace that for a brief moment took wing. We will achieve what these divisive forces have destroyed in a jiffy is what the common voice is," he elaborated.

These are some of the endeavours that are being made by the known as well as faceless, voiceless masses, to bring back some likeness of order to the state. Even in a cosmopolitan place like Vadodara, nurtured by the erstwhile Gaekwads, there is despair and disgust. The educated and the concerned were unable to do much when it came to razing to the ground not only the worldly possessions of J.S. Bandukwala, a known academic in M.S. University, but for the nth time asking him to stay unruffled in the face of such bestiality.

With no option but to leave the state incognito, he pledges to return to his homeland. The fact that he is a Muslim is all that he is been picked out or picked at for. The truth that he is an excellent professor of Physics holds no water. The first time his neighbours were able to protect him and his young daughter, but the second time the mobsters got lucky and in a few minutes blew his entire life in to smithereens. Says Dr Devy, " This is a very dangerous trend and must be nipped in the bud as soon as possible. There is a need for all the thinking individuals to rise and fight and spread word among the masses that what is happening is in no way a reflection of Hindutava. Mahashweta Devi, who has, all her life, espoused the cause of the tribals, and has been consistently writing about the atrocities committed on them, visited the ravaged state on several occasions after the carnage and implored people to do something to put an end to such inhuman acts. Commenting on the role of the tribals in these riots she said, "They are the ones who have lived on the fringes of society for too long, they are exploited constantly. They know no Ram and they know no Ayodhya, but if someone enters their lives and messes up with what they revere they are bound to react. Some outsiders destroyed their limdo, or neem tree that they held in great esteem. I am not saying that it is justified, but it is a case in point—an act committed after being incited to take up arms by outsiders."

She was in Vadodara recently and held a peace meeting with artists, academics, singers, doctors, in short, with thinking, enlightened people. She appealed to them to do something to change the current scenario. She expressed her solidarity and said that she'd come back with a larger group of like-minded people from Bengal to ensure that there is peace in this land. In the meantime, a group of artists are putting up an exhibition of paintings under the common banner, `The Banyan City.' Artists such as Bhupen Khakkar, Rekha Rodwittiya, Jyoti Bhatt and others will exhibit their works which are reflective of the current times. An artist's perspective of the bad days that have sliced through the sanskari nagari called Vadodara.