<< Prev Page    |    1    |    2    |    3    |    4    |    5    |    6    |    7    |    8    |    9    |    10    |    Next Page >> 6 Role of secular forces Peace committees The peace committees that were set up did not seem to be working with alacrity during the times of the 1986 Mysore riots. Immediately after the Ayodhya incident, most areas including Belgaum and Hubli tried to form Peace Committees to prevent violence. Thought the committee in Hubli was not very successful in containing the riots, the Belgaum Citizens Peace Committee, comprising Gandhians, Trade Unionists, women and Social Activists prevented riots to a large extent, thanks to their sustained work in meeting regularly to plan strategies to maintain communal harmony. After the Babri Masjid related riots in Dakshina Kannada, local communal harmony committees have played a major role in the process of recovery. In Katepalla and Krishnapura, two villages in Mangalore district which witnessed the worst violence in the district, the local Yuvak Mandal and peace committee have worked to build an atmosphere of goodwill and harmony in the region. Similar peace committees were set up in villages in Kannur Mandal limits. Ullal has two peace committees. All these committees are also trying to ensure that the victims gain the rightful compensation. Several eminent writers, lawyers, academicians and heads of religious sects came together after the riots to promote inter-religious amity. After the Hindu-Sikh Bidar riots of 1988, unofficial and semi-official goodwill committees were set up, such as the Citizens for Democracy which sent in a report of the riots at Bidar. Independent Initiatives Independent Initiatives were taken by a handful of organizations towards fighting communalism. One such move is the formation of the Anti-Communal Patriotic Front, an initiative of Karnataka State Daily Wage Employees’ Federation president K.S.Sharma and a Professor of Karnataka University, professor Ramalingam. The Front was formed with the immediate purpose of opposing the BJP’s plan to hoist the national flag at Idgah Maidan in Hubli on Republic Day, the Front proposes to intensify its activity and make it a People’s Movement. Another organization that has come up is the Hindu-Muslim Ekta Morcha. Inactive Example, Kolar in 1990 Institutionalized riot systems! Presence of an ever-ready riot mob to carry out tasks, respond to riots elsewhere while spreading the riot, etc. R Role of local media The local media has had an instrumental role during most communal riots. This has been seen even during the 1988 Kolar riots where the local papers blew up stories of all sorts. Bombs were ‘discovered’, which later proved to be a hoax. Even during the 190 riots, the Kolar Patrike and Kolar Vani which are RSS/VHP sympathizers did much damage by publishing the names of the dead, injured and arrested thereby sending signals to the communities. Further the descriptive accounts of the dead, added emotional content to the atmosphere. However, “Honnidi” another local newspaper stood isolated championing the cause of secular tradition. During the 1993 riots of Bhatkal, the media played a role in heightening the already existing tension by writing about the presence of “foreign hand” behind the communal tensions. In 1986/87 riots broke out over the publication of a blasphemous story in the ‘Deccan Herald’ in Bangalore and Mysore. In the 1988 Hindu-Sikh riots that took place at Bidar, there was undue delay in reporting of the incidents in the national dailies. Although the disturbances took place between 14th and 16th September, it was almost a week later that the national press published these reports. Immediate publication of a report would have shown that the Sikhs in this case were not the culprits, but the victims of a communal outrage, thereby preventing rumors that warped the public mind. Economic dynamics of a riot from causal factors, method of the riot and aftermath Economics inevitably plays a crucial role if one were to understand the method behind communal tensions besides understanding the casual factors and the potential targets during a riot sequence. As seen elsewhere the method of riots has been to destroy the economical base and livelihoods of victims. The population of Kolar town is about one lakh. The population pattern is—Muslims, about 28%, Scheduled Case and Tribes 23%, Okkaligas, Komoti Shetty etc. 30% and Backward Classes 16%, and remaining include other minorities. Muslims have played an important role in the economic development of the District. Most of the shops in the market and some of the Industries are owned by them. They also control the first stage of Silk Industry like twisting, reeling etc. The silk trade is an important bread winner for thousands of people in Kolar. The entire trade involves many stages to produce the final product – the silk yarn, with the various stages controlled by different communities. Silk manufacture involves – (a) rearing cocoons (b) marketing cocoons (c) extracting thread from cocoons (d) twisting thread to form yarn (e) marketing yarn. Rearing cocoons is a semi agricultural activity and as such silk cocoons are reared in villages around Kolar by farmers – big and small – who are Hindus. These cocoons are then brought to centralized cocoon purchasing agency at Kolar where the market is controlled by Muslim middle men. As elsewhere in a market economy, when the marketing forces take over the farmers are ruthlessly exploited at every level. The extraction is done by the reelers who mostly are Muslims. Here exists tension between two communities – between Hindu farmers and Muslim reelers – due to business interests. There exist more than 1500 reeling units employing more than 3500 persons. Interesting fact is that this labour force is entirely migratory drawn from villages around Kolar. They are all Muslims. The twisting of silk thread is a capital intensive industry, involving large machinery. The labour employed do skilled work and are paid more. The twisting business responds to Bangalore market. But the yarn twisters depend on Hindu money lenders who stock, hoard the yarn and make money. Here another tension exists between Hindu and Muslim individuals due to business interests. It is this tension that is exploited and harnessed through communal means by the RSS/BJP and has been amply evidenced in the Kolar riots where time and again the Muslim-dominated silk-production stages have been targeted. Even the orchards of Muslims have not been spared especially in the 1988 riots where hundreds of acres of mango orchards were destroyed initially in Kolar but spreading to Coorg and Chamarajpet later. Just prior to the 1988 Kolar riots, the Hindu Community was also seen taking increasing interest in business and industry. The fact that in that riot the major targets of the rioters are the properties and shops points to the fact that the communal riots are the extensions of the business and economical contradictions. Religious feelings are provoked by the fundamentalist to mobilise the mass to safeguard such interest. The B. J. P. and RSS elements have as in other incidents always used the religion to threaten the minorities. In Hubli, there is a history of disputes between the Pategar community and the Muslims. The former are accused of engaging themselves in illicit distillation and smuggling. Kambripet, near Hubli, is where the illicit liquor trade dominated by the Pategar (Pattagar) community flourished. The liquor barons in Bangalore and the ex-police commissioner had raided and enforced a closure ban on them in 2001. They wanted the commissioner transferred and used the issue of Ashok Singhals Birthday celebrations to do so. Communal clashes erupted as a result of verbal altercation between two groups of bus agents belonging to two communities over business competition that first took personal and then communal turn. 1 person was killed and 2 injured in police firing. Besides the role of political parties, one of the other reasons cited for the 1993 Bhatkal riots included the economic advancement of the Muslim community which was to the disliking of other communities. The Hindu-Sikh riots that took place at Bidar in 1988 have a background of economic competition, which played a part in bringing events closer to the unfolding denouement. The first was the rivalry over obtaining sanction for a capitation fee-based medical college in Bidar. There were several contestants, the strongest being Joga Singh, (the head of the Guru Nanak Jheera Prahbandhak Committee and Guru Nanak Jheera Sahib Educational Foundation which set up educational institutions). A ‘Citizen’s Committee’ was formed by the rival educational societies which were in the running for the medical college with the contender being Kashinath Belure, who had the backing of the State BJP secretary. The second factor, one that was used to give a communal twist to what was essentially business rivalry, was the repercussion of the post-Operation Bluestar Punjab situation, the growth of terrorism in Punjab and the deteriorating attitudes to Sikhs as a minority community outside Punjab. The local communal leaders lost no opportunity to cash in on what was being reported almost daily in the media about Punjab, and they spread the impression that it was only Hindus who were being killed there. A direct and deliberate communal appeal was made that all Sikhs were potential terrorists, that Bidar was in danger of becoming the next Amritsar so as to make the medical college demand a mass issue. Thus the ground was further prepared for a chance altercation between members of two communities to set off a raging fire. Trouble came on the evening of September 14th when a group of Sikh students in Gandhinagar were asked to pay subscription for the Ganesh Chathurti celebrations that were to take place the next day. The students refused to pay as they claimed that they had paid up before. Arguments led to a scuffle and then to a clash in which some were injured. If the events of the day were spontaneous, planning clearly went into the developments of the next two days when the Sikhs, their homes and establishments were singled out for attack. Mobs went on the rampage on September 15th.    << Prev Page    |    1    |    2    |    3    |    4    |    5    |    6    |    7    |    8    |    9    |    10    |    Next Page >>