Gujarat Riots - 2

[Mitra]

This little booklet came out in Kolkata some time back. It's originally in Bengali. In Kol it gained quite a currency. See if you like it.

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Gujarat Incident
(An Inevitable Explosion of Contemporary Reality)
Ratnakar Goswami



In recent Indian history, the Gujarat incident made a most shocking yet intriguing chapter. I would rather not view it in the context of a Hindu-Muslim riot. That way, there would be many questions left unanswered or the answers we do receive would, most likely, be over simplified. So what really did happen and is still going on in Gujarat?
The Gujarat incident commenced in February 2002. Immediately it became apparent that the whole matter was extremely complex, with which the raw emotions of the Hindu society of Gujarat and the whole Western India were intricately involved. My questions were – why and how are the Hindu’s of Gujarat marshalling their mind, body and spirit into an unified whole and fighting against the Muslims  practically on the lines of a Leninist revolutionary struggle? How did the Hindus achieve this unity? Especially, why and through what miracle of confidence did the, so called, low caste Hindus, the forest dwellers (vanavasis), the tribals (janajatis) and the women, join this violent struggle in their thousands?
Not that the Indian media didn’t try to seek an explanation for these phenomena but the answers they provided either lacked conviction or were farfetched or downright oversimplified. Here are some instances.
In the beginning some English newspapers and some TV news channels tried their level best to prove that the greater part of the Hindu society was against this struggle. Within a few weeks the reporters of the above media woke up to the fact that the activities of the people were directly proving the shallowness of their understanding of the situation. Resultantly they chose to keep mum on the matter of Hindu unity for the time being. But when this very question rose like a whirlwind across the nation they took a different line. They propagated – Yes, a kind of Hindu unity has been achieved. And why should it not be? The Sangh Parivar has been brainwashing the Hindus, especially the backward classes, in every nook and cranny of the state for the one and a half decades. Therefore the current upsurge of hardline Hindutva is nothing but the natural upshot of that evil enterprise.
Their logic cannot be totally ignored. Brainwashing of the common masses is a part and parcel of every political or social mobilisation in every country. But can brainwashing be done in every situation? The late Shri Atulya Ghosh was one of the most politically astute Congressmen in Bengal. By the middle of the 1960’s the Congress Party had started its retreat from the rural regions of Bengal. One day in 1966 Shri Ghosh went to Nanur in the Birbhum district of West Bengal on some personal business. Some of the leaders of the Birbhum Zilla Congress came to meet him there. He smiled and asked one of them, ‘hey, you people are practically getting wiped out of the villages. What’s the matter?’ The man had answered him ‘what can we do Sir? Those damn leftists are brainwashing the poor in the villages.’ Atulya babu had smiled and answered ‘then you must have created such a situation in the villages that the leftists are getting a chance to brainwash the poor.’
Atulyababu’s reason was very simple. Brainwashing cannot be done in every instance. For that, a real life situation conducive to such enterprise is imperative. Whenever and wherever such a situation arises brainwashing can proceed at lightning speed. I subscribe to this very simple reasoning of Late Atulyababu with great respect.

So now the question was what really happened in Gujarat that the Sangh Parivar was presented with a real life opportunity to inspire and imbue the entire Gujarati Hindu society by their ideology? In what context did this situation evolve? And why did both the State and Central Government turn a blind eye to this evolving situation?
Many fundamental queries like these had been bugging me since February 2002. I spent a lot of time and effort trying to find the answers in Kolkata. I couldn’t.
At this juncture opportunity struck. In the first week of September a Gujarati friend of mine said, ‘come with me to Gujarat. Maybe you’ll get your answers there’. I took the offer and accompanied my friend to Gujarat for two weeks. In those two weeks I visited seven districts of that state. I also talked extensively with many people, both Hindu and Muslim, representing the different strata of society. There were quite a few erudite Gujaratis with whom I had extensively and intimately discussed the Gujarat incident.
At the end of this fortnightly journey of discovery I came to the conclusion that the passage of time and events are just too complex. In this flow of events even God cannot grant ‘good sense’ to everybody every time. This flow continuously overlaps the past upon the present and the present into the past creating a perpetual paradox. Today Gujarat is in tumult not because the Gujaratis want to establish a Hindu Rashtra in their State. Gujarat wants honour. And that very honour had been planned to be destroyed in a very slow and cunning manner. The Gujaratis are trying to fight through and vanquish that conspiracy. This is not a political matter. It is concerned with establishing the Honour and Pride of Gujarat upon a unanimous standing. This reflection may be considered as the ‘prologue’ of my article. Now I will get to my analysis of the Gujarat incident.
At first it is better to discuss the evolution the Gujarati psyche and social conscience has undergone. The scale of this evolution in post independence India would shock many an old Gujarati whose thought processes are still moored in the past. According to one Sociology Professor of Gujarat University, the foundation of this paradigm shift had been laid in the 1920’s. But the transformation in a larger sense became perceptible from the middle of the 1980’s.
Enterprise and Religion – a combination of these two has created the Gujarati psyche. Except Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, the other states of India are not very well acquainted with this psychology. According to the above Professor, a changing pattern of enterprise also precipitated a change in the religious thinking in the state from the 1920’s itself. This is quite natural. When a trader becomes an industrialist, he is no longer satisfied by just writing ‘Shubh Labh’ or ‘Ganeshayah Namah’ on his wall or by wearing a ‘tilak’ on his forehead. Just as satisfaction evaded the 16th century Germen Catholic Industrialists. An industrialist seeks a radical ideology, a radical world view. The reason can be easily imagined. He has to survive through cut throat competition. The challenge of turning an unfavourable situation into his favour, creating opportunities where none exists, is the basis of his existence. He has to be radical. That was why the German Catholics spawned the Protestant movement. The Protestant faith of Martin Luther was very much within the fold of Christianity. But in thought and action it was radically different from stodgy Catholicism.
1920 to 1985, within these sixty five years the environment of Gujarat has changed radically. Bania Hindutva which is prone to compromise has been eschewed by the Gujaratis, against that they have moved forward to embrace Kshatriya Hindutva - which is radical and uncompromising.
The father of Bania Hindutva was Gandhi. Till 1950 the situation in Gujarat was favourable towards the above version of Hindutva, as the Gujaratis were still largely traders. Sheikh Bania and Hindu Bania proceeded along the straight and narrow path of trading, sometimes through cooperation, sometimes through competition. Though cooperation rather than competition was the cornerstone of trade relations in the then Gujarat. Nevertheless, conflicts arose even in that situation but whenever it happened, Gandhi, in his accustomed manner, would preach tolerance, compromise and eschewal. The Hindus treaded the above path of compromise and tried to maintain a modicum of social stability.
In a changed scenario, especially in the present context, this Gandhi espoused Bania Hindutva is fading fast. In its place the Gujaratis have adopted the radical way of Kshatriya Hindutva, which is rooted in the thoughts and ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. For two days in a year they pay their respect to Gandhi and totally discard him for the rest 363 days.
This time, I also rarely came across Rabindranath Tagore in Gujarat. Not too long ago the poet used to occupy the place of a resplendent star in the minds of the educated Gujarati middle class. Now I could hardly detect him. There are still traces of Shri Aurobindo here and there. ‘He is too complex and esoteric but Hindu to the core. That’s why he will remain’, I was told by the Principal of Vadodara Collage.
However the one whose existence is all pervading in Contemporary Gujarat is Swami Vivekananda. The Gujarati mind has been shaken and agitated by this Sannyasi. Not only the affluent or the middle classes but even the, so called, backward classes, have brought him down to the streets as one of their own. One vanavasi, Munnalal, told me, “Beant Swamijine bola, sab Mussalman ko maar dalo” (Beant Swamiji had said, kill all Muslims). I was really intrigued as I couldn’t make out who this ‘Beant Swamiji’ was. Seeing my bewilderment Munnalal brought out a very carefully preserved picture of Swami Vivekananda from his room. He said to me, “dekho. Ek Bangali veer. Bharat ka Janak.” (See. A brave Bengali. The father of India.)
The people of Gandhi’s own State have started to think Swami Vivekananda as the Father of the Nation! I would not go into a deeper analysis of this matter. Everybody creates his own interpretation of reality according to his own viewpoint or understanding. Munnalal has interpreted Swamiji as an anti Muslim Hindu monk, as he himself is anti Muslim. Mr. Ravi Dasgupta of ‘The Statesman’ has construed Swami Vivekananda as the ‘Father of Neo Vedanta’. This is because Ravibabu is a diehard secularist. This sort of thing would go on for the time being.
For good reason a question may arise – okay we’ll accept that industrial enterprise is the mainstay of Gujarati entrepreneurs – but do the common people of Gujarat accept enterprise as the mainstay of their lives? My answer is yes. A Bengali friend from Bhavnagar, who used to be a bank manager by profession, explained this to me with an example. One middle aged mendicant used to save, whatever little he could, everyday. When his savings reached ten thousand rupees he quit begging and opened a little teashop in the outskirts of his town. Today, twenty years later, he has four shops, two houses and three cars in that town. That mendicant entrepreneur is no longer alive. His grandson is a University graduate and an active leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. In other words enterprise and entrepreneurial growth is the mantra of Gujarati life.
How did the enterprising Gujaratis develop such a vehement animosity towards the Muslims? I had asked this question at various levels of Gujarati society. In most cases the answers were confused and foggy, cloaked in an emotional garb. I really couldn’t reach any decision from those.
On this very matter a certain Professor at IIM Ahmedabad has been working for the past ten years. An eminent lawyer from Vadodara is also researching this matter for some time. I met both of them and discussed at length upon their ideas regarding the estrangement of two communities. Working upon this discussion, I had visited different regions of Gujarat and had tried to verify their interpretations of this issue. Whatever I found out I’ll try to convey here as succinctly as possible. (One thing really surprised me. Both of my IIM and lawyer friends have requested to keep their names secret. Both are afraid that publishing the truth about the real Hindu – Muslim situation might have lethal consequences. In the past two decades many researchers have been ruthlessly eliminated by the Muslim mafia. I was under the impression that such dangers exist only in West Bengal.)
(1) After 1947, at least 40% of the Muslim Bania community of Gujarat migrated to the Sind province of Pakistan. But remarkably, even though they migrated to Pakistan they didn’t wind up their businesses in Gujarat or even sell them to anyone. They run these businesses through a line of agents. Now who are these agents? Only about 20% of them are Gujarati Muslims, who, for various reasons, could not migrate to Pakistan. The rest 80% are Pakistani Muslims who illegally travel between the two countries on a regular basis. These Muslims are mostly residents of Hyderabad in Sind or the Bahawalpur Province of Pakistan. By character they are rabidly fundamentalist and virulently anti Hindu. From 1947 to 1980, in these thirty three years the situation this network of agents has created throughout Gujarat is, in a word, frightening. It is they who have spawned the Muslim Mafia in Gujarat. This network has brought in rabidly pro Pakistan Muslims, especially from parts of Bihar and U.P, and settled them in Gujarat; cleverly utilizing these elements for various illegal and nefarious activities. The main objective of these agents (the Professor of IIM has termed them as ‘surrogate traders’) was (and still is) to acquire the land and businesses of the Hindu Banias in any manner possible. Towards this end the tactics of intimidation, forcible occupation, benami purchases and other illegal and devious means were liberally employed. The Mafia largesse also flew unstintingly to different levels of politics and bureaucracy to buy either their support or indifference towards this diabolical programme.
(2) In 1973, by exploiting the world wide oil crisis the Arab Sheikhs of the Middle East suddenly found themselves in control of an unimaginable reserve of wealth. This juncture also provided a golden opportunity for the surrogate Muslim Banias of Gujarat. Exploiting their sinister network and the formidable influence it enjoyed with the Indian political and bureaucratic classes, they now offered their services to the Sheikhs of Middle East. For a long time these Sheiks had coveted the control of the rich and prosperous Hindu trade of Gujarat. Now they had the opportunity to put their greedy paws upon it. From 1973 to 1980 this sinister combine carried out their nefarious designs in Gujarat with impunity. For some strange and unknown reason both the State and Central Governments had turned a Nelson’s eye at these activities going on under their very noses.
(3) After 1975 this network of surrogate Muslim Banias gathered a new strength and vitality. Assistance, this time, flowed from a new source – Pakistan. After the humiliating defeat of 1971 the ruling powers of Pakistan were fervently seeking a new way of destabilising India. Prime Minister Bhutto expounded this new tactic, but the credit for formalising and implementing this programme goes to the Late General Zia ul Haque. Gen. Zia’s viewpoint was unique – “For Pakistan India can never be a winnable proposition. We should never try that. What then should be our mission to stall India with its strength and superior power?..... Don’t get frustrated my friends. True, India is not a winnable proposition but certainly it is a buyable product. Let’s buy it….”.
Since 1975 to this day Pakistan has employed this strategy of purchase to deadly effect. In this strategy not only the Muslims but thousands of Hindus, employed in different professions, are also equally involved. Zia got it right. The Indians are too fond of cash, even to their own detriment. And to properly exploit this tragic flaw it is imperative that the majority Hindus, in thousands, be recruited in this scheme. This remarkable strategic ‘invasion’ (which is still going on) infused a new strength and power to the network of surrogate banias.
(4) The extremist activities of these surrogate banias upset the stability of Hindu trade and commerce in Gujarat and a great portion of Hindu trade went into the hands of the Muslims. The Hindu big business, however, didn’t feel the heat of this drive. These cunning surrogates knew extremely well that once the Hindu big businesses are troubled Ahmedabad and New Delhi would strike back viciously. Those who felt the heat were mainly the small and middling traders. And in Gujarat these traders comprised the majority of the class. Let me offer some examples.
Kanhaiya Modi had a small automobile workshop on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. One Bania Sheikh offered to buy him out in 1965. The initial offer was for 50,000 rupees. Later, in stages, the offer increased up to 1, 20,000 rupees. Kanhaiyabhai couldn’t resist any longer and sold the workshop to the Sheik for Rs.1, 20,000. The Sheikh paid him 50000 rupees for the first instalment and 25000 rupees for the second, two years later. After the second instalment the Sheikh stopped payment altogether. As the deal was made in the old fashion – through trust – it did not stand in court. Kanhaiyabhai was forced to become a hawker after losing his business. Kevalram, his son, is now a ruthless commander of the Bajrang Dal.
Bhikhubhai had a nicely running shop in Vadodara. In 1965 the shop was valued at around 200,000 rupees. For an irresistible offer of 350,000 rupees Bhikhubhai sold his shop to a Muslim Bania named Omar Sheikh. Although Bhikhubhai extracted full payment for his shop he was unable to open a new one. The sons of Bhikhubhai could not accept this downfall of their family. Today all of them are extreme supporters of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
In the town of Godhra Chimanbhai had some land adjacent to his house. A Muslim Bania friend requested Chimanbhai to rent him that land for a few months. Trusting his friend and eager to earn a little bit of money Chimanbhai acquiesced. Thereafter the rent fell in arrears for seven months and his Muslim friend forcibly occupied the land. Moreover, within a couple of years, Chimanbhai was forced to sell his house and move away. The eldest daughter of Chimanbhai is a powerful BJP leader today.
In Porbander, the birthplace of Gandhi, the Muslim Banias took over scores of Hindu property, practically for pittance. Even in the very near past there were many localities in Porbander where the Hindus were prohibited to enter. In Porbander the Muslim mafia did pretty much as they pleased under the very nose of the Government. The Hindu Banias either had to tolerate their depredations or had to sell off everything and move out. From 1947 to 1980, throughout this long period of time, the surrogate Banias have ruthlessly and cunningly occupied the land and properties of the Hindu Banias. Needless to say, the methods of their acquisition were totally illegal. There were times when they even received, directly and indirectly, the assistance of the government. Surprisingly, the big business of Gujarat turned a blind eye to this forcible occupation. It is even more surprising when I think that the owners of these big businesses are all Hindus.
These surrogate Muslim Banias occupied the lands of the lower classes (Dalits, Adivasis, etc.) with even more ruthlessness. Even the farmers fell prey to their depredations. Let me quote some instances.
In West Gujarat there lived one Vanavasi named Kansiram. He owned about ten bighas of land. One Muslim trader plied him with alcohol till he was blind drunk and then murdered him. He then forcibly occupied his land and also his wife and children. After a year or so he carried off Kansiram’s young widow to Bahawalpur, where he performed the ‘Nikah’ with her. The children were left in Gujarat where they survived by doing odd jobs on the trader’s land. The eldest of them is called Bhunilal. When Bhunilal became fifteen that Muslim Bania took him to Bahawalpur and there he tried to forcibly convert Bhunilal to Islam. Bhunilal’s own mother was also involved in this attempt. Bhunilal managed to escape to India with the assistance of a liberal Maulana and took shelter with the RSS. Bhunilal is now a commander of the Bajrang Dal. On him there are charges of ruthlessly massacring ten Muslims.
The story of Ramu, resident of Bhuj, is even more heart rending. His ‘dear friend’ Daud Ali had loaned him one thousand rupees. In the next ten years Ramu couldn’t repay that loan with its component of 2% interest per day! So Daud took ‘possession’ of Ramu’s land, dwelling and also his wife. In this matter Daud was assisted by the Hindu headman of the said village. Ramu was driven out to the streets with his children. Daud transferred Ramu’s wife to Dubai. There she converted to Islam, married Daud and started a small business. In time she also bore Daud three children. That woman, who’s Muslim name was Huba Begum, returned to her village with her children towards the end of the eighties. After her return she offered the children from her first husband to embrace Islam. By then Ramu had died. The children declined their mother’s offer. For this ‘offence’ they were severely tortured and had to flee their village and migrate to Ahmedabad. In the Gujarat riots Ramu’s sons murdered their mother and her Muslim husband Daud with horrifying cruelty.
In this connection let me relate the story of an Adivasi lady. She shall remain unnamed upon her own request. She related her story to me in flawless English. This lady was married to a day labourer and they had seven sons. The family spent their days in grinding poverty. In 1965 she took the job of a baby sitter in the house of a Muslim Bania. That Gentleman sent her to Jeddah in 1969 to work in the family of his married daughter. In Jeddah this daughter’s husband tried to force her to embrace Islam. He also offered the inducement that if she embraced Islam he would divorce (talaq) his wife and marry her. With great dexterity she evaded this offer and fled to Philadelphia as the baby sitter of an American couple. She accomplished her escape with the assistance of a kind and sympathetic Christian couple in Jeddah. That was in 1971. In the US she realised that her lack of education has landed her in this quagmire, and resolved to educate herself. She finished her Graduation in 1980, her Post Graduation in 1983 and her PhD in 1990. Currently she is working as a Professor in an American University. She has been visiting India twice a year, every year, from 1985 till 2001, only with a single purpose – to seek out her husband and children. In this purpose she is yet to be successful but she has not relinquished hope. It’s her unwavering belief that God will unite her with her husband and children, one day. In the US, she is a very famous organiser for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. She thinks, “Islam is a curse upon our Hindu Society”.
Gujarat has witnessed thousands upon thousands of such incidents like those above. The surrogate Muslim Banias had nearly destabilised the State. The State machinery and the big businesses had full knowledge of what was going on but had willingly maintained their silence. Thousands of small and middling traders, the non trading middle classes of the towns and villages, Dalits and Adivasis, had to silently suffer their onslaught; because they lacked unity. This lack of unity and organisation relegated them to the roles of helpless victims before this well funded and well orchestrated onslaught of the surrogates. The Gujarati media never exposed the real happenings before the public. And the political parties thought better of it than to open their mouths.
(5) At this hour of despair a new wave crashed into Gujarat. By 1985 a new power was rising in the state. And the harbinger of this wave was the non resident Gujaratis. A major portion of this non resident community had to leave their native shores under the pressure of the surrogate banias. Leaving Gujarat they migrated to different parts of the world, wherever opportunities presented themselves. In these foreign lands they had fully utilised the world wide momentum of free trade. Employing their intellect and formidable spirit of enterprise, these people of small and medium trading background, had, in the past two decades, created a base of huge and solid wealth. That too in dollars. From the 1980’s this new dollar wealth began to flow back to Gujarat. Hindu Bania power, till then whimpering in indignity, slowly stood up on its own feet backed by this infusion and, gathering a new courage, began to fight back the advances of the surrogates. However, although it played a significant part, this infusion of non resident dollars was not the only force that started to turn back the tide in Gujarat. Apart from dollar wealth a new patriotic confidence also began to flow into Gujarat which began to inject a new hope into the despondent Hindu community. This confidence spewed forth from the fount of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or the RSS. ‘Proudly say I am a Hindu’, ‘India is the land of Hindus’, ‘The new century shall be a Hindu Century’, ‘Hindus shall no longer silently suffer Muslim assaults, now they will strike back’; words like these became the catch phrases of this new confidence.
This wave of Hindu Nationalism began to spread in Gujarat from 1985. The Sangh Parivar eagerly availed of this opportunity, they had to. Otherwise the prevailing situation would have spawned another Hindu outfit. The surrogate Muslim Banias have tried tooth and nail to resist this new tide and in this effort they have been consistently backed by Pakistan and the Sheikhs of Middle East. As a part of this effort they have also tried to institute a greater political arrangement throughout Gujarat. This can be easily proved from many different instances of the Gujarat Incident. Within this ‘political arrangement’ many Hindus, working in different fields and in different levels of government, as well as people of Pakistan’s Strategy Management and ISI, are involved.
From 1947 to 1985, throughout these thirty eight years, the Muslim trade cartel has carried on a relentless assault against the small and medium Hindu traders. This has inevitably led to the ‘socialisation’ of the anger of the majority Hindu community. In Gujarat the ground realities began to change from 1985 onwards. The influx of the non resident Gujaratis and their money laid the ground for the establishment of Hindu Nationalism in Gujarat. Subsequently the socialisation of the Gujarati Hindu wrath acted as a catalyst for the ultimate socialisation of Hindu Nationalism in that State.
The so called secular parties could not figure out this complex socio – political process. The crisis in Gujarat was not generated by religious fundamentalism. Its root lies deep inside the public life of Gujarat where religion and enterprise combine inextricably to create a complex whole.

After interacting with many different persons associated with various branches of the Sangh Parivar I have come to the conclusion that none of them are intent on establishing a theocratic state. What they aim for is a nation state where everybody is free to pursue their own faith but should be subject to and must obey a uniform legal code. They want every Indian, whether Hindu or Muslim, to be inspired with patriotism. They should unequivocally express their love for their motherland and discharge the duties expected of them as citizens with full responsibility. The goal of the Sangh Parivar is to establish throughout India a vibrant civil society suffused with youthful energy. In contemporary Gujarat all the efforts towards these goals have been virulently opposed by the Muslims. That is the reason why the majority Hindus have organised such a resistance movement against them. That, in a nutshell, is the Gujarat Incident.

Now I’ll commence the ‘Epilogue’ of my article. What does the Gujarat Incident indicate for the rest of India? Today it is crystal clear that the ‘Gujarat Incident’ has created a tremendous upheaval in the Hindu society throughout India. I won’t get into the nitty gritty of this upheaval. But rather try to derive some apparent and simple lessons that any political, social or cultural analysis of this incident inevitably throws up.
(a) The days of blind secularism has come to an end. The ‘Gujarat Incident’ has sounded the death knell of the blatantly partisan politics that started in post independence India targeting the Muslim vote bank.
(b) Indian Nationalism, which is basically an extrapolation of Hindu Nationalism, has decisively defeated in Gujarat the non patriotic secular politics. According to the Sangh Parivar this secular politics is the greatest hindrance towards establishing India as a truly powerful and sovereign state. The true driving force shall again be infused into the nation engendering a new and vibrant social, cultural and political energy. Only this new power and energy can truly implement the vision that President Kalam has put forth before us. The Sangh Parivar thinks there is no place for narrowness in this ideology. This new wave of Hindu Nationalism is bound to spread throughout India. The demands of the cold war were allowed to reduce India to a soft and effete state. A state that could never decisively pursue any policy that was suited for safeguarding or furthering its own interests. The cold war, however, is over. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and the Babri Masjid fell in 1992. Would the Hindus have gone ahead with the demolition if the Soviet Union were still extant? I think not. Anyway the new world order of politics and economics desires to see India in a more powerful and decisive role, an emergent superpower. The opposition to this destiny is still there, but they are no longer that cohesive. Under the circumstances it is quite natural that the spirit of true nationalism will submerge the whole of India in its irresistible flow. It may be, that divergent political ideologies will try to survive by affecting a compromise with the nationalistic mainstream. This is amply reflected in the ‘soft Hindutva’ of the Congress or the attempts at ‘Indianisation’ by the Marxists.
© The Gujarat Incident has also evaluated the hostility between the Hindus and Muslims. What has transpired is that the animus between the two communities is not a natural corollary of the social, economic or political interaction or competition between them. In today’s India it is a strategic issue. Behind the Muslims are Pakistan and the sinister powers of West Asia whose aim is the disintegration and subsequent occupation of Hindu India. They seek to establish an Islamic State in India by totally destroying the indigenous culture and civilisation. As long as they maintain this aggressive and destructive policy the animosity between the Hindus and Muslims in India shall remain. Resultantly, whenever a riot takes place, evaluating that riot in the context of social or political issues would be a mistake. The Hindu – Muslim relation in present day India is a strategic issue, the Muslims should understand that along with the whole nation.


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