The Bombay communalist riots
Muslims are traditionally well-know weavers, and they had established the selves in Bhiwandi. In one corner of the small tenements they will keep the power looms to work on. So, we can say that they have a working-class or lower
May 18 saw the beginning of two weeks of violence between Hindu and Muslim communities in the Indian province of Maharashtra, especially in the towns of Bombay and Bhiwandi (north of Bombay).
Over 230 people, mainly Muslims, were killed and 780 injured in the worst outbreak in the province for over ten years.
As the economic situation of the country worsens, tensions between different groups in Indian society are rising. leaning increasingly toward implicit support for Hindu revivalist groups.
In this case the violence was directed against the predominantly Muslim any Muslims living in India.
The Indian government is middle-class standard of living. Those who could acquire more power looms, might also hire labourers. Besides, in several places in India, some Muslims are well established traders — we can compare them with the Jews.
So now, especially with the economic crisis, communal sentiment is used everywhere and in fact in the last ten years a series of communal riots have taken place, all of them in industrial or trade union centers. The communal elements,
Anti-Muslim feeling is reflected in generalised discrimination at every
The police in the province were therefore quite level in Indian society.
happy to 'turn a blind eye' and in some cases connive in the violence.
one incident, 27 innocent women, men and children were massacred in a house in Bhiwandi. The police were called but failed to arrive until it was
One of the more ominous aspects of this and the government's handling of the situation in the Punjab is the way in which the army is becoming
Mogens Pedersen spoke to Vibhuti Patel, a member of Inquilabi Communist Sangathan [Revolutionary Communist Organisation], Indian section of the Fourth International, about the background to the violence.
Communalist riots have
Question.
on in Bombay for several been going
What kind of confrontations are days.
and what is meant by the taking place, term 'communalism'
Communalism means com-
Answer.
different munal disharmony.
That is, religious or religious-chauvinist groups coming in to conflict with each other. It between Hindus and Muslims, can be
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In Muslims and Muslims (among Muslims there Sunni-Muslims), among Akalis and Nirankaris - different factions of Sikhs, Sikhs and Hindus, Hindus and Christians. But at present the most pervasive communalist conflicts are between Hindus and Sikhs and Hindus and Muslims.
Q. What occasioned these latest riots in Bombay, and who took the initiative like Shiv Sena, just to throw the Muslims out, have used techniques like hooliganism, arson, beating, mass rape and massacres of Muslims. The same thing happened in Bhiwandi this time.
To our knowledge this is the first time that such a serious massacre has taken place since partition. (2) At the time of partition such massacres took place in Gujarat, Punjab, West Bengal and Kashmir. Now many people are expecting that such an intense situation will continue, because it seems to be spreading throughout Bombay. The riots have spread even where Muslims are not a considerable element. 1. "Sena" means army. 2. The partition in 1947 of the former British India into two independent states, India and Pakistan, with provinces and princely states with a Muslim majority being included in Pakistan (except Kashmir and Jammu, which were divided after armed confrontations).
International Viewpoint 16 July 1984
Q. The Muslims are not able to defend themselves in any way?
A. No, because they are just 14% of the Indian population, and in Maharashtra state probably about 12% of the population. So, how can they defend themselves? Besides, if you take any economic indicator, the Muslims are worse off - the level of education, cultural development, job opportunities and the per capita income are generally lower among the Muslims. Even in the bureauthe military and government ofMuslims are discriminated against, and this whole bogey of Muslims being traitors and Pakistani agents is always being used against them. In general they are worse off, except for a minor group of traders and shopkeepers.
You have said that maybe a thousand people have been killed during the
Is there any estimate of the number of refugees?
A. At the Victoria Terminal Station alone a thousand Muslims have taken refuge; many of them on station platforms in Bombay Central. In areas like Bhiwandi, most of the Muslims have left
They are so demoralised and scared, that they don't want to enter that place again. So, tens of thousands of Muslims from the affected areas have
So, Shiv Sena is the organisation mainly responsible for the killings, arson and robbing. Is it functioning completely independently or are there any connections with the major, traditional political
They have been used by Congress formed with the blessing of Congress (I) (3), mainly to break the hold of Communists in the trade-union movement, to demoralise and break the Communist movement that was becoming stronger. In the industry and trade-union movement in Bombay, Communists played a very important role, and they also had strong organisations among squatters and in the slums. So, Shiv Sena goons equipped with arms and ammunition systematically beat up Communist activists. They murdered a big leader, Krishna Menon, in 1969. The main slogan of Shiv Sena is 'Our Bombay' , 'Bombay is Ours', so among the targets are also Gujarat and south Indian people. Their activity was to burn their shops, throw stones sometimes, scare them, rob things.
But there was not such a great amount of massacre. Over the past four to five years many communal organisations have come up. After the emergence of Janata Party rule in 1977, communal forces got state patronage; organisations like RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - National Volunteer Corps), Jan Sangh, Vishwa
Parishad (Universal Hindu Conference), Patit Pawan are anti-Communist, anti-Muslim, anti-Dalit (5) and anti-poor organisations. A series of such organisations started International Viewpoint 16 July 1984 coming to the fore. Their main concern was to do strike breaking activity, and to break the new rise of self-organisation among untouchables and tribals. A strong and militant tribal movement has developed in various parts of Maharashtra. In the textile strike also, Shiv Sena played an active role in killing workers, and throwing stones at the public meetings
Is it correct to say that Congress (I), Indira Gandhi and the government have been inspiring communalist sentigeneral elections? Is such an attempt to inspire Hindu chauvinism a partial explanation of the fact that the riots are occurring now?
Earlier Congress (1) always claimed to be representing the interests of four sections of the Indian population: tribals, untouchables, Muslims and Christians. That meant Congress was sure of 30% of the votes, on the basis of which it won the elections in 1971 and 1980 But now the minorities have lost faith in Congress, because of the increasing experiences — for all these four groups of social discrimination, riots and growing marginalisation from the Indian social mainstream. Now Congress wants to have a different image for capturing
That is why it is supporting Hindu revivalist organisations, and that is also why they talk less about secular-
Previously, Congress used to talk a lot about secularism. But now it keeps liaison with many rightist forces.
It has been mentioned in one of the daily papers that a specific reason for the extension of the riots - not the outbreak of the riots - is that owners of land and construction companies interested in forcing out a great number of slum dwellers to be able to go on with their building projects, more profits. Is there anything in that?
The construction industry has a big mafia, it also has political patronage from Congress (I), and the latest series of frauds that created a stir in Indian politics were all related to the construction industry, because they are one of the main suppliers of funds to Congress. These business tycoons, these giants in the construction industry, maintain systematic political operations, they have strong connections with the underground, and they are in touch with Shiv Sena. They have used this opportunity to get this land, by calling on hooligans from outside, who are very good in butchering who are very confident butchers. present Muslims are bearing the brunt of it. But it is a threat to other slum dwellers also: 'Okay, if you don't listen to us, the same thing will happen to you also'. That is demoralising all slum dwellers, and now these Muslim people, after these will never go to that slum again. Either they will be pavement dwellers, or they might go to the far suburbs, the outskirts of Bombay, because in the villages they cannot get jobs. They will have to work in Bombay, because Bombay provides relatively better opportunities for employment, but they will be marginalised, once more marginalised, even further marginalised.
Q. Is it possible for the trade-union movement to mobilise against the rightwing organisations? The textile workers were on strike for a year and a half, and we still have the militant organisations of the textile workers, led by Datta Samant. You mentioned that Shiv Sena attacked the textile workers during the strike. What is the response? Does the organisation of Datta Samant take up the prob-
A. When you meet textile workers, they all say that the masses are not involved in the riots. It is the professional hooligans who are creating terror among the Muslims. So, there is nothing spontaneous, two communities are not fighting; it is one-sided violence perpetrated by Shiv Sena goons. The workers grasp this very easily. They say 'whatever tacties they used to break our strike, now they are using against the Muslims' there is sympathy among the workers for the victims, and the scope of it will have to be seen in the coming period.
But neither the Communist parties nor other radical groups have taken the communalism There has been no systematic work done on this question, and always they are just harping on class issues: revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, all these problems will be solved'. That is the attitude of most of the left parties. Moreover, in the electoral field many of them, CPI (Communist Party of India) and CM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) have made electoral alliances with communalist parties. They have always made compromises, to take votes on a caste and communal
And all parliamentary parties encourage and use communalist sentiments.
Q. In this situation, what can and will be done by far-left organisations, including the Revolutionary Communist Organisation, to mobilise against the right-wing attacks?
A. The first thing is to give moral support to the communities, to go and stay in that area, be with them, so that they can feel more protected. And whatever physical help that can be given, will be given. We will stress the need for
"I" stands for Indira. In his book Can Pakistan Survive? Tariq Ali notes about communalism and RSS (established in 1926): "the more extreme elements within the Hindu Mahasabha had initiated the formation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) National Volunteer Corps - an organisation designed to provide shock troops for Hindu communalism. The RSS organised systematic attacks on Muslims and carried out acts of arson and sabotage designed to demoralise the minority community. They were denounced by Jawaharlal Nehru: 'Hindu communalism is the Indian version of fascism'. A more precise analogy would have been with the Orange Lodges and Loyalist communalism in the North of Ireland.' (p.21).
Untouchables, caste-less people. 11
the unity of the working class and of uniting the working class and the minority under attack and show that this kind of unity can only serve the long-term interests of both the working class and the minority community.
After the defeat of the textile strike and a series of strikes of the last three to four years, people had predicted that now regionalist, communalist and castist forces would come to the fore and there will be a lot of demoralisation cynicism among the workers. such things as the present riots would happen on such a massive scale was not visualised, because Bombay used to have a tradition of liberalism and a long sustained left trade-union movement. But in spite of all that, it has happened. That is a very eye-opening experience, that we have to completely reaffirm in our perspective of the class struggle, in our understanding of unity of the toiling masses and how to concretely apply this concept of unity in practice. That is a great challenge, and at present a united front composed of humanists. Gandhians, different far-left tendencies, autonomous women's organisations and democraticrights organisations must come together to propose and organise demonstrations such as the sit-in against the violence on Sunday (May 27). These are very mild programmes, but attempts to organise these activities are being made, although contacting people is also a problem right now, because many areas in Bombay are under curfew.
What demands will be raised in relation to these activities?
A. First, a thorough investigation of the role of the police, because the police in many places have been just silent spectators, and they have connived with the hooligans. In many areas, police themselves have perpetrated violence against the Muslims. The minority has no faith in the police, because of the way they have behaved during the curfew, terror-
The role of the police needs investigation; that will be one of the de-
Then there must be a big relief activity for the rehabilitation of the refugees, and more protection should be provided to this minority community by government and non-government groups.
Q. For the future, do you expect that Indian social life and politics will be even more dominated by communalist problems and clashes?
A. With a demoralisation and defeats of the working-class movement, communalist, castist and regionalist forces will come to the fore. There are working-class struggles, but at present I see it as a period of demoralisation and defeat for the working-class struggle, because the traditional left parties are just not interested in doing even any token work related to this struggle. And the far-left groups at present are in a process of reorganisation. This has just started, so they themselves are still con12
A railway station destroyed by riots (DR) solidating. Therefore, this is a very critical period.
You talk about the possibility of a further demoralisation of the workers, what has been the development of the organisation of the textile workers in the Bombay area? One thing is that they did not win their struggle, but have they maintained a basic strength?
After the defeat of this textile struggle, nearly 100,000 workers are out
They do not consider Datta Samant as responsible for this defeat, because they were isolated and because of the treachery of Socialists and Communists, but that again is a subjective factor. Objectively the textile industry at this juncture is going into thorough restructuring, with a high level of automatisation and rationalisation. So, both the factors, the subjective and the objective, are
AS THE HIRE
adverse to them.
This defeat has come after many such defeats - the defeat of the workers of the locomotive-running staffs, of the public-sector workers strike and others, and after so many black acts -The Essential Services Maintainance Act, Hospital and Education Institutions Bill, Disturbed Areas Act, National Security Act, Preventive Detention Act, all such acts to curb the working-class struggle — to demoralise the workers, to get activists arrested before the strikes start. So, the working-class struggle has been on the defensive. Therefore, a central task right now for us is to take up the direct struggle against communalism and to relate to that a struggle to defend and win democratic rights, and thereby also prepare to revive the more traditional trade-union struggles.
International Viewpoint 16 July 1984
PEACE MOVEMENT.
pressure on the American Senate to grant it the finances that it has been holding back. Last month the Congress only agreed to appropriate money for 15 MX missiles, instead of the forty that Reagan had asked for.