Communal violence in south India
Radhavinod Raju, IPS (Retd),
Former Director General, National Investigation Agency
According to
studies on communalism and communal conflict in India, communal riots have
occurred in India even before British rule.
Ahmedabad has recorded communal riots in 1714, 1715 and 1716 and again
in 1750[1].
The scholar quoting[2]
from another study says communal tensions and riots began to occur in India
only in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, but not in any significant
manner. That happened only in 1946-47. Earlier, communal riots also took place
during 1923-26. The communal riots and violence during the partition of India
are well recorded.
It appears
that communal violence in India during the period 1960 to 1980 often related to
clash of political and economic interests of the conflicting communities, and
hardly occurred spontaneously. There had to be some external stimulus for the
violence[3].
The communal riots and violence in the 1990s and thereafter have been as a result
of the BJP’s Hindu consolidation process. This can be seen especially in the
south of India, in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, where there was hardly any
communal discord till the early eighties, when the BJP decided to make its
political foray. Of nearly 100 major
incidents of communal violence in India from 1947 to 2003, only about 15 had
taken place in the south and of these fifteen, 11 incidents had taken place
post Babri Masjid demolition.
Towards the
turn of the millennium, a senior police officer in Jammu & Kashmir was
chatting with his officers in Jammu[4].
He said he will not be surprised if the southern states of the country wished
to break away from India in view of the religious intolerance and related
problems, terrorism and backwardness in other parts of the country which were
pulling the country down. The southern states contributed significantly in the
economic growth of India. India’s IT industry, space and major nuclear
establishments were based in the south. The south appeared calm and stable,
progressive and forward looking. Would this be a correct description of the
actual state of affairs as it existed at the time these comments were made?
A closer look at the south would show that
there were stirrings of religious intolerance in the south also, especially
from the early eighties. The Babri Masjid issue was not the only issue that
prompted this intolerance. Social and other political issues also contributed
to its growth.
The
Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu and the strong Communist movement in Kerala
had been bulwarks against communalist tendencies. But the split in the
Dravidian movement in the seventies, and the split in the Communist Party of
India in the mid-sixties followed by the fractured politics of Kerala gradually
led to the use of religious forces by rival political factions to strengthen
their electoral prospects.
Among social
causes, the low status of the Dalits, and their ill-treatment by upper caste
Hindus in some parts of Tamil Nadu was the apparent cause for conversion of 1200
Dalits to Islam in the village of Meenakshipuram in Kanyakumari district in
February, 1981. They even named the village Rehmat Nagar. Following this
incident, conversions of Dalits to Islam took place in some other districts of
Tamil Nadu also, leading to religious tensions. There were communal clashes
between the Hindu and Christian communities, again over the issue of conversion
in Kanyakumari district in March, 1982.
It was
around this time that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into being in a new
avatar of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, following the break-up of the Janata Party.
The BJP was then seen more or less as a party of the Hindus of north India. The
party decided to go to the south of the Vindhyas to acquire an all India character,
and set up establishments in the southern states. The Hindu Munnani was formed
by Rama Gopalan in 1981 as a reaction to the alleged conversions, and in order
to prevent conversions and get back to the Hindu fold those already converted. “The growing religious tensions in Tamil Nadu
manifested themselves in violence, when, in the first such recorded incident,
Islamist fundamentalists assaulted Tirukovilur Sundaram, a Hindu Munnani
leader, at R. S. Puram in Coimbatore in 1981, after he was accused of delivering
speeches against Islam and the Prophet Mohammed. Soon afterwards, radical
elements of the Hindu Munnani are said to have publicly abused and reviled
Islam”[5]-
with immediate violent reprisals. Jana Krishnamurthy, later a central minister,
was attacked in Coimbatore in 1984 and Rama Gopalan, founder of the Hindu
Munnani, in Madurai in 1987. Both cases were allegedly masterminded by Syed
Ahmed Basha, a timber merchant of Coimbatore who later founded the Al Ummah,
though he was acquitted in both cases due to lack of evidence. Some researchers
believe that the absence of a strong Muslim leadership in the political field
to represent Muslim interests led many youth to revolve towards extremist
elements in Tamil Nadu. A Hindu Munnani leader was killed in Coimbatore in
August 1989, followed by another murder in September, 1991. A Muslim preacher was
killed in retaliation the same day[6].
An important
aspect of Islamist fundamentalist mobilisation in Tamil Nadu is that it has
often been directed more towards countering the activities of Hindu extremist
organizations, and is not entirely impelled by an independent vision, or by the
mischief of external agencies. Many Muslims, for instance, mentioned that
extravagant and aggressive celebrations of Vinayaka Chaturthi, direct verbal
attacks on Islam and Muslims by the Hindu Munnani and Hindu People’s Party
leaders, contributed to a sense of insecurity among the Muslims. Every year the
Vinayaka Chaturthi celebrations created large-scale disturbances within the
local community. Prakash Karat writing in the Frontline magazine (Vol. 15 ::
No. 05 :: Mar. 7 - 20, 1998) immediately after the Coimbatore blasts of
February, 1998, had this to say: “From the early 1980s, the RSS has been
planning to penetrate Tamil Nadu, one of the few States which was free from the
ideological and political influence of the Hindu communalists. Coimbatore was
one of the prime targets selected by the RSS, just as Kanyakumari district and
some other pockets in southern Tamil Nadu, where the compos ition of the
population provides the opportunity for creating hatred against the minorities,
were targeted. The RSS set up the Hindu Munnani as its front for its political
and communal activities in Tamil Nadu in 1980 and it became active in
Coimbatore. For one-and-a-half decades now, the Hindu Munnani has been the
platform of the RSS combine. As in many other urban industrial centres the
pattern unfolded in a typical way. Religious processions were promoted - such
as the Vinayaka Chathurthi procession, which was a new feature in Tamil Nadu.
Just as the Ganesh Chathurthi processions in Maharashtra were used as a vehicle
for communal mobilisation and propaganda against minorities, these processions
sharply escalated tensions. Clashes took place even in Chennai as a result of
such processions. (Frontline, October 22, 1993) Significantly, another front
organisation set up by the RSS was the Tamil Nadu Hindu Merchants Association.
This was used to rally Hindu merchants and to communalise commercial rivalries
with Muslim traders”.
According to
a study, “…Economic rivalry between Hindu and Muslim traders is another major
reason for the growth of fundamentalist organizations in Tamil Nadu. Since
1991, Coimbatore, a city with a substantial high-tech industrial infrastructure
has seen a translation of economic competition into fundamentalist
confrontation. The business community uses these hardliners for their own
economic and political benefits. It is much more prevalent in the small scale
business enterprises which are active in the common Bazaars. For instance, the
considerable textile industry in the city is organised along communal lines, and
there is little cooperation, collaboration or interdependence between Hindu and
Muslim textile traders. The intense competition between Hindu and Muslim
traders has often exploited ‘misguided youth’ of each community to unleash
hooliganism against each other. Indeed, after the formation of fundamentalist
organizations, the business class in both the communities is known to have
heavily financed these organizations for their own vested interests. While the
extremist gangs did engage in extortion and petty crimes, landlords, traders
and merchants also channelled funds into rival communal groups. Shopkeepers and
pavement vendors, divided not only communally but also geographically, also
found it necessary to obtain the ‘protection’ of extremist elements, though
this was especially the case with Muslim traders who were repeatedly at the
receiving end in riot situations. According to Subramanian (T S Subramaniam of
the Frontline Magazine), ‘Muslim businessmen felt threatened when Hindu Munnani
speakers appealed to Hindus not to patronise Muslim-owned shops. Even worse,
the Hindu Munnani organised Hindu traders into associations.’ According to the Police, when the Hindu
Munnani posed a threat to their businesses, Muslim businessmen nurtured Basha,
who began his career as a footpath trader in the Ukkadam and Oppanakkara areas.
When the sequence of stabbings and counter-stabbings intensified, youth on
either side of the divide joined the Hindu Munnani or Al-Ummah, leading to increasing
communal polarisation.”[7]
According to
a study of the Stimson centre[8],
Muslims in Kerala appeared to feel a sense of distinction from their northern
compatriots and enjoyed greater sense of security. The participation of Muslim
political organizations in coalition politics provided a sense of dignity and
respectability to the Muslims of Kerala. Nevertheless, even in Kerala, this
pattern got destabilized due to changes in the politics of secular India,
partly because of the inroads into the north Kerala bastion of the Muslims by
the RSS leading to communal polarization, and partly due to the radicalization
in the Muslim community. In the late eighties, the BJP began to aggressively
promote Hindu consciousness in north Kerala, at a time when the Gulf Malayalee
began to head home due to the impending war there. More than fifty per cent of
the Gulf Malayalees were Muslim. A former BJP president of the state said
during an election meeting, that if voted to power, they will not permit
advertisements from the Gulf asking only for Muslim or Christian candidates[9].
In addition,
the socio-economic backwardness of the majority of Muslims paved the way for
the entry of radicalized youth in the fray. It is said that Muslims who went to
the Gulf, returned with more influence of the Arabs, especially in their dress,
while the Hindus who came home from the Gulf became more Hindu right wing in
their views.
Bhatkal is a
town about 150 km north of the port city of Mangalore, in Karnataka, with the
Arabian Sea on one side, and surrounded by hills on the other three. Today it
is known as the home of the Bhatkal brothers, Riyaz and Iqbal Shabandari, the suspected
founders of the Indian Mujahideen. There is no dearth of Hindu radical groups
here, either. According to some observers, the Ram Navami procession in 1993,
following the demolition of the Babri masjid in December, 1992, led to violent
riots in and around Bhatkal, which lasted for nearly a year, leading to loss of
life and property. According to some, occasional riots, hate speeches and
political assassinations over the years have ‘scarred the psyche of both the
communities. This has helped extremists from both sides to take advantage of
the situation’. The BJP blames Muslims for the assassinations of BJP MLA U
Chittaranjan in 1996, and local BJP worker Thimappa Naik in 2004. The Sriram Sene,
Bajrang Dal and the local BJP unit are active in Bhatkal. Prominent
fundamentalist Hindu leaders involved in attacks on Churches, have made Bhatkal
their base.
Prominent
columnist Praveen Swamy has traced the Hindu Muslim rivalry in Bhatkal, mainly
based on economic issues that got translated into political confrontations, and
gradually took communal overtones. Writing in the Hindu[10]
Swamy says “Bhatkal's Nawayath Muslims,
made prosperous by hundreds of years of trade across the Indian Ocean, emerged as
the region's dominant land-owning community. Early in the twentieth century,
inspired by call of Aligarh reformer Syed Ahmed Khan, Bhatkal notables led a
campaign to bring modern education for the community. The Anjuman
Hami-e-Muslimeen school---- was one product of their efforts, which eventually
spawned highly-regarded institutions that now cater to over several thousand
students.
“Organisations
like the Anjuman helped the Navayath Muslims capitalise on the new
opportunities for work and business which opened up in the United Arab Emirates
and Saudi Arabia during the 1970s. But this wealth, in turn, engendered
resentments which laid the ground for communal conflict. In the years after the
Emergency, the Jana Sangh and its affiliates began to capitalise on resentments
Bhatkal's Hindus felt about the prosperity and political power of the
Navayaths. The campaign paid off in 1983, when the Hindu right-wing succeeded
in dethroning legislator S.M. Yahya, who had served as a state minister between
1972 and 1982.
“Both
communities entered into a competitive communal confrontation, which involved
the ostentatious display of piety and power. The Tablighi Jamaat, a
neo-fundamentalist organisation which calls on followers to live life in a
style claimed to be modelled on that of the Prophet Mohammad, drew a growing
mass of followers. Hindutva groups like the Karavalli Hindu Samiti, too, staged
ever-larger religious displays to demonstrate their clout.
“Early in
1993, Bhatkal was hit by communal riots which claimed seventeen lives and left
dozens injured. The violence began after Hindutva groups claimed stones had
been thrown at a Ram Navami procession, and lasted nine months. Later, in April
1996, two Muslims were murdered in retaliation for the assassination of Bharatiya
Janata Party legislator U. Chittaranjan — a crime that investigators now say
may have been linked to the Bhatkal brothers. More violence broke out in 2004,
after the assassination of BJP leader Thimmappa Naik”.
According to
a study on Hindu-Muslim riots that took place in Hyderabad in late 1990, the
murder of a Muslim auto-rickshaw driver by two Hindu youths served as the
trigger, ‘while the gun was the rising tension between Hindus and Muslims in
the country since the beginning of October (1990)’[11],
when L K Advani, the BJP President of the day, began a rath yatra from the
temple of Somnath on the west coast to Ayodhya in the Hindi heartland of the
north. This study would also show that between 1978 and 1984, there used to be
riots at least once every year, sometimes more in number. Over 400 persons
reportedly lost their lives in these riots. There was a lull between 1984 and
1990, and then riots broke out yet again in the aftermath of Advani’s rath yatra.
According to this study, the Muslim elite had a
fractured self-esteem after the end of the Nizam’s rule which ended their own
political role, while the poor among the Muslims saw themselves staring at a
hopeless future. There were fundamentalist preachers who offered a cure to both
these groups. According to these preachers, the bad condition of the Muslims was
not due to historical changes but due to a glaring internal fault: the
weakening or loss of religious faith.
The Darsgah-Jehad-O-Shahdath
(DJS) was founded on 4 April, 1983, in Hyderabad to defend the life and
property of Muslims and to establish the supremacy of Islam, as claimed in
their web site[12].
The organization claims to have trained thousands of Muslim youth, including
Muslim women, to defend them and to help, protect and defend other Muslim
brethren. There are reports that the DJS has developed links with members of
the militant factions of the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, and the
Indian Mujahideen. Police believe that “organisations such as the Darsgah
Jehad-o-Shahadat (DJS) and the Tahreek Tahfooz Shaer-e-Islam (TTSI) have been
breeding centres for Islamic militancy. They claim that high-profile militants
have usually been trained by both organisations, the DJS in martial arts and
TTSI for militant mentality”[13]
In December,
2008, while reporting on 40 missing Muslim youth from the city of Hyderabad,
Damien McElroy of the Sunday Telegraph wrote that the youth have reportedly
left under extremist guidance for training by the Islamist terror groups in
Pakistan[14].
The report further said that the efforts of the police to track the youth have
floundered and that a wall of community silence has protected the activities of
teachers and other shadowy figures working inside fundamentalist Islamic
schools and mosques. It may be recalled that the Lashkar-e-Tayebba based in
Pakistan had announced its intentions of freeing Hyderabad along with Kashmir
from Indian rule. The Sunday Telegraph report also added that the atmosphere in
Hyderabad’s alleys and markets leading from its ‘Raj-era square is marked by
mutual loathing and suspicion between the Hindus and the Muslims’. According to some Muslims, ‘the young were
totally insecure, everything for them is highly impossible here.-the situation
is all manipulated for political reasons. Every killing and every beating is
given labels to put down legitimate activities’. On the other hand, according
to some Hindus, ‘every house is a cell and every day those people in Pakistan
are on the phone and internet with people here drawing strength from Hyderabad.
Terrorism has become such a big problem because of government laxity.’
Social and
economic conditions have played a significant role in driving the Muslim youth
to extremism. According to a retired judge from the community, ‘The
circumstances for Muslims have changed in the sixty years of India’s
independence. Muslims have fallen down in education, health and are not
properly represented in the police or the administration. They feel they are
not part of the mainstream.’ However, according to a senior police officer, the
predicament of the minority plays only a small role in the indoctrination of
the youth. He says ‘the new generation has much broader grievances. They are
motivated by extreme views on the American presence in Iraq, Middle East frictions
and Muslim torment worldwide’[15].
The
Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was founded on 25 April, 1977, by a
Professor of the Aligarh Muslim University, Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqui,
currently Professor of Journalism and Public Relations at the Western Illinois
University Macomb Illinois. It was founded as the student wing of the
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH). However, it soon broke away from the parent
organization on the ground of the latter’s support for Yasser Arafat, the
Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who was visiting India in 1981.
The SIMI claimed that Arafat was an American stooge. According to a study[16],
the SIMI’s objective was to ‘liberate’ India into an Islamic land, and to
conduct a jihad for this purpose. As the SIMI did not believe in a
‘nation-state’, it did not believe in the Indian Constitution or its secular
order. According to this study, “SIMI is widely believed to be against
Hinduism, western beliefs and ideals, as well as other ‘anti-Islamic cultures’.
Among its various objectives, the SIMI aims to counter what it believes is the
increasing moral degeneration and sexual anarchy in the Indian society as also
the ‘insensitiveness’ of a ‘decadent’ west. Ideologically, SIMI maintains that
the concepts of secularism, democracy and nationalism, keystones of the Indian
Constitution, are antithetical to Islam. Parallel to its rejection of
secularism, democracy and nationalism is its oft-repeated objective of
restoration of the 'khilafat', emphasis on 'ummah' (Muslim brotherhood), and
the need for a Jehad to establish the supremacy of Islam”. According to the study, SIMI reportedly
secures generous financial assistance from the World Assembly of Muslim Youth
(WAMY), Riyadh, and also maintains close links with the International Islamic
Federation of Students' Organizations (IIFSO) in Kuwait. It also receives
generous funds from contacts in Pakistan. The Chicago-based Consultative
Committee of Indian Muslims is also reported to have supported SIMI morally and
financially. They are also reported to have close links with the
Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The SIMI established itself in
south India as well, especially in Kerala.
It is thus
obvious that even before the BJP’s rath yatra, and the demolition of the Babri
Masjid, there was enough extremist ferment in the south, based as much on
religion as on social and economic conditions, a situation that ideally suited
Pakistan and the ISI to exploit. Pakistani journalists and academics have now
given detailed accounts of the moves made by the late Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan’s
ruler of the time, to involve the Jamaat-e-Islami of that country and the ISI
to run a jihad in the Kashmir valley, diverting part of the enormous finances
and arms that Pakistan was receiving from abroad to fight the jihad in
Afghanistan against Soviet occupation[17].
These accounts describe how the Jamaat branhes in Pakistan occupied Kashmir,
and our own part of Kashmir, were later involved in this plan, after holding
secret meetings in Saudi Arabia and other places[18].
We also come to know from other accounts[19]
of how the ISI succeeded in setting up its cells in different parts of India.
It appears that the SIMI became a part of this strategy of the ISI, along with
the Khalistanis.
Till this time, Pakistani attempts to get
Muslim support in south India for subversive activities against the Indian
state had not succeeded. Maloy Krishna Dhar, former joint director in the
Intelligence Bureau has quoted the following[20]
passage from V. Balachandran, former Additional Secretary RAW, “Reports about
SIMI’s involvement in recent bombings have ignored that a triangular process of
punishing India had started much earlier. The first judicially tested evidence
of Pakistani-Khalistani-SIMI nexus had surfaced in 1992 ending up with a
Supreme Court judgment on 9 January 2001, which everybody seems to have
forgotten. The case which was contested for nine years in several courts
started with the arrest of Lal Singh, alias Manjit Singh, an ISI-trained
Khalistani militant on 16 July 1992 at Dadar railway station by Gujarat Police
on prior intelligence. A search of his safe house in Ahmedabad on 25 July
revealed considerable quantity of arms and explosives. The CBI took over the
case in August 1992. Investigation revealed his connections with Basheer of
Kerala who had organised a SIMI convention in 1991 in Mumbai where the linkage
was firmed up. Basheer absconded, but 21 persons including Pakistani national
Mohammad Sharief, Mumbai residents Tahir Jamal, Saquib Nachan and Shoaib
Mukhtiar were apprehended. Lal Singh confessed planning to blow up Madras Stock
Exchange for which a survey was done on 2 July 1992, besides trying to
assassinate South Indian Hindu leaders and police officers. The Supreme Court
confirmed life sentence to Lal Singh and Mohammad Sharief, while others were
given ten-year prison terms. Absconding Basheer, a postgraduate diploma holder
in aeronautical engineering, was later suspected to have been involved in the
2003 Mulund, Ghatkopar, Gateway and Zaveri Bazaar blasts, besides being a SIMI
fundraiser”.
After the
insurgency broke out in Kashmir, a leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Anantnag,
who was meeting with a senior police officer[21]
at the latter’s house sometime in March or April, 1991, told him about his visits
to different parts of India, and that he had visited Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
Knowing that the police officer was from Kerala, the Jamaat leader told the
officer that he had visited Kerala also! A bit surprised at this information,
the officer asked the Jamaat leader which part of Kerala he had visited, and
prompt came the reply, Quilon. The police officer had expected him to say
Malappuram or other parts of north Kerala. On being further asked what he was
doing in Quilon, the Jamaat-e-Islami leader said he was doing some work in an
organization involved in Muslim charity. It was much later that the police
officer learned that the Muslim charity was being run by a person called Abdul
Nasser Madani. It is clear that the contacts between the Jamaat leader of
Kashmir and Madani took place at least a year and a half before the Babri
Masjid demolition, and knowing the close linkages of the ISI with the
Jamaat-e-Islami of Kashmir, it appeared that the ISI had touched base in
Kerala, India’s southern-most state.
Around this
time, Abdul Nasser Madani set up the Islamic Seva Sangh in Kerala and gave
inflammatory speeches. In the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the
Islamic Seva Sangh was banned by the government. But religious intolerance was clearly gaining
ground in Kerala as can be seen from the murder of the reformist Chekanoor
Maulvi by religious bigots. P K Mohammad Hassan Moulvi, popularly known as
Chekanoor Maulvi, was a progressive Islamic cleric who lived in Edappal in
Malappuram district of Kerala. His views on Muslim personal law, women’s rights
and proper methods of praying, drew the ire of the orthodox sections of the
community. He left his house on 29 July, 1993, with persons who had come to
invite him for a function, and was never seen again. The case was worked out by
the CBI, though the Maulvi’s body could not be traced. This case ended in
conviction 17 years later[22].
The silencing of a reformist Muslim cleric was clearly a signal that violent
extremists were gaining ground in Kerala.
It was reported that the members of the
disbanded ISS regrouped quickly and joined forces that assumed different
identities, like the National Development Front (NDF) etc. Using the uncertainty created following
demolition of the Babri Masjid, the NDF gained members in north Kerala
irrespective of political allegiance. It was also reported that the NDF was
running secret camps for training members in unarmed combat just like the RSS
was doing. Police believed that the NDF received copious funds from abroad[23],
and has established its presence as a socio-political organization in
Malappuram, Calicut, Kasargode, Kannur and Palakkad districts and parts of
Thrissur district. There were also reports that the Al-Umma of Tamil Nadu had
established its presence in Kerala, and that several of its prominent activists
had shifted base from Tamil Nadu to north Kerala where they could find
sanctuaries. This happened after the Tamil Nadu police began to scrutinise the
activities of fundamentalist organizations, including the Al Umma afer the RSS
office blast of August, 1993[24].
The Al-Umma
was suspected to be involved in several incidents of violence, including four
incidents of murder of members of another community, in Malappuram, Palakkad
and Thrissur districts. “Ideologically, Al-Umma was more dangerous as it
believed in the annihilation of its enemies, a top officer said. He cited four
incidents of murder in Malappuram, Palakkad and Thrissur districts, which had
been traced to Al-Umma. All the victims were members of another community, who
allegedly had relationships with Muslim women whose husbands were abroad. In
all the four cases, Al-Umma had presented itself as an organisation committed
to ensuring the ‘purity of the community’, and the message was spread with deadly
effect, the officer pointed out.
“A senior
officer said that the growth of Al-Umma in Kerala indicated that religious
fundamentalism did not recognise State or language boundaries. Religious
extremism bound its members together and made groups like Al-Umma highly
dangerous, the officer said. The strength of such groups is not in their
numbers but in the commitment of their recruits, mostly youth, according to the
officer”[25]. These
extremist groups were also alleged to be involved in the burning of over a dozen
cinema halls in Malappuram district. Pipe bombs seized by the police from a
river were found to be similar to the one used in a bomb attack on the reputed
film director Mani Ratnam in Chennai after he made the acclaimed movie
‘Bombay’, clearly pointing to a link between the violent groups based in Tamil
Nadu and Kerala[26].
According to a rediff.com report of 1
December, 1997[27],
“Al-Umma has been around since 1987, but it became active and well organised
all over Tamil Nadu only post-December 6, 1992 -- after the demolition of the
Babri Masjid. AI-Umma is a Arabic word meaning 'These people.' Since 1987 it
has been involved in social work among Muslims. It collects funds in mosques;
affluent Muslims also help the organisation. It has branches in Coimbatore and
Madras.
“It has
3,000 members in Coimbatore alone; it also claims to have members in every
district in Tamil Nadu. ‘We are ready to take up the cause of the downtrodden
with the government,’ Ansari said, adding in the same breath, ‘Our main aim is
to oppose the Sangh Parivar, the RSS.’”[28]
The Al Umma was charge sheeted by the
Central Bureau of Investigation for the blast in the RSS office in Chennai in
August, 1993. 11 persons had been killed in the blast. In all, 18 people,
including leader of the banned Al Umma outfit S A Basha, were named as accused
in the case. Two other prominent persons listed as accused were Imam Ali and
Jihad Committee founder president Palani Baba, who was hacked to death by
suspected RSS sympathisers on January 28, 1997. The CBI was entrusted with the investigation
after it was found that RDX had been used to blast the state RSS headquarters
building on August 8, 1993. Imam Ali, who had escaped from police custody, was
later gunned down in an encounter with police in Bangalore in September, 2002.
According to an Indian Express report [29]
“a native of Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, Imam Ali reportedly trained in Kashmir
and in Bangladesh under the Hizbul Mujahideen, the police said. Arrested for
his role in the ’93 blast by the Tamil Nadu police in 1997, Ali escaped in
March this year in Madurai while he was being transported back to prison after
a court hearing. He floated a new group called Al-Mujahideen. Said to be an
expert bomb-maker, Ali was spotted two months ago in Thiruvananthapuram, but he
managed to slip through the police dragnet.” Ahmad Ali alias Palani Baba, who
formed the All India Jihad Committee in 1987, was an ardent advocate of the
ideology of militant Islam and gained popularity in the early 1990s after the
demolition of Babri Masjid. The All India Jihad Committee under his leadership
operated in Tamil Nadu and he had instructed his followers to work in
coordination with the All India Milli Council, a major propagator of radical
Muslim interests in India. Palani Baba was allegedly killed by some
Kerala-based RSS activists on January 28, 1997, at Pollachi near Coimbatore[30].
The role of
Abdul Nasser Madani in linking different Muslim fundamentalist groups of south
India, and in arming them came up after the Coimbatore serial blasts of
February, 1998, allegedly targeting L K Advani. The serial blasts followed
anti-Muslim riots in Coimbatore in December, 1997, in which 18 Muslims were
killed, and shops and properties of Muslims were destroyed, after some Muslim
extremists killed a traffic constable. These riots were alleged to be led by the
Hindu Munnani, the RSS and the Hindu Makkal Kaatchi (P G Rajamohan: Rise of
Islamist Fundamentalism). The serial blasts in Coimbatore in which 58 persons
were killed and more than 200 hundred injured, were allegedly planned by S A
Basha and other members of his Al Umma, in which Madani from Kerala was alleged
to have made significant contribution. According to P G Rajamohan[31],
“The influx of Kerala Muslims into Tamil Nadu was another contributory factor
in the extremist spiral. Police records reveal that, out of the 168 accused in
the Coimbatore bomb blast case, 13 were arrested from Kerala and most of the
other accused were also found to be original inhabitants of Kerala. Apart from
these, the presence of 10 accused from Andhra Pradesh, two from Karnataka and
one from Kolkata demonstrated the inter-State linkages of the perpetrator
groups. Crucially, Muslims from Mallapuram, Thrissur and Palakkad in Kerala
were found to be involved in these fundamentalist activities. These three
districts border with Tamil Nadu, and have high rates of population growth,
particularly among the Muslim community. High levels of unemployment force
people across the border into Tamil Nadu, where they often secure menial jobs
for very low remuneration, in various towns in the State, particularly in
Coimbatore. Former president of the banned Islamic Sevak Sangh (ISS) and leader
of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Abdul Nasser Madani, is now facing
charges for facilitating the acquisition of arms and ammunition by the
terrorists, as well as in enabling the financial transactions between foreign
fund providers and local terrorists. There was also a spill-over effect in
Kerala, with seizures of huge quantities of explosives and the arrest of at
least 10 persons from various parts of the State following the Coimbatore
blasts. According to the police, one person who was arrested in Palakkad had
also been involved in the bomb blast at the Hindu Munnani office in Chennai,
and a group of nine persons arrested in Thrissur on their arrival from
Coimbatore were suspected to have had a role in the Tamil Nadu bomb blasts.
Significantly, as early as in March 1997, soon after a haul of explosives was
made in Chennai, the then Kerala Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar told the State
Legislative Assembly that five to eight Islamist extremist groups were
operating in northern Kerala and that they received funds and other forms of
support from foreign countries, especially Iran and some countries in West
Asia”.
Though
Madani was acquitted by the trial court in the Coimbatore blast case, during
his interrogation in custody in connection with the Coimbatore blasts, he had
disclosed how members of the Al Umma used to visit him to get arms, and about
extremists from Kerala meeting him for guidance to visit Pakistan for arms
training. The present DGP of Kerala is
on record that a Malayalee arrested in Calicut in 1996 was trained in Pakistan,
while a former DGP has said that one of the first to be trained by the ISI was
a Keralite[32].
In the
meantime, the BJP’s efforts at political mobilisation in the south were
continuing aggressively. Though they contested all elections in Tamil Nadu from
1980 onwards, it was in 1996 that they first got a member elected to the legislative
assembly. They won 4 seats in the 2001 election[33].
The BJP made better progress in Karnataka, winning as many as 18 seats in the
1983 state legislature elections[34],
and is currently in power in the state, the first state to come under BJP rule.
They are yet to make their presence in the Kerala assembly, though they claim
their support base has gone up to 8%[35].
Though they have won some seats in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, they have not
been able to make much of an impact there. This progress of the BJP in the
south hides the fears and uncertainties that gripped the minority Muslim
community in the background of the Babri Masjid demolition, and the following
communal riots in Mumbai and other centres. This in turn fed the radicalisation
attempts of organizations like the Al Umma, the National Development Front
which had sprung from the Islamic Seva Sangh of Madani, and the Dargah Jehad-O-
Shahadat of Andhra Pradesh. It was in this background that Marad happened in
Kerala in January, 2002.
The Marad
beach near Calicut is a fishermen’s colony, where the Hindu Arayas and Muslims
live in close proximity. In January, 2002, an alleged incident of eve teasing
led to communal flare-up in which 5 Muslims and 2 Hindus got killed, and
several injured. It is reported that the investigative machinery was slow in
taking action, which probably led to Marad II. Marad II happened in May, 2003,
when armed extremist Muslims massacred 8 Arayas, and injured several more,
using swords and country made bombs. Days later, the police seized arms and
explosives hidden in the nearby mosque, and the beach, indicating the planned
nature of the savage assault. According to eminent jurist V R Krishna Iyer[36],
“Extraneous extremist infiltration and preparation, if true, make Marad II a
darkly dangerous portent, not a mere coastal clash of Arayas and Mohallah
fishing rivals. There is deeper ideological militancy, graver fundamentalist
extremism, terribly more astute strategy and monetary investment; and Project
Extermination outwitted police intelligence, political information and people's
suspicion. Marad, with a little police outpost and no professional criminal
intelligence mechanism, reveals the disastrous flop and tragic inefficiency of
the State and society in the preservation of secularity and security”
It is
believed that the anti-Muslim pogroms of Gujarat in 2002 gave birth to the
Indian Mujahideen (IM), which claimed responsibility for the serial bombings in
Delhi in September, 2008. Quoting from an alert issued by the Union Home
Ministry, Rediff.com reported that the Students Islamic Movement of India was
re-grouping in Kerala where they had political support, and were making Kerala
and Karnataka their new base, and that the Indian Mujahideen could merge its
cadres with the SIMI[37].
Though there were periodic crackdowns on
the SIMI, they continued with their activities, in the names of 12 other
outfits, with Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kondotty near Malappuram as hubs and
continued logistical and other support for the IM.
While Tamil
Nadu has quietened down due to tough police action, Andhra, Kerala and
Karnataka have reported activity of both the Muslim extremists and the Hindu
right wing groups. A bus of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation was
burned in September, 2005, near Kochi, for continued detention of Coimbatore blast
accused, Abdul Nasser Madani. Blasts were reported from Calicut in Kerala in
March 2006 for not giving bail to Marad case accused while giving bail to the
Hindus involved in the Marad case of 2002. The police arrested several
extremists in Binanipuram, near Kochi, on 15 August, 2006, for possession of
seditious writings credited to the SIMI, for propagating secession of Kashmir
from India through jihad, and for giving a call to bring back Muslim rule in
India, thereby stirring communal passions. One of the most sensational of such
cases was the one in which 5 boys from Kerala, in pursuance of a plan hatched
by a few Kerala extremists with SIMI background and links with the Pakistan
based jihadi group Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (L-e-T), proceeded to Kashmir via
Hyderabad in September, 2008, for arms training under the guidance of the
L-e-T. Four of them were later killed in Kupwara in north Kashmir, while the
fifth was arrested by the police. Yet another sensational case registered by
the Kerala police was the one in which 37 activists of the SIMI conducted a
training camp in Thangalpara in Wagamon in Kottayam district in December, 2007.
The composition of the group would show its inter-state linkages, with 10 from
Gujarat, 8 from Madhya Pradesh, 3 from Uttar Pradesh and 1 from Maharashtra, 9
from Karnataka, 4 from Kerala and 1 from Jharkhand. Investigators were able to
collect evidence of training in arms and explosives from the site of the
training. Similar trainings were reported to have been held in Karnataka and
Gujarat, and the objective is stated to be jihad in India. All 37 accused were
involved in the Ahmadabad blasts of 2008. All the above cases of Kerala were
investigated by the National Investigation Agency of India, which has filed
charge sheets against the accused in the court of law[38].
In September
2008, 14 churches were attacked in BJP ruled Karnataka to protest against alleged
forcible conversions of Hindus to Christianity. The attacks took place in
Dakhsina Kannada, Udippi and Chikmagalur districts[39].Two
Inquiries took place into the attack, one by Justice B K Somasekhara ordered by
the government, and the other by retired judge Michael F Saldanha conducted at
the instance of the Peoples’ Union of Civil Liberties and Transparency
International Karnataka Chapter. The two inquiries came out with contrary
findings, the government appointed one giving the government and Hindu right
wing organizations a clean chit while blaming miscreants for the vandalism,
while judge Saldanha found collusion between the government, its agencies
including the police, and the Bajrang Dal, the RSS and the Sri Ram Sene
activists in the violent attacks. According to judge Saldanha, the incidents in
Karnataka “are representative of the hidden agenda of the party in power, the
BJP. Every one of the attacks and incidents were instigated and pre-planned.
They were State-sponsored and not only supported by the State but were covered
up by the State. The responsibility of this devolves on Home Minister V.S.
Acharya and Mr. Yeddyurappa”[40].
What needs to be noted is the fear psychosis generated in the minds of the
minorities by such acts of violence, which in turn helped extremist groups to
draw support from the afflicted communities.
Muslim
legislators of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and other radical
Muslims attacked Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen at a book launch in
Hyderabad in August, 2007[41],
“incensed by her repeated criticism of Islam and religion in general”. The attack on the Kannada Prabha news-paper in
March 2010, and violence in the towns of Shimoga and Hassan in Karnataka over
the publication of an article by Taslima Nasreen, against the practice of
wearing veils, can be cited as further evidence of the religious intolerance
that has come to be manifest in these parts[42].
The threat
to Valentine day celebrations in Bangalore by the Sri Ram Sene in 2009, on the
ground that it was a Western practice, was yet another sign of the growing
intolerance in the state. The ruling BJP was non-committal on the threat,
though they were reported to be against the practice of the celebrations,
calling it against Indian culture[43].
Earlier, in January, 2009, the same group had attacked a pub in Mangalore where
young couples used to meet, on the ground that the girls were drinking alcohol,
and behaving indecently with youth of other faiths. Some girls were pushed
around, and the owner of the pub threatened. A report characterised the Sri Ram
Sene as a ‘fanatical right wing group, notorious for creating communal tensions
and indulging in moral policing’[44].
These fault lines were available to our enemies to exploit, and may have
assisted the L-e-T in the attack on the Indian Institute of Science in
December, 2005, and attacks in Hyderabad, including the suicide attack on the
office of the STF there in October, 2005.
The latest
to enter the already fraught scene is the Popular Front of India, a group of
Muslim extremists formed by the joining of the National Development Front of
Kerala (NDF), the Manitha Neethi Pasarai (MNP) of Tamil Nadu, and the Karnataka
Forum for Dignity, formed about four years back. The MNP is believed to be a
new front for the al Umma. Tehelka magazine reports[45]
that in classified central government documents, PFI is accused of introducing
an extremist pan-Islamic movement in India. Kerala police affidavits before the
High Court have claimed that the PFI is linked to the al Qaeda. According to
leaders of the Front there is a feeling among the Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis
that they have been cheated. A media
company owned by PFI has helped in its growth. The Malayalam daily Thejas is
being published since 2006, according to Tehelka. “Since then the PFI has
launched four news publications in Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada. It also has
four book publishing ventures in the same languages. It has a website and a
dedicated web team. It has set up an ‘Empower India Press’ to publish titles in
English, Hindi and Urdu. Another organisation, called ‘Media Research and
Development’ produces audio visual products and documentaries. ‘We see the media as a vehicle for political
empowerment,’ says NP Chekkutty, Executive Editor of Thejas. ‘The PFI’s
membership is only for Muslims because a cadre-based organisation is important
for social mobilisation. So, it is not the Talibanisation or radicalisation in
the sense of what is happening in Pakistan and Afghanistan,’ he adds. Soon
Thejas will start an edition in Saudi Arabia. So far, Thejas has employed more
than 400 media professionals and is working on a Saudi Arabia edition”[46].
The PFI has a political wing, the Social
Democratic Party of India, and has set up committees for expansion in 15
states. According to Tehelka, the PFI has set up a couple of centres in Tamil
Nadu which they call education centres to teach the tenets of Islam to willing
students, though according to the Kerala police, these are conversion centres.
The Kerala police, in raids across the state have claimed to have seized
publicity material in the form of videos and other reports from PFI centres,
consisting of highly communal and subversive material. According to Tehelka,
remittances from the Gulf to Kerala have grown enormously, to 90 billion
dollars in 2008. It is believed that 3 times this amount is being remitted through
havala channels. Over 50% of Malayalees working in the Gulf are Muslims, and a
large part of the donations to the PFI are from rich Muslim expatriates, as per
classified Home Ministry documents[47].
The PFI came
to adverse publicity over a couple of incidents. One was the alleged pressure
its members tried to bring on Rehana Khasi, a student from Kasargode in north
Kerala, who returned to her home from Chennai after her studies, and was seen
dressed in modern clothes like jeans. The men stalking her, allegedly belonging
to the PFI, wanted her to dress according to the Islamic dress code. After
approaching the Women’s Commission and the government, Rehana has approached
the High Court for protection from the PFI’s culture cops. On their website,
the PFI has denied their involvement in this affair[48].
The other incident is the one involving the chopping off of the right hand of
professor T J Joseph of Muvattupuzha in Kerala for slighting Prophet Mohammad
while setting a question paper in July last year. Though the state
police had filed a charge sheet against 54 accused, the case is being taken
over by the National Investigation Agency for a thorough investigation.
In the meantime, the terrorist attacks in Malegaon, the
Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad, the Ajmer Sharif blast in Rajasthan and the
Samjhauta Express blast have been found to be the handiwork of Hindu right wing
groups. The arrest of a serving Lieutenant Colonel in the case had raised
serious concerns in this country. But till date, no links of any of these
blasts have emerged with anyone from south India, though Hyderabad was one of
the targets.
The situation in regard to communal tensions in south India,
therefore gives no comfort to anyone.
But it calls for immediate attention of all government agencies, and
others concerned with maintaining the secular character of this country, whose
written constitution with its emphasis on religious and other freedoms is the
bedrock of our democracy. Steps will have to be urgently taken to de-radicalize
all the affected members of all communities in consultation with community
elders and leaders in the interest of peace and development, with an
appropriate role for the police and other grass-roots level government
agencies. Criminal cases against all accused, whichever community they come
from, have to be professionally investigated and ruthlessly prosecuted, in fast
track courts for speedy trials, so that the supremacy of the rule of law is
always, and every time, maintained. Communal flare ups have to be ruthlessly
put down, and all those responsible for creating such situations investigated
and prosecuted. The minorities should have faith in the country’s criminal
justice system, and for that, these institutions have to function in a fair and
just manner, every time. The Sachar Committee report had exposed the reality of
Muslim backwardness in the fields of education and government jobs. Steps have
to be taken to redress these genuine grievances of the community. Hindus,
Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians have equal stakes in a strong, vibrant and
secular India, whose economic development has become the envy of the world. The
economic growth story would become meaningful only when all the communities
live in peace and harmony.
[1] Communal
Riots in India, A Chronology (1947-2003) B Rajeshwari Institute of Peace and
Conflict Studies, New Delhi publication
[2]
Communalism in Modern India: Bipan Chandra
[3] Communal Riots in India, A
Chronology (1947-2003)
[4] The author was present in the meeting
[5]
Tamil Nadu: The Rise of Islamist Fundamentalism P.G.Rajamohan (http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/publication/faultlines/volume16/Article5.htm)
[6] Ibid
[7]
Tamil Nadu: The Rise of Islamist Fundamentalism
P.G. Rajamohan
[8] (www.stimson.org/images/uploads/research-pdfs/Muslims_Indians-Complete.pdf)
[9] (R
Krishna Kumar: Frontline Magazine: Vol. 15 :: No. 05 :: Mar. 7 - 20, 1998-The
dissatisfaction among a section of Hindus was reflected in the statement of the
BJP's former State president, K. Raman Pillai, in Kozhikode during the recent
election campaign that if voted to power the BJP would ban advertisements that
offered jobs to Muslims and Christians alone - and not Hindus - in West Asian
countries)
[10] (http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article402892.ece)
[11]
The Time of Kali: Violence between Religious Groups in India
Sudhir Kakar (http://www.funzionegamma.edu/scritti/pdf/527.pdf)
[12] http://www.djsindia.org/djs.htm
[13] http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2301/stories/20060127005601800.htm
[14] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3741868/Mumbai-attacks-How-Indian-born-Islamic-militants-are-trained-in-Pakistan.html
[15] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3741868/Mumbai-attacks-How-Indian-born-Islamic-militants-are-trained-in-Pakistan.html
[16] http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/terroristoutfits/simi.htm
[17] On
Zia ul- Haq’s orders, in 1984 the ISI had drawn up a plan for Kashmir that was
to mature in 1991. Unlike in Afghanistan, where the ISI had trained rank-and-file
mujahideen, the initial plan for rebellion in Kashmir was limited to the
training of group leaders and trainers. It was expected that these potential
leaders would be able to recruit disaffected young Kashmiris and form parties
and guerrilla groups….” Haqqani Hussain,
2005, Pakistan: Between Mosque And Military, page 273
[18] ISI
officers met regularly with representatives of the Jammu and Kashmir
Jamaat-e-Islami and the secular nationalist Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front
(JKLF) during the mid-1980s. In a clandestine meeting with the Jamaat-e-Islami
and JKLF leaders in 1987, Zia ul-Haq himself explained his design for gradually
weakening Indian control over Kashmir” ( Haqqani Hussain, 2005: Pakistan
Between Mosque And Military, page 273
[19] http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/jan/04raman.htm
[20] http://maloykrishnadhar.com/simi-the-open-and-hidden-faces-of-indian-jihad
[21] This writer was then Deputy
Inspector General in Anantnag, and had met the Jamaat leader when the
conversation took place.
[22] http://www.sify.com/news/one-convicted-in-chekannur-moulavi-murder-case-news-national-kj3pabggigb.html
[23] http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl1505/15051230.htm
[24]
Tamil Nadu: The Rise of Islamist Funamentalism: P G Rajamohan: “After the bomb blast at the RSS office at
Chennai, the police became more alert and raided Muslim-dominated areas,
particularly at Kottaimedu in Coimbatore, where the Al Umma headquarters was
situated. This densely populated area had long been used by terrorists and
criminals as a safe-haven and a hub from where they launched violent and
criminal activities elsewhere. The vigilante groups operating from Kottaimedu
came under the scrutiny of security agencies after the recovery of a large
cache of petrol bombs, gelatine sticks and country-made explosives”.
[25] R
Krishna Kumar: Frontline Magazine: Vol. 15 :: No. 05 :: Mar. 7 - 20, 1998
[26] www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1505/15051230.htm.
[27] http://www.rediff.com/news/dec/01al.htm
[29] http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/10395/
[30] Tamil Nadu: Rise of Islamist
Fundamentalism: P G Rajamohan http://www.google.co.in/#hl=en&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=499&q=p+g+rajamohan+communal+violence+tamil+nadu&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=p+g+rajamohan+communal+violence+tamil+nadu&fp=11ff6692703805ff
[31] Tamil
Nadu: Rise of Islamist Fundamentalism: P G Rajamohan
[32] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/islamic-fundamentalists-rears-its-head-in-kerala/2/108078.html
[33] http://www.bjptn.org/en/our-party/history-of-tn-bjp.html
[34] http://bjpkarnataka.org/history/stgate-history/
[35] http://keralabjp.com/bjp-kerla.html
[36] http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/05/31/stories/2003053100621000.htm
[37] http://www.rediff.com/news/report/is-kerala-the-new-hub-for-simi-vicky-nanjappa/20110304.htm
[38] Charge sheets filed by the National
Investigation Agency in the court, available on their website www.nia.gov.in
[39] (http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/sep/15ktaka.htm).
[40] http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/karnataka/article1481542.ece
[41] (http://in.reuters.com/article/2007/08/09/idINIndia-28903220070809).
[42] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8546685.stm)
[43] http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/feb/05sri-ram-senas-bizarre-vday-threat.htm
[44] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Girls_assaulted_at_Mangalore_pub_NCW_vows_justice/rssarticleshow/4029791.cms
[45] http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp?filename=Ne091010Coverstory.asp
[46] http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp?filename=Ne091010Coverstory.asp
[47] Ibid
[48] http://www.popularfrontindia.org/pp/story/tehelka-hesitate-publish-popular-fronts-response-article-
Probably published in the undermentioned IPCS Publication
ARMED CONFLICTS IN SOUTH ASIA 2011: THE PROMISE AND THREAT OF TRANSFORMATION
Edited by D. Suba Chandran and P.R. ChariChapter 12
Fundamentalist Violence: Will It Expand?
Radha Vinod Raju
