Skip to main content

Gujarat authorities "encouraged" communal segregation while resettling Sabarmati riverfront oustees

An initial SNAM campaign for communal unity 
By Rajiv Shah
Gujarat's powerful officialdom is learnt to have encouraged Hindu-Muslim divide as a deliberate policy while resettling Ahmedabad’s around 10,000 slum-dwellers, affected by the Sabarmati riverfront project, begun being implemented in 2005 to “beautify” the city. Bringing this to light in her latest research paper, “Municipal Politics, Court Sympathy and Housing Rights: A Post-Mortem of Displacement and Resettlement under the Sabarmati Riverfront Project, Ahmedabad” (May 2014), Renu Desai of the CEPT University has said, the “policy” was instrumental in resettling Hindu and Muslim slum-dwellers in segregated localities, far from the city.
Quoting official documents to prove her point, Desai suggests this came to light in reply to a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Thus, minutes of the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Ltd’s (SRDCL’s) resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) consultants, dated January 25, 2010 specifically say that “communal safety, social clusters and appropriate area should be taken into consideration in the process of allotment” of alternative living apartments to the slum dwellers.
“Subsequently, Hindus and Muslims were largely resettled in localities dominated by their religious community, thus segregating them entirely even in instances where they had been living in the same riverfront neighbourhood”, Desai says, regretting, the consultants decided in favour of the segregation following a request, around that time, from the Sabarmati Nagrik Adhikar Manch (SNAM), asking the authorities “that Hindu and Muslim families affected by the Riverfront project be resettled with people from their own samuday (community) so that ‘the project affected families can live without fear’” (January 23, 2010).
The decision, to have localities for Hindus and Muslims, was taken, says Desai, as part of the negotiations between SNAM, which included not just NGOs but also local politicians of all hues, and the authorities, following the “demand for communal segregation in resettlement”. She comments, “In the context of a communally polarized and segregated city and in the context of resettlement having moved away from the riverfront to unfamiliar areas due to municipal politics, it was not surprising that many, if not all, slum residents saw religious segregation in resettlement as necessary for safety.”
Slogans in slum area critiquing political
parties' communal politics
In fact, according to Desai, “SNAM left behind its early discourse of communal unity and turned to a demand for religious segregation”, adding, “It is worth noting that for the SNAM leaders, this demand was, in fact, not necessarily a failure of communal unity.” She quotes Kishorebhai, a Hindu leader of the SNAM, to explain that the fact that the leaders had been able to demand religious segregation from officials in the way they had was, in fact, evidence of their community unity”!
Desai says, “While I was perplexed at this interpretation of community unity, he went on to further explain this: ‘There was tension between Hindus and Muslims anyway. Today due to the politics there is toofan (referring to communal riots of 2002), and we are fed up. We have shown our strength that we too can work on communal unity. That we can lead our lives in peace in our own areas, that is the communal unity we have shown. We were fed up of seeing the fights between Khanpur (a Muslim area on the riverfront) and Shankar Bhuvan (a Hindu area on the riverfront). This should not happen…”
Not that all were happy with this segregation. Desai quotes Naseerbhai, a local leader from the Kagdiwad riverfront slum who had initially wanted Kagdiwad’s Hindus and Muslims to be resettled together: “I had put across a demand to keep Hindus and Muslims together. But they listened to only those six persons (referring to the six members of the association). People here used to tell me that we have lived here together for so many years.... Then the allotment draw sent people to different resettlement locations.”
Desai comments, “Moving the resettlement away from the riverfront to unfamiliar areas of a communally polarised and segregated city made religious segregation in resettlement inevitable. Since piecemeal and fragmentary resettlement led to each resettlement site comprising of residents from different riverfront slums, religious segregation in resettlement became even more inevitable.”
She adds, “With resettlement having been moved away from the riverfront to unfamiliar areas of the city, and each resettlement site comprising of residents from different slums, religious segregation in resettlement became inevitable given the communal politics in Ahmedabad. While there had certainly been tensions and even violence between Hindus and Muslims living in the same riverfront slum, these were often episodic. There were also many periods of peace, interaction and engagement between the two communities on an everyday basis.”

Comments

TRENDING

'Enough evidence' in Indian tradition to support legal basis for same-sex marriage

By Iyce Malhotra, Joseph Mathai, Sandeep Chachra*  The ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage provides space for much-needed conversations on issues that have hitherto remained “invisible” or engaged with patriarchal locker room humour. We must recognize that people with diverse sexualities and complex gender identities have faced discrimination, stigma and decades of oppression. Their issues have mainly remained buried in dominant social discourse, and many view them with deep insecurities.

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Victim of communal violence, Christians in Manipur want Church leadership to speak up

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ*  The first eleven days of May 2023 have, in many ways, been a defining period of Indian history! Plenty has happened in a rapid-fire stream of events. Ironically, each one of them are indicators of how crimes and the criminalisation of society has become the ‘new norm’; these include, the May Day rallies with a focus on the four labour codes which are patently against the rights of workers; the U S Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its Annual Report on 1 May stating that conditions for religious freedom in India “continued to worsen in 2022”; the continued protest by the Indian women wrestlers at Jantar Mantar for the expulsion of the chief of the Indian Wrestlers Federation on very serious allegations; the Elections in Karnataka on 10 May (with communalism and corruption as the mainstay); the release of the fake, derogative and insensitive film ‘The Kerala Story’; the release of World Free Press Index on 3 May which places India

Delhi HC rules in favour of retired Air Force officer 'overcharged' for Covid treatment

By Rosamma Thomas*  In a decision of May 22, 2023, the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of petitioner Group Captain Suresh Khanna who was under treatment at CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram, between April 28 and May 5, 2021, for a period of eight days, for Covid-19 pneumonia. The petitioner had to pay Rs 3,55,286 as treatment costs, but the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) only reimbursed him for Rs 1,83,748, on the basis of government-approved rates. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Unlike other revolutionaries, Hindutva icon wrote 5 mercy petitions to British masters

By Shamsul Islam*  The Hindutva icon VD Savarkar of the RSS-BJP rulers of India submitted not one, two,or three but five mercy petitions to the British masters! Savarkarites argue: “There are no evidences to prove that Savarkar collaborated with the British for his release from jail. In fact, his appeal for release was a ruse. He was well aware of the political developments outside and wanted to be part of it. So he kept requesting for his release. But the British authorities did not trust him a bit” (YD Phadke, ‘A complex Hero’, "The Indian Expres"s, August 31, 2004)

Polygamy in India "down" in 45 yrs: Muslims' from 5.7 to 2.55%, Hindus' 5.8 to 1.77%, "common" in SCs, STs

By Rajiv Shah Amidst All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) justifying polygamy, saying it “meets social and moral needs and the provision for it stems from concern and sympathy for women”, facts suggest the the practice is down from 5.7 per cent of Muslim families in 1961 to 2.55 per cent in 2006.

India joining US sponsored trade pillar to hurt Indian farmers, 'promote' GM seeds, food

Counterview Desk  As many as 32 civil society organisations (CSOs), in a letter to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and India joining the trade pillar, have said that its provisions will allow the US to ensure a more favourable regulatory regime “for enhancing its exports of genetically modified (GM) seeds and GM food”, underlining, it will “significantly hurt the livelihoods of Indian farmers.”

Modi govt 'wholly untrustworthy' on Covid data, censored criticism on pandemic: Lancet

By Rajiv Shah*   One of the world’s most prestigious health journals, brought out from England, has sharply criticised the Narendra Modi government for being “wholly untrustworthy on Covid-19 health data”, stating, the “official government figures place deaths at more than 530 000, while WHO excess death estimates for 2020 and 2021 are near 4·7 million.”