A fact-finding team comprising teachers and students of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya along with some social activists and journalists visited Akot in Maharashtra on 23rd November to assess the ground reality in the aftermath of communal violence that took place on 23rd October in which four people were killed and 22 houses and 25 shops were set on fire.
The pitch for communal violence was laid down on 19th October. There were 65 Durga Puja Mandals celebrating the nine-day long Navratri festival in the whole of Akot town. Every Mandal is affiliated to a particular caste-based community like Mali community, Kunbi community, Dhobi community, etc. A Muslim boy inadvertently spitted while passing alongside a Mandal belonging to Dhobi and Bhoi community whose honchos belonged to Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). He was accompanied by his friend of same age. The spitting did not even reach closer to the idol but a few droplets of saliva certainly fell down on the curtain. The boy was caught by the Mandal workers, was beaten up and held hostage on the venue. A crowd gathered after the ensuing ruckus and a person named Shoaib reached there to understand the goings-on; he intervened to a certain extent and tried to placate the Mandal workers. He urged them to consider the age of the boy, who was just seven or eight years old. The Mandal workers even said that today these people are spitting on the idol, and tomorrow they would do so on our faces. Shoaib, however, managed to settle the matter and free the boy from their hostage. The news of the incident spread in the surrounding areas after half an hour or so.
Akot’s sitting Shiv Sena MLA, arrived at the police station accompanied by around 250-300 followers belonging to Bajrang Dal, VHP and an organisation called Chhava (cub) and soon sloganeering commenced. Heated altercation took place between the gathered crowd and the local police officers. Yielding to the pressure put on by the MLA and his followers that ‘the kids should be rounded up’, the police started beating Aijaz with broad belt (popularly known as Bajirao belt in police lingo). Due to mounting pressure, the police brought Shoaib to the police station who revealed the names and addresses of the boys involved. The police lost no time in rounding up the kids along with their fathers at the police station.
Looking at their age, the on-duty senior police officers said that these kids themselves are ‘Bhagwan ka roop’ and they would certainly have spitted inadvertently and not deliberately. Mr. MLA too slackened down looking at the kids but opened a new ploy at once that the kids may be innocent but the real mastermind is someone else and the police must nab the real culprit who has committed sacrilege towards the Durga idol.
23rd October was the day of idol immersion. A procession was planned where hundreds of people where going to take part. The administration had made strict arrangements for the day. Wherever there was a mosque or a Muslim settlement on the course of the procession, barricading arrangements were made and troops were deployed in large numbers.
People were moving in a procession for the idol immersion programme. Suddenly, exactly at the place where the incident of spitting had occurred, workers of a Mandal began saying that a stone was hurled and it struck them. The police started looking around at once but there was no stone hurled from anywhere and the procession was made to move ahead. The news of stone pelting spread like a wildfire and stampede of sorts occurred, but the police brought the situation totally under control. The members of the Fact-Finding Committee tried to find out from the senior police officers whether really any stone was pelted or any stoning attack happened to which they replied in the negative mentioning that it was just a rumour.
While the idol immersion was still on, around 7-8 pm the rioters attacked a dingy settlement on the outskirts of the town called Barde Plot mostly inhabited by Muslim and Bari communities. The rioters set 221 houses to fire and killed two persons. The rioters killed an 80-year old paralytic man Haji Mohammed Yasin who could not run to save his life. His 75-year old wife Zulekha Bi, who tried to save him, was attacked by a sharp weapon on her leg and an iron rod was also used to attack her. She was grievously injured in the attack and was admitted to Akola civil hospital in unconscious state. A 16-year old boy Mohammed Zafaruddin who had just returned from day’s work was also killed by the rioters. The victims informed the Fact-Finding Committee that the rioters were carrying lighted torches, iron pipes, swords and kerosene. The Fact-Finding Committee also recovered small bottles from gutted houses of Muslims which, filled with chemicals, were used to hurl at each house. The rioters had prepared for the act well in advance. The police have so far arrested around 50 people each from both communities, booking them under various sections.
When the members of Fact-Finding Committee met victims and enquired about the identity of the assailants, it emerged that most of them belonged to Bari community (Hindu OBC) and were outsiders. The Bari community is singularly involved in production of betel leaves in the district of Akola. The Bari and Muslim community live side by side and their settlements are adjacent to each other in the area where riots started. A communal incident had occurred right in the middle of busy marketplace in 1999 leading to stampede in which an 80-85 year old elderly person from the Bari community died. The communal organisations gave a political tinge to this incident. This incident helped them in communally radicalising the whole Bari community, and the community was used as an instrument against the Muslims to further their communal agenda in the recent riots as well.
The Fact-Finding Committee met members of the Hindu community and tried to figure out reasons behind the incident and their mindset during the course of riots; it turned out that not a single person has concrete and real information, rather the whole community considers Muslims to be responsible for the incident. For example, ‘the idol of goddess was desecrated deliberately’, ‘stones were hurled at the idol’, and ‘the Muslims were the first to strike’ etc. During the course of talks, the Committee came to know that Muslim youth were arrested for being associated with SIMI at both Akola and Akot but a majority of them have been acquitted. But the arrests of the youth for being associated with SIMI and alleged terror networks helped a great deal to spread the rumour among Hindu masses that SIMI operatives are behind the recent riots too. Overall, the Hindutva elements have utilised the SIMI phenomenon handsomely and carried out communal polarisation of the society as a whole. Most of the Hindus were found to harbour the traditional image of Muslims which the RSS stands for.
Ranjan Kawande (Lecturer) and Ayub Miyan Deshmukh informed the Fact-Finding Committee of a temple in Akot which, for its maintenance, had received financial assistance from the Hyderabad ruler Nizam. Not just Akot, in fact, the Nizam was the first to offer financial assistance to establish Sri Shivaji Education Society in Amravati. In the same way, the Nizam extended financial help for constructing a Gurudwara in Nanded. The financial assistance provided by a Muslim ruler to the temples, Gurudwaras and an education society run by Hindus could have been a stellar example of communal harmony, but in the 1990s, when new economic policies came into effect and it is said that Market will function according to its own rules and the State will not intervene in its affairs, but on the other hand the State or the polity consistently form an alliance with religion (communalism). All of this culminates in the form of communal violence in Akot and all other places in the country.
Members of the Fact-Finding Committee are Amir Ali Ajani, Shrikant Pandey, Nilesh Jhalte, Monish Kaushal, and Sharad Jaiswal. The report was prepared in Hindi and translated into English by Bharatbhooshan Tiwari, and released to the press by Sharad Jaiswal, Assistant Professor (MGAHV, Wardha), [email protected].