New Delhi: On March 30, Ram Navami in Gujarat’s Vadodara saw mass vandalism, stone pelting and communal tensions. Shobha yatras or processions passing through the Kumbharwada-Hathikhana area and the Panjrigar Mohalla of the city were believed to have acted as triggers.To understand the genesis and repercussions of the procession, the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) undertook a fact-finding mission in Vadodara from May 7 to 9.The fact-finding team consisting of Irfan Engineer, director of CSSS, Neha Dabhade, deputy director of CSSS and Hozefa Ujjaini, director of the NGO Buniyaad and local social activists visited the affected areas in the city. These included Panjrigar Mohalla, Kumbharwada and Hathikhana areas. The team also collected media clips which showed the unfolding of violence and arrests from the combing operations conducted by the police.One of the key observations of the team was that Ram Navami processions in the recent past have been used as a pretext by Hindutva organisations to assert their domination over Muslims. The report states that, “The Hindu right-wing groups are getting increasingly emboldened to deliberately enter Muslim majority areas with the intention of provoking the Muslims by chanting derogatory slogans and accompanied with arms.”Also read: A Single Factor Is Common to All Communal Riots During Religious Processions in IndiaPolitical prospects and propaganda While speaking to the residents of Hathikhana and Congress leader Chirag Shaikh, the fact-finding team was told about the delimitation processes in the city and redrawing of constituencies. Vadodara has had no Muslim corporator since 1999. Coupled with the lack of representation in key decision-making bodies is the fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party has been in this role for three decades and is largely believed to have aided communal sentiments in growing.While BJP does not give opportunities to Muslim candidates to contest polls under its banner, communal politics has forced other parties including the Congress to not nominate any Muslim candidates either. Polarisation is so deep that a Muslim candidate stands no chance of winning, it is felt. The report states that such a vacuum is made possible largely thanks to the delimitation process which divides Muslim majority wards and merges them with other wards having a sizeable Hindu population in order to dilute the number of Muslim voters in every ward.Apart from this, Vadodara is also being fanned with hate by local radical Hindutva groups. Many Hindu women are harassed if they choose to marry Muslim men. What is believed to have really stirred the communal pot ahead of the March showdown was damaging hate speech by Rohan Shah, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, who spoke right after the Shobha Yatra, the report states. According to videos accessed by the CSSS team, Shah instigated local Hindus to act against Muslims.Shah said that their Yatra had been “attacked” and that if any VHP workers were arrested in this regard, Vadodara would be set ablaze and everyone would “relive the 2002 Gujarat riots.” He also called upon Hindus to “stop eating from Muslim eateries” and to boycott their businesses, and said that this was not Pakistan that Muslims could be dragged out of their houses and killed.ProcessionsLocals from the area believe that every Ram Navami from 2021 has been even more violent than the previous one. In April, The Wire had reported on how locals had shared that the Shobha Yatra took a different route that year to be able to pass both a mosque and a dargah on its way. The fact-finding report, adding to this, suggested that Hindutva organisations seem “to be testing the extent of subjugation of the Muslim community…even a mild resistance from the Muslims is enough to trigger off communal riots.”A video screengrab of shobha yatra participants at Vadodara during Ram Navami in March this year.Hozefa Ujjaini of Buniyaad, who was part of the fact-finding team told The Wire that Gujarat home minister Harsh Sanghavi’s statement after the processions acted as a cue for the police to take rough arbitrary action against the Muslims in the form of a combing operation. Ujjaini said that in a media clip Sanghavi is seen as saying, “Whoever pelted stones during the Ram Navami procession should not be able to look at stones in the future.”“This clearly hinted at strict and oppressive action against Muslims and also condoned the role of the organisers of the procession and their instigation of violence. The state elected representatives were not neutral in protecting the innocent or undertaking an impartial investigation into the violence,” said Ujjaini.Hussein Sheikh, a local who witnessed the attack on the Dhuldhoyawad Mosque in his vicinity said that when Hindutva attackers came they left no stone unturned in making Muslims feel unwanted. “The way they attack and destroy our property shows that they want to claim our space,” Sheikh shared.Also read: Gujarat Ram Navami Violence ‘Designed to Display Dominance of Hindus’: Fact-Finding ReportArms as the normLocals like Sheikh, who have been living under the shadow of vandalised Islamic shrines and broken mosques have also noticed that following Islam in recent times has gotten distinctly dangerous. They told The Wire that whichever rally aims to pass by a Muslim locality during a Hindu festival has participants carrying arms.The CSSS report confirms this. The report states that the members saw a video in which one reveller in the rally was carrying a sword while some others were carrying sticks. The team was told that the revellers were also carrying trishuls. It also states that the intent of carrying arms was to intimidate the Muslim community, almost reminding them that violence could be used against them any moment. The report also suggests that religious festivals and related festivities should not have participants who are armed, that the police should not give permission to armed processions and that if this permission is flouted then strict action be taken against the organisers.
