[Reader-list] Remembering Gujrat - I

[ravikant]

Dear list,

Please bear with me. I am going to make a series of postings on Gujrat. The 
author of these reports is Ms  Navaz Kotwal of Commonwealth Human Rights 
Initiative, Delhi. I thank Bibhu Mohapatra for sending  these. Please feel 
free to circulate. 

ravikant
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JUSTICE FOR ALL - RASOOLBHAI'S WIFE 

by Navaz Kotwal -navaz at humanrightsinitiative.org



Pavagadh is a tiny little village of about 200 people in Panchmahals district 
of Gujarat. Muslims and Hindus here lived equally modest lives depending on 
pilgrims from across Gujarat, who come to visit a Kali temple and a Dargah 
that lie near the ruins of the old Champaner Palace. In the riots following 
Godhra, all the Muslims of the village, like those of the entire taluk, fled 
to the district headquarters in nearby Halol. Eleven months on, most have 
crept back to their villages or left the state, but the Pavagarh families are 
still in Halol struggling to find a way back home after the closure of 
refugee camps. They had tried to retrieve whatever was left and gathered 
courage to start afresh, but with little success. 
 
All of them, in one way or the other, had lost some relative, their loved 
ones, their belongings and above all their means of livelihood - small 
handcarts—selling flowers, water and other trinkets for the tourists, 
jeeps—which ferried the tourist and did brisk business in festive seasons, 
little shops selling sweets and food and the like. The Muslims were 
threatened and categorically told that there was no longer any place for them 
there. Shocked and helpless most families chose to stay back in Halol hoping 
to make a beginning there. But 13 families who had lived in Pavagadh for over 
50 years were determined that come what may, they would return ‘home'. 
Mostly elderly men and women and few young people, they didn't think that 
anyone would want to harass their little band. They were wrong. Water 
connections were severed; mobs would gather to stop their handcarts reaching 
the market; at night stones would be pelted at their houses. But the families 
persisted. This is home. There is nowhere else. These people have shared 
their lives with us—they can't always be like this. On each occasion the 
families complained to the local police. Facile efforts were made towards 
conciliation, but the harassment continued.  The people who kept it going 
were well known to the administrators and the people of the town. Monthly 
meetings were held to keep the memory of Godhra alive. Rallies were held, 
resolutions passed, Muslims were reviled – the poison was systematically 
being spread. The administration knew all this very well, but say they are 
helpless to do anything without an official complaint being ‘filed’. The 
families are very frightened and afraid of naming names and filing police 
complaints. Earlier efforts to file FIRs, just after the February-March 
carnage, have led to further threats and intimidation and not a single 
official action to restore their confidence in the machinery of justice. 
On 27th December 2002, Prahlad Shastri, a young man with a penchant for 
creating trouble and a group of young people held a meeting to pay homage to 
the victims of Godhra. After the meeting while passing through a Muslim 
locality in Halol along the Pavagadh Road, they shouted abusive slogans. 
Residents retaliated with stone pelting. The already tense atmosphere became 
more poisoned. Incensed and wounded the group left for Pavagadh, dragged the 
men out of the houses and severely beat them up. Rasoolbhai and his son 
Munnabhai, along with about 5 other men were beaten black and blue. 
Rasoolbhai was tied up, doused with petrol and then was simply left to 
himself.  Another close look at death. The Police did not prevent any of this 
but shifted the families off to relative safety in Halol. The DSP visited 
them and increased patrolling in Pavagadh and Halol. 
All this proved too much for Rasoolbhai's 55-year-old wife. On the 1st of 
January - as the world wished each other peace and goodwill and Rasoolbhai 
lay in hospital with multiple injuries and broken bones - she died of a heart 
attack. Perhaps unable to take in any more. Perhaps a broken heart. Who knows 
and who cares! Rasoolbhai's wife who lived an unexceptional life in the 
seclusion of her family and perhaps knew little of the outside world has died 
from other peoples' politics and hatred, which would no doubt have bewildered 
her if she had comprehended it fully. For the law enforcers and medicos it 
was another death by heart attack. For those who helped her die, it was a 
satisfactory end.