[Reader-list] Vadodara riots- my story,,,, mamta

[mamta mantri]

By some wierd coincidence, I was in baroda during the
riots, and by some other coincidence visited the
affected areas,i.e old city, just the evening-night
before the riots broke out. There is a place called
'Nazar Baug', an ancient structure meant for king's
residence, but now the outer structure remains,
windows and the interiors closed with bricks.
However,the place was converted into police camp, in
view of the tension in the area. There was a "VAJRA"
van which is employed especially for controlling
riots.And so the next day the riots broke, and the
event has been well covered by the mainstream media,
who termed the outbreak communal.

TOINS and Gujarat Samachar and media channels called
it communal in the first edition of their newpieces.
But I wonder if clashes between the Muslims and the
law can be called communal. Also, the mob attacked the
'Nyay mandir' and not the Hindu residents in the
neighbourhood. It was only in the 10 pm news that the
police Commisioner said that these riots were not
communal. The next days newspapers prevented from
calling the riots 'communal'. Whatever happened to the
maxim "with freedom, comes responsibility". 
 
Anyways, I was located at Manjalpur, a safe-Hindu
dominated-cosmopolitan-outside the city-upper middle
class neighbourhood. Apparently, there is only one
Muslim in the area, and he owns a laundry and my
cousin said, "I must get my clothes back from him, he
is a Muslim, I dont want to lose my clothes in all
this mess." The constant reiteration in the dialogue
was that the city affected by the riots was not a good
locale with no good people staying there. So 'good'
people stay in 'posh areas' like Alkapuri and
Manjalpur. Others in the old city are illiterate and
poor and lack culture. It is disturbing to find such
views without any scope for any kind of dialogues.

Well,I also visited Champaner, a world heritage
site,and found it interesting in terms of its
architecture, but defintiely not worth the title for
"world heritage site" and the kind of money(thousands
of crores) it is going to get from UNESCO to promote
toursim there. The entire village will be uprooted and
of course reimbursed and a tourist village will be
constructed, but what will come out of it??? There are
only 4 masjids, a huge lake and the begining of the
fort wall, nothing else. Defintely meant for the NRIs,
who want to grasp their ancient culture(pun intended)
here.

Talking of NRIs, Baroda is full/ less of them. Every
gujju family has an NRI realtive, son, daughter and
everyone else. As a result, the demographic patterns
here have undergone disturbing changes. The city is
now house to a large chunk of elders and old people
who cannot shift to other countries, but they do have
a lot of money, and yet cannot do anything with that
money which in turn affects the economy in a negative
sort of manner. Baroda is slowly becoming a city with
no employment and no youth/working population and
therefore stagnant in terms of economy and service and
other industries. And who else but the poor probably
feel the pressure there, and it is during events like
these riots that they can vent themselves out, not
mentioning the political interests. The "riots" still
continue in Baroda. 

But should not we think of a better word than "riot",
because the moment we hear this word, it is assumed
that it is a Hindu Muslim tussle. Events like these
have happened earlier in history, but we havent done
much about it, at least epistemically!!!May be we must
coin a new and better word!!!ho ho ho!!! Criticism
welcome 

mamta


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