[Reader-list] Recovering Lost Histories -Naupada and Behrampada

[meena menon]

Hi All

This is my second posting of the Sarai Independent Fellowship on victims of
the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai.

Best
Meena
meenamenon at gmail.com

Recovering Lost Histories
NAUPADA AND BEHRAMPADA

Naupada and Behrampada are two sprawling settlements near Bandra suburban
railway station in west Mumbai. The report of the Srikrishna Commission,
appointed to inquire into the 1992-93 riots, after the demolition of the
Babri Masjid, has extensively documented the events in Behrampada and
surrounding areas. There were many riots sparked off by a temple being
desecrated and the violent incidents continued well into January.
>From Bandra suburban station as you cross the railway bridge, on your left
is a mass of shanties. If you look down on the side of the disused railway
tracks you can see that it's full of life -- children playing, barbers
shaving customers, people shopping. The homes are built on top of one
another so much so that some are on the level with the bridge and through
the tiny windows you can see people sitting around or cooking.


Ayub Mohammed Sheikh, or Ayub bhai, a social worker who lives in Naupada
says that it was an old village or a gaothan with a 200-year-old history.
Today it is home to hundreds of Muslim families. The settlement of Naupada
hugs the railway tracks and narrow dark lanes divide the houses. It was in
the news last year, when many of its residents helped retrieve the bodies
when a bomb exploded in a railway train as part of the serial blasts on July
11, 2006. One of them, a railway employee was killed in the serial blasts.
The road outside Bandra station on the east side divides Naupada and
Behrampada. Behrampada is surrounded by tall apartment blocks. Concrete
walls separating the slum from the apartment blocks grew higher after the
riots of December 1992- January 93. Over a decade ago, children from both
sides went to school together and played cricket. All that has changed.

BEHRAMPADA
Both settlements buzz with activity and the narrow lanes are full of people
at all hours. It is not easy to get people to go back to a time when for
months on end, terror ruled. On the surface things are forgotten and life
seems to go on as usual. But underneath there is anguish and the memories of
those days are fresh. In the riots of 1992-93, Behrampada was targeted by
mobs and many houses were burnt there. People were killed and injured in
firing and riots and many of them lost their homes and livelihoods.
Behrampada has always been portrayed as a hotbed of crime and many people at
that time including filmmaker Madhushree Datta in her film, tried to dispel
those myths. However, the Shiv Sena, led by the local MLA Madhukar Sarpotdar
campaigned against Behrampada saying it harboured illegal Pakistanis who
were indulging in terror tactics. None of this was borne out with facts and
while raids in Behrampada did yield crude bombs and some people were
arrested, the police could find no evidence of organised criminal activity.
Sarpotdar himself was detained by the army with guns and other weapons,
travelling in a vehicle along with his son but he was let off. According to
the Srikrishna report, he was not even charge sheeted for an offence as
serious as this.

CHANGES OVER THE YEARS
Over the years, there have been changes and people seemed to moved have in
and out of both Behrampada and Naupada. I met families in both Naupada and
Behrampada to look at how they have coped with their lives after the riots.
I find that people have moved to these places for reasons of security or
because they had relatives already living there. Many of the Hindu families
have moved out after the riots. That is also something which I will
investigate.
Families have had to cope with loss of life, homes and livelihoods but the
most disturbing finding is that there seem to be a lot of mental trauma
which has not been addressed. There is no support structure in place for
these affected families in terms of medical care or legal aid.

THE STORY OF KHATUNBI
Khatunbi is one of those who was forced to come to Naupada when the riots
took place. She must be over 65, her legs are stiff and she has high blood
pressure. She is unsure why I want to talk to her. Khatunbi now lives with
her daughter, Shakila, the only one who is as yet not married. Her strongest
memory of the 1992 -93 riots was that she had to hide almost neck deep in a
filthy gutter all night. "Mahaul bahut kharab tha (the situation was very
bad)," she begins. The rest of her story comes out in a rush. "A temple in
our area was damaged. When the riots started, I sent my children away first
while I stayed behind. I hid in the gutter and the police found me there-
they called to me in Marathi and then they took me to the police station at
Nirmal Nagar. My clothes were dirty and then the police brought me to a
relief camp in Naupada. I wanted to see if my children were there. I was so
glad to see my girls-they all thought I was dead. My son Sajjid, was full of
blood, he was unconscious."
She is full of praise for her Hindu neighbours who gave her a "maxi" to wear
and helped her hide. "My younger son Ramzan had bought gold for my
daughter's wedding. Like me he was scared of leaving it behind. Ramzan was a
master tailor; he was a specialist in chaniya cholis (long skirts and
blouses, heavily embroidered). He lost so much in the riots, and all those
expensive clothes he tailored were burnt."
After the riots Sajjid refused to work and he died a few years later of
jaundice. Ramzan too became a silent, withdrawn person. Those who knew him a
little in Naupada say he used to sit under a tree all day reading a
newspaper. He contracted tuberculosis (TB) but could not get proper
treatment and he died two or three years ago. His friend Taukeer Khan
remembers that he spoke very little. Taukeer says, "We did not ask him
anything, he suffered on his own." Both of them could not return to normal.
Khatunbi has no hesitation in saying that the riots killed her sons. She
finds it difficult to sleep at night. "When I think about all these things I
feel very bad."
She kept repeating that no one helped her. "I used to live in Khar, nearby,
for over 40 years. We were the only Muslim family in the chawl (a group of
houses) and I did not fight with any one as I had four daughters. I still
remember the people who attacked our houses -they were from Shantilal
Compound."
Her father- in- law owned six rooms in the chawl but people occupied them
without paying the rent even before the riots took place. She has rented her
old house to a family for Rs 2000 per month. She never wants to go back and
live there again. Now, apart from the rent, she and her daughter earn daily
wages by fixing sequins on dupattas. She is also very upset that her
daughter Shakila's marriage was called off after the riots. "They had so
many demands," she says, her eyes full of tears. "I had nothing to give
her."
Khatunbi is used to fending for herself. Her husband used to work for the
Bombay Port Trust. He died many years ago and she was one who raised her
family by doing embroidery. Her daughters chipped in by making jewellery.
However, despite the bad memories, Khatunbi still goes back to her old home.
"When I go there I get scared, people drink and fight. Here it is not like
that. I go back and think of the old days." Her account is a bit confused
about the exact status of her property but Shakila, her daughter, says her
uncle usurped it. They have no one to turn for legal aid to help them sort
out this mess.

REVISITING OLD MEMORIES
Khatunbi was keen that I visit her old place and cordially invited me to
accompany her. From Naupada it is a short ride by auto rickshaw. On the way
she points to the railway over bridge and said this is the bridge her son
Sajjid took to escape from the mob. Her other son Ramzan swore he worked for
an Udipi hotel in the vicinity and was spared. We go to Shantilal Compound
from where she claims the mobs attacked her chawl. There is a man sitting
near the Sai Baba temple- "All these people were involved," she said.
Looking around she tells me the shops are all new.
Suddenly we turn into a small opening next to a shop. Before us is a cluster
of cemented rooms. We go into the house Khatunbi had lived for 40 years.
"They destroyed all this," she said in the manner of an expert guide. "My
son rebuilt my house it to some extent. Now the tenants are Marwaris-they
run a catering business." The tenants are away but there are two cooks
frying puris in the hot airless room. But the room is far more spacious than
Khatunbi's present home. She looks around with pride at the grimy pink walls
stacked with steel vessels. Like a good landlady she goes up one floor to
ask if her tenants there have paid the water bill. She asks the cooks for
some puris and vegetable and finds a plastic bag to take it away. We leave
and on the way back she offers me the puris for lunch.
Khatunbi's present home is a small one room tenement- it's not even painted
and the walls are uneven-there is a single bare bulb which lights the room.
She is desperate to get her property back but with few papers it looks
difficult.
END





-- 
Meena
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20070412/b8ebe00f/attachment.html