[Reader-list] Recovering Lost Histories Part three

[meena menon]

Hi
This is the third posting of my SARAI independent fellowship for 2007.

Cheers
Meena
email-  meenamenon at gmail.com


Recovering lost histories (Third Posting)


In the last one month I have visited some pockets in Mumbai which were
affected by the 1992-93 riots. Apart from Behrampada, I have gone to
Jogeshwari east, in northwest Mumbai, which was very badly affected,
Kasaiwada, near Sion (Central Mumbai) and Mazgaon (South Mumbai). I find
that families have moved from mixed localities into Muslim dominated areas
like Kasaiwada, which also has a fair share of Hindu families.

Areas like Mazgaon in South Mumbai which were once populated by Christian
and Hindu families are now becoming predominantly Muslim and the Bohra
community is increasingly tending to buy property there. I am not yet sure
this has only to do with the riots, there may be other reasons as well which
I am looking into.



LOSS OF LIVELIHOOD

For the third posting as part of the SARAI Independent fellowship, I am
continuing to focus on Naupada and Behrampada and the people who suffered
from the riots. Local businesses were hit in a big way and Behrampada which
was once the hub of retail clothing is no longer that.  Many people have
found it difficult to recover and regain their livelihoods after the riots.
Also the riots left a deep scar on the minds of those who were affected, an
impact which has not been taken into account seriously.

People from Naupada were in the news last year for their rescue of the
victims of the July 11 serial bomb blasts in the local trains of Mumbai. One
of the blasts happened on the tracks along side Naupada. Mohammed Rizwan
Asghar Ali Khan was one of those who helped retrieve the bodies from the
wreckage. But no one helped him in 1993. He points to a scar running down
his right leg, he still cannot walk normally. It was evening when he was
shot in his leg and when he and the others were taken to a local municipal
hospital, it refused to admit them. It was only after Sunil Dutt, the former
MP and his son, actor Sanjay Dutt, came there, that they took them in. He
was later moved to a private hospital.
Rizwan was one of those who was shot by the police while running to help
douse a fire in neighbouring Behrampada. He used to sell readymade salwar
kameezes on the footpaths of Linking Road, a popular roadside shopping area
in upmarket Bandra west when the riots took place. Born in Naupada, Rizwan
has five brothers and a sister. He has studied till the 8th standard. He was
a social worker of sorts too then. "I had spoken to the police and said that
nothing will happen here in Naupada. But the fires burnt in Behrampada and
the police did not want anyone to help. They did not even allow the fire
brigade to go there. I also remembered that they used to go to the rooftops
and fire from their guns," he recalls.
There is a calmness about Rizwan, he is slow to speak but quick to act. It
is not only the scar that rankles Rizwan. He said he became very disturbed.
"There were eight of us who were running to douse the fires and all of us
were hit," he said. There is bitterness too about his loss of livelihood.
There were 313 shops on Linking road on Bandra west, which sold ready-mades
and today none of them exist. The pavement has been taken over by other
people. A lot of young men were jobless after the riots. "We cannot go back
there as the police manage the haftas (bribes) and even though we tried to
go there, they asked us to pay a lot of money, it became difficult for us,"
he said. In addition because of his injury he could no longer lift
heavy things or run about like before. Selling ready- mades fetched about Rs
100 to 150 a day, enough to keep a family afloat. Now he has to support his
wife and a daughter and he does odd jobs, which come by once in a while.
Despite all this, Rizwan can never think of leaving this place. "Why should
I leave? The riots killed so many people, people lost their lives, jobs,
even children died. I don't know about the Sri Krishna commission but I know
no one has been punished. I keep thinking every day, where has my life led
me? No one paid me any compensation for my loss- No one came to help me," he
rued. Earlier there were over 70 Hindu families living in Naupada but now
many of them have left. He even remembers Ganpati celebrations in the area.
Rizwan does not think there is a communal divide. He feels there are many
people who understand what was behind the riots of 1992-93 and there is a
lot of camaraderie.


CHANGING RELATIONS

However, relations between the two communities have changed definitely.
Youngsters like Taukeer Khan, a civil contractor, say that it was his
generation that was really affected. Taukeer was in the tenth when the riots
broke out. "We could not get out of it. People lost their jobs and there was
so much unhappiness." He feels as a result, Muslims are more determined to
educate their children. Now about 25 per cent of young people have jobs in
offices or call centres. "People are also going in for smaller families. The
Muslim community forgets easily, things on the surface are normal," he
maintains. There is deep disillusionment with vote banks too created by the
Congress, for instance. "Now we just want basic amenities, jobs and our
constitutional rights," says Taukeer.
Sheikh Yunus Sheikh Musa, 37, runs a small grocery shop in Behrampada. He
studied in the school in nearby Kherwadi till the 7th standard. His house
was burnt down in 1993. "People used to attack us often. In January 1993,
the New Nirman chawl was totally burnt. There were 60 houses there. People
threw fire bombs from the buildings around us and the police fired on those
who tried to put out the fires." His house was among those gutted and all
the families sought refuge in a building under construction. Many families
lived there for a year and some local NGOs helped them. Relief agencies and
The Times of India Relief Fund rebuilt many of the houses and now Yunus
lives in a room there.
At that time Yunus was part of a 12-member family. There was a shoe factory
there and he used to work there at first. His father ran a store and used to
make glass shades for gas lamps. Now the shop is the sole means of a
livelihood. His father now helps him. The riots changed many things for
Yunus.
He said earlier there was nothing between the two communities but the riots
changed all that. "There was a dhobi (washerman), Ramkiran, (who was Yunus'
neighbour) who was also affected. His family too was given shelter here. I
had Hindu friends too but after the riots their contact with me became
lesser and lesser. In fact the people from buildings around us came and
apologised to use- they did not throw the bombs or set Behrampada on fire. I
remember that Madhukar Sarpotdar, a leader of the Shiv Sena, was arrested
with weapons but he was let off. The government should punish all those
responsible. It should be done as a lesson. I see that punishment is being
meted out in other cases."
"I did get compensation of Rs 5000 but many others did not get. The
collector came and gave us the cheques," he said. What did Yunus do after
the riots? "I managed to get some loans and set up the shop. When I think
about those days, I am scared. I am scared will it happen again," he said.
For a while Yunus kept clippings of the newspaper stories. He still has some
in his possession, mostly depicting Behrampada as a hellhole of
troublemakers. "They wrote all bad things about us," he remembers. He made a
list of all those injured and killed in Behrampada but has misplaced it.
At the end of the conversation he tells me that his father suffered a severe
shock after the riots. What he saw during those days left him upset. He
never went back to his normal self. "When our house burnt down, it really
hit my father very badly. It was a huge setback and he never recovered from
that. He suffered a lot and later contracted TB." I see Yunus' father in the
small shop that he runs. He sits very still, his eyes are fixed in steady
stare and yet he is kind and gracious.


IMPACT OF THE RIOTS

Perhaps the impact of the riots was never estimated in the way it affected
ordinary lives. In Behrampada alone, I met families where at least one
member is affected this way.
I meet Aamir Khan and his friends at a corner of Behrampada. A high concrete
wall separates a set of apartments on the other side. "I used to live here
at that time. We were surrounded by the police and there were shoot at sight
orders. That wall was much lower in those days," says Aamir as a prelude to
explaining his father's death. "It was January 15; my father was coming back
from namaz, and entering the house when he was shot. There was some
commotion in the morning as a result of which shoot at sight orders were
issued. He was sixty at that time and worked as a tailor in Dadar."

Khuda Yaar Khan, his father got a bullet in his back. When Amir heard the
shots and went to help him, he too was under fire.
After that the riots continued for another month. Two years later he went to
Kuwait and worked there for 5 to 6 years. Now Amir has moved to Latur where
he deals in readymade garments. But the worst affected was his mother Hazra
Bi. "My mother had a mental illness after my father's death. She died two or
three years later. She could not sleep. For two months she saw a lot of the
riots, the firing, the petrol bombs and she had a psychological problem. She
really changed after the riots and we moved to Hyderabad for a while but
despite taking her for treatment she did not improve. She died in Hyderabad
never having recovered from her problems."
Amir said he had to be strong for the family. He has a brother and a sister.
A fifth standard drop out, he has now moved to Latur and sells clothes. He
comes often to Behrampada but he feels the business has changed a lot. A lot
of people moved out and there have been a lot of changes.

Shahid Ali, lost his elder brother who had left for work on December 7. He
used to work as a tailor and had four children. His wife moved to Delhi
after two years, she could not live here any more says Shahid. At that time
Shahid was in school, he has studied upto the eight standard. It was very
tense then, he remembers
Behrampada was famous as a wholesale cloth market. It no longer enjoys that
pride of place. Many shops were looted and none were compensated. "This was
a good area. We were surrounded by the MIG (middle income group) housing
colony, they did try to help us, but it was of no use. Earlier we used to go
and play with these people. We had friends, now many have joined the Shiv
Sena. They even tried to take us to political meetings but one of the
meetings was being addressed by Narendra Modi and it was too provoking and
we left. Our friends are far from us now," says Shahid.
XXXXXXX



-- 
Meena

-- 
Meena
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