The Bhiwandi Disturbances
103.1 Bhiwandi is the taluka headquarters of the Bhiwandi taluka in the Thana district and is situate at a distance of 18 kilometres from Thana and about 53 kilometres from Bombay on the Bombay–Agra Road. It has the largest Muslim population of all the taluka towns in the Thana District, about 65 per cent of the population being Muslims and 35 per cent Hindus in 1970.
103.2 The Bhiwandi–Nizampur Municipal Council is a ‘B’ class municipality and is considered the richest ‘B’ class municipal council in the entire state of Maharashtra with an annual income of over Rs.75 lakh.
103.3 The expansion of the power–loom industry in Bhiwandi resulted in an influx of immigrant population and as a result thereof zopadpattis and hutment colonies sprang up all over the place in the most insanitary and filthy conditions. There are a number of lakes and ponds full of dirty water and the roads are very narrow with a network of even narrow lanes, passages and gutters. The immigrant population consists of Muslims from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Malabar and Telugu–speaking Hindu immigrants known as Padmashalis from Andhra Pradesh and a few Keralites. In 1970 Bhiwandi had only one police station, namely, the Bhiwandi town police station. The part of Nagaon, which is included in the municipal limits, also came under the jurisdiction of the town police station, while the remaining part and the revenue village of Khoni fell within the jurisdiction of the Bhiwandi Taluka police Station.
Khoni
103.4 The revenue village of Khoni, of which the Muslim locality is known as Rasulabad and the Hindu locality as Tagarpada, lies to the north–west of Bhiwandi across the Kamadavi River. In 1970 the population of Khoni was approximately 2,000 of which 70 per cent were Muslims and 30 per cent Hindus.
Nagaon
103.5 The revenue village of Nagaon is situate on the eastern outskirts of Bhiwandi. The Muslim locality of Nagaon is known as Gaibi Nagar and the Hindu locality as Nhavipada. In 1970 the population of Nagaon was approximately 7,000 of which 53 per cent were Muslims and 47 per cent were Hindus.
Shiv Jayanti processions
103.6 The genesis of communal tension in Bhiwandi was the public celebration of Shiv Jayanti by taking out a procession and the behaviour of the processionists and the insistence of the Hindu extremists that the Shiv Jayanti procession must go past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque.
103.7 Prior to 1964, Shiv Jayanti was celebrated in Bhiwandi mostly privately and on a small scale, and it was in 1964 that for the first time a public celebration of the Shiv Jayanti in Bhiwandi took place. Unfortunately, the organisers of the very first public celebration of Shiv Jayanti in Bhiwandi were a group of youngsters who banded themselves to form a Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti and organized the programme. This Samiti totally excluded the Muslims and gave to Shiv Jayanti the appearance and colour of a purely Hindu festival. From the very first public celebration of the Shiv Jayanti, the behaviour of a section of the processionists left much to be desired. Even though the organisers of the procession had agreed to a route which avoided four mosques, in the course of the procession the P.S.P. group in the procession wanted to change the route and take a road which went past the Quarter Gate Mosque and the processionists were prevented from doing so only by the firm and determined stand of the police.
The resentment felt by some Muslims at a procession passing by a mosque, playing music, was exemplified in this procession by the attempt of a Muslim to stop the music accompanying the said procession as the procession was passing through Madarchalla. But for the Muslim leaders who removed this man from the spot, trouble would have very likely broken out. The behaviour of a section of Hindu processionists, particularly the R.S.S. and the P.S.P. sections, was calculated to provoke and humiliate the Muslims. Provocative and anti–Muslim slogans were shouted and gulal was thrown in such excess that it annoyed even the police–officers and policemen present there.
103.8 The 1965 Shiv Jayanti procession was characterized by the fact that it was the very first procession, other than purely Muslim procession which went past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque, Provocative slogans were, however, not prominent. A stone thrown by a Muslim at another Muslim as a result of private enmity between them and which hit a third Muslim, Anwar Bubere, could well have led to a communal conflagration, but for the tact and presence of mind adopted by the injured man in declaring that he had fallen down and hurt himself. This incident nonetheless caused an apprehension that if in future a procession went past this mosque there might be trouble.
103.9 The 1966 Shiv Jayanti procession was again characterized by excessive throwing of gulal and for its unduly long halts at two Muslim localities, namely, Hamal Wada Naka and Madarchalla, shouting slogans and playing games. It also witnessed the emergence of trucks fitted with loud speakers for the shouting of slogans and of tableaux, likely to incite communal feelings, such as the tableau in that procession of the meeting between Shivaji and Afzalkhan.
103.10 The 1967 celebrations, just like the 1964 celebrations, were organized by the younger elements amongst the Hindus forming a Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti. They excluded not only all the Muslims but also the older and more experienced Hindu leaders from the Utsav Samiti. The intention of these persons becomes clear when we find that they decided to spend a sum of Rs.1,000 on gulal to be thrown at the time of the procession; that they wanted floats depicting the killing of Afzalkhan by Shivaji, the cutting off of the fingers of Shahistekhan by Shivaji and the cutting off by Shivaji of the fingers of a butcher about to slaughter a cow — each of these incidents capable of inciting communal feelings; and that they deliberately did not decide upon the route of the procession till the last moment. This naturally led to rumours in the town that the procession would not pass off peacefully.
By this time the Pakistani aggression on India in 1965 and the detention of some of the local Muslim leaders, followed by the formation of the Bhiwandi branch of the Majlis–e–Mushavarat in August 1966 and the withdrawal of the Muslim support from the Congress candidate and the giving of it to the P.W.P. candidate in the General Elections had all embittered communal feelings. Ultimately at the S.D.M.’s intervention a settlement was arrived at under which two Muslims were taken on the committee and instead of the proposed floats, only one float depicting Shivaji’s durbar and certain approved slogans were agreed to, it being agreed on the other side that the procession would go past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque, though later at the request of the Muslims of Nizampura the route was modified so as to pass by that mosque in such a way as to avoid the hauz or the water tank. This pro
cession was also characterized by excessive throwing of gulal and the shouting of abusive and anti–Muslim slogans and led to the first communal riot in Bhiwandi as the procession went past the said mosque.
103.11 One would have thought that after the riot of 1967 the younger local leaders amongst the Hindus would have become wiser and learnt by experience. Events, however, showed that their reaction was quite the opposite. The younger Hindu elements, most of whom were either members of the Jan Sangh or were pro–Jan Sangh, not only insisted in the meetings of the Peace Committee and the Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti that the procession should go past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque but also emphatically demanded that there should be no restrictions whatever on the throwing of gulal or the shouting of slogans. At the time of the 1968 Shiv Jayanti procession, abusive, provocative and anti–Muslim slogans were shouted and the whole atmosphere was vitiated by the behaviour of a group of irresponsible Hindu youths even though the Muslims participated in the procession, showered flowers and sprinkled rose water on it, served sherbet to the processionists at various spots and erected decorative arches.
103.12 In April 1969 these extremist Hindu leaders, finding that they were unable to have their way, walked out of the Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti and resigned from it, with the result that by their absence the procession that year became a model of what such a procession should be, though these persons and their associates met the procession at various points, threw excessive gulal at it, especially at the Muslim leaders, and raised objectionable slogans. Communalism breeds communalism and the inflexible attitude adopted by some of the Hindu extremist youths was matched by a section of the extremist Muslim youths who became equally adamant that the procession should not pass by the Nizampura Jumma Mosque. This perpetual friction and wrangling at the time of each Shiv Jayanti was reflected in various other incidents which took place in Bhiwandi from 1964 onwards, so that almost each incident that occurred took on a communal colour. Communal and extremist parties founded their branches in Bhiwandi, communal propaganda became a feature of electioneering and communal politics became the order of the day.
The attitude of the police towards
the Shiv Jayanti procession
103.13 An unfortunate feature of these Shiv Jayanti processions was the attitude of the police towards those processionists who shouted objectionable or abusive slogans or slogans which would provoke or humiliate the Muslims or threw excessive gulal, particularly at the mosques. The police did not arrest or remove any of these processionists nor did they prevent the 19 persons who had resigned from the Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti or any of their associates from shouting abusive and provocative slogans or throwing gulal on the Muslims with a view to annoy them at the time of the 1969 Shiv Jayanti procession. The police throughout appeared to have taken it that the good behaviour of the processionists was a matter for the organisers of the procession and even the lesson of the 1967 communal riot did not seem to make them think otherwise, for after 1967 they left it to the members of the Peace Committee and Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti to persuade the processionists not to misbehave. It would seem that as long as an actual clash or riot did not take place the police took it that the procession had passed off peacefully and that their bandobast was successful, little realizing the incalculable harm and damage that was caused by their failure to take firm action against the misbehaving procession-ists. The unruly sections in the procession were obviously encouraged by the attitude of the police into believing that they had a licence to indulge in their misbehaviour and, therefore, continued doing so with greater impunity. Had the same firm action been taken against these processionists as was done by the police it the time of the very first Shiv Jayanti procession in 1964 in not allowing the procession to deviate from the agreed route and thus foiling its attempt to pass with music by a mosque, the communal history of Bhiwandi might perhaps have been different.
The communal atmosphere
prior to 1964
103.14 Until about 1964 the communal atmosphere of Bhiwandi was one of amity and co–operation. The main industry of Bhiwandi is the power–loom industry. After 1950 there was a tremendous increase in the number of power–looms. Power–looms were owned both by Muslims and Hindus and though the majority of master weavers were Hindus, the workers belonged to both communities. Factory owners, whether Hindus or Muslims, employed workers of both communities. While the majority of power-loom units were owned by the Muslims, the supply of raw materials and the disposal of the finished products in the market were controlled mostly by the Gujarati and Marwadi Hindus. The Muslim power–loom owners often depended for finance on Hindu financiers and the accounts of Muslim merchants were maintained mostly by the Hindu clerks. A building often accommodated power–looms of several owners and at times in a building some power–looms were owned by Hindus while others were owned by Muslims. There was thus economic and commercial interdependence between the two communities which made for communal peace and harmony, reflected in the election to the officers in the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipality where for a number of years a tradition prevailed that if there was a Muslim Municipal president, the vice-president should be a Hindu, followed in the next term by a Hindu president and a Muslim vice–president.
103.15 The only communal disturbance in Bhiwandi prior to 1967, which the parties could think of for alleging before the Commission, was an incident said to have taken place in 1837. There was also another incident which was alleged to have taken place in 1946 or 1947 in respect of which also no attempt was made to lead any evidence. In January 1948 a resolution was got passed by a strong Muslim League group in the Bhiwandi–Nizampur Municipality to change the names of certain roads and amongst the new names to, call a new road as Jinnah Road. This resolution led to some passing tension and on a representation made to the Government not to give effect to, the said resolution, the resolution did not become operative.
Political parties and other
organizations
103.16 Though at the relevant time there were a number of political parties as also organizations, not styling themselves as political parties but merely as cultural or religious and cultural organizations, operating in Bhiwandi, the activities of all of them are not relevant for the purposes of the present inquiry. Those political parties and other organizations whose activities and the activities of whose leaders and office-bearers or some of them have a bearing on the matters which this Commission has to decide are the All–India Majlis–e–Mushavarat (the Mushavarat), the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the Shiv Sena, the Hindu Mahasabha, the Bhiwandi Seva Samiti, the All–India Majlis Tamir–e–Millat (the M.T.M.) and the Rashtriya Utsav Mandal (the R.U.M.).
103.17 The Bhiwandi branch of the Mushavarat was formed on August 17, 1966 and in the 1967 General Elections it supported the P.W.P. candidate Bhai Patil. The president of the Bhiwandi branch was one Siddiq Ahmed Fakih, while its Vice–president was Shabbir Ahmed Ansari (C.W. 3), a former Muslim Leaguer. On the death Of Siddiq Fakih on December 6, 1968, Shabbir Ahmed Ansari took charge of the Bhiwandi branch of the Mushavarat and thereafter acted as its de facto president.
103.18 The Bhiwandi branch of the, Jan Sangh was established on October 21, 1964 and in October 1967 Dr. Bhagwan Prabhashankar Vyas (J.S.W. 1) was elected the president of the said Bhiwandi branch and thereafter continued to be elected to that
office year after year. Dr. Vyas and a number of other local Jan Sang leaders have played an important part in the communal history of Bhiwandi. This they did, not by carrying on their communal activities through the Bhiwandi branch of the Jan Sangh, but through an organisation formed by them in May 1969, namely, the R.U.M. The only important public activities of the Bhiwandi branch of the Jan Sangh as such were the holding of a district convention of the Jan Sangh in Bhiwandi on March 10, 1968 to synchronize with the Bakri–Id and the holding of a public meeting on January 6, 1969 at Bhiwandi at which most of the speakers laid emphasis upon the anonymous threatening letters received by some local Jan Sangh leaders and others at Bhiwandi and Kalyan. The Jan Sangh leaders from outside Bhiwandi who have played a role in the communal history. of Bhiwandi were G. M. Puntambekar of Malegaon and A. G. Nimkar of Padgha. They have both made communal speeches at public meetings held by the R.U.M.
103.19 The Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena was formed on September 22, 1966 and Baliram Mahadeo More (S.S.W. 1) was appointed its Shakha Pramukh. Baliram More has played a very prominent part in the municipal politics and in the communal history of Bhiwandi.
103.20 The Hindu Mahasabha did not have a branch in Bhiwandi though it had its branches in Thana, Kalyan and Dombivli. The only activities of its leaders which have a bearing on this Inquiry are the speeches made by V. R. Patil, M.L.A., at Padgha and Bhiwandi on January 23, 1970 and the tour of the Thana District by Pandit Brij Narayan Brajesh, the president of the Hindu Mahasabha, in the course of which he addressed public meetings at Dombivli, Kalyan, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi and Thana on 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th March 1970, respectively, at each of which he made communal speeches.
103.21 The Bhiwandi Seva Samiti was formed on October 15, 1966 by the leaders of the Bhiwandi branch of the Mushavarat. It was a civic front of the Mushavarat. Its policies were guided by Shabbir Ahmed Ansari who became its vice–president. It included a few Hindus amongst its members, but its stand was purely communal. A Hindu, Rajaram Mutayya Kodam, was, however, made its president. It put up candidates for the 1967 municipal elections. The formation of this body and the fighting of the municipal elections by its candidates on communal lines contributed to increasing the communal tension in Bhiwandi.
103.22 The Bhiwandi branch of the M.T.M. was formed on November 3 1968 with Abdul Khaliq Mohamed Ibrahim Momin as its president. It held public meetings in Bhiwandi at which the M.T.M. leaders from Bhiwandi and outside Bhiwandi made communal speeches. On August 29. 1969 the M.T.M. and the Mushavarat jointly took out a silent procession to protest against the arson to the Al–Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The leading part in organizing this procession was taken by the local M.T.M. leaders.
103.23 The R.U.M. was formed on May 23, 1969 by Dr. B.P. Vyas, the president of the Bhiwandi branch of the Jan Sangh, and a group of 19 Hindus who had walked out of the Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti meeting On April 6, 1969 and had subsequently tendered their resignation from it in protest against the imposition of any restrictions on the Shiv Jayanti procession. Out of these 19 persons, 15 belonged to the Jan Sangh or were pro–Jan Sangh, one belonged to the Shiv Sena and the remaining three did not belong to any particular party at that time. Right from its inception the R.U.M. followed a communal line. It held weekly prayer meetings and public meetings in which communal speeches were made and political leaders from outside Bhiwandi and others who were well–known for making communal speeches were invited to be guest speakers. This way it gained a great hold over a certain section of the Hindus in Bhiwandi and within a few months the tempo and intensity of its activities increased and spread out into the villages round about Bhiwandi and a branch of the R.U.M. was formed at Padgha. The R.U.M. has played a leading role in the communal history of Bhiwandi and was responsible for bringing the communal tension in Bhiwandi to a pitch.
The communal history of
Bhiwandi — 1963 to 1968
103.24 The year 1963 was an important landmark in the communal history of Bhiwandi for in that year, for the first time, in breach of the tradition till then prevailing in Bhiwandi, the Hindus started taking out processions which did not stop playing music while passing by a mosque.
103.25 The year 1964 was another important landmark, for in that year for the first time Shiv Jayanti was publicly celebrated and a procession taken out. It was characterized by the exclusion of Muslims from the Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti, the misbehaviour of a section of the proces-sionists, the excessive throwing of gulal, the shouting of provocative and anti–Muslim slogans and the insistence on changing the route to pass by a mosque — an attempt which did not succeed only on account of the firm stand of the police.
103.26 Another important event which happened in that year was the formation on April 21, 1964 of the Bhiwandi branch of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. A communal incident also took place in that year resulting in a near riot which was averted by the intervention of police officers and leaders of both communities. This incident took place near the Nazarana Talkies and was a result of a quarrel between some Hindu and Muslim youths over the sale of cinema tickets. The next day about 150 Hindu youths armed with sticks went to the Muslim locality of Madarchalla where they were confronted by a group of Muslim youths similarly armed. No actual clash, however, took place as a result of the intervention by police officers and leaders of both communities.
103.27 The year 1965 witnessed the spectacle of the very first procession, apart from purely Muslim processions, which went past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque. We have already seen how, at the time of this procession, a communal riot, which could have taken place as the result of a stone thrown by a Muslim at another Muslim which struck a third Muslim, while the procession was going past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque, was avoided by the injured Muslim publicly declaring that he had fallen down and injured himself.
103.28 Another important event in the communal and political history of Bhiwandi was the detention, under the Defence of India Rules, of 18 Muslim leaders from Bhiwandi after the attack by Pakistan on India in September 1965. The detention of some of these leaders was, however, the result of overzeal on the part of some officers and the distrust felt by them of the Muslim loyalty to India. That some of these leaders were unjustifiably detained was soon realized and efforts were made by other leaders to obtain their release. That their detention was unjustified was also admitted by the Chief Minister at a public speech made by him on February 5, 1967 at Bhiwandi during the election campaign for the 1967 general election.
103.29 The year 1966 was an important year for Bhiwandi because it witnessed within a period of three months the formation of three bodies which have played an important role in the communal history of Bhiwandi, namely, the Bhiwandi branch of the Majlis–e–Mushavarat on August 17. 1966, the Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena on September 22, 1966 and the Bhiwandi Seva Samiti on October 15, 1966. An incident which took place in 1966 and which requires to be mentioned is the complaint made by Krishnaji Keshav Joglekar, also known as Balasaheb Joglekar, and nine Hindu shop–keepers of Bazar Peth to the police that on April 2, 1966 which was Bakri–Id, beef was carried in open handcarts and a garlanded cow was taken from Nizampura openly through the streets to the slaughter–house on Idgah Road. Balasaheb Joglekar belonged to the R.S.S. and had been the vice–chairman of the
Municipal Council in 1965 and 1966. Questions were also asked about this complaint in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. On inquiry made by the police, the complaint about carrying beef in open handcarts was found to be false.
In order to obviate any such incident, after Inspector Pradhan took charge of the Bhiwandi Town police Station, he moved the D.M. to issue orders under Section 144 Cr.P.C. requiring animals and meat to be carried to the slaughter–house only through certain specified Muslim localities and prohibiting the taking of animals to the slaughter–house in groups or processions or the carrying of meat except in close vehicles provided by the Municipal Council. These restrictions were thereupon imposed and continued to be imposed and were observed.
103.30 The year 1967 witnessed the first communal riot in Bhiwandi. The said riot took place as the Shiv Jayanti procession was passing by the Nizampura Jumma Mosque. The next festival after Shiv Jayanti was Id–e–Milad (Bara Wafaat). The traditional route of the Id–e–Milad procession passed through the Hindu localities of Gauripada, Navi Chawl, Thange Alli and Sutar Alli. It was apprehended that in view of what had happened at the time of the Shiv Jayanti procession the Id–e–Milad procession would not pass undisturbed through Hindu localities and there would be a fresh outbreak of communal disturbances. Accordingly on a report made by Inspector Pradhan, the S.D.M., Bhiwandi, issued an order under section 144 Cr.P.C. prescribing a route which avoided all Hindu localities. The Muslims, however, resented this change and cancelled the procession altogether. This incident shows that just as the extremist Hindus were insisting and were intractable in their demand that the Shiv Jayanti procession with music should go past the Nizampura Jurnma Mosque, the extremist Muslims were equally insistent upon adhering to the traditional route of their procession and to pass through Hindu localities. Had the Muslims leaders had the foresight and wisdom to compromise on this issue and, for the sake of achieving communal amity and peace, had agreed to change their traditional route and willingly avoided Hindu localities, they would have set an example to the other community. By their intractable attitude they failed to avail themselves of this opportunity and showed themselves to be as unreasonable as the Hindu extremists.
103.31 Two other important events of 1967 which affected the communal life of Bhiwandi were the General Elections and the Municipal Elections. In the General Elections, as a result of the support of a majority of the Muslims, particularly the Mushavarat, the P.W.P. candidate, Bhalchandra alias Bhai Patil, was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly with a large majority. The Municipal Elections which took place in August 1967 were characterized by voting on communal lines. Most of the Muslims who were elected were Bhiwandi Seva Samiti candidates and several Muslims who had stood as Independent candidates lost to the Shiv Sena candidates. The Hindu candidates who had taken a leading part in the Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti of 1967 were elected from Hindu localities. This year also saw the formation of the Peace Committee. In view of the communal riot which had taken place at the time of the 1967 Shiv Jayanti procession, a Peace Committee was set up prior to the Ganpati festival, with the president and vice–president of the Municipal Council as ex–officio president and vice–president, and two respected leaders of Bhiwandi, Bhausaheb Dhamankar (C.W. 2) and Murtaza Fakih (B.R.W. 1), were elected additional vice–presidents.
This Peace Committee was set up as a result of the suggestion and efforts made by the district authorities. The National Integration Council had recommended the setting up of such committees, but the commendable thing about the Peace Committee set up in Bhiwandi was that it was set up even before the Conference of the National Integration Council held in June 1968. The Ganpati festival of 1967 passed off peacefully, apart from an incident in which two Muslim boys tried to obstruct a small Ganpati installation procession which was going past the Quarter Gate Mosque playing music. The other Muslims and the police who came immediately on the scene intervened and no incident took place. The Ganpati immersion procession saw a new figure stepping out in the person of Dr. B. P. Vyas (J.S.W. 1) on the communal stage of Bhiwandi. He had unsuccessfully contested the 1967 Municipal Elections. At the time of the Ganpati immersion procession he instigated the younger elements amongst the Hindus to linger near the Panjrapole Dargah and to continue with their dancing near it. He joined the Jan Sangh in 1967 and in October 1967 was elected the president of the Bhiwandi branch of the Jan Sangh and continued to be elected to that office year after year.
103.32 Various religious festivals held in 1968 passed off peacefully. Most of them were celebrated jointly. The Moharram processions, unlike in the previous years, passed through Hindu localities as quickly as possible without lingering. Ramzan–Id was celebrated jointly and the Muslims participated in the Shiv Jayanti procession, served sherbet to the processionists and erected decorative arches. However, certain incidents which took place showed that beneath the surface of communal goodwill and amity communal unrest and distrust were simmering amongst certain sections of both communities. In September 1968 there were six incidents of minor assaults on Muslims and two cases of rioting in which some Hindus were beaten. At a meeting of the Peace Committee held on September 17, 1968, in view of these incidents it was decided that members of the Peace Committee should move about in different localities and wards and call the younger elements and talk to them.
At these ward meetings the gravamen of the complaints was the misbehaviour of the goondas of both communities. Another complaint was that some incidents of disorderly behaviour had taken place because proper respect was not shown to the National Anthem when played at the end of the cinema shows. The police thereupon started a drive against such persons and arrested 36 Muslims and 16 Hindus in 1968, two Muslims and one Hindu in 1969 and one Muslim and one Hindu in 1970 and prosecuted them for disorderly behaviour. In spite of these prosecutions against both Hindus and Muslims for showing disrespect to the National Anthem, it was alleged in several Hindu affidavits filed before the Commission as also by some Hindu witnesses that only the Muslims had shown such disrespect.
103.33 Another incident of 1968 which led to communal tension was the holding of the Jan Sangh district convention in Bhiwandi on March 10, 1968 which coincided with Bakri–Id. The said convention was originally proposed to be held on February 18, 1968 at Bhiwandi but because of the death of the Jan Sangh president, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, on February 11, 1968 it was postponed and was ultimately held on March 10, 1968. Dr. Vyas, the president of the Bhiwandi branch of the Jan Sangh, requested Shabbir Ahmed Ansari (C.W. 3), the Municipal president, for permission to hold a public meeting on that day on the Azad Maidan close to the Quarter Gate Mosque. Shabbir Ahmed granted the permission but probably in view of what the Chief Officer of the Municipal Council pointed out to him, he cancelled the permission and at his request the venue of the meeting was changed to the Municipal School near the Vegetable Market.
Though until the day previous to the convention the Jan Sangh workers had decided to go from the place of the closed session of the convention to the place of the public meeting by the shortest possible route, on the morning of March 10, 1968 it was learnt by the police that the Jan Sangh workers were thinking of taking out a ‘Janata Morcha’ through all the localities of Bhiwandi terminating at the venue of the public meeting. This proposed route covered five mosques, including the Nizampura Jumma Mosque. The S.P. and the other police officers, persuaded the Jan Sangh leaders not to go past the Nizampura Jurnma Mosque and the
Saudagar Mohalla Jumma Mosque. In the morning of that day when Jan Sangh workers from different towns started coming to Bhiwandi in groups by S.T. buses, a group of Jan Sangh workers passing by the Quarter Gate Mosque shouted the slogan "Jan Sanghacha Vijay Aso". After the prayers were over in the said mosque, Muslims shouted their slogan "Nara–e–Takbir, Allah–o–Akbar". Several persons thought that this slogan was shouted intentionally to jeer at the other community. The police intervened and pacified both the groups. However, other groups of Jan Sangh workers who passed by this mosque also indulged in slogan shouting. During the course of the Jan Sangh procession a few stones were pelted at the procession, though no one was injured. The police immediately intervened, pushed the processionists forward and arrested some Muslims. In order to avoid further trouble, arrangements were made by the police, in consultation with the Jan Sangh leaders, to bring S.T. buses to the spot nearest the place of the public meetings. Further incidents of assaults took place that night and a couple of days later. The evidence does not leave any doubt that the day of Bakri–Id was deliberately selected in order to make this district convention of the Jan Sangh synchronize with the celebration of Bakri–Id.
103.34 In 1968 in order to continue being in the limelight Dr. Vyas organized, for the first time in Bhiwandi, a Navratri procession. Another important event which took place in the communal life of Bhiwandi in 1968 was the formation of the Bhiwandi branch of the M.T.M. on November 3, 1968.
The communal history
of Bhiwandi — 1969
103.35 The year 1969 was one of communal unrest for Bhiwandi. In connection with the Republic Day celebrations in the evening of January 25, 1969, a mass drill by students of different schools was arranged at the P. R. High School. While returning from the said function some boys of the Rais High School were assaulted by some boys of the P. R. High School. The previous night also some stones had been thrown at the boys of the Rais High School while returning from a cultural programme of different schools held in the Marathi school at Narali Talao. In view of this incident, the Head Master of the School, who was in charge during the absence from Bhiwandi of the, Principal, got panicky. So did the parents of several students who started making telephone calls to him. Accordingly, the flag hoisting ceremony and the singing of the National Anthem took place in the school premises, but the students of the Rais High School did not attend the main official function which usually took place after the flag hoisting at various schools, but instead arrangements were made to see the students safely to their homes accompanied by teachers. The non–participation by the students and teachers of the Rais High School was construed as a deliberate boycott of the Republic Day celebrations and as indicating the anti–national attitude of the students and teachers of the school and caused considerable resentment. Complaints were made to the authorities. The authorities made enquiries and the correct facts were ascertained. Nonetheless, the resentment remained. It must be said that though there was a reason for the non–participation by the students and teachers of the school in the official Republic Day function, the decision not to participate was a tactless and unwise decision capable of leading to great misunderstanding, as it in fact did. The school authorities would have done better to have informed the police and the taluka Magistrate about what had happened the previous night and asked for proper bandobast to be made. Instead, this ill–advised decision caused considerable damage to the school’s image and laid its authorities and students open to a charge of being anti–national.
103.36 Shiv Jayanti was celebrated on April 18, 1969. This was a fateful Shiv Jayanti for Bhiwandi for it led to the formation of the R.U.M. Nineteen persons, 15 of them belonging to the Jan Sangh, one to the Shiv Sena and three with no particular party affiliation, staged a walk–out from the Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti meeting as they failed to carry their point that there should be no restrictions with respect to the shouting of slogans and the throwing of gulal and that the procession should go past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque. Later, under the inspiration of Dr. Vyas, these 19 persons along with Dr. Vyas and others formed the R.U.M.
The rest of the year was marked by the holding of meetings at which communal speeches were made; street brawls in July, September and October 1969 in some of which the boys of the Rais High School and the president of the R.U. M., Bhaskar Mali, and his brother were involved; complaints and cross–complaints; the tutoring of complainants by local leaders; public quarrels between municipal councillors; the local M.T.M. and Mushavarat taking out a mammoth silent procession of 15,000 Muslims to protest against the arson to the Al–Aqsa Mosque; and rumour–mongering about the Ahmedabad disturbances in private and public meetings. This year of unrest was followed by four months of mounting tension which ultimately culminated in the disturbances which broke out on May 7, 1970.
Municipal politics
103.37 The 1967 Municipal Elections in Bhiwandi were fought on communal lines. The new Municipal Council which emerged consisted of 19 Muslims and 12 Hindus. Out of the 19 Muslims, 16 had been elected on the Bhiwandi Seva Samiti tickets and the remaining three as Independent candidates. Out of the 12 Hindu Councillors, two were co-opted Councillors, one of whom was Rajaram Kodam, the then president of the Bhiwandi Seva Samiti who had unsuccessfully contested the election on its ticket. The other co-opted Councillor belonged to the opposition. The Seva Samiti group in the Municipal Council thus consisted of 16 Muslim councillors and one Hindu Councillor, namely, Rajaram Kodam, while the opposition group consisted of 11 Hindu Councillors and three Independent Muslim Councillors. The leader of the opposition group was Baliram More, the Shakha Pramukh of the Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena. The narrow majority and the fact that under the Maharashtra Municipalities Act, 1965, the term of office of the president and vice–president was five years, furnished ready-made opportunities for manoeuvring defections by holding out promises of municipal–presidentship and vice–presidentship to the defectors. The result was that the life of this Municipal Council was marked by power politics, defections, quarrels amongst Municipal Councillors, charges and counter–charges hurled by them at one another and, above all, mal–administration and neglect of civic affairs. Fortunately for the people of Bhiwandi, the life of the Municipal Council was prematurely terminated by the Government of Maharashtra on October 23, 1971, by appointing under section 313(i) of the Maharashtra Municipalities Act, the Deputy Collector, Bombay, Division, P. D. Pawar, as the Administrator.
103.38 The Bhiwandi Seva Samiti, which was in a majority, set the pace by attempting to break the convention which had till then existed of allotting chairmanship and vice–chairmanship to municipal committees alternatively to Councillors of both communities. Ultimately they did not do so because it was otherwise found impossible to form committees by reason of the disputes and quarrels over division of seats between the majority and the minority parties.
103.39 The working of the Municipal Council and the behaviour of the Councillors of both the groups were such as generated tension in the town. There were defections and counter–defections and the powers swayed from one group to another. Almost no meeting of the Municipal Council was conducted in a peaceful atmosphere. Whichever the party in opposition was, it rarely allowed the party in power to take a decision on any matter. At several meetings pandemonium prevailed and the meetings ended in chaos. On occasions the Municipal President had even to ask for police bandobast at the time of the meetings. There
were occasions when angry words and even filthy abuses were exchanged. Supporters of the two groups collected for the meetings of the Council and taking advantage of the chaos they also participated in the hurling of abuses and the passing of derogatory and unbecoming remarks about members of the opposite group. Civil administration was completely neglected and malpractices prevailed. To cite but one instance of the abuse of their position by Municipal Councillors, the Municipal Councillors and particularly the leaders of the two parties in the Municipal Council considered it their right to use the municipal jeep for private trips within municipal limits. Municipal politics embittered the discussions in the meetings of the Peace Committee and the steering committee and led to fights and quarrels between Councillors outside the Municipal Council.
103.40 Apart from a few office–seeking Hindu Councillors who were members of the Bhiwandi Seva Samiti and three Independent Muslim Councillors who belonged to the opposition group led by Baliram More, all the Councillors in the Bhiwandi Seva Samiti group were Muslims and all the Councillors in the opposition group were Hindus. Some of these Independent Muslim Councillors also fell to lure of offices and defected back and forth. In substance, therefore, the two groups in the Municipal Council were the Muslim group and the Hindu group, both of them with but a common platform, namely, by any means to secure majority in the Municipal Council and thus be in power and enjoy the plums of office. The communal lines upon which the municipal elections were fought and the communal line–up of the Councillors played a considerable role in setting up Hindus against Muslims and Muslims against Hindus in Bhiwandi. Three instances of how communalism affected municipal politics and civic administration will suffice.
103.41 The first example is that of the encroachment made by the trustees of the Khutala Mosque upon the adjoining municipal land, namely, the reclaimed land of the old Khutala Tank, by fencing the land and starting some construction thereon. In spite of repeated complaints, the Municipal Council, of which the majority consisted of Muslims, took no steps to have the said encroachment removed. This caused considerable resentment amongst the Hindus and complaints were made, amongst others, by Dattatraya Mahadeo More, the brother of Baliram More, to the D. M. about the said encroachment. In January or February 1969 Dattatraya More and eight or nine other Hindus threatened to go on a fast outside the town police station. The attempts made by the D. M. to persuade the successive Municipal presidents to have the said encroachment removed did not succeed. After the disturbances of May 1970, on August 9, 1970, Dattatraya More again threatened to go on a fast. Ultimately, the Director of Municipal Administration issued directions under section 312 of the Maharashtra Municipalities Act, 1965, calling upon the Municipal Council to remove the said encroachment. Thereupon the Municipal Council removed the wire fencing and some of the encroachment. The trustees thereupon filed a civil suit and obtained an ex-parte ad interim injunction against the Municipal Council. In spite of repeated reminders in that behalf, the Municipal president did not care to reply to the D. M. and inform him about what had happened to the application for interim injunction or in the matter of the said suit.
103.42 The second example is that of the Urdu inscriptions on municipal vehicles. The name of the Municipal Council used to be painted on Municipal Fire Brigade vehicles both in English and Marathi scripts. Sometime in April 1969 under the orders of Abdul Salam Ansari, the then Municipal president, who had obtained that office as the price of defecting to Baliram More’s group, the name of the Municipal Council was added in Urdu script on the said vehicles. This caused considerable resentment amongst a section of the local Hindus. Baliram More’s brother, Dattatraya More, sent an application to the Chief Officer threatening to apply tar on the Urdu writing in case no action was taken. A signature campaign was also started by Shankar Govind Mundhe who either belonged to the Jan Sangh or was pro–Jan Sangh. Both Dattatraya More and Shatkar Mundhe were two of the 19 persons who had staged a walk-out from the Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti at the time of the 1969 Shiv Jayanti procession.
103.43 The third example is that of filling vacancies in the municipal service. The fact that the Muslims were in a majority in the Municipal Council led to rumours that almost all vacancies in the municipal service were filled by appointing Muslims thereto. Apart from the fact that all the while the Muslim group was not in power, the statistics produced before the Commission show that there was no factual basis for these rumours. Nonetheless these rumours served to aggravate the communal bitterness prevailing in Bhiwandi.
103.44 Soon after the new Municipal Council was formed, the minority group led by Baliram More tried to win over Muslim Councillors from the Bhiwandi Seva Samiti group in order to secure a majority and the Seva Samiti group tried to win over Councillors from the Opposition group in order either to increase its majority or to swing back the balance of power in its favour. Each group succeeded in making Councillors from the other group defect to its side and some of the Councillors who defected were induced to defect back again. Amongst those who defected from the Seva Samiti group to Baliram More’s group were A. B. Syed and Abdul Salam Ansari. The latter had been promised the municipal presidency as the price of his defection and on his defecting to. Baliram More’s group the price promised to him was paid and he was elected the Municipal President with the support of almost all Hindu Councillors and a few Muslim Councillors. The Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena made a great show of the defection of Abdul Salam and when he was elected as the Municipal President it held a public meeting to felicitate him at which even the Shiv Sena leaders of Thana remained present. A person who wielded considerable influence over some Councillors, though not a Municipal Councillor himself, was Rauf Punjabi. In June 1969 efforts were made by him to win back some Municipal Councillors to the Seva Samiti group. These efforts proved successful. Thinking that he was about to lose power in the Municipal Council, Baliram More submitted a written representation, dated June 30, 1969 to the Chief Minister complaining against Seva Samiti Councillors and contending that they were responsible for the communal riot at the time of the 1967 Shiv Jayanti procession. He also got the said representation published in the Shiv Sena Marathi weekly, Marmik. As a result of Rauf Punjabi’s efforts, two Councillors, including A. B. Syed, defected back to the Seva Samiti with the result that Baliram More’s group lost its majority. A no–confidence motion was thereafter moved against Abdul Salam Ansari and Abdul Salam tendered his resignation. For the said reasons Baliram More entertained feelings of animosity and hostility towards Rauf Punjabi.
The very day on which Abdul Salam tendered his resignation, namely, on July 8, 1969, there was a street brawl between Bhaskar Mali, the president of the R. U. M., his brother and some other Hindus on the one hand and some boys of the Rais High School on the other. A number of local leaders rushed to the Rais High School. An undignified and unbecoming exchange. of words took place there between Baliram More and Rauf Punjabi, Rauf Punjabi calling Baliram More a gambler and a-bootlegger. Baliram More thereupon went straight in the municipal jeep to the Bhiwandi Town Police Station and lodged a false complaint that Rauf Punjabi had used derogatory words about the entire Hindu community. As this was a non-cognizable case, he was referred to Court. He, however, did not lodge any complaint in Court. Baliram More also took his revenge on A. B. Syed by giving on or about July 26, 1969 false information to the police that Syed’s son had abducted a married Hindu girt who was a minor. Defections and re-defections continued to take place and once
again Baliram More succeeded in recapturing power, by agreeing to make Zuber Patel, a Bhiwandi Seva Samiti Councillor, the Municipal president if he defected to Baliram More’s group.
103.45 Tired with this game of power politics, several Councillors held a meeting in February 1970 and arrived at a compromise that the Municipal president, the vice-president and the chairman of the Municipal Committees should resign every six months and in their place others selected by a committee of five Councillors jointly appointed by both groups should be elected. Baliram More did not attend this meeting and was not in favour of this compromise. As a result of the said compromise, the necessity of making Councillors defect from one group to the other in order to tilt the balance of power disappeared and no defections took place thereafter.
103.46 In order to win over Muslim Councillors to his group, Baliram More had not joined the extremist section of the Hindus in the Peace Committee and the Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti, had adopted a conciliatory attitude towards the demands and grievances of the Muslims and did not insist that the Shiv Jayanti procession should go past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque. He also served sherbet to the processionists in the Moharram procession in 1969 when it passed through his locality. In February 1969 when the agitation in connection with the Maharashtra–Mysore boundary dispute launched by the Shiv Sena led to riots in various places, Bhiwandi remained quiet and no agitation was undertaken by the Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena. After the compromise of February 1970, realizing that there was hardly any hope or chance of his gaining a majority in the Municipal Council, be totally changed his attitude. In sharp contrast to what he had done in February 1969, he called a Bhiwandi Bandh on March 2, 1970 in pursuance of a call for Maharashtra Bandh given by the Shiv Sena. In respect of the 1970 Moharram processions he lodged a false complaint with the police that several Muslims in the Tazia immersion procession had shouted the slogan "Pakistan Zindabad".
He also started demanding in public meetings that the Shiv Jayanti procession should go past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque and that if there was any opposition to the said route or any resistance to the procession, the Shiv Sena would give a fitting reply. He started attending meetings of R. U. M. and also invited R. U. M. leaders to the Shiv Sena meetings. After February 1970 he joined hands with the R. U. M. and worked in close co–operation and collaboration with it.
The activities of the Bhiwandi
branch of the Shiv Sena
103.47 The activities of the Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena were tailored to the political ambitions of its Shakha Pramukh, Baliram More, who desired to capture power in the Municipal Council. The Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena as such did not therefore embark on any communal agitation nor did it start an agitation when in the wake of the February 1969 Maharashtra–Mysore Boundary dispute agitation launched by the Shiv Sena, riots took place in other places. Though Baliram More himself took a placatory and conciliatory attitude towards the Muslims in order to win over Muslim Councillors to his group, several of his followers and his workers joined the R. U. M. Bhiwandi came in for a special attack by the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray at a public speech made by him on May 13, 1969 in Thana in which he referred to Bhiwandi as a second Pakistan and alleged that such shameful things were being done by the Muslims in Bhiwandi that he was ashamed to mention those incidents in the presence of ladies. In spite of this attack on the Bhiwandi Muslims by his chief, Baliram More continued to pursue his policy of placating Muslims and winning over Municipal Councillors by bribing them with promises of municipal presidency and vice–presidency.
103.48 As seen above, after the February 1970 compromise entered into by the Municipal Councillors in order to prevent defections, Baliram More’s attitude completely changed. He started attacking the Muslims and made common cause with the R.U.M. and from that time onwards the R.U.M. functioned as a common platform for the Jan Sangh and Shiv Sena leaders and workers of Bhiwandi.
The activities of the Bhiwandi
branch of the M.T.M.
103.49 The Bhiwandi branch of the M. T, M. as also the Kalyan branch of the M. T. M. held several public meetings at which communal speeches were made. Some of the meetings of the Bhiwandi branch of the M. T.M. were addressed by the Kalyan M.T. M. leaders and several meetings of the Kalyan branch of the M.T.M. were addressed by the Bhiwandi M.T.M. leaders. Some of these meetings were also to be addressed by the leaders of the All–India M. T.M. from Hyderabad. In view of the tense situation then prevailing in Bhiwandi, their proposed visit to Bhiwandi and other places in the Thana District was banned by an order dated May 21, 1969 under section 144, Cr.P.C. prohibiting the entry into or remaining within Thana district of these Hyderabad leaders for a period of one week from May 22, 1969.
103.50 At the aforesaid public meetings held by the M.T.M. in Bhiwandi and Kalyan there was constant harping in the speeches of its leaders on the danger facing Islam and the Muslim community in India and the exhortation to them to unite in, order to meet the challenge of the Hindu communal forces. The M.T.M. speakers also constantly criticized the administration and the police as being favourably disposed towards the Hindu communal parties and as taking a prejudicial and biased view against the Muslims and exhorted the Muslims to rely upon themselves and not look to the authorities for protection. The attacks at the M.T.M. meetings against the Hindu communal parties and the counter–attacks by communal–minded Hindu leaders and parties against the M.T.M. brought about a constant state of unrest in the minds of certain sections of both communities in Bhiwandi and led to mounting tension in the town. There were, however, a number of respected secular–minded Muslim leaders in Bhiwandi and as a result of their efforts the M.T.M. did not make much headway in Bhiwandi.
103.51 The M.T.M. propaganda gained in intensity after the Ahmedabad disturbances, keeping pace with the communal propaganda about these disturbances carried on by the R.U.M. and the Hindu communal leaders whom the R.U.M. invited as guest speakers. The persons who were most affected by this propaganda were the youngsters. Feeling alarmed at this, several secular–minded Muslim leaders of Bhiwandi such as Murtaza Fakih, Sikandar Fakih, Anwar Bubere, Ibrahim Maddu, Haji Miyan Tase, Gulam Mahomed Momin and others, found it necessary to hold meetings in different mohallas to impress upon the Muslims, particularly the younger elements among them, that the M.T.M. propaganda was not beneficial to the Muslims and that they should not be misled by it.
103.52 Communal speeches were made at the following public meetings held either by the Bhiwandi or the Kalyan Branch of the M.T.M.— (1) the inaugural meeting held on November 3, 1968 at Bhiwandi for the establishment of the Bhiwandi Branch of the M.T.M., (2) a public meeting held on January 13, 1969 at Bhiwandi, (3) a public meeting held on May 24, 1968 at Kalyan, (4) a public meeting held on May 26, 1969 at Bhiwandi, (5) a public meeting held on June 27, 1969 at Bhiwandi, and (6) a public meeting held on November 1, 1969 at Bhiwandi. The M.T M. leaders and workers who made communal speeches at these meetings were one or more of the following— (1) Saad Ahmed Kazi, (2) Suleman Sikandar, (3) Shabbir Hussain, (4) Syed Khalilullah Hussaini, (5) Mahomed Kasim, (6) Sardar Zafarullah Khan, (7) Abdul Khaliq Momin, (8) Hakim A. Raheman Quadri, and (9) Mahomed Kazi.
103.53 One meeting held by the Bhiwandi branch of the, M.T.M. particularly requires to be mentioned as it shows the hostility which the M.T.M. had evoked. The Bhiwandi branch of the M.T.M. had called a meeting on March 27, 1970 to felicitate the P.W.P. M.L.As., K. N. Dhulap and Bhai Patil. The Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena had announced at a public meeting held on March 17, 1970 that it would not allow the said meeting to be held. In order to carry out its threat, the Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena also called a meeting of its own on March 27, 1970 to be held either near the Town Police Station or Kasar Alli, both these places being near the Teen Batti Naka where the M.T.M. meeting was to be held. Both the Shiv Sena and the M.T.M. applied to the Town Police Station for permission to use loud speakers at their respective meetings. The Shiv Sena’s application was prior in point of time and, accordingly, permission was refused to the M.T.M. The M.T.M. therefore postponed its meeting to March 28, 1970.
The object being achieved, no meeting of the Shiv Sena was held on March 27, 1970. At the M.T.M. meeting held on March 28, 1970, neither K. N. Dhulap nor Bhai Patil was present. Amongst the speakers was one Manzur Husein, a member of the Communist Party. He spoke on the communist ideology and attacked the policies of the Jan Sangh and the Shiv Sena. While he was addressing the meeting some stones were thrown at the meeting from Navi Chawl, a Hindu building. Sardar Zafarullah Khan in the course of his speech attacked Dr. Vyas and the Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray. Other speakers, namely, Shabbir Ahmed Ansari, the Mushavarat leader who was invited to the said meeting and one Mohamed Alikhan also attacked the Hindu communal parties and Dr. Vyas. The speech of Abdul Khaliq Momin, president of the Bhiwandi branch of the M.T.M., was also directed against the Jan Sangh and its resolution for Indianization of the Muslims. In the course of his speech he also criticized the police. According to the police, he called upon the people to lend him support to set the Town Police Station on fire. According to the M.T.M., he stated that if the police were out to trample their rights and privileges, it was incumbent upon them to contemplate such acts and in case the people were willing to lend their support he could set such a police station on fire. He further stated that if Dr. Vyas was trying to play with their sentiments, he was capable of bringing about the political murder of Dr. Vyas, provided the masses were ready to lend him their support. After the meeting two instances of stone throwing took place.
103.54 Abdul Khaliq Momin’s speech riled the police, the Shiv Sena, the Jan Sangh and the R.U.M. As the permission to use loud–speakers at this meeting was granted to Abdul Khaliq Momin upto 11 p.m. only and as the meeting had continued beyond that time, the police prosecuted Abdul Khaliq Momin and he was convicted and fined. Zumberlal Kalantri gave a Calling Attention Notice in the Maharashtra Legislative Council alleging that Abdul Khaliq Momin had threatened to burn down the Bhiwandi Town police Station and to murder Dr. Vyas.
103.55 After the Ahmedabad disturbances the leaders and workers of the Bhiwandi branch of the M.T.M. and Mahomed Ali Isa Khan, the General Secretary of the Maharashtra state branch of the M.T.M. (who had visited Bhiwandi and moved about in the town and visited Borivali village near Padgha in order to collect clothes and funds for the relief of the Muslims who had suffered in the said disturbances, carried on communal propaganda in Bhiwandi with respect to the Ahmedabad disturbances by harping upon the fact that the Muslims had suffered more in the said disturbances than the Hindus and that the Hindus were planning to start similar disturbances in other parts of the country and therefore the Muslims should prepare themselves to defend their lives and properties.
The activities of the R. U. M.
103.56 The ostensible aims of the R.U.M. as set out in its constitution were — (1) to celebrate festivals according to Indian tradition; (2) to organize religious, social and cultural programmes; (3) to develop Indian culture consistent with the modern scientific age; (4) to foster nationalistic tendencies; (5) to curb anti–national activities ; and (6) to foster national integrity.
103.57 ‘The real aims of the R.U.M., as apparent from its activities, the utterances of its leaders and of those whom it invited to speak at the public meetings organized by it and to whom it made its platform available, were very different. The activities of the R.U.M. were communally motivated right from the beginning. The majority of its leaders consisted of hot–headed Hindu youngsters imbued with communalism and, as the evidence shows, the guiding spirit of the R.U.M. was Dr. Vyas, the president of the Bhiwandi branch of the Jan Sangh. The majority of its members belonged to the Jan Sangh or were pro–Jan Sangh and the rest, with a few exceptions, belonged to the Shiv Sena.
The R.U.M. was so completely Jan Sangh dominated that in the beginning of September 1969, Dattatraya Mahadeo More, Baliram More’s brother, who was the vice-president of the R.U.M. and who at that time did not belong to any political party, and Suresh Kondalkar, a Shiv Sena worker who was the secretary of the R.U.M., resigned from their respective offices on this ground. In all matters likely to create communal tension the R.U.M. adopted a militant and aggressive attitude and set itself up as the champion of what it considered to be the rights of the Hindus against the Muslims and, so to say, to teach the Muslims their place and if they were not willing to learn their place, to teach them a lesson. It even went out of its way to create such occasions. The speeches made by the R.U.M. leaders and its guest speakers at public meetings organized by the R.U.M. leave no doubt what its intentions were. In speech after speech the R.U.M. leaders and others who were their guest speakers stated that the Hindu temples were being attacked by the Muslims, Hindu women made to suffer indignities and that the Hindus must, therefore, unite and crush all such forces and that the R.U.M. was established with this aim in view and particularly to ensure that the Hindus were not harassed by the Muslims in Bhiwandi and that in case there was any such harassment the Hindus should be able to unite and resist it.
103.58 From the very inception, the nature of the R.U.M. activities was not only communal but aggressively communal. This is clearly apparent from the objectionable behaviour at the time of the 1969 Shiv Jayanti procession of those who later became its founders and leaders. These were the persons who in April 1969 had walked out of the Shiv Jayanti Utsav Samiti on the ground that the Shiv Jayanti procession ought not go past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque, and that no restrictions with respect to slogans or the throwing of gulal should be reduced to writing or printed in any pamphlet setting out the programme for the Shiv Jayanti celebrations. They along with Dr. Vyas thereafter wanted to take out a separate procession to celebrate Shiv Jayanti and also wanted to invite V. R. Patil, the vice-president of the Maharashtra state Hindu Mahasabha, to give a speech on this occasion but were ultimately dissuaded from doing so. The procession itself, which otherwise passed off peacefully and in an atmosphere of amity and festivity, was marred by these persons. They boycotted the procession and did not participate in it but met the procession at different points and threw excessive gulal on the processionists, and particularly on the Muslim leaders in order to annoy them, and shouted slogans including "Hamse Jo Takarayega, Woh Mitti Me Mil Jayega" and "Hindustan Hinduonka, Nahi Kisike Bapka".
103.59 After its formation, the R.U.M. celebrated Shiv Rajyabhishek Din, the Gandhi Jayanti and the Guru Nanak Jayanti and observed the death anniversaries of Lokmanya Tilak, Veer Savarkar, Shahaji Raje and Sambhaji. Out of these functions, the Shiv Rajyabhishek Din and Guru Nanak Jayanti were celebrated and the death anniversaries of Shahaji Raje Bhosale and Sambhaji were observed for the first time in
Bhiwandi. The very first occasion which was celebrated by the R.U.M. was the Shiv Rajyabhishek Din and there is little doubt that this occasion was celebrated because it coincided with Id–e–Milad. The death anniversary of Shahaji Raje Bhosale, Shivaji’s father, was observed during the 1970 Moharram festival. These celebrations and observances took place for the first time in Bhiwandi and their coincidence with the Muslim festivals must have presented a powerful reason to the R.U.M. leaders in arriving at their decision to have public functions on these two days. In March 1970 the R.U.M. also exhibited on a blackboard an extract from an editorial in the Navbharat Times. According to this extract, a large number of Hindus were being driven out from Pakistan and the other Hindus in Pakistan were forcibly converted to Islam and whenever there were riots in Pakistan, Hindu women became the first target of assault.
This board was exhibited by the R.U.M. on March 13, 1970, the very day on which a meeting of the Peace Committee was to be held for considering the arrangements to be made for the Moharram and Holi festivals and hardly augured a peaceful observance of these two festivals. The leaders of the R.U.M. also instigated the widening of the Holi pits outside Navi Chawl. A number of public meetings were held at Bhiwandi and some also in Padgha and Pundas. In April 1970 and the beginning of May 1970 meetings were also held in Kamatghar, Kamba, Kasheli, Kalher, Puma, Karivali, Kalwa and other villages. These meetings were for the purpose of carrying on propaganda to induce the villagers to join the Shiv Jayanti procession in Bhiwandi. The speeches made at most of the meetings held by the R.U.M. were communal speeches.
103.60 The R.U.M. also held weekly prayer meetings in different temples and the attendance at these meetings went on increasing with each week. These meetings were intended and utilized for making inflammatory–communal speeches calling upon the members of the Hindu community to take the law into their own hands for their protection on the ground that the administration was not competent to do so. The venue of temples for these meetings invested with the aura of religious sanctity and halo the communal propaganda carried on at these meetings and thus gave this propaganda greater force and effect. The R.U.M. invited as guest speakers leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha and the Jan Sangh such as V. R. Patit and Pandit Brij Narayan Brajesh, and of the Jan Sangh such as G. M. Puntambekar and A.G. Nimkar. It also invited as guest speakers other communal–minded Hindu speakers such as Ramesh Sambhus.
103.61 After the Ahmedabad disturbances, the R.U.M. carried on an intensive communal propaganda. Its leaders made much of the anonymous letters received by Dr. Vyas and other local Hindu leaders, observed hartal and took out a morcha on October 11, 1969 against the desecration of temples in which objectionable placards were carried. They also took out a procession in Bhiwandi on October 29, 1969 to celebrate Vijayadashami in which objectionable slogans were shouted. Its members also observed a fast and took out a morcha at Padgha on October 18, 1969 against the desecration of temples. From October 1969 onwards the speeches made at R.U.M. meetings became more and more communal, harping on the Ahmedabad disturbances and inflaming the minds of the Hindus of Bhiwandi against the Muslims.
103.62 At the time of the September 1969 Ganpati festival, the R.U.M. took over complete control of both the installation and immersion processions and managed to put the other Hindu leaders completely in the background. As a result of this strategy, the prestige of the R.U.M. soared in the eyes of the Hindu populace of Bhiwandi and particularly in the eyes of the hot–headed Hindu youngsters and thenceforth the R.U.M. stood out as the champion of Hindu rights and aspirations, and the older, saner and more responsible Hindu leaders lost their hold over the Hindu public. The Ganpati festival of September 1969 thus saw the emergence of the R.U.M. as the most powerful and important communal force in Bhiwandi.
103.63 For some months prior to May 7, 1970, the R.U.M. and its leaders and guest speakers concentrated their energies on carrying on propaganda for the Shiv Jayanti, whipped up communal feeling and exhorted the villagers to come in thousands and participate in the Shiv Jayanti procession, and to put down forcibly and ruthlessly any objection to the route of the procession or any interference with the procession. They openly declared that come what may that year, they would take the Shiv Jayanti procession past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque.
103.64 The R.U.M. leaders after having successfully established their hold over the extremist section of the Hindus in Bhiwandi commenced their propaganda amongst the Padmashalis of the Kanheri locality. They also extended their activities into the villages nearby Bhiwandi and the first place they selected was Padgha village. They were assisted in this by a pleader practising in Padgha, A.G. Nimkar, who was a Jan Sangh worker. They opened a branch in Padgha in October 1969 and several meetings and prayer meetings of the type held in Bhiwandi were held in Padgha. The R.U.M. also held meetings in Pundas and other villages. There are hardly any police reports or intelligence reports on these meetings except some in respect of the Padgha meetings, but the intensive propaganda carried on by the R.U.M. in the villages can be judged from the fact that while prior to 1970 few villagers attended the Shiv Jayanti procession in Bhiwandi, due to the efforts of the R.U.M. about 5,000 villagers attended the 1970 Shiv Jayanti procession.
103.65 Communal speeches were made and communal propaganda of the type mentioned above was carried on at the following meetings held by the R.U.M.— (1) the meeting held on May 29, 1969, the Shiv Rajyabhishek Din, in Bhiwandi, (2) the public meeting held on June 5, 1969 at Kombadpada, Bhiwandi, (3) the public meeting, held on September 29, 1969 at Ganpati Mandir, Brahman Alli, Bhiwandi, (4) the public meeting held on October 7, 1969 in Telugu School, Kanheri, Bhiwandi, (5) the meeting held outside the Taluka Magistrate’s office in Bhiwandi on October 11, 1969 after the R.U.M. procession to protest against the desecration of temples, (6) the public meeting held on October 14, 1969 at Padgha, (7) the public meeting held in Padgha on October 18, 1969 after the morcha taken out to protest against the desecration of temples, (8) the public meeting held in Bhiwandi on October 20, 1969 after the Vijayadashami procession, (9) the public meeting held on January 11, 1970 in Bhiwandi, (10) the meeting held on January 23, 1970 at Padgha, (11) the public meeting held on January 23, 1970 in Bhiwandi, (12) the public meeting held in Bhiwandi on March 10, 1970, (13) the public meeting held in Bhiwandi on March 11. 1970 to observe the death anniversary of Sambhaji, (14) the meeting held on April 7, 1970 in Bhiwandi, (15) the public meeting held on April 11, 1970 at Taralipada, Kamatghar, (16) the meeting held on A ‘I 12, 1970 at Kamba, (17) the meeting held on April 13, 1970 in Vithal Temple, Wani Alli, Bhiwandi, (18) the meeting held on April 18, 1970 at Padgha, (19) the meeting held on April 20, 1970 at Maruti Temple, Hanuman Tekdi, Bhiwandi, and (20) the meeting held on April 27, 1970 at Satyanarayan Temple, Dhamankar Naka, Bhiwandi.
103.66 The leaders and guest speakers of the R.U.M. who made communal speeches at one or the other of these meetings were (1) Ramesh Sambhus, (2) Datta Salvi, (3) Dattatraya Mahadeo More, (4) Uddhav Teje, (5) Dr. B.P. Vyas, (6) Sharad Patwardhan, (7) Bhai Nagle alias A. T. Nagle, (8) Datta Punvarthi, (9) Ram-chandra Patri, (10) Bhaskar Mali, (11) Dilip Tamhane, (12) A. G. Nimkar, (13) G. M. Puntambekar, (14) V. R. Patil, (15) Jagdishchandra Thakkar, (16) Pandit Brij Narayan Brajesh, (17) Shankarrao Gavati, (18) Shantaram Tavre and (19) Lohagaonkar. Though there are no detailed reports of the speeches made at some of the meetings held in Padgha or of the speeches made by Dr. Vyas at Pundas, there is strong reason believe that these were also speeches of the same type. There is equally strong
reason to believe, and the fact is apparent from what happened on May 7, 1970, that the propaganda carried on by the R.U.M. leaders and workers and Ramesh Sambhus in other villages in connection with the 1970 Shiv Jayanti procession was of the same inflammatory, communal nature.
The theory of retaliatory self–defence
103.67 A charge made by the Government, the police and the Hindu parties before the Commission against the Mushavarat and the M.T.M was that it propagated amongst the Muslims the theory of "retaliatory self–defence". The reports of speeches produced before the Commission bear out the correctness of the said charge. The reports of speeches produced before the Commission also clearly show that almost the same doctrine has been preached and propagated in one form or the other by some of the leaders of the R.S.S., the Hindu Mahasabha, the Jan Sangh, the Shiv Sena and of the R.U.M. and its guest speakers. Thus even the limited compass of this Inquiry clearly establishes that the theory of "retaliatory self–defence" is not a monopoly of any one party or of communal leaders belonging to any one particular community, but that leaders of several parties, both Hindus as well as Muslims, have advocated this theory in one form or the other and that in whatever form the theory was advocated, the basis of it was violence and the substance of it was that attack is the best form of defence.
Anonymous letters
103.68 In October 1969 after the Ahmedabad disturbances, anonymous letters were received by some Hindu local leaders of Bhiwandi and Kalyan, threatening that the revenge of Ahmedabad would soon be taken in Bhiwandi. So far as Bhiwandi is concerned, these letters were received by Dr. B.P. Vyas, the president of the Bhiwandi branch of the Jan Sangh, Baliram More, the Shakha Pramukh of the Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena, Balasaheb Joglekar, a Jan Sangh and R.S.S. worker, and M.G. Kunte, the Secretary of the Bhiwandi branch of the Jan Sangh. Postal marks showed that these letters were posted from Ahmedabad. The local Hindu leaders gave considerable publicity to the receipt of these letters and in various speeches referred to them. These letters were also given publicity in the 31st October 1969 issue of the Pathik.
103.69 It was alleged by the Hindu parties that the Government and the police, though they were informed about the receipt of these letters, deliberately did not carry out any investigation and suppressed from public knowledge the fact of these letters containing threats to take in Bhiwandi the revenge for Ahmedabad. There is no basis whatever for making this allegation. On a complaint being made not only was the matter investigated by the district police, but the D.I.G. (Int.) was also asked by the I.G.P. to depute an officer of the state Intelligence to make further investigation in the matter. It is true that the author or authors of these anonymous letters were not found, but one can hardly find fault with the police for this, for from the nature of things it is only rarely that persons who indulge in this cowardly act of sending anonymous letters can be traced.
103.70 On April 6, 1970 Dr. Vyas received an anonymous letter containing a threat of murder. The said letter was in English and was posted from Kalyan. Dr. Vyas made a written complaint in respect of the said letter to the Bhiwandi Town Police Station. Both in the said complaint and in the speech made by him on April 7, 1970 at the time of the Satyanarayan Puja arranged by the R.U.M. in Bhiwandi, he stated that he suspected that the persons responsible for the said letter were the M.T.M. leaders of Bhiwandi, including Abdul Khaliq Momin, the president of the Bhiwandi branch of the M.T.M. Uddhav Teje and Anant Nagle, who spoke at the said meeting, also referred to the said letter.
103.71 On April 25, 1970 an anonymous letter written in Marathi was received by Baliram More which threatened that if he spoke against Islam in the Peace Committee he would be murdered and revenge would be taken for Ahmedabad. Baliram More, too, lodged a complaint with the police. He also got a news report about the said letter published with banner headlines in the 1st May 1970 issue of the Setupath, a Hindi weekly published in Bhiwandi by Govind Sadanand Bhatt, who was its proprietor and editor and a friend of Baliram More.
103.72 The receipt of the aforesaid anonymous letters, the publication of their contents in periodicals and the references made to them by local leaders in public speeches created considerable communal tension in Bhiwandi and caused an apprehension amongst the Hindus that the Muslims were planning to take revenge for Ahmedabad in Bhiwandi by attacking and murdering Hindus. It gave an opportunity to the extremists amongst the Hindus openly to take up in public meetings this so–called challenge and to inflame communal passions. It is not possible to find out who the authors of these letters were. They might have been some fanatic Muslims or even some mischief-makers amongst the Hindus. These letters, however, gave an opportunity to the Hindu local leaders and a section of the press to create an impression that the Muslims were conspiring to attack and murder the Hindus and burn and loot their properties and to warn the Hindus to be ready to meet this contingency on the ground that the Government and the police were not likely to protect them.
The Moharram and Holi of 1970
103.73 The Moharram and Holi festivals of 1970 were a critical period for Bhiwandi. On March 13, 1970, the very day in the evening of which a meeting of the Peace Committee was held for considering the arrangements to be made for the Moharram and Holi festivals, the R.U.M. exhibited a board at the corner of a lane leading to the Vegetable Market and Bazar Peth. The said board consisted of a portion of a wall of a building belonging to Zumberlal Kalantri, the Congress M.L.C., painted black on which notices, announcements of meetings and other matters used to be written by the R.U.M. This was a prominent place and the villagers coming to Bhiwandi for shopping would pass by this locality. Any writing on the said board would thus be read by a number of persons. The said board exhibited on March 13, 1970 contained an extract from the editorial published in the 13th March 1970 issue of the Navbharat Times and related to the atrocities against the Hindus and the rape of Hindu women in Pakistan. The writing on the said board became a subject of discussion amongst the people of both communities. The said writing was not got erased but allowed to remain, nor was any action taken against persons responsible for exhibiting the said board. The said board did not augur a peaceful celebration of the two festivals.
103.74 A few days before the Moharram festival, on March 16, 1970, the P.S.P. leaders handed over a written memorandum dated March 16, 1970 to S.P., Bhave, in which they complained about the speeches and communal activities of the R.U.M. leaders and gave a warning that unless stern measures were adopted against them, there were bound to be communal disturbances in the immediate future. In his report dated March 26, 1970, made on the said memorandum, Dy. S.P., Diwate, not only confirmed what was set out in the said memorandum but gave his own assessment of the situation and stated that Shiv Jayanti would not pass off peacefully unless preventive action was taken against the leaders of the R.U.M. He, therefore, recommended the detention under the Preventive Detention Act of Dr. B. P. Vyas, Bhaskar Mali, Uddhav Teje, Shantaram Tavre, Sharad Patwardhan and Bhai Trimbak Nagle and of Abdul Khaliq Momin, the president of the Bhiwandi branch of the M.T.M. Unfortunately, his recommendation did not find favour with his superiors.
103.75 At the time of the Moharram processions, the Holi pit at Navi Chawl was widened fourfold. As no one would give information as to who had done so, Dy. S.P., Diwate and Inspector Pradhan posted some constables near the pit with instructions
that if anyone came to light the Holi, he should be brought to the Town Police Station so that the identity of the persons responsible for widening the pit could be ascertained from them. When two young men came to light the Holi they were, therefore, brought to the police station, but they did not give out the names of those responsible. This incident was twisted by Baliram More and others into Diwate and Pradhan deliberately preventing the lighting of Holi, and abusing the Hindu shopkeepers of the locality. A protest meeting was called in the evening of March 16, 1970 by the R.U.M. and complaints made to the D. M. and the S.P. Another protest meeting was held by the Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena where one of the speaker was Uddhav Teje, a leader of the R.U.M.
103.76 At the time of the Tazia immersion procession on March 19, 1970, the Holi fires near Baliram More’s house at Old Wada Stand, a locality from which he was elected the Municipal Councillor, were made to blaze furiously just when the procession was about to pass by. On being informed about this, the D.M. and the S.P. rushed to the spot and got the Holi fires cordoned off by S.R.P. men. This resulted in considerable booing and shouting of slogans by some young Hindus. The Muslim leaders co–operated with the police in pushing ahead the processionists. Baliram More was present at that time and he thereafter lodged a false complaint that in the said procession several Muslim youths were dancing and shouting the slogans "Pakistan Zindabad" and "Islam Zindabad". Reports of Baliram More’s complaint and of his version of what transpired at that time appeared in the Shiv Sena weekly, the Shiv Garjana, published from Thana.
On the morning of March 20, 1970 Dr. Vyas also lodged a complaint at the police station that at the time of the Moharram procession stones were thrown on the Marathi School No. 9 situate at the S. T. Stand as a result of which some tiles of the school had been broken and a chair and a bench damaged. This complaint was lodged by him though he had no personal knowledge of the facts and merely on information given to him by someone, and on inquiries made it was ascertained that the tiles had got broken because in the night some boys had climbed up on the roof of the school building to watch the Moharram procession.
103.77 It appears that the Holi pits were widened and the Holi fires made to blaze furiously at the instigation of some of the leaders of the R.U.M. including Dr. Vyas, Bhaskar Mali, Uddhav Teje, Sharad Patwardhan, Hasmukh Madhavji Thakkar and Dilip Tamhane.
103.78 After the Moharram and Holi festivals both the R.U.M. and the Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena took out morchas against the police. The R.U.M. morcha was taken out on March 24, 1970 and was led by Dr. Vyas and Bhaskar Mali. It was taken out to protest against the abuses alleged to be given by Dy. S.P. Diwate and Inspector Pradhan to the Hindu shopkeepers on March 16, 1970 in connection with the widening of the Holi pit near Navi Chawl. The Shiv Sena morcha was taken out on April 4, 1970 and was led by Baliram More. It was taken out to protest against the arrests of some Shiv Sena workers on March I and 2, 1970 on the occasion of the call for Bhiwandi Bandh given by the local Shiv Sena and the actions of the police during the Holi and Moharram festivals and in support of its demand that the police should ban the meetings of the M.T.M. and the holding of Vaaz in Bhiwandi. Among the slogans shouted were — (1) Band Karo, Band Karo, Tamir–e–Millat Band Karo (Close down the Tamir–e–Millat), (2) Khaliq Mominvar Kaydeshir Tajviz Zalich Pahije (Legal action must be taken against Khaliq Momin), (3) Bhiwandi police Murdabad (4) Tamir–e–Millat Murdabad, and, (5) Hi Darkali Konachi? Shiv Senechya Vaghachi (Whose roar is this? It is of the Shiv Sena tiger)."
The unauthorized use of load speakers
103.79
A matter seized upon by the R.U.M. for creating resentment against the Muslims was the unauthorized use of loud-speakers in mosques. In several mosques loud–speakers were fitted for giving Azaan, that is, the call to prayer, without taking the permission of the authorities. On coming to learn about it, Inspector Pradhan made inquiries from the Peshimams and trustees of the mosques and on their replying that they had made applications for the said purpose but had not received any reply, he asked them to make fresh applications to the D.M. No applications for permission were made thereafter until April 1970. By an application dated April 21, 1970 made to the D.M. the R.U.M. complained that in the Urs of the Divanshah Dargah loud–speakers were used throughout the night without permission just as they were being used unauthorizedly in mosques. This was a strange complaint since the Urs of the Divanshah Dargah was held from April 22, 1970 to April 29,1970 and, therefore, on the date of the said application it had not even commenced. When the said Urs was held no loud–speakers were used beyond the permitted period. The timing of the R.U.M.’s said application was significant. It was made at a time when communal tension was at its height in Bhiwandi by reason of the Muslim leaders not having attended the Peace Committee meeting of April 19, 1970 held in connection with the forthcoming Shiv Jayanti celebrations and instead having submitted a memorandum setting out their grievances and demands in respect of the Shiv Jayanti procession.The Muslim memorandum
about Shiv Jayanti
103.80 In view of the activities of the R.U.M. in connection with the Shiv Jayanti, about 25–30 local Muslim leaders held a meeting on April 15, 1970 at the residence of one of them, namely, Ayub Punjabi. At the said meeting it was decided not to attend the Peace Committee meeting called on April 19, 1970 in connection with the forthcoming Shiv Jayanti celebrations, but instead to submit to the Peace Committee a memorandum setting out the grievances and demands of the Muslims in respect of the Shiv Jayanti procession. Thirty–seven Muslim leaders belonging to different walks of life and to different parties, including the Congress and parties with diametrically opposite ideologies signed the said memorandum. The said memorandum was submitted to Zuber Patel, the president of the Peace Committee who was also the Municipal President. Some Muslim leaders called on both D.M., Capoor and S.P., Bhave and told them what the Muslim leaders intended to do. Before the Peace Committee meeting of April 19, 1970 the Municipal president, Zuber Patel, gave the said memorandum to the municipal clerk with a covering letter addressed to Bhausaheb Dhamankar and Vasant Bhaskar Patil, the vice–president of the Peace Committee. The evidence before the Commission has clearly established that the grievances and complaints made in the said memorandum were all of them substantially correct. Four demands were set out in the said memorandum. These demands were as follows – "(1) No gulal should be used; (2) No provocative and abusive slogans should be shouted; (3) Being a national festival, the procession should have no Bhagwa flags; (4) The route of the procession should be fixed in order to avoid potential trouble spots."
103.81 So far as the first demand is concerned, the demand as framed was in general terms and not restricted to the throwing of gulal on the Muslims or at or inside mosques, although the grievance made in the said memorandum was not about the throwing of gulal in general but to the throwing of excessive gulal on the Muslims and into the mosques, and if the said memorandum were read as a whole, the context tends to show that the said demand was also restricted to the excessive throwing of gulal on the Muslims and into the mosques. Since, however, the said demand would normally be looked at by itself, it must be held that this demand was not justified. The second demand that no provocative and abusive slogans should be shouted was justified. As the Bhagwa flag is also considered the flag of Shivaji, the demand that no Bhagwa flag should be carried in the procession and only
the national flag should be carried must also be considered an unreasonable demand. The last demand, namely, that the route of the procession should be so fixed as to avoid potential trouble spots, in substance amounted to saying that the procession should not go past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque. In the then vitiated communal atmosphere of Bhiwandi, if the Shiv Jayanti procession had passed by this trouble spot, a clash would most likely have taken place. Accordingly, this demand cannot be said to be unreasonable.
103.82 In view of the intense communal tension then prevailing in Bhiwandi, a move more unwise, tactless and impolitic than abstaining from the Peace Committee meeting and instead submitting the said memorandum, can hardly be imagined. It was most likely to harm the Muslims and capable of being turned by the opposite parties to their own advantage, as, in fact, it did happen. It was unfortunate that Muslim leaders belonging to different political parties and to all shades of opinion combined and joined hands in committing this folly. In no time it was all over town that the Muslims had boycotted the Peace Committee meeting and were boycotting the Shiv Jayanti procession.
The settlement
103.83 Bhausaheb Dhamankar presided at the Peace Committee meeting held on April 19, 1970. He informed the members that the said memorandum from the Muslims had been received by him. He did not accede to the request made by some members to read out the said memorandum or to circulate it for being read. Ultimately it was decided at the said meeting that the said memorandum should be discussed in a Steering Committee meeting. A meeting of the Steering Committee was held on April 21, 1970. It was also attended by the Muslim leaders. Ultimately, the following decisions were arrived at the said meeting — (1) Shiv Jayanti should be celebrated jointly by the Hindus and Muslims in a friendly spirit; (2) the R.U.M. and the Peace Committee should make organized efforts to see that gulal was not thrown on mosques; (3) Only those slogans which were approved for the 1969 Shiv Jayanti procession should be shouted in the procession and no slogans should be shouted and no act done which would hurt anyone’s religious sentiments; (4) There should be no objection to the Bhagwa flag; (5) Zumberlal Kalantri and the M.L.A., Bhai Patil, should call on April 22, 1970 a joint meeting of five persons from Dr. Vyas’ group and five persons, including Anwar Bubere, from Nizampura and decide the question of the route of the procession.
103.84 As the said meeting of the five representatives of the Nizampura locality and the five of the R.U.M. was to be held at the residence of Zumberlal Katantri on the night of April 22, 1970 to decide upon the route of the procession, a meeting of the residents of Nizampura was held in the afternoon of April 22, 1970 in the house of one of the local leaders in order to obtain the views of the residents of Nizampura about the Shiv Jayanti procession passing through the said locality. At the said meeting, older Muslim leaders tried to impress upon the younger sections not to insist upon the Shiv Jayanti procession not passing by the Nizampura Jumrna Mosque. Ultimately, the younger sections in the said meeting were persuaded and agreed to allow the leaders to discuss the question of the route.
103.85 The meeting of the five representatives of the R.U.M. and five of the Nizampura locality held in the residence of Zumberlal Kalantri in the night of April 22, 1970 was a stormy one. The five representatives of the R.U.M. were Sharad Patwardhan, Shantaram Tavre, Uddhav Teje, Dilip Tamhane and Pandu Vastad. In addition to the five representatives of Nizampura and five of the R.U.M. other Hindu and Muslim leaders were also present. The attitude of the Muslim leaders was that in view of what had happened in the past, the R.U.M. leaders should not insist on the procession going past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque or through the Nizampura locality, but instead they should conduct the procession in such a manner that they would create confidence and allay the apprehension of the Muslims that if the Shiv Jayanti procession were to pass through Nizampura, an untoward incident would take place. Tempers however, flared up and hot words were exchanged on account of the arrogant and aggressive attitude adopted by the R.U.M. leaders, particularly Uddhav Teje. His behaviour was so offensive that ultimately Zumberlal Kalantri told him that if he wanted to persist in it, he should leave his house. The meeting accordingly broke up without arriving at any solution. Another meeting of the Peace Committee was held on April 24, 1970. At the said meeting Dr. Vyas stated that the R.U.M. was agreeing to the restrictions with respect to the sprinkling of gulal and was undertaking the responsibility of ensuring that only the permitted slogans would be shouted and that if anyone sprinkled gulal or uttered unapproved slogans, the police should remove him from the procession and the R.U.M. leaders and workers would help the police in doing so. He said that in view of this undertaking given by the R.U.M., the Muslims should allow the R.U.M. to take the procession past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque.
Thereafter, a few Muslim leaders withdrew into a side room and after some time came out and held further private discussions with some Hindu leaders. Ultimately it was decided that Uddhav Teje should tender an apology and on his being persuaded to do so, the Muslim leaders agreed to the procession going past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque.
The communal situation
after the settlement
103.86 One would have thought that after the settlement which took place with respect to the route and conduct of the procession, the communal situation in Bhiwandi would have eased and the tension would have diminished. The reverse, however, was the case. As the Shiv Jayanti drew nearer, the R.U.M. greatly intensified its propaganda in the villages. On the morning of May 3, 1970 Ramesh Sambhus came to Bhiwandi and he, Dr. Vyas, Pandu Vastad, Uddhav Teje and Hasmukh Thakkar went round several villages, including Kasheli, Kalher, Karivali and Kalwar, and carried on propaganda there, though from the very nature of things there cannot be detailed reports about what was said at these meetings, whether public or private. The sketchy reports made by Head Constable Manjrekar of the D.S.B. show that the propaganda carried on by them related to the Hindu religion and explained to the villagers the role played by the Mavlas in Shivaji’s days and exhorted them to come to Bhiwandi like the Mavlas in large numbers and join the Shiv Jayanti procession. From the detailed reports we have of other speeches made by the leaders of the R.U.M. and Ramesh Sambhus, it is not difficult to imagine the nature of this propaganda they carried on in the villages and what they must have said about the Hindu religion, and how they must have compared and contrasted it with Islam and what type of exhortation it must have been asking the villagers to act like Shivaji’s Mavlas.
103.87 In the end of April 1970 and the beginning of May 1970, there were rumours of incidents of assault on some Muslims returning home at night from the cinema shows. These incidents were magnified and rumours began to fly about the town that Muslims returning home at night were being set upon and beaten up. Boards in Urdu were displayed in Muslim localities calling upon the people not to attend cinema shows. In retaliation boards were put up asking the Hindus not to go to Badshah, Gulzar and Eros Cold–Drink Houses which were owned by Malabari Muslims and were three of the most popular cold–drink houses in Bhiwandi. A Shiv Sena flag which had been put up on an electric pole at Madarchalla was removed by a Muslim on May 1, 1970. Baliram More made an application on May 1, 1970 to the Chief Minister, with copies to the D.M., Thana, the D.I.G. (B.R.) and the S.P., Thana, by way of a reply to the complaints made against him in the said memorandum of the 37 Muslim leaders. Three persons, two
Muslims and one Hindu, were found at night on May 5, 1970 carrying Rampuri knives and were arrested. There were complaints that Muslims were being threatened by the workers of the Shiv Sena and the Jan Sangh, and some local Muslim leaders along with Gulzar Ahmed Azmi, the General Secretary of the Jamiet–ul–Ulema, Maharashtra state, and some other Jamiet–ul–Ulema leaders called on Mr. Kalyanrao Patil, the then Minister of State for Home and Affairs, and apprised him about these complaints. The wild rumours which were circulated and the tension. which was created in the town can be judged from the fact that when these local Muslim leaders gave Gulzar Ahmed Azmi, their version of what was happening in Bhiwandi, Azmi rang D.M., Capoor, to verify and talked so excitedly on the phone that Capoor got the impression that he said that riots had broken out in Bhiwandi and wanted Capoor to confirm the news. On the other side, Baliram More spread the story that Muslim leaders had advised the Muslims to beat up the Hindus wherever they were seen.
103.89 Zumberlal Kalantri, the Congress M.L.C., extended an invitation to Mr. Kalyanrao Patil to lead the Shiv Jayanti procession. Mr. Patil, however, first consulted the D.M. who advised him that it would not be right for him to take part in such a controversial procession. Accordingly, Mr. Patil declined the invitation. As a precautionary measure, the D.M., the S.P. and other police officers separately met both Hindu and Muslim leaders and took assurances from them that they would see that the procession passed off peacefully.
103.89 Rumours were also circulated that fused electric bulbs were missing from the municipal store and acid had been purchased from a Bohri shop in Bazar Peth. There were also rumours that arms and missiles were collected and stocked in Muslim huts, factories and mosques and that the Muslims, apprehending trouble from the Hindus, were preparing to meet it. These rumours were communicated to P.S.I., G.S. Deshpande of the State Intelligence and he informed the D.I.G. (B.R.) and the S.P. about them. None of these rumours, on searches being made, turned out to be true. No acid had been purchased and no electric bulbs were found missing nor were any stocks of weapons or missiles found.
103.90 At some of the R.U.M. meetings it was announced that Pandurang Barku Patil alias Pandu Vastad, the vice–president of the R.U.M., who was an instructor at the Tanaji Vyayam Shala, would impart to the people physical training in the use of lathis. An appeal was also made by the R.U.M. leaders at some of its meetings for volunteers to stitch Bhagwa flags and to go round the villages on the morning of May 7, 1970 and collect villagers and bring them to Bhiwandi for the Shiv Jayanti procession.
Preventive measures taken by
the district authorities
103.91 The evidence shows that on receiving instructions from the Home Department or the I.G.P. or the D.I.G. (Int.), the district authorities concerned took prompt steps in their turn to issue instructions to their subordinates. Further, the officers concerned were prompt in reporting to their superiors every incident of a communal nature. On each important occasion senior officers such as the DM., Thana, the D.T.G. (B.R), the S.P., Thana and the S.D.P.O., Bhiwandi, remained present in Bhiwandi so that top–level decisions could be taken immediately and instructions given in case any trouble took place. Complaints filed at the Bhiwandi Town Police Station were duly investigated, but some complaints from their nature were such that the culprits could not be traced. D.M., Capoor and S.P., Bhave, were aware that in a democracy their role was not only to maintain law and order, but that an important part of their functions was to establish public relations and to achieve their objective of preventing a breach of the peace and the continued maintenance of law and order by obtaining cooperation of the people and particularly of the local leaders. This is shown by the fact that much before the state directive to set up Peace Committees for the joint observance of public and religious festivals, a Peace Committee was set up in Bhiwandi. Similarly, when complaints of unauthorized use of loud–speakers in mosques came to the notice of the authorities, instead of launching mass prosecutions and thus inflaming public feelings and exposing the administration to a charge of communal discrimination, the situation was handled tactfully and the trustees of the mosque requested to apply for the necessary permission in order to regularize the position.
On coming to learn about the decision of the Muslim leaders to boycott the Peace Committee meeting to be held on April 19, 1970, both the D.M. and the S.P. tried to persuade them not to do so as it would create misunderstanding. Before the Shiv Jayanti procession of May 7, 1970 they contacted leaders of both communities and tried to obtain their assurance of co–peration for ensuring that the occasion would pass off peacefully without any incident. The evidence also shows that where firm action was needed, in many cases the police did not hesitate to take it. For example, when certain sections of processionists in the first Shiv Jayanti procession taken out in Bhiwandi in 1964 attempted to change the prescribed route of the procession so as to pass by mosques, playing music, they were firmly prevented from doing so. On account of the communal riot which took place at the time of the 1967 Shiv Jayanti procession, the Id–e–Milad procession was not allowed to go by its traditional route but was instead directed by an order under section 144 Cr. P. C. to proceed by a route which excluded all Hindu localities.
Though the Muslims resented this change and cancelled the procession altogether, the Magistracy and the police, with a view to preserve law and order, remained firm and did not alter their decision. In July 1969 when following the street brawl between Bhaskar Mali, the president of the R.U.M., and some of his followers on the one side and some students of the Rais High School on the other, several incidents of assault took place and the police found that the local leaders were flocking to the police station to tutor complainants, they were prevented from doing so.
103.92 The same firmness, however, was not displayed in dealing with the misbehaving processionists or in checking communal propaganda. No one was arrested or even prevented from shouting objectionable slogans or throwing excessive gulal. The evidence shows that the authorities failed to judge the real objective and the true nature of the activities of the R.U.M. Even the intelligence reports of the speeches made at the first public meeting held by the R.U.M. on May 29, 1969, failed to make any mention of the communal character of the said speeches, particularly by Ramesh Sambhus. When on March 13, 1970 a board containing an inflammatory writing was put up by the R.U.M. about the atrocities committed against the Hindus in Pakistan, the writing was not got erased. Though week after week communal propaganda was carried on and inflammatory communal speeches made in weekly prayer meetings held by the R.U.M. in different temples, no steps were taken to warn the leaders of the R.U.M. or to take any action against them for their speeches.
After the Ahmedabad disturbances, open, systematic, intensive communal propaganda and rumour–mongering were indulged in by the R.U.M. at its public and weekly prayer meetings, and yet none of its leaders was warned nor any action taken against them. Some of the speeches made at the R.U.M. meetings as at the M.T.M. meetings were referred to the District Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor, Thana, for his opinion. He opined that these speeches were not actionable on the ground that they were protected by the explanation to section 153A I.P.C. which explanation had ceased to be on the statute book since 1961. Even if the District Government Pleader was unaware of this fact, the District authorities could not have been, and particularly they, could not have been unaware of the amendments made in the said section by the Criminal and Election Laws Amendment Act of 1969 to which their at
tention had been specifically drawn by the Government by its letter dated November 17, 1969. They, however, rested content with the opinion of the District Government Pleader and did not refer the matter to the Home Department.
103.93 It was alleged before the Commission that in the matter of issuing orders under section 144 Cr.P.C. banning entry into the Thana district or prohibiting the making of inflammatory communal speeches, the district authorities discriminated against the leaders of the M.T.M. The Commission has found this allegation to be not correct. It is true that many more such orders were passed against the M.T.M. leaders, but the reason was that the M.T.M. leaders who usually came in groups after the happening of incidents which had led to communal riots, such as the riot at Kausa in the Thana district, or which had incited communal passion. It is not true that prohibitory orders were not issued against Hindu leaders known for making communal speeches. Thus the Jan Sangh leader from Malegaon, G. M. Puntambekar, the vice-president of the Maharashtra Pradesh, Hindu Mahasabha, V. R. Patil, and the president of the Hindu Mahasabha, Pandit Brij Narayan Brajesh, were prohibited from making inflammatory communal speeches by orders issued under section 144 Cr.P.C.
Preventive measures for Shiv Jayanti
103.94 As the authorities expected the largest Shiv Jayanti procession of all years to be taken out on May 7, 1970, considerable police bandobast was made in respect of it. An order under section 37(l) of the Bombay police Act, 1951, had already been issued on February 12, 1970 by the Addl. D.M., Thana. The said order prohibited the carrying of weapons and missiles within the municipal limits of Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Ulhasnagar and Ambernath for a period of six months from February 14, 1970. The said order was thus in force on May 7, 1970. In pursuance of the powers delegated to him by, S.P., Bhave by an order dated May 4, 1970, to Inspector Pradhan issued an order dated May 6, 1970 notifying the regulations relating to the Shiv Jayanti procession. The said order specified the time when the procession was to commence, namely, 3 p.m. on May 7, 1970, the route by which it was to pass and the time when it was to terminate, namely, 7–30 p.m. The said order also directed that the said procession must go past the Nizampura Jumma Mosque, by 6-30 p.m. and that care should be taken to see that gaps were not left within the procession and that the processionists did not halt at any place for a long time playing music but should go ahead as instructed by the police officers accompanying the procession and that no one in the procession should indulge in obscene gesticulations or other improper acts, that gulal should not be sprinkled in excess of a reasonable quantity and that if anyone objected, it should not be applied or sprinkled on his body. The said order further specified the slogans which had been approved by the Shiv Jayanti Celebrations Committee and directed that the said slogans only should be shouted. Publicity was given to the said order as also to the said order under section 37(l).
103.95 As we have seen, information had been given to the police that acid was being sold from the shop of a Bohri in Bazar Peth, fused electric bulbs were missing from municipal stocks and that weapons and missiles were being collected. The said information was verified, checks made and searches were carried out. A Bandobast Scheme containing instructions for the police officers and policemen on duty for the Shiv Jayanti procession was drafted in the first week of May 1970 and submitted to D.I.G.(B.R.), V. A.Gokhale for his suggestions and approval. The said Bandobast Scheme specified the route of the procession, the time of its commencement and termination as also contained detailed instructions about the bandobast to be made on the route of the procession and at other places in the town. The bandobast consisted of posting police parties on the route of the procession and at other places in the town, including mosques and temples, the posting of policemen on certain house tops, police parties to accompany the procession, police mobile vans, and reserves at the town police station.
103.96 As a precautionary measure, persons of known bad character were rounded up and detained under section 151 Cr.P.C. The persons thus rounded up were 11 Hindus and 14 Muslims. About 15–20 other persons of known bad character whose names were also on the list could not, however, be traced.
103.97 Having learnt that a number of villagers were coming to Bhiwandi to participate in the Shiv Jayanti procession, Dy.S.P., Diwate sent for Bhaskar Mali, the president of the R.U.M., and warned him to see that these villagers did not misbehave. Bhaskar Mali assured Diwate that the needful would be done. Diwate also went round and contacted several Muslim leaders and asked them to see that the young Muslims did not misbehave at the time of the Shiv Jayanti procession. The Muslim leaders also assured Diwate of their co–operation.
103.98 On May 6, 1970 a V.H.F. wireless set and an H.F. wireless set were installed in the Bhiwandi Town police Station. A V.H.F. wireless set was also fitted to the police jeep of the Town Police Station. In all, for the Shiv Jayanti procession, there were two police jeeps, and one light van, all of them fitted with V.H.F. wireless sets. On information given by two Hindus at about noon on May 7. 1970, two wooden boxes filled with stones lying in a lane in Bangad Galli were taken charge of. These boxes were being used as footsteps to enter a ground-floor room.
103.99 Police reinforcements were asked for and were sent to Bhiwandi. They included four S.R.P. companies and one Gas Squad. On May 7, 1970, for the Shiv Jayanti procession there were present in Bhiwandi the D.M., Thana, the Taluka Executive Magistrate, Bhiwandi, the D.I.G.(B.R.), the S.P., the S.D.P.O., Bhiwandi, 7 Inspectors and 29 Sub–Inspectors, including the Inspectors and Sub–inspectors of the S.R.P. Force, and 741 policemen, including 24 armed men, and one Gas Squad. The armed police force consisted of 24 armed policemen carrying .410 muskets and one S.P., one Dy.S.P., 4 P.1s. and 17 P.S.Is of the district police and 3 P.1s. and 12 P.S.Is of the S.R.P., all carrying revolvers. Thus there were in all 62 officers and men carrying arms for the bandobast duty. That day the manpower in Bhiwandi was one and a half times that of 1969 and the fire–power thrice as much.
103.100 In the evening of May 6, 1970 all police–officers and policemen were collected and Dy.S.P., Diwate gave them detailed instructions regarding the duties to be performed by all the groups of policemen posted on bandobast duty. In the morning of May 7, 1970, Diwate took a rehearsal of the bandobast which was to be deployed and again gave the police officers and policemen instructions regarding their duties.
103.101 The police bandobast which was made for the Shiv Jayanti procession was, however, adequate to deal with only minor or localized trouble. It was inadequate to deal with disturbances on such a large–scale as actually took place.
The Shiv Jayanti celebrations
and the speech of P. B. Bhave
103.102 The inaugural function of the Shiv Jayanti festival was held at 8 p.m. on May 5, 1970. The chief speaker was G. D. Madgulkar, M.L.C., a well–known figure, in Marathi literature, who spoke on the life of Shivaji and in the course of his speech said that Shivaji did not hate other religions and exhorted the audience to treat all religions with equal respect. The other speaker was Vivekanand G. Godbole, the president of the Kalyan Footpath Parliament, who spoke on Shivaji’s life, with special reference to his battles. The said speeches were followed by a play. The audience consisted of 1,000–1,500 persons, amongst whom were some Muslims, including several Muslim leaders. The speaker for the programme on May 6, 1970 was P. B. Bhave, a well–known Marathi
103.112 The processionists assembled at the starting-point of the procession were rowdy and boisterous. Several of them were shouting unapproved slogans, some of which were provocative and anti–Muslim. The procession started at 3–15 p.m. or 3-30 p.m. and even while it was passing by the side of the Town Police Station unapproved slogans were shouted. These unapproved slogans were: "Galli Galli Me Shor Hai, Sub Musalman Chor Hai" , "Shiv Sena Zindabad", "Rashtriya Utsav Mandal Zindabad", "Jo Hamse Takrayega, Woh Mitti Me Mil Jayega" and "Hindu Dharmacha Vijay Aso".
The slogan "Pakistan Murdabad" was not shouted as alleged by some Hindu parties nor at that time were the slogans "Aala Re Aala Hindu Aala, Gela Re Gela Landya Gela" and "Sadak Pe Hindu, Gaili Me Hindu, Idhar Se Hindu, Udhar Se Hindu" shouted as alleged by some Muslim witnesses. Two of the processionists who were indulging in the shouting of the aforesaid objectionable slogans were arrested. One of them was arrested by Dy. S.P., Diwate and the other was apprehended by Bhausaheb Dhamankar who handed him over to Inspector Pradhan who put him under arrest. Both of them were taken to the Bhiwandi Town Police Station. The news of their arrests, spread like wild fire through the procession and a number of processionists returned to the Town Police Station, clamouring for the release of the two arrested persons. Some Hindu leaders, including Zumberlal Kalantri, who was the Congress M.L.C., Dr. B.P. Vyas who was the president of the Bhiwandi branch of the Jan Sangh, Balasaheb Joglekar who belonged to the R.S.S., Bhai Patil who belonged to the P.W.P. and was an M.L.A., Baliram More who was the Shakha Pramukh of the Bhiwandi branch of the Shiv Sena and Shantaram Tavre who belonged to the Jan Sangh and was the Secretary of the R.U.M., also went to the Town Police Station to ask for the release of these two persons. Baliram More threatened the D.M. and the police officers that unless the arrested persons were set free, the procession would not move forward and there would be trouble. Fearing that a riot might break out if the arrested persons were not set free, the officers accepted the assurances of the Hindu leaders that they would see that only the approved slogans were shouted and that the processionists would behave themselves and set the two Hindus free after administering a warning to them. The police officers provided Zumberlal Kalantri with a police jeep fitted with a mike to give instructions to the processionists about the slogans to be shouted and about their behaviour.
103.113 The behaviour of the proces-sionists delayed the starting of the procession by quarter of an hour to half an hour. Their refusal to move unless the two arrested Hindus were released further delayed the procession and when it started again, it was at least three–fourths of an hour late, if not more. There was thus no prospect of the time–table specified in the order under section 36 of the Bombay Police Act being adhered to.
103.114 From the time the two arrested Hindus were released, the police lost all control over the situation. It would have been much better had the officers remained firm and not released the two Hindus. Armed police constables had been kept in reserve at the Town Police Station and they could have called out these constables and posted them near the turbulent sections of the procession which had gathered outside the Town Police Station, in order to show their strength and to display to these proces-sionists their determination to maintain law and order at all costs. We can appreciate that the D.M. and the police officers were placed in a very delicate situation. From the behaviour of the processionists it is, however, clear that these officers could not have possibly believed the assurances of the Hindu leaders that they would be able to ensure that only the approved slogans would be shouted or that the processionists would behave themselves. They were experienced officers and could have easily gauged that it was not possible to control the behaviour of this particular procession. Faced with the imminent prospect of a riot they preferred to take the chance of the procession passing off without a serious incident, however provocative and undisciplined the behaviour of the processionists would be. They gambled on this chance against high odds and lost. Unfortunately, the stakes were the lives and properties of innocent citizens.
The withdrawal of the Muslim
leaders from the procession
103.115 At Saudagar Mohalla some Muslim leaders stopped on the steps of the Saudagar Mohalla Jumma Mosque and watched the procession pass by. For about five minutes they discussed the situation created by the behaviour of the proces-sionists and decided to withdraw from the procession. As they were going from the Saudagar Mohalla Jumma Mosque to Murtaza Fakih’s house, about 100 metres away, they met on the way D.M., Capoor, D.I.G.(B.R.), Gokhale and S.P., Bhave, travelling in a jeep. They stopped the officers and asked them to go to Murtaza Fakih’s house. Before leaving, for Murtaza Fakih’s house, some of the Muslim leaders had already informed the Hindu leaders that they were withdrawing from the procession and before the officers came across the Muslim leaders going to Murtaza Fakih’s house, they had already been apprised by Inspector Pradhan about the withdrawal of the Muslim leaders from the procession. In Murtaza Fakih’s house, several other Muslim leaders joined them. The Muslim leaders complained to the officers about the misbehaviour of the processionists and the slogans shouted by them. When asked by D.M., Capoor whether they wanted the procession to be banned, they replied that they did not want it banned for that would create difficulties as a number of persons had come from outside Bhiwandi. The D.M. then told some of the Muslim leaders to go to their respective mohallas and see that the procession passed off peacefully. He also specifically asked some of the Muslim leaders to proceed to Nizampura and wait near the Nizampura Jumma Mosque for the procession.
103.116 The allegation of the Hindu parties and the Special Investigation Squad, Bhiwandi, that the Muslim leaders quietly slipped away from the procession and on a false pretext lured away these three senior officers just prior to the attack on the procession has no basis and is not true. The allegation made by the Hindu parties that it was a blunder on the part of these three leaders to have all of them gone together to Murtaza Fakih’s house has also no basis. D.M., Capoor, D.I.G. (B.R.) Gokhale and S.P, Bhave, were travelling in the same jeep fitted with a wireless set. As they all three were travelling together, they thought that all three of them together, rather than just one or two of them, might be able to persuade the Muslim leaders not to withdraw from the procession. These officers had decided to proceed from the Saudagar Mohalla Jumma Mosque directly to Nizampura and were not to go to Bhusar Mahalla at all. They went towards Bhusar Mohalla where the disturbances broke out only because of their talk with the Muslim leaders.
The behaviour of the processionists
103.117 The evidence led before the Commission has established the following facts about the behaviour of the processionists as the procession passed through the various localities on the route of the procession –
(1) From the time when the two Hindus who were arrested near the Town Police Station for shouting unapproved slogans were released, the police lost all control over the procession and the processionists felt that the police were either powerless to stop them or were on their side and, ther