Frontline

July 2000
Riot Report


Communal business

Behind the Varanasi riots lie business interests backed by partisan police

Varanasi, a holy city for Hindus and also a flourishing business centre for the world-renowned Banarsi silk saree, witnessed an unfortunate communal skirmish around Muharram that fell on April 16 this year. A fact-finding report brought out by the Saajjha Sanskriti Manch (United Cultural Forum) that visited the riot-affected areas has traced the events as the unfortunate result of business rivalry and unchecked police cruelty against the minority.

According to this report, while the traditional Muharram procession passed off peacefully, a subsequent skirmish between a few Muslims and Hindus near the Imam Chowk in Chandpura took a communal turn and a riot followed. Though the riot itself was quickly controlled, the fact-finding team found the subsequent police conduct shocking and amounting to direct human rights’ abuse by officers of the law. Policemen entered the homes of poor weavers belonging to the Muslim community and thrashed everyone, children and the aged included. Women from the whole area were also not spared.

The report details how a 12-year-old boy was beaten so mercilessly by the police that he fell unconscious. Ironically the residents of Chittanpura where this police abuse took place stated that they were not even party to the dispute that took place in the nearby Chandpura mohalla, yet the police arrested 19 Muslims and four Hindus without any basis.

The station officer of Adampur police station, MP Singh, was behind the major acts if violence leading his police team against residents. Forty-year-old Haji Vakil Ahmad, sitting on a wooden cot with a child was beaten up by the police as was 80-year-old, Sardar Fateh Mohammed, a much-respected leader and representative of five Muslim communities. His son was also beaten and a four-year-old girl, sitting on the upper floor of her home, was flung down the staircase of her home by the police due to which her ribs were fractured. Significantly, the police specifically targeted those homes that had looms for saree weaving.

On April 18, two days after the first skirmish and after the brutal acts of the police, Muslims came out demanding action against MP Singh, the section officer. The administration refused to take cognisance of the protesters did not even initiate any dialogue with them. Meanwhile, Vinod Jain, a businessman was murdered mysteriously in Madanpura, the Muslim area of the city. Soon after this became known, rioters attacked a maulana and a mosque was attacked. During the curfew, the police arrested Abdullah Rashid alias Baba Md. Haroon, 65-years-old, as the prime accused for the murder of Vinod Jain. The man is partially blind having recently been operated for removal of a cataract. However the police is adamant against releasing him.

Behind the violence and the criminal behaviour of the police lie certain socio-economic factors that the report details. Barely a few days before the violence, the weavers of eastern Uttar Pradesh had observed a murri bandh (closure of looms) to protest against the UP government’s recent hike of tax on silk yarn. Many weavers whom the team members spoke to attributed the violence as a strategy of the government to break the unity among the weavers.

The background of the development and growth of Madanpura is interesting. It is one of the prime business centres where business transactions worth crores take place every day. It has replaced the Golghar and Kunj Gali of Chowk areas that were controlled by Hindu businessmen who traded in the sarees woven by the city’s Muslim weavers. Weavers in the rural areas are Dalits and Hindus. Muslims have organised themselves and are controlling the business. The report states that in the past decade there has been a concerted effort to damage the flourishing business of the Muslims.

Recurring curfews have been imposed by the administration in Madanpura that adversely affects the business now in the hands of Muslims. Even this year, curfew imposed was during the peak season and this affected the business interests of Muslim businessman, benefiting members of the bania community from Golghar and Chowk.

(Saajjha Sanskriti Manch is a forum of various social and cultural groups of Varanasi founded recently to protect and promote cultural unity and diversity, secularism and freedom for cultural expression. The members of the fact-finding team were: Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi and Mrs. Shruti Somvanshi (People’s Vigilance Committee for Human Rights), Dr Muneja Rafiq Khan (Nari Ekta and Samajwadi Janparishad), Aflatoon (Samajwadi Janparishad), Dr Ranjana Gaur (SAARC), Mr. Ranjit Yadav (Prerna Kala Manch), Fr. Anand IMS (Vishwa Jyoti Communications).

 


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