As ANNA notes in the previous post (we seem to have been writing at the same time) explosions earlier today targeted ceremonies being held in a Muslim cemetery in the city of Malegaon in Maharashtra state. The reported death toll has risen to 37, with 200 injured. The exact details including the number of blasts are still unclear:
At last count, the local police said there seemed to have been three blasts at the Bada Kabristan cemetery where thousands of Muslim devotees had gathered to observe “Shabbe Baraat” when the dead are remembered. Another blast was reported from elsewhere. Ten deaths had been confirmed, about 100 people were injured.
The blasts outside Nurani Masjid in this textile town triggered a stampede with devotes rushing, falling over each other, the injured and the dead to reach safety.
On Shabbe Baraat, thousands of faqirs (alms seekers) gather in Malegaon. The crowds at the prayers were made up largely of the faqirs when the blasts occurred. Some reports suggested the blasts occurred in the belongings of one such alms seeker.
The city is under curfew and the central and state governments appear to have reacted quite quickly dispatching troops to avert communal violence. Political parties including the BJP and Congress have of course condemned the action. (Not clear yet if the Shiv Sena/RSS have been heard from: in view of their popularity in Maharashtra, a strong condemnation could help ensure things don’t spread; if anyone knows about this or any other pertinent developments for that matter, send a link and I’ll update the post.)
There’s not much to say about this incident until more information comes out, but I noticed that reports referred to Malegaon’s history of communal violence, so I thought I’d look for a little background to help us get some context. Here’s what I found out: Malegaon is a city of between 400,000 and 650,000 (the numbers I found vary) in inland Maharashtra northeast of Mumbai. The city is majority (about 75 percent) Muslim and its main economic activity is textile mills, which have been hit by a long lasting recession that has led to numerous job losses. Socio-economic indicators are poor; both male and female literacy are well below the state average, for example.
Malegaon was the site of the first communal riots after September 11, 2001. On October 19, a local politician seeking re-election led a 15,000 person anti-US rally at which “slogans were raised” in support of Osama bin Laden. However the riots took place a full week later and were sparked by what should have been an innocuous incident. Activists were handing out “swadeshi” leaflets outside a mosque that urged “Be Indian, Buy Indian.” There were police outside the mosque, as the police presence in the town had been strengthened after the previous week’s rally. The leaflets had an English banner but the text was in Urdu, which none of the police could read. Assuming the content was subversive, the police attempted to confiscate the leaflets and roughed up the youths who were distributing. The crowd grew agitated, a lathi charge ensued, and…
In the meantime, police reinforcements seemed to have arrived and they conducted a lathi-charge. The mob started running and in the melee, a Navratrostav pandal on the way was damaged – unintentionally, we were told. After the lathi-charge, the Muslims began throwing stones at the police. Some Muslims allege that as soon as the Navratrotsav pandal was damaged, the leaders of the newly-formed organisation Jaanta Raja, who were watching the scene from across the Mosam River in the Hindu-dominated Sangameshwar area, started burning Muslim shops. This was around 3.30 p.m. We visited the area and the Hindus confirmed that the seven shops located on the land owned by a mosque, including the Munna cycle shop owned by a Muslim, were damaged at around 3.30 p.m.
Read this detailed investigative report for the play-by-play. It is highly illuminating, an attempted reconstruction of the sequence of events that illustrates the role of real or perceived slights, retaliation, incompetence or manipulation by politicians, the pernicious and powerful effect or rumors, and so on.
The violence, involving mobs of up to 10,000 people descending on various villages, extended to the townships outside Malegaon to an unprecedented degree, including places that had never in memory experienced this sort of conflict.
One key finding, beyond the back and forth recriminations between the communities, is that the police did very little if anything to stop the violence. The report says that the proportion of Muslims policing this majority-Muslim town was extremely low, a fact illustrated by the confusion over the Urdu leaflet that triggered the whole thing.
Again, read the report for a fascinating if morbid reconstruction along with interviews with people on all sides, local politicians, and police. For a shorter treatment, I found this article from Frontline.
I hope that this provides helpful context; if anyone has a fuller perspective (for instance, anyone here ever been to Malegaon?) please pass it along. I’m sure that there will be different views and analysis to be carried out as more information on today’s events becomes clear. For now, we deplore today’s violence and mourn the senseless loss of life.
I am so tired of hearing about this stuff: it just never ends. Is there no end to the number of idiots out there who think civilians, innocents, deserve to die? Because the people are of the ‘wrong’ religion, color, caste, sect, gender? Sorry to go there, but it’s evil. And they are evil-doers.
I hope the perpetrators are caught and brought to justice. I hope the police, regardless the religion of the officers, keeps order. I hope the politicians don’t pander and focus on the common good.
A thousand, no million, condolences to those who’ve lost loved ones…..
And they are evil-doers.
Lets smoke’em out!
Al M, I’m a pathologist. I’ve seen dead bodies, even murdered ones (child abuse, shooting victims, a man who hung himself in prison, not murder but so awful), during my residency. My reponse to murder is visceral. I’m not starting fights. I think this is terrible! And I thank Siddarth for his excellent post.
MD: I dont agree with your usage of evil-doers. It conforms to and gives credence to biblical notions of good and evil. It divides up the world between good freedom loving people on one side and evil doers on the other side who do satan/dajjals bidding. I happen to think that the world is more complex than that.
(Not clear yet if the Shiv Sena/RSS have been heard from; if anyone knows about this or any other pertinent developments for that matter, send a link and IÂ’ll update the post.
not so sure, but does RSS comment on these things officially – as they are not an official political party or anything
Agreed the world is complex, Al M, but where is the nuance in blowing people up while they are praying? What is that act called,then? Simply criminal? Surely there is more than that…..
What is that act called,then? Simply criminal?
Yes, IMO.
I agree in the eyes of the law and the state is criminal, but in my own heart, I feel it is something more. sorry for the touchy feely….but there it is.
i’ve never been into the word “evil” — since long before its current political deployment — i think i don’t like the way it sounds, as much as anything else.
but i agree with MD here (and thanks!) that there is about humanity first, and polity/society second. of course these acts are criminal, no doubt about that at all. but i believe that sometimes people really lose touch of their soul, or neglect it or do violence to it.
criminal violence to others is done by people who have done spiritual violence to themselves.
MD, I assume then, that you would also object to the many mosques that were bombed by the US in Afghanistan and Iraq? In your opinion, are those acts also criminal?
Al M, I agree that the phrase evil-doers has weird connotations of excessive labelism, predetermination, and the idea of innate evil as opposed to evil-done-by-choice (and therefore able to stop.) As far as I know, GWB popularized its use and so it is innately political. I wouldn’t use that phrase.
But evil is not a meaningless word–even this non-Abrahamic girl who resolutely believes that fundamentally all souls are good and will eventually be good recognizes that some actions are truly evil. Evil is thus an asubstantive adjective, effectively a noun, to indicate a set of actions. I consider evil to be excessive, injurious cruelty, whether motivated by greed or malice. Everything exists in a continuum, so it’s not a word I’d pull out very often, even if something has shades of evil. But if there is an evil action, killing large numbers of innocent people seems to qualify. Therefore, we have an action. It is an evil action, and in English we contract that to evil the noun. It is done by someone. Therefore that person is an evil-doer. It is almost a tautology. Even the most complex systems do contain simple equations.
So my humble suggestion is don’t pick a fight with MD over phraseology. Going around and saying “The world is complex” is just as much a tautology as saying, “wow, the people who did this did evil.” It’s not significantly more helpful among people who recognize that the world is complex, any more than that is more helpful among people who take it for granted that blowing up people is evil. Just because they’re both honest reactions, they don’t need to be sarcastically pitted against each other in the immediate aftermath. MD knows very well what death and injury are, and she is reacting very honestly to someone who chose to so cavalierly and pointlessly unleash yet more of it on an already pained world.
–peace, to steal a phrase from Siddhartha
MD, I assume then, that you would also object to the many mosques that were bombed by the US in Afghanistan and Iraq?
Really? When and where? Are you sure there were people praying inside when US forces intentionally bombed the Mosque? Or was it snipers holed inside firing at US troops ( a commonly used tactic ) . As far as I know, the Iraqis and even Afghans know, the coalition forces take great pains to avoid harm to Muslim religious places. On the the other hand Sunnis have deliberately bombed many a Shia mosque with congregants praying inside. What you just said is incendiary.
al M and jilted, yo, please, take it to the other thread or ideally don’t get into this at all. you won’t agree with each other, and the rest of us have heard all this over and over again.
i’m interested in comments and contributions that have to do with malegaon, the background, other towns, etc. for instance:
i’d be interested in perspectives, especially of the informed variety, on the causes of this variation in experience.
It isn’t about the shrine itself as much as the people who’re in the shrine/temple/mosque etc when shit hits the fan. Pardon my use of Hollywood here, but in the movie Kingdom of Heaven, in the end, the blacksmith/kinght played by Orlando Bloom cuts through all the grease with his own religious folk and Saladin. He wanted the people safe, the bricks and stones were just that.
The mosques you’re talking about were used as weapons caches and as pillboxes, vantage points for snipers, and as safe houses for fighters.
Have some perspective here. Would it suck from a symbolic standpoint that your house of worship got blown to bits? Yes. But that is very different from people – someones brother, father, mother, sister, child, whoever walking to their place of worship for some spiritual sustainence getting blown to bits.
hey thanks guys for answering me with such, well, class. Sorry I’ve been so grumpy and mean on these boards lately.
Brooklybrown – that’s a serious and important question. I don’t know which incidents you refer to specifically, but I would say that deliberately targeting a mosque for the sole purpose of killing civilians is different from striking at a mosque where there are known insurgents hiding, taking covering, stockpiling ammunition or what have you, and firing on your soldiers and on civilians. Also, there are plain old f*ck ups, which are in a different category. But, do you think the US military is purposely bombing mosques as a retaliatory measure toward the civilian population? I can’t go there.
al M and jilted, yo, please, take it to the other thread or ideally don’t get into this at all.
Siddharth: Jilted was referring to/speaking with BrooklynBrown and not with me. You jumped the gun bro 😉
Siddartha..that’s very presumptous of you to hint or infer that Shiv Sena/RSS might be involved in this act. Since, recent bombings (Bombay commuter train, Temples in Gujarat and recent one at ISCON in North East India) didn’t trigger any waves of communal violence (read retaliation by Hindus), we can also infer that the same perpetarators might have resorted to new tactics of targeting minority community to achieve their twisted goals.
Just sharing how it comes across, when one reads the post. Otherwise, the details and the link to the actual investigative document was simply superb.
suraj, to clarify, i am not inferring that at all. but i am curious to hear how they will respond, given that they are such a political force in maharashtra, and with a firm response they can contribute to reducing the risk of this thing spreading. so i do think it has a particular relevance. hope that helps. i’ll amend the post accordingly.
al M and jilted, yo, please, take it to the other thread or ideally don’t get into this at all
I couldn’t just let BrooklynBrown’s rumor mongering go by unchecked. Gujudude and MD subsequently felt the need to do the same as well.
ok, i’m just saying, let’s be chill, even/especially when we are registering disagreement. there’s been enough spiritual violence in the world today as it is.
Whenever I read these things, Siddhartha, I get very hopeless, b/c I simply can’t understand a mob scene where people would react so urgently to, well, almost anything. I just can’t even get inside people’s heads.
oooh, i’m going to steal and reuse this one:
thanks, siddhartha — for the post and the tone you encourage.
Several incidents here. Some mosques were close to “target zones”, and some of the bombs hit the wrong targets (most definitely criminal, wouldn’t you agree?). My point is that mosques have been bombed by us, kids and other praying have been killed.
Let’s keep this off this post, though. Send me a URL where you’re posting relevant comments and we can follow this non-Malegaon-related thread there.
I just hope Malegaon does not become another Godhara (Gujarat Riots). Maybe I am digressing a little here, but, when I had originally read about the Gujarat riots I was devastated and shocked! I am a gujju and although I grew up in the middle-east before moving to the US, I used to go to Gujarat every year for summer vacations, and at the time I never really understood how deep the religious divide was in the state until I went back after the riots. The common-man (I refer here to Hindus since I don’t really know many Muslims in Gujarat personally), even the educated ones, had an almost visceral contempt of the minorities.. The funny thing was that when I would ask them why they hated them so much, 9 out of 10 people’s first response was that the Muslims supported Pakistan’s cricket team when they played India.. Seems comical at first, but, I felt that most Hindus in Gujarat were almost programmed from birth to be wary of their Muslim neighbors. They might mingle and even be friendly to each other during good times, but, come a riot the same neighbors will be thirsting for each others blood. Maybe I am being a bit too dramatic here, but, at that moment I realized how deep-rooted this hatred was and how much of an uphill task it would be to repair these relations..
Violence based on religion/faith/beliefs are not uncommon in India (and South Asia by extension). Everytime something like this happens there are numerous discussions in the media trying to understand why it happens with words of caution to prevent the violence from spreading. But there never seems to be any serious credence given to understanding the situation through history (or maybe I am not seeing that). Ever since the invasions by muslim rulers (since the 10th century?) there has been a dormant growth of hatred for muslims (in hindu and jain communities AFAIK). This hatred has been kept alive in the society due to numerous incidents of violence committed on religious grounds. I don’t intend getting into discussions of who is to blame for the acts, but addressing that dormant hatred (in all communities) is key to bringing communal harmony in the society.
Not sure if I am making much sense here but I do feel that there is an underlying issue that is not being addressed in this situation (and every other such situation in India).
What is wrong with using the word – evil – to describe terrorists? Hey, if the shoe fits….. Anyways, I think evil is too mild. If this weren’t a public fora, I would happily use choice invective, describing the evil doers, doing sexual acts on their mothers and assorted female relatives.
Sorry to feed the troll, but come on, Kritic, if you’re going to go all out on your misogyny, the least you can do is get into specific acts, names you’d call out and famous people you’d dedicate your rape fantasies to. Don’t be shy now, and don’t leave us hanging here, fella.
You definitely win the post of the day. To combine your justification for using the term evil with your own rape fantasy is pure blogging gold, buddy!
The hallmarks of terrorist strikes in India is the use of RDX or some other deadly explosive devices. Initial reports suggest that the blasts were caused by ‘crude’ bombs which lends credence to the theory that this was the work of some local group (does not matter whether it was Hindu/Muslim) who either wanted to take revenge for previous riots or trigger fresh communal violence. I doubt if ISI or international terrorist organizations had a hand in this.
oing sexual acts on their mothers and assorted female relatives.
Yes, b/c their female relatives certainly deserve that.
Sorry to be off topic, but that line of insult really annoys me. It’s sexist and objectifying female relatives as mere extensions of their menfolk’s honor. It’s exactly b/c of that line of thinking that when little boys reared on playground insults grow up and turn to wars, women get raped.
“doing sexual acts on their mothers and assorted female relatives.”
Evil-doers actually do this.
oing sexual acts on their mothers and assorted female relatives.
Somehow I doubt he was kidding when he said that. Given an opportunity a lot of us would resort to exacting revenge on people that had nothing to do with the original act of violence. Its the ‘guilty by association’ excuse! A poor excuse, but, somehow people are attracted to that excuse, esp in times of strife. A lot depends on the local leadership to calm the tensions..
Hey, hey….slow down for a second. I never said that I would do anything. Please don’t spin my words. I was claiming that I would hurl abuse at the “evildoers” – as in venting. and nothing more. something like calling them – motherf#$%&, sisterf&^%, auntf&%^, granmaF%$%% and so on. That too, half in jest.
I don’t know if I understood you correctly, but do you mean to say killing a bunch of people is not evil, depending on the reason? Like, the ends justify the means?
For me, there are some acts that can be called evil ojectively. And killing people is one of them.
Venu
“Evil” is a word used when one is intellectually lazy. Once your brand something as “evil” you no longer have to think about it or make any sense of it. You can just hate it, fear it, or lash out at it.
Killing innocent people is evil, bad, criminal, the adjectives can go on. These people targetted the mosque and the burial grounds on a sacred day of prayer to incite hatred. This comes not more than a month after the Mumbai bombings, they are really testing India’s patience. But, until the politicians in India become direct targets themselves, they will just condemn such attacks, but won’t take any solid action.
brown should not kill brown.
Razib, it’s time to create another state for Muslims if they cannot live in peace among the Hindu majority, don’t you think?
As a secular Muslim guy married to a Hindu woman I feel this stuff pretty deep. I got married in 93 in da UK at the height of the riots in Mumbai. Da subsequent images of the atrocities in Gujrat and the complicity of the state (Modi & co)and the Indian government shocked me at the time. I have family both in India and Pakistan (and have visited both in the last six months) and it disturbs how fickle our communities can be even when they have lived side by side for generations. Sadily there are communalists on both sides who are fanning this anger and this leads to the kind of events that we are seeing now. What I find interesting is that how many of us associate with other South Asians/Desis from other religions? I grew up with Guji’s, Tamils and Bangladeshi kids in da eighties and we were all one but nowadays I don’t see this much with da generations coming thru.
want some more bakcground on malegaon?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5330832.stm
razib —
sincere question: does that rule apply here for you as well?
Hello all of you guy’s,
Well, it really make me feel good that a lots of people still are against violence by any means, well, I believe there is something wrong with our security establishment, they are to Islamic centric. Their way of working is almost 150 year old (practically), they are still to authorative in character and practice. Well before independence we were enslaved in police state, their are enumerable instance of police firing indiscriminately on Indian Masses, practically they were not answerable to any one (except Englishmen), there are instances of police firing on peacefully protesting mass, peasant, tribal….. List will include whole of country. The most dreaded evil of British India was their economic policy. It was complete loot, focused on keeping India in poorest state (regretting for repeating history). Now my Question is, how much we have changed our police after independence? They are still almost same, they still fire on peacefully protesting mass, in particular against Muslim community, as happened in Malegaon in 2001 highlighted by Sidharth, Police were particularly biased on Gujrat , in some instance they were involve in inciting mob to violence, if you pay a brief look at the riots after independence, it will become clear that it start with small pity issues like, molestation, pig fight and anything and end up with police firing on innocent Muslim youth and children alike, why it is always that when police fire on Muslims it fire above waist ? Do any one believe that it fire for dispersing mob? Can a stone-pelting mob is such threat to professionally trained police that they fire on youth, child and women alike? We need to curb the power of police; they are negating the sprite, for which our forefatherÂ’s have fought for Independence from Raj.
As highlighted after blast there is lack of basic facility, like Hospital, water, sanitation, community play ground, Community Park, Schools, colleges in every city and state of India where there is a concentration of Muslim population. Our leaders have pretty excuse and non-committed promise, what is difference between Raj exploitation and ignorance of Indian masses and independent IndiaÂ’s neglect and falls promise of national and state leaders. Do we not feel ashamed when we say that Muslim masses are more inclined toward terrorism? We do not open engineering colleges, hospitals in Muslim concentrated areas, MuslimÂ’s are still medieval ages, as per scientific and modern education is concerned, how can we expect them to behave in modern way?
These are some basic question we need to answer to ourselves. British Inda was their economic policy