By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net,
It would not be wholly appropriate to state that the Jatland of western Uttar Pradesh always remained free of communal violence and that everything was hunky-dory till the recent riots. Some media analyses created confusion; so things should be seen in proper light.At the same time, it may be true that perhaps never before the riots spread so fast in the rural areas of Jat heartland as this time.
One of the most infamous communal riots took place on August 13, 1980, that is on the Eid day, when police opened fire on 50,000 strong namazis in the Eidgah after a pig strayed inside it. More than 100 people died in firing and stampede. The violence continued till November in which over 400 people were officially killed, while unofficial toll was put at 2,500.
Though initially Muslims did retaliate on Dalits as the pig belonged to the nearby slum the riots took a Hindu Muslim turn. The Provincial Armed Contabulary (PAC), a special police force of the state which has sizeable Jat representation, earned a lot of notoriety for its role in the riots.
As the riots took place after the return to power of Indira Gandhi in January the same year to be followed soon by the election of V P Singh as the new chief minister it was then interpreted by the media-pundits that the collapse of Muslim-Jat political alliance woven by the then Bharatiya Lok Dal leader, Charan Singh, might have aggravated the situation. While Jats remained loyal to Charan Singh––who served as the prime minister of the country between July and December 1979––Muslim votes largely shifted to Indira Gandhi-led Congress in the Lok Sabha poll held at the fag end of 1979.
The Moradabad riots was followed by a series of incidents of communal violence in western UP, the most prominent one in Aligarh, which had in fact witnessed riots in 1978 and 1979, when the Jat leader, Charan Singh, was the Home Minister of the country. The May 1979 violence in Aligarh was different because it took place on Aligarh Muslim University campus area.
The situation in west UP remained tense and uneasy almost throughout 1980s. In May 1987 it was the turn of Meerut to explode. The Hashimpura and Maliana (both in Meerut) massacres of Muslims by PAC are still fresh in the mind of many people. In Hashimpura alone 42 Muslim youths were picked up during curfew hours, taken to a remote place and shot dead by PAC. Their bodies were then thrown into a canal. Almost similar was the case in Maliana.
As these places were only a few kilometres away from the outer boundary of the national capital the walled city area of Delhi too witnessed communal tension and clashes then.
Incidentally, the BJP had only two MPs all over the country in 1987 yet the Jatland saw horrible incident of riots.
Moradabad, Aligarh and the adjoining areas have a history of communal trouble even in 19th century and after partition. So to say that they were oasis of peace would be an exaggeration.
Ironically, it was during the same V P Singh era in late 1980s that a new alliance of MAJGAR was floated. The acronym stood for Muslim, Ahir (Yadav), Jat, Gujjar and Rajput. This alliance played a key role to make V P Singh the prime minister in late 1989. MAJGAR withered away after the implementation of Mandal Commission in August 1990 and subsequent developments, which led to the collapse of the V P Singh government.
Jat-Muslim relationships have come under strain in the past with both the communities voting for different parties, especially during the Ram Janambhoomi movement years. What is ironical is that the region witnessed more big communal violence in early and mid-1980s when the BJP was weakest and much less in immediate pre- and post-Babri Masjid demolition years when the saffron party was really strong. Aligarh, however, remained a troubled spot after Babri Masjid demolition too while clashes and tension were reported in Moradabad, Agra etc. But then they were not very big riots.
In spite of communal violence in several western UP towns in 1980s the Jat-Muslim relationship in many rural areas remained more or less cordial, though at times attempts were made to disturb it. They both have a sizeable population in the region.
However, what is different this time is that those interested in vitiating the situation in the rural areas had succeeded.
Political contradictions notwithstanding, there are many who see a ray of hope of situation fast returning to normalcy. If the region could remain largely peaceful after the demolition of Babri Masjid––in spite of such a bloody 1980s––it can be hoped that sanity may soon return. But then that is possible only when the vested interests are kept away.