(An updated, more general, version of this article is available here.)

Introduction

This page is an attempt to summarise, as briefly as possible, events in Gujarat since Feb. 27th of this year, and a few of the implications these have for Indian democracy. The main sources are a variety of fact finding reports and other documents, many of which are available online. References are provided at the end. Bracketed numbers refer to these reports and other sources. The rapidity with which individuals, NGOs, and a few sections of the media stepped in to document and aid relief, taking over responsibilities which the state had entirely abrogated, is testimony to the fact that if democracy and the constitution are to be destroyed in India, it will not be without a fight. The intent here is not to redocument, but merely to summarise the common features of these reports: the extent and horrific nature of the violence, the systematic nature of the attack on Gujarat's Muslim community, the involvement of many arms of the state both via tacit consent and active participation, and the continuing denial of justice to the victims. At the end some of the bits and pieces of pain and occasionally hope, drops in the ocean which collectively make up the whole story of the pogrom, are lifted from the reports and presented basically unedited. Any reader not familiar with the make-up of the Hindu Nationalist Right in India is advised first to read the very brief history presented here.

Some statistics:

It is perhaps best to start at the end - the situation today. Estimates of the number of people killed in ethnic violence in Gujarat since Feb. 27th 2002 vary from the most conservative official figure of 554 (later official figures are closer to 900) up to estimates, still considered conservative by some authors, of about 2000. Amnesty lists the minimum at 700, and notes that many NGOs estimate a figure of about 2000 (3). There are many reasons for the disparity. Government statistics list many as missing, rather than dead. In some rural areas entire settlements were wiped out leaving no one to register the deaths or bury the dead bodies. On occasion the Gujarat government has denied NGOs access to certain areas making estimation of the casualties difficult. Estimates of the number of displaced people again vary. The government figure (in mid May) for those staying in relief camps is 86, 963. This varies up to the estimate in one report of about 150,000 displaced people (6). Again, the reasons are many: for example there are relief camps that are not officially recognised by the government, and in addition there are many people who have been displaced but are not staying in relief camps but rather with friends or relatives. The incident was marked by a shocking toll of sexual violence. While there are no statistics on the number of rapes and sexual assaults, the report by a women's fact finding team (4) documents a large number, as indeed do most of the other reports. It appears to have been a consistent feature of many of the attacks that the women folk, including girl children, were raped, often being subsequently killed. Indeed it seems fair to say that violence against women was a key part of the strategy of those who attacked the Muslim community. Figures for the economic losses suffered by the victims are hard to come by. One report estimates losses of Rs. 38,000,000,000, or about six hundred million pounds sterling (6).

How did it start?
The date which marks the start of current events is the 27th of February. On this day, 58 people were tragically killed on the Sabarmati Express, a train travelling through Gujarat. This terrible incident was indeed the trigger for what followed, and needs to be understood. Some of the events of the day are still unclear, but there is a certain amount that is well documented. Amongst ordinary passengers the Sabarmati was carrying an estimated 1700 "kar sevaks" returning from Ayodhya. There were widespread reports of communally motivated misbehaviour along the way by the kar sevaks in the Sabarmati. Local papers had reported this as early as Feb. 25th. This behaviour included passengers being hit and threatened with iron rods, passengers being forced to shout Hindu religious slogans, and the forcible unveiling of Muslim women. At 7:43 a.m. the train pulled into a station called Godhra. Here the incidents continued, but the two incidents which appear to have been the key trigger for the conflagration were the harassment of an old Muslim vendor, and a failed attempt to drag a teenage Muslim girl inside one of the coaches - coach S6. It is not controversial that these events occurred, and indeed they are a feature of any situation where a large number of such supposed "pilgrims" are travelling together. To understand this build-up is not to deny the horrific nature of the crime which followed.

This is apparently what followed. The news that members of their community had been molested, and the incorrect rumour that a Muslim girl had been abducted spread through the local settlement - a poor Muslim settlement.  A mob of about 2000 gathered and started hurling stones and fire bombs at the train. Stones were hurled back from the train. The main target of the attack was coach S6 which was badly burnt. Forensic reports suggest that petrol was poured on the carriage from inside and then set alight. The details of how this was possible remain unclear. 26 women, 12 children and 20 men died. There must have been about 150 people in the compartment, and presumably the most able bodied fled. The police soon arrived, but for some reason did not fire warning shots to disperse the mob. By the time the District Superintendent of Police arrived at 8:30 a.m. the mob had dispersed.

This attack is certainly an incident of communal violence at its worst. Even if it is shown beyond any doubt that it was the mob outside which deliberately set fire to the coach, there is no evidence that it was pre-planned. The rapid gathering of the mob was suggested to be the result of some form of pre-planning, but in reality it is very plausible that so many people could gather at short notice, primarily from a large local settlement. It is possible that local Muslims were aware of the possibility of trouble having heard rumours of events at other stations on the way, but this is speculation. One thing that all informed persons including the local authorities in the town itself confirm is that there was certainly no "foreign hand" in the affair, although this is what was subsequently claimed by some.

What followed the burning of the Sabarmati?
It is extremely important that widespread violence did not break out immediately following the burning of the Sabarmati. Indeed there were sporadic incidents of violence following the pattern of traditional communal riots, attempts to attack a mosque in Godhra itself, some stabbings in Vadodara. Muslim leaders were quick to condemn the burning of the Sabarmati, and at this stage it was quite possible that widespread conflagration could have been prevented. But quite the opposite happened. On Feb. 28th, the VHP called a statewide "bandh" - a general strike. The State BJP unit came out in support of this bandh - although this is illegal under Indian law. It is widely accepted that this bandh was central to what followed. As stated in the one report (5): "[The] Sangh Parivar bandh... marked a premeditated transition from a local riot to an organised and preplanned State-wide protest which was bound to result in a bloodbath, especially in the light of the political signals to officialdom to intervene minimally." It is not at all uncommon for bandhs called by parties of the ultra-right to trigger communal riots. Indeed Feb. 28th was the day that signalled the spread of violence from Godhra to Ahmedabad, the capital city, and thence on throughout the state including to rural areas, following a historical pattern.

The attacks which broke out in Ahmedabad on the 28th and following days were highly systematic. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Interim Report points out there were "widespread reports and allegations of groups of well organized persons, armed with mobile telephones and addresses, singling out certain homes and properties for death and destruction in certain districts..." The existence of such lists of addresses is not denied by the VHP, whose chairman in Gujarat, Prof. Shastri claims that they were prepared only on February 28^th morning (5). However it is clear that the data on which these lists were prepared had been available to the rioters for some considerable time. These facts are not necessary to indicate state complicity in the events - for that there is plenty of more compelling violence - but merely to foreshadow that little of the subsequent violence can be described as a "riot". As succinctly put in the subtitle to an article by Barkha Dutt (7)  "What's so spontaneous about an attack that leaves only the seventh shop on a crowded street burnt down?"

As often with past communal violence in India, the extremeness of the violence can hardly be comprehended. Reading the survivors' stories, the mind numbs. There are too many tales of people being tortured, women and children gang raped, people being trapped with dead bodies for days, children witnessing the loss of their entire families... There is almost nothing to say. Any understanding can only be via reading individual stories.

The role of the police, the Sangh Parivar and the state

Violence raged in Gujarat for days, and only started to abate by March the 3rd with the arrival of the army. The majority of the violence conforms to the pattern of non spontaneous, pre-planned attacks on Muslim localities, or Muslim houses and shops within a locality. Often there was active police participation in the attacks. In one place, survivors reported that a police sub-inspector distributed petrol from his vehicle to the mobs to burn down houses. (6). In a primarily Muslim locality called Sundaramnagar which was attacked by a mob of nearly 15,000 accompanied by the police, a pitched battle was fought between the Muslim inhabitants and the rioters who had surrounded them from three sides. The battle lasted for nearly 36 hours and during this period fresh batches of rioters were reportedly brought in luxury buses and fatigued ones taken away. Finally their resistance collapsed and the Muslim dwellers had to run away while their entire locality was destroyed (2).

Another consistent feature of most survivors' accounts is the presence of local VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders heading the rioters. In one of the worst attacks - on a Muslim area of Ahmedabad called Naroda Patiya - residents identified five BJP/VHP workers, as having murdered and raped before their eyes. (2). In Laxmipura Village in Khed Brahma Taluka of Sabarkantha District, two members of the local VHP unit were identified as leading the mob which torched Muslim homes (4). As this report put it "In testimony after testimony, people identified by name members of the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad involved in inciting and committing violence".

Evidence for state complicity at a higher level is perhaps starkest when one considers what happened to those police officers, sadly the minority, who did attempt to do their duty and protect the Muslim community.  On March 24, the Gujarat administration transferred 27 police officers in the State. Those transferred were those who took a stand against the mobs. An incident which illustrates the trend was when the SP of Kachch, Vivek Srivastava was transferred because he arrested three Sangh Parivar activists (two from the VHP and one belonging to the Shiv Sena) for attacking the priest of a shrine. Srivastava received a call from the state home minister (a BJP and VHP man) asking him to drop the charges. When he did not comply he was transferred (5). On the other hand police who very clearly and consciously did not do their duty, or indeed aided the mobs, were rewarded in various ways. The transfers of law-abiding police officers were so clearly political that the state Director General of Police, A.K. Chakravarty, objected and wrote to the additional chief secretary that four IPS officers were being transferred for fulfilling their constitutional obligations. He stated that such transfers could demoralize the police force.

Apart from aiding and abetting the mobs, another role played by the police was of ensuring that they were not brought to justice. Consistently, after a major bout of violence, at most token arrests would be made. Moreover there were serious problems with the filing of FIRs - First Information Reports - which are of vital importance if anyone is to be brought to justice for the terrible crimes committed, or if the victims are to receive compensation. Some victims complained that the police were demanding money to lodge FIRs (2). Where FIRs were being filed, there was often deliberate mis-recording, with names being omitted, and the charges changed - for example from murder to rioting. Where rape was followed by murder, the rape would be omitted altogether as the "lesser crime". In one village in Dahod, one of the survivors reported: "We tried to file an FIR with the police naming 28 of the attackers, but the police did not co-operate...they are with the attackers. They told us categorically that if you have to come back to the village, then do not name any specific persons in your FIR". (6) This seems to have happened on many occasions with several FIRs ending up describing the accused as "mobs" - obviously of no use in any kind of prosecution. Although several NGOs stepped in and filed FIRs on the victims' behalf it is unclear what exactly happened to these. The National Human Rights Commission noted that there were  numerous allegations that "FIRs [were] being distorted or poorly recorded, and that senior political personalities were seeking to `influence' the working of police stations by their presence within them..." (quoted in 5)

It is instructive that the mobs would even check whether they would receive support from the local state machinery before entering an area. In Chithroda Village in Khed Brahma Taluka, a local official, Keshubhai Patel, claimed that he got phone call from a VHP leader he was not prepared to name trying to assess the level of support inside the village for the entry of a mob. He refused to allow the mobs to enter his village, or harm the 40 odd Muslim families in any way. (4)

Support for the mobs was made very explicit when the Chairman of the Gujarat unit of the VHP stated on tape: "The VHP has formed a panel of 50 lawyers to help release the arrested people accused of rioting and looting. None of the lawyers will charge any fees because they believe in the RSS ideology." (5) Indeed support for the mobs was expressed tacitly by Narendra Modi (the BJP chief minister of Gujarat) himself: On March the 1st when the most horrific violence was raging he said "I'm absolutely satisfied with how the police and the government has handled the backlash. I'm happy the violence has been largely contained.", and further, "The five crore people of Gujarat have shown remarkable restraint under grave provocation." (Times of India, March 1, 2002). His most famous comment occurred the following day when he sated about the widespread violence that "Every Action has an equal and opposite reaction."  (Times of India, March 2, 2002)
 

A pogrom not a riot - why?

Altogether the evidence that what occurred in Gujarat was a well-organised, state-sponsored pogrom rather than a riot is extremely compelling. The so-called rioters were themselves aware of this. There are many reports of the slogan "Andar ki baat hai, police hamaare saath hai" (The hidden truth is that the police is with us) being chanted and painted on walls. There are also many reports of mobs shouting "Narendra Modi Zindabad" (Long live Narendra Modi). Certain new features of these so called riots also reinforce this - for example that areas dominated by Muslims became targets for attack thanks to police backing for the mobs. (1)

One might question what the politicians might have to gain from so much carnage. Surely their popularity must dwindle as a result of having presided over such a huge calamity. However, ethnic violence in the name of Hinduism has so far reaped the BJP rich benefits. The destruction of the Babri Masjid and the violence which followed, caused a polarisation which was a major factor in their rise to power. The BJPs electoral fortunes of late have not been good. Although they hold power in the centre, they only control the state legislatures in Gujarat, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, and Jharkand. The party was voted out of power during the February 2002 elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, and Punjab. The BJP were also comprehensively defeated in the Delhi municipal elections in March 2002, where they won only seventeen out of 134 seats (9).

The BJP came to power at state level in Gujarat in assembly elections in 1998 promising to fight "hunger, fear and corruption". However it suffered heavy losses in municipal elections in December 2000. Throughout the following year the BJPs electoral fortunes deteriorated. On Feb. 24th 2002, the BJP lost seats in 2 out of 3 bye-elections. Sadly it seems that the BJP has indeed profited from the extreme political polarisation in the state as a result of the massacres. Were elections to be held in Gujarat it is confident that it would score a resounding victory.  Thanks to a courageous decision by the Election Commission, no such elections are imminent. This follows from the obvious consideration that conditions where hundreds of thousands are still displaced from their homes, millions live in fear, and Gujarat remains violence-prone could not be deemed to be conducive to free and fair elections. Bizarrely, at the time of writing Narendra Modi is attempting to organise a "Gaurav Yatra" (pride march) through the state of Gujarat, celebrating the achievements of his government. The yatra is to be launched from one of the areas worst hit by the riots. One can only assume that the achievements to be celebrated are those of the rioters.

The press and propaganda

Certain sections of the press, particularly the Gujarati language daily Sandesh, played an important role in  whipping up hysteria. On Feb. 28th this newspaper printed two stories, one alleging that "10-15 Hindu women were dragged away by a fanatic mob from the railway compartment"  and simultaneously (on an inside page) that the "Mob dragged away 8-10 women into the slums" (4). On March 1st, another story alleging an atrocity committed by Muslims against two Hindu women was also printed. All these stories were found, upon police investigation, to be entirely false. But these supposed incidents were reported in extremely inflammatory language. No action was taken by the state against Sandesh, although the printing of these stories constituted a criminal offence. Members of the women's fact-finding team had this to say:

"This one false story about the rape and brutalizing of Hindu women has spread like wildfire across Gujarat, almost assuming proportions of folklore. It now rests easily in the annals of undisputed common knowledge, and cannot be dislodged. Where ever the fact-finding team went, we heard some version of this story, spreading through word of mouth, through the channels of overworked rumour mills - sometimes it was 10 Hindu women raped, sometimes it was 6 Hindu women - but the essential contours remained the same. In one place we heard details like "The Muslims took the Hindu women to their madrasa and gang-raped them there." Because the madrasa is the site of learning, raping women there projects the perpetrators as truly bestial men to whom nothing is sacred. In another village, "Hindu women" had been replaced by "Adivasi women" and this was given as the justification for Adivasi participation in the attacks on Muslims." (4)

Apart from incorrect, hysterical reporting, the VHP distributed leaflets saying that Muslims rape Hindu women and murder Hindu youth (traslated in 5) and calling for an economic boycott of Muslim businesses, a refusal to be taught by Muslim teachers, and even for a boycott of films starring Muslims (as those who watch Hindi cinema know, many of the biggest names in Hindi cinema are Muslim.) If such a boycott does remind the reader of anything, then we suggest a visit to some documentation from Germany in 1933 (10).

Attacks on infrastructure and property, ghettoisation.

One thing that was clear, both from the propaganda and the nature of the attack, was that the aim was to cripple an entire community. The fact is that apart from homes, Muslim commercial establishments were very widely tageted. The total economic losses sustained by the victims are estimated by one report at Rs. 38,000,000,000, or over half a billion pounds sterling (6). In a poor country, the magnitude of this figure is hard to comprehend. Total government compensation paid out by mid May stood at less than 100,000, 000, or less than a third of a per cent of the total losses.

The economic feature of the attack cannot be seen as just another part of the violence. The parties of the Hindu Nationalist right call for an economic boycott of Muslim businesses because, as stated in one VHP leaflet "It will break their backbone!" It is a rallying cry for sections of the Hindu-chauvinist middle class, but also part of a strategy of ethnic remapping. Riots historically cause demographic lines to be redrawn, cause increasing ghettoisation, and indeed this process was already underway in Ahmedabad (2). Even before these riots many Muslims in Gujarat would testify to the fact that there are certain areas where they would not choose to live or to own property (6). Certain areas become no go areas with large sections of the local community, inlcuding housing societies, refusing to sell or rent to Muslims. Increasingly people would speak of "our areas" and "their areas", and one can but assume that following such an extreme attack on their community such segregation is only likely to increase. Ghettoisation unquestionably fits into the Sangh Parivar's electoral project of profitting from increased communal polarisation. One possible brake on the spread of communal violence is the creation of interpersonal relationships between members of different communities, something which becomes inreasingly difficult as maps are redrawn.

Justice and recommendations

The current reality is that a tiny number of those responsible for the carnage in Gujarat have been brought to justice. A pitiful number of arrests have been made so far, and of those arrested many are released immediately on bail. Compensation paid out to the victims has been so small as to be effectively meaningless, and none have been given guarantees that they will be able to return to their homes in the coming months. It seems extremely unlikely that a state government which actively encouraged and participated in the violence can provide any kind of justice. Thus any process must start with the dismissal of the State Government of Gujarat, the sacking of Narendra Modi, and the imposition of president's rule. Further, steps would have to be taken to de-politicise the police and sections of the bureaucracy which have been implicated in the violence. Another key necessity is for a genuine commission of enquiry headed by a Supreme Court Judge into what happened (rather than the current enquiry headed by Justice K.G. Shah - a retired High Court judge with BJP connections and a very dubious record (12) - whose primary concern seems to be with the burning of the Sabarmati and not what followed.) There need to be immediate measures for relief and rehabilitation. Peace committees must be set up with the aim of creating an atmosphere which would allow the victims to return home once their residences are reconstructed. Adequate compensation should be given for the reconstruction of commercial and industrial establishments. Free medical, including psychiatric, care should be provided to victims of the trauma. The role of sections of the media, particularly the Gujarati language press, should be investigated by a body with some executive power and appropriate action taken using existing laws. (5)

The wider context, conclusions

There is an important debate about whether the Sangh Parivar constitutes a fascist movement or not. Without ending up having a purely semantic debate it is worth noting these consistent features of their ideology and mode of action.
- An extreme ethnic supremacism - the vision of India as a Hindu state, a harking back to a golden era of the past
- The use of mass mobilisation and the use of violence against civilians in order to achieve its aims
- The existence of organisations both in the political arena, operating within the rules of "democracy", and non-governmental organisations providing the foot-soldiers of the movement.
- Authoritarianism and disregard for human rights/women's rights.

It is widely accepted by many commentators that what happened in Gujarat represents a turning point of some kind, not because of the extent or the brutality of the violence, but because of the organised nature of it, and the kind of state involvement witnessed. Those who choose to use the term fascist do so to highlight these features. A rioting mob is indeed very different from an organised fascist movement. A point which might otherwise be missed is that what happened forms part of a project - not in the sense of some complicated conspiracy theory -  but as stated in the words of the RSS and VHP themselves. Working towards this project, whether in government or out of it, the BJP and its cohort of organisations continue to undermine civil society and democracy in India. This undermining occurs at multiple levels: via legislative or educational reform, via propaganda and paramilitary training, even, contradictorily, via the provision of an alternative social security system for various underprivileged groups (expecting them, in return, to be the foot-soldiers of the movement when they are called upon to be). The Sangh Parivar are highly aware of the importance of penetrating the police force and sections of the civil service. The way that corruption is very widespread indeed aids this ability to work at filling certain organisations with their own cadre and pursuing their agenda even where they do not hold political power.

In terms of undermining this project, it has been pointed out that it is problematic to define such incidents of violence in terms of "attacks on minorities". Indeed, this tacitly creates the notion that those carrying out the attack are in some sense the "majority". It gives a credence to those who proclaim themselves the guardians of Hinduism and claim to speak for all Hindus. The "minorities" under attack shift in India: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, dalits, adivasis (tribals) are just some of the minority communities which have come under attack. Perhaps it is time to change from a rhetoric about defending minorities to one of defending human rights for all India's citizens, defending India's constitution, and defending democracy itself. To diminish the influence of supposedly religious leaders with an ethnic supremacist project, it becomes key for people of any religious group to actively dissociate themselves from what is being carried out in their name. Some courageous high-profile Hindu religious figures have led the way in this (see for example the statement by one shankaracharya - (8)). A key part of the Sangh Parivar project is the creation of an "us" and "them", and they are greatly helped in their work by those who do not feel represented by them, but also do not choose to actively dissociate themselves from them. It is extremely telling that 'supporters' of the BJP have launched a provocative advertising campaign in leading newspapers in Ahmedabad, claiming that the Election commision, the National Human Rights Commission, the opposition and all other opponents of the BJP represent only minorities, thus creating themselves as the undisputed representatives of the 'majority'. (11)
 
 
 

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In the box below we present bits from the various reports, a tiny fraction of the collective experience that went into making some of the most horrific days of India's recent history.
 
 

"It was morning and I was cooking. My husband, my three children and I were in my house while my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law and his wife along with their three children were in the adjoining house. A mob of 5000 came and we started running. We were cornered from all the sides. SRP (State Reserve Police) personnel were also chasing us. It was 6.30 in the evening by now. The mob caught hold of my husband and hit him on his head twice with the sword. They threw petrol in his eyes and then burned him. My sister-in-law was stripped and raped. She had three-month baby in her lap. They threw petrol on her and the child from her lap was thrown in the fire. My brother-in-law was hit on the head with the sword and thrown in the fire. We were at that time hiding on the terrace of a building. My mother-in-law was not able to climb the steps so she was on the ground floor with her four-year-old grandson. She told them to take away whatever money she had but to spare the children. They took away all the money and jewelry and burnt the children with petrol. My Mother-in-law was raped too. I witnessed all this. Unmarried girls from my street were stripped, raped and burnt. A 14 year old girl was killed by piercing an iron rod in her stomach. All this ended at 2.30 A.M. The ambulance came on the scene and I sat in it along with bodies of my husband and children. I have injury marks on my both my thighs and left hand that was caused by the police beating. My husband had 48 % burns, my daughter 95 % burns. Both my husband and daughter died in the hospital after three days. The police was on the spot but helping the mob. We fell at their feet but they said they were ordered from above not to help. Since the telephone wires were snapped we could not inform the fire brigade." (4)   We met Shahnaz Bano who lived in this area in the Juapura camp. She told us that on the 28 morning at about 10.00 a.m. a mob of thousands came into their area. She said that the attackers were shouting the most obscene abuses and threats (very sexually explicit) and were setting whatever they could on fire. She along with some others were able to leave from the back of their chali and reach the Kalupur Railway Station. Her own house was looted and burnt. She said that other people from her area took shelter in Ehsan Jafri's house in Gulmarg Society, believing that they could not be harmed there. One of them was her neighbour, Zubi, who was 8 months pregnant. She was killed. Another neighbour, Bikhiben's son and two younger brothers-in-law were also killed along with Ehsan Jafri and his family. Bikhiben pretended to be a Hindu and told the attackers that she only worked for Jafri's family. She was allowed to leave the house which she could do only by walking on the dead bodies of her son and brothers-in-law. She is in the Shahibagh camp. (1) A 7 year old boy, Yusuf was rescued from a garbage-heap where he had been left for dead and brought to the camp. He received a sword-slash just above the right eye which is still bloodshot. His mother, Razia Bano, has been admitted to the hospital with severe burns. His father, Mohd. Ayub Ghani, has been killed but Yusuf has been told that he is in the hospital looking after his mother. (1) Najma Ayub Quraishi, about 30 years old, arrived in the Shah Alam camp completely naked. She told us that "acid was thrown on me and one of the rioters urinated in my mouth. Because my clothes were sticking to my skin and the burning sensation was unbearable, I tore off them off and pieces of my skin also came off. Both my children were killed." (1) Maqsuda, large eyes, very thin. lying with her head bandaged in the injuries ward of the hospital. Her face to the wall, neighbouring patients say she does not talk much. She is from Anjanwa village, District Panchmahal . She says, "I was in the house with my two sons Ifzal and Imran she says. They were very scared and kept crying. Our village was attacked on March 5 [long after the notorious 72 hour claim of the Chief Minister] I took my children and we along with four other women started running. We were caught and all of us were thrown into a well that belonged to the sarpanch of the village Jaisigh Dona Ghori. I was unconscious. My children were still. I lay there the whole night. I was rescued by the police the next day but my children were dead and all the four other women with me. I wish I too had died." (1) The Best Bakery was set on fire in the Hanuman Tekri area of Vadodara. Excerpts from an eye-witness account: "Jayanti Chaiwala, Mahesh Munna Painter, Thakkar ke do ladke, all led a mob of 500-700 people that attacied our bakery on March 1st at 8 pm.... We phoned 100 (Control Room) and even contacted the police at Panigate Police Station. They kept saying "Hum aa rahe hain" [we are coming]. An hour and a half later at around 9:30 am, a police vehicle passed without doing anything to stop the mob. "It was after the police had come and gone that the mob started its destruction.... Twenty of us, along with our mother, remained trapped and terrified on the terrace, as they burnt eight people to death. My mama, my sister Shabira, and my mama's children, Zainab and Shabnam (twins) were burnt alive along with the workers in the bakery.... In all, 14 persons were burnt and killed, including my two sisters and bhabi. My chacha's entire family and one sister were burnt alive. Even our domestic animals like goats were not spared. All the attackers were from the mohalla." (6) This time several such Muslim dominated areas, mostly working class localities were targeted, some for the first time, by huge mobs numbering 5,000 to 15,000. The worst instance of such an attack was at Naroda Pattiya where a big settlement of Muslims of about 25,000 inhabitants was completely destroyed by the rioters. Survivors of the attack who are now spread over several relief camps in the city recall that the local police totally sided with the riotous mob. The Noorani masjid was first attacked and burnt with the help of LPG cylinders, tyres, petrol and kerosene. When some of the Muslim youth tried to resist the mob, the police fired at them and even killed some. Residents in the camps claimed that the Special Reserve Police [SRP] force present refused to provide them sanctuary and forced them towards the waiting rioters. Once the resistance was broken with the help of the police, the rioters stormed inside the settlement, burning and looting at will... The falsity of the official figures suggesting only around 70 deaths in the Naroda Pattiya incident was evident from the testimony of so many survivors from that area who named their kith and kin whom they had seen dying in front of their eyes. The actual death toll will be much higher. Many also narrated how the SRP misguided a large group of people who were trying to escape into a trap, where the mob killed them and threw the bodies into a well. Most of the dead bodies were charred or mutilated beyond recognition and an overwhelming majority of the survivors did not manage to have access to the bodies of their relatives and perform the last rites in a dignified manner. Residents of Naroda Pattiya identified Vipin (owner of an Auto Agency), Jai Bhagwan of Gangotri Society, Mukesh (alias Gudda), Naresh and Chotta , all local level BJP/VHP workers, as having murdered and raped before their eyes. Inspector Surela of the local Police Station had it seems visited Naroda Pattiya after the Godhra incident and had assured safety to the elders of the area. Several eyewitnesses recalled his active participation along with others in his force, in the carnage. (2) Mohd. Ishtiaq from Mora village told us that there are 115 Muslim and 500 Hindu houses in his village. He said that on the March 1 after the namaaz a crowd of a hundred or so people of whom about 50 were from the village, attacked them but they were able to offer some resistance and they went away. At 8.00 p.m. a much bigger crowd came and burnt 23 houses. An hour later the Dy. Supdt. of Police came to the village. They begged him for help but he left. Nor did he send the police. As a result the village faced two more attacks one at 2 in the morning and again the next day. This was when the delegation heard of the use of explosives. "They used something which blew up our houses." They said "You should be happy that we are only burning your houses." Trucks, shops and agricultural implements belonging to the Muslims were destroyed. About 250 of them took shelter in the masjid and another 116 in Haji Ishaq's house. Two thirds were women and children. They were all brought to the camp by the BSF. This testimony gave an indication that the attacks were also geared towards wiping out all traces of Muslim property so that it could more easily be occupied. (1) Smt Yashodaben Koshti whom we met at the Shah Alam camp told us that she had read leaflets distributed by the VHP that said that Hindus should not have any kind of relations with Muslims. If they did, they were not Hindus at all. She said I am a Hindu but I am ashamed at what they have done in my name and that is why I am here in the camp to help in whatever way I can. (1) A Hindu gentleman, Mr. Tiwari, who is a resident of Naroda Patia sheltered 30 people in his house. He contacted the Shah Alam committee. The DCP of the area was contacted for help to shift these stranded people. It took three hours for the police to arrive and by that time 27 Muslim women, men and children were done to death. Only three escaped the jaws of death and are now in the Shah e Alam refugee camp. (1) Rahul Sharma, who had been transferred as SP of Bhavnagar recently, took strong measures to stop rioting mobs in Bhavnagar on March 1. He resorted to some rounds of firing himself and rescued over 400 Muslims who were attacked by a mob near a madrassa in Akuada. He took strong action against the mob leaders like Shiv Sena's Kishore Bhatt. Sharma has been transferred. Other police officers like DCP P.B. Gondhia, who had named BJP MLA Maya Kodnani and VHP leader Jaideep Patel in his FI on the Naroda-Patia massacre in Ahmedabad has been shunted out to civil defence. On the other hand, R.J. Savani, who is reportedly close to the VHP, has been appointed DCP (Crime) while Sanjay Gandhvi, a friend of Togadia has replaced Gondhia as DCP (Zone IV), Ahmedabad. (5) B w/o Y from Randhikpur village (District Dahod ) is 21 years old, five months pregnant.. We meet her in the camp. Frail, motionless, drained of all expression she tells her story in a monotone as though she is speaking of someone else. Muslim houses in her village were attacked by upper caste people from her own village along with outsiders on March 1 . She and several of her family members fled. She names them: my baby girl Saleha, my mother, Halima, my sisters, Mumtaz and Munni, my brothers, Irfan and Aslam, my maternal uncle, Majeed, two of my father's sisters, Sugra and Amina, one of their husbands, Yusuf, Amina's son, and three daughters, Shamim, Mumtaz and Medina and Shamim's son Husain. Shameem she says was nearing her full term. It was difficult for both of them to run. At first, they escaped to Chundagi village which was 5 - 6 kms. away and took shelter with Bijal Damor, the local MLA. Then they were asked to leave since it was not safe and they walked to Kuajher where they were given shelter in a mosque. Here Shamim was delivered of a baby girl by a midwife but they were asked to leave soon afterwards because mosques were a target of the rampaging mobs. Shameem barely able to walk, her infant being carried by her sister almost dragged by the others, herself, tired breathless, her baby girl insisting on being carried only by her, they somehow managed to reach village Kudra. Here some Adivasi Naikas took pity on Shamim's condition and kept them in their huts. B remembers: They were kind to us. Shamim's clothes were dirty. Even though the adivasis were poor they gave her something clean to wear. They let us rest, but then again we had to move but they came with us, escorting us to the next village Chhapadvad . B pauses. A woman next to her puts her arm around her. She continues : We had started moving towards Panivela village. It was a remote and hilly place. Suddenly we heard the sound of a vehicle. A truck came with people from our own village and outsiders too. They had not come to help us. They stopped us and then the madness started. They pulled my baby from my arms and threw her away. I and the other women were taklen aside and raped. I was raped by three men. I was screaming. They beat me and then left me for dead.When I regained consciousness I found I was alone. All around me were the dead bodies of my family, my baby girl, the new born baby. They were covered with stones. I lay there the whole night and most of the next day. I do not know when I was conscious and when unconscious.Later I was found by a police squad from Limkheda police station. I was taken to the hospital and hen brought here. In the hospital the doctors confirmed that her medical examination had confirmed rape. (1) One of the members of the delegation visited the camp at Vizapur in Mehsana District. where victims from Sardarpur village are present. They told him that on the night of March 1, the houses of 84 Muslim families were attacked and totally burnt. Many of the women and children took shelter in the only `pucca' house. This was then doused with petrol and set on fire. 22 people died. The total number of dead is 54. The survivors were rescued by the police and brought to the camp. There are 1000 people in the camp including 400 students from the Visnagar Hostel. The victims said that their standing crops and bore-wells had been completely destroyed. They also said that some dalit families who had given them protection have also been driven out of the village (This is only one small example from a district where many incidents are reported to have taken place). (1)

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The reports (in approximate chronological order):

Report 1: Report of a visit by CPI(M) and AIDWA (All India Democratic Women's Association) to Gujarat - March 2002. Available online

Report 2: Ethnic Cleansing in Ahmedabad: A preliminary report:  SAHMAT fact finding team to Ahmedabad, 10-11th March 2002, Dr. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Vishnu Nagar, Prasenjit Bose, Vijoo Krishnan. Available online

Report 3: Amnesty Report, March 2002. Available online

Report 4: How has the Gujarat Massacre Affected Minority Women: The Survivors Speak. Fact-finding by a women's panel consisting of:
Syeda Hameed, Muslim Women's Forum, Delhi, Ruth Manorama, National Alliance of Women, Bangalore, Malini Ghose, Nirantar, Delhi, Sheba George, Sahrwaru, Ahmedabad, Farah Naqvi, Independent Journalist, Delhi, Mari Thekaekara, Accord, Tamil Nadu. Sponsored by Citizen's Initiative, Ahmedabad [India] April 16, 2002. Available online

Report 5: Gujarat Carnage 2002: A Report to the Nation. By An Independent Fact Finding Mission: Dr Kamal Mitra Chenoy, S.P. Shukla, K.S. Subramanian, Achin Vanaik, 10th April 2002. Available online (The online version and the paper version of this report appear to have slight differences. Both are used.)

Report 6: A Continuing Crime: The relief and rehabilitation measures, the attitude of the judiciary and police investigation and arrests with regard to the genocide in Gujarat.  A Joint Fact Finding Team Report. May 2002, The team consisted of  Kranti Chaitanya from the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC);  Ashok Debroy from the Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), West Bengal, K.Balgopal, P. Ramulu, B. Ramulu and Leya Matthew from the Human Rights Forum, Andhra Pradesh; P.A.Sebastian, Niranjini Shetty, Jennifer Coutinho, Premsagar Gupta, Aseem Prakash, K. Leena and  K. Haridas from the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), Mumbai and Sanober Keshwaar from Lokshahi Hakk Sanghatana (LHS), Maharashtra. Available by emailing: cpdr@rediffmail.com

Other sources

7. Covert Riots And Media, Barkha Dutt, Outlook India, 25/3/2002. Available online.

8. Gujarat events state terrorism, ban VHP: Shankaracharya, 1 March 2002, Press Release. Statement by His Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Shri Aadhog Shajananda Teerthji Maharaj Shri Govardhan Math, Jagannath Dham, Puri, Orissa. Available online

9. The Context of the Violence in Gujarat - part of a Human Rights Watch Publication. Available online.

10. Instructions given to the National Socialist Party in Germany on April 1st 1933. Available online

11. Provocative ad campaign in Gujarat targets EC, NHRC, Sheela Bhatt in Ahmedabad. Rediff.com. Available online

12. Probe Panel Faces Credibility Crisis, Shyam Parekh in the Times of India, 11th March 2002. Available online