Religions and Development Research Programme Elusive Peace: Seeking a ‘New Normal’ in Post-conflict Ahmedabad and Mumbai Dipankar Gupta Centre for the Study of Social Systems Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Working Paper 44 - 2010 Religions and Development Research Programme The Religions and Development Research Programme Consortium is an international research partnership that is exploring the relationships between several major world religions, development in low-income countries and poverty reduction. The programme is comprised of a series of comparative research projects that are addressing the following questions: z How do religious values and beliefs drive the actions and interactions of individuals and faith-based organisations? z How do religious values and beliefs and religious organisations influence the relationships between states and societies? z In what ways do faith communities interact with development actors and what are the outcomes with respect to the achievement of development goals? The research aims to provide knowledge and tools to enable dialogue between development partners and contribute to the achievement of development goals. We believe that our role as researchers is not to make judgements about the truth or desirability of particular values or beliefs, nor is it to urge a greater or lesser role for religion in achieving development objectives. Instead, our aim is to produce systematic and reliable knowledge and better understanding of the social world. The research focuses on four countries (India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Tanzania), enabling the research team to study most of the major world religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and African traditional belief systems. The research projects will compare two or more of the focus countries, regions within the countries, different religious traditions and selected development activities and policies. The consortium consists of six research partner organisations, each of which is working with other researchers in the four focus countries: z University of Birmingham, UK: International Development Department, Department of Theology and Religion, Centre for West African Studies, Centre for the Study of Global Ethics. z University of Bath, UK: Centre for Development Studies. z Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi. z Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, Ibadan. z University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. z Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan. In addition to the research partners, links have been forged with non-academic and non-government bodies, including Islamic Relief. http://www.rad.bham.ac.uk Contact: [email protected] Religions and Development Working Paper 44 Elusive Peace: Seeking a ‘New Normal’ in Post-conflict Ahmedabad and Mumbai Dipankar Gupta Centre for the Study of Social Systems Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi ISBN: 0 7044 2783 4 978 0 7044 2783 9 © International Development Department, University of Birmingham This document is an output from a project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries. The views expressed are not necessarily those of DFID. Working Paper 44 Elusive Peace: Seeking a ‘New Normal’ in Post-conflict Ahmedabad and Mumbai Contents Summary 1 Acknowledgements 3 Acronyms 4 I Between ‘citizens’ and ‘people’: majoritarian politics in India 5 1.1 Introduction 5 1.2 The powder-keg of normalcy 6 1.3 Inter-faith relations: alternative scenarios 10 1.4 Contemporary religious majoritarianism: marginalizing tradition 12 1.5 The challenges of liberal democracy: going beyond the nation-state 16 1.6 From sword arm to ethnic enemies: the minoritization of Sikhs 19 1.7 Shiv Sena: the minoritization of Muslims 23 1.8 Gujarat 2002: state-sponsored ethnicity 25 1.9 Citizenship de-recognized: the validation of a self-fulfilling prophecy 28 1.10 Citizens versus people: a liberal constitution against popular memory 30 1.11 Agency versus structure: the why and how of an ethnic carnage 32 1.12 Poor but pure: the myth of rural India 35 2 A contested normal: what happens afterwards? 38 2.1 Why Mumbai and Ahmedabad? 39 2.2 Methodology 40 2.3 Refuge first: Mumbai and Ahmedabad 42 2.4 Relief work in Mumbai and Ahmedabad : Islamic organizations and NGOs 44 2.5 Rehabilitation next: the role of FBOs in finding a home 48 2.6 Staking claims on the state: handling the administrative machinery 53 2.7 Winning trust: the case of the Mohalla Committee 54 2.8 Routinizing lives: seeking a ‘new’ quotidian normal 57 3 By-passing development: the livelihood responses of riot-affected Muslims 61 3.1 Economic rivalry: do Muslims compete? 62 3.2 Where money matters: safety in numbers and how rich Muslims respond 68 3.3 Any job will do: how the poor cope 71 Working Paper 44 3.4 Prom poverty to poverty: seeking a ‘new’ economic normally 75 3.5 Sources of succour: formal and informal ties 78 3.6 Back to school: education and the faith 79 3.7 Development as safeguard 83 4 Social rehabilitation: justice or forgiveness? 85 4.1 The role of law and the need for justice 86 4.2 How can we forget? Towards a phenomenology of victimhood 89 4.3 ‘Coping strategies’: Mumbai and Ahmedabad compared 92 4.4 The way forward: towards a ‘new’ contested normal 93 4.5 Criticism of Islamic relief organizations: views from within the faith 97 4.6 Islamic fundamentalism: between fact and fiction 99 4.7 The dividing walls of Mumbai and Ahmedabad: separating the metaphorical and imaginary 102 5 Lessons learnt: majoritarian politics and democratic equality 104 5.1 Multiculturalism and justice: the significance of democracy 105 5.2 The significance of religion: how Muslims and Sikhs were minoritized 108 5.3 Enter Lacan: post-conflict resolution and the significance of the triad 110 5.4 Ethnic and communal movements: the varying impact of status and class 113 5.5 The politics of Gujarat: getting the facts right 116 5.6 Disaggregating Modi’s appeal: countering Hindutva 118 5.7 Gujarat: what miracle? 120 5.8 The significance of the political: establishing a ‘new’ normal 122 Notes 124 References 125 Elusive Peace: Seeking a ‘New Normal’ in Post-conflict Ahmedabad and Mumbai 1 Summary Hindu-Muslim violence occurred in the Indian cities of Mumbai in 1993 and Ahmedabad in 2002. Hindu violence against Muslims has roots in the Partition of India and Pakistan but also, more recently, in the emergence of a Hindu nationalist agenda. This study aimed to develop a better understanding of the role of religion in violence and its aftermath in India by examining the dynamics and aftermath of the violence, focusing on the roles of the state and Muslim religious organizations in post-conflict resolution, assisting those affected and rebuilding social relations. The study draws on research undertaken by the author in Gujarat at the time of the violence in 2002 and a recent follow up qualitative study based on secondary sources and extensive semi-structured interviews with Muslim victims, activists, government officials, politicians and others. There were much larger numbers of Muslim victims of the more recent riots in Ahmedabad and they have been much less able to cope in the short term and recover in the longer term, so most attention is given to this city, using the case of Mumbai for comparative purposes. Anti-Muslim violence is driven not by ‘religious’ differences or economic motivations, but by a Hindu nationalist agenda - riots happen in some places and not others because they are deliberately engineered for political purposes. The larger scale and more longlasting effects of the anti-Muslim violence in Ahmedabad can be attributed to the backing provided to anti-Muslim sentiments and the violence itself by the government of the State of Gujarat, then and now under the control of the Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, whereas in Mumbai the government and security forces did their best to end the violence, supported by secular citizens, upright officials and concerned politicians. The Muslim community in Ahmedabad is mostly poor, and so the political and economic support provided to victims in Mumbai by affluent Muslim businesspeople was rarely available to them. Generally employed in the informal sector, once the violence itself had died down, most Muslims were able to access the same or similar occupations, with similar low incomes, although sometimes in a different part of the city. Some but not all of those with businesses were able to raise the funds to repair or replace lost property, stock and equipment. Muslims seek education for their children that will best provide them with access to work opportunities, choosing schools, the medium and the content of education with this goal in mind. Because of the absence of a sizable and prosperous Muslim business community in Ahmedabad, Muslim victims had to rely on short-term relief and assistance from Muslim religious organizations (and a few secular non-governmental organizations). The same organizations assisted those who felt unable to return to their original neighbourhoods to relocate to resettlement colonies. 2 Working Paper 44 In the longer term in both cities, the violence has led to increased segregation of residential areas along religious lines, as Muslims have sought security in Muslim-dominated areas. Those Muslim organizations that aimed to recruit Muslims to a radical Islamist agenda by providing relief and resettlement areas in Ahmedabad do not seem to have made much progress. The priorities of Muslim victims are first to seek safety, second to obtain the government compensation to which they are entitled, and then for children to return to school, livelihoods to be resumed and houses to be repaired or built. However, the inadequacy and difficulty of obtaining compensation and the failure of the state to bring the perpetrators of the violence to justice remain lingering sores, hindering the restoration of their trust in the state to safeguard their rights as citizens.