#amrith lal

Communal tension increases in the shape of pyramid. Covert and overt actions, rumours, prejudices and fears help this pyramid reach a point where it is primed to explode. All you need then is a small fire. The riots in Delhi are the best example of this pattern. I would have been surprised if it didn’t happen. These riots hasten the process of communalisation of a society, whereby Hindu and Muslim identities overtake all other identities.

We hardly know of any police officer being punished for the failures of magnitude such as 1984 (Delhi) or 2002 (Gujarat) or the demolition of Babri mosque (1992). In Hashimpura (1987), where 42 Muslims were killed by the police, the senior-most officer prosecuted was a sub-inspector. Can you believe that a decision to kill 42 Muslims in custody could have been taken by an officer of that seniority? Senior officers behind this killing went scot-free.

I was on a fellowship working on police neutrality during Hindu-Muslim strife in India and I found police bias against minorities in almost all the major cases of communal violence across the country. Our leadership had rejected the premise of Partition (that Hindus and Muslims are two different nations) and created a secular nation-state. Much more was needed to make us build a real secular society. Especially, if we keep in mind the love-hate relationship between Hindus and Muslims during the more than thousand years of living together, we will agree that just by adopting a secular Constitution, a society can’t become secular. Public spaces like education, media, judiciary or electoral laws require much more. During my study, I found that in all major riots, the minorities had one common complaint, which was that the police, the most visible arm of the Indian state, had not done what it was supposed to do. And in many cases, it has done something that is barred by the Constitution. The police behaviour has led to huge alienation of minorities.