Violence against religious minorities in India A Broad Survey (original) (raw)

India has been a diverse, plural society inhabited by followers of many faiths, many languages and plethora of cultures. Its geographical location has been the key to plural ethos of the land. The people interacted freely and kept evolving in the multiple facets of their lives with a thick interaction leading to rich diversity. Indian society has been multicultural. When British colonialists ruled here, they introduced the policy of divide and rule through their administration and also through history books which had the slant of communal historiography. In this, the pattern of history is based on the religion of kings. This version of History was picked by the sectarian tendencies in political arena, the tendencies which practiced their politics in the name of religion, 'Hindu nationalism' and 'Muslim nationalism'. The violence in the society between Hindus and Muslims started picking up gradually. During British period the saving grace was that while dealing with the violence the state was a neutral arbiter. After the partition holocaust the country remained remarkably free from violence till 1961, when the first major violence took place in Jabalpur, MP, on the pretext that a Muslim boy had raped a Hindu girl. As such the couple was in love and intended to marry. After this on various pretexts, cow slaughter, dishonoring of women and religious processions; the violence started picking up. In 1969 the Ahmadabad violence, then Meerut Malyana, Bhivandi-Malegaon, Bhagalpur, Kanykumari and again Ahmadabad in 1980 and 1990 were major tragedies to grip the nation. Advani's Rath Yatra (chariot procession) for demanding Ram Temple in Ayodhya) gave a systematic shape to the pattern of violence. As the provocative speeches were made during the yatra (procession), the violence followed the route of the rath yatra. The most horrific culmination of this took place in demolition of Babri Mosque and post demolition Mumbai, Surat and Bhopal violence (1992). Post rath yatra, the intensity and duration of violence started becoming more intimidating.