HOW
HAS THE GUJARAT MASSACRE AFFECTED
MINORITY
WOMEN ?
The
Survivors Speak
Fact-finding
by
a
Women’s Panel
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
April
16, 2002
(This
report may be quoted, in whole or in part, with due
acknowledgement)
Acknowledgements
The fact-finding team would
like to acknowledge the following individuals in Gujarat, who gave generously of
their time and insights at a time of continuing trauma for the people of Gujarat
and the entire country:
Gagan Sethi, Martin Macwan,
Trupti Shah, Renu Khanna, Sejal Dand, Jhanvi Andheria, Neeta Hardikar, Stalin.
K, Mehmuda and Naseem from Sahrwaru, Bahercharbhai Patel (for guiding us to
remote rural relief camps) Achyut Yagnik, Ila Behn Pathak, Annie Prasad, and
Valjibhai Patel (for sending us translations from the Gujarati vernacular
press)
We also thank the many local
activists and coordinators of relief camps who found time to sit with us despite
the urgency of the task they had at hand. Above all, a salute to the women -
survivors all, who had the will to live, and the courage to speak of the
unspeakable.
Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................
6
Section
I: Sexual Violence Against Women .................................
8
q Testimonies
of Sexual Violence
q Sexual
Violence and the Media
Section
II: Women’s Experiences of the State ..........................
18
q Political
Complicity
q Role of
the Police
q Women’s
Testimonies of the Role of the State
Section
III: In the Wake of Violence .............................................
27
q Visiting
the Camps
q Ghettoisation:
The Rural Experience
q Economic
Destitution
q New
Rural Divides
q VHP and
Bajrang Dal : Women’s experiences
q Small
Rays of Hope
q State
Response: Peace Committees
Section
IV: Violations of International Instruments ....................
40
Section
V: Conclusions and Recommendations ......................
47
Annexures
:
...................................................................................
50
(PLEASE
NOTE: THE PAGINATION ON THIS MICROSOFT WORD VERSION OF THE REPORT DOES NOT MATCH
THE PAGINATION ON THE PRINTED VERSION)
Annexures
Section
I: Sexual Violence Against Women
Annexure 1.1: Testimony
of Sexual Violence
Annexure 1.2: Testimony
of Sexual Violence
Annexure 1.3: Testimony
of Sexual Violence
Annexure 1.4: Testimony
of Sexual Violence
Annexure 1.5: Testimony
of Sexual Violence
Annexure 1.6: Excerpts
from two largest Gujarat Newspapers: Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar
Section
II: Women’s Experiences of the State
Annexure 2.1: A meeting
with Maya Kodnani, BJP MLA from Naroda Patiya
Annexure 2.2: A meeting
with Sarpanch Nathibehn, Laxmipura Village, Sabarkantha
Annexure 2.3: A meeting
with Sarpanch Keshubhai Patel, Chithroda Village
Gujarat ke firaq se hai
khaar khaar dil
Betaab hai seenay mane atish
bahar dil
Marham nahin hai iske zakhm
ka jahan mane
Shamshir e hijr se jo hua
hai figar dil
(My heart is thorn- filled with longing for
Gujarat
Restless, frantic, flame- wrapped in the
spring
On earth there exists no balm for its
wound
My heart split asunder by
the dagger of separation)
Vali Gujarati
Sufi saint-poet
Born in Ahmedabad circa
1650
Died in Ahmedabad 1707
Tomb razed February 28,
2002
“I always swerve a bit to
the side to avoid driving over the spot where the mazaar stood. It wouldn’t feel
right to go over it. I know other
drivers do the same.”
Driver
Shankar, while driving past the freshly tarred patch of road where Vali
Gujarati’s mazaar had been for three hundred years. - March 30 2002.
Introduction
A six-member team of women
from Delhi, Bangalore, Tamil Nadu and Ahmedabad undertook a five-day
fact-finding mission from March 27 – March 31, 2002, to assess the impact of the
continuing violence on minority women in Gujarat.
Other fact-finding teams
have also visited Gujarat post-Godhra. However, given the particular targeting
of women in this carnage, there was an urgent need for a sectoral investigation
into how women in particular have been affected. The objective of the
fact-finding was to determine the nature and extent of the crimes against women;
find evidence of the role played by the police and other state institutions in
protecting women; determine ‘new elements’ in the current spate of violence that
distinguish it from previous rounds of communal violence in Gujarat; determine
the role of organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal in both - the build-up to
the current carnage as well as in actually unleashing the violence.
The team visited seven
relief camps in both rural and urban areas (Ahmedabad, Kheda, Vadodra,
Sabarkantha and Panchmahals districts) and spoke to a large number of women
survivors. Ensuring that women’s voices are heard was a matter of priority for
the entire team. The team also spoke to intellectuals, activists, members of the
media, administration, and leaders from the BJP, including MLA Maya Kodnani,
accused in an FIR in the Naroda Patia massacre. The fact-finding was conducted
under conditions of continuing violence and curfew in many parts of the State.
We have been shaken and
numbed by the scale and brutality of the violence that is still continuing in
Gujarat. Despite reading news reports, we were unprepared for what we saw and
heard; for fear in the eyes and anguish in the words of ordinary women whose
basic human right to live a life of dignity has been snatched away from them.
Main
Findings:
q
The pattern of violence does
not indicate “spontaneous” action. There was pre-planning, organization, and
precision in the targeting.
q
There is compelling evidence
of sexual violence against women. These crimes against women have been grossly
underreported and the exact extent of these crimes – in rural and urban areas -
demands further investigation. Among the women surviving in relief camps, are
many who have suffered the most bestial forms of sexual violence – including
rape, gang rape, mass rape, stripping, insertion of objects into their body,
stripping, molestations. A majority of rape victims have been burnt alive.
q
There is evidence of State
and Police complicity in perpetuating crimes against women. No effort was made
to protect women. No Mahila Police
was deployed. State and Police complicity in these crimes is continuing, as
women survivors continue to be denied the right to file FIRs. There is no
existing institutional mechanism in Gujarat through which women can seek
justice.
q
The impact on women has been
physical, economic and psychological. On all three fronts there is no evidence
of State efforts to help them.
q
The state of the relief
camps, as mothers struggle to keep their children alive in the most appalling
physical conditions, is indicative of the continued abdication of the State’s
responsibilities.
q
Rural women have been
affected by communal violence on this scale for the first time. There is a need
for further investigation into the role played by particular castes/communities
in rural Gujarat in unleashing violence.
q
There is evidence that the
current carnage was preceded by an escalation of tension and build-up by the VHP
and the Bajrang Dal.
q
There is an alarming trend
towards ghettoisation of the Muslim community in rural areas for the first time.
q
Sections of the Gujarati
vernacular press played a dangerous and criminal role in promoting the violence,
particularly in provoking sexual violence against women.
Section I
SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST
WOMEN
The fact-finding team found
compelling evidence of the most extreme form of sexual violence against women
during the first few days of the carnage - in Ahmedabad on February 28th and
March 1st and in rural areas up to March 3, 2002. The testimonies point to
brutal and depraved forms of violence. The violence against minorities was
pre-planned, organized and targeted. In every instance of large scale mob
violence against the community in general, there was a regular pattern of
violence against women. Given the fact that the data on crimes against women has
not been systematically collected, it is impossible to ascertain the extent of
the outrage. We believe, however, that crimes against women have been grossly
under-reported. For instance, in
Panchmahals district only one rape FIR has been filed, though we heard of many
other cases. There has been a complete invisibilisation of the issue of
sexual violence in the media[1].
The situation is compounded
by the apathy of law-enforcement agencies and the indifference of political
representatives. In our interview with Maya Kodnani, BJP MLA from Naroda Patia[2],
where several brutal gang rapes and rapes of minor girls have been reported (see
testimonies below) we found that she was indifferent, complacent and even
bemused. When questioned about the reported rapes she said - Accha, kya ye sach hai? Suna hai. Ek police
wale ne mujhe bataya ki aise hua hai par usne dekha nahin. (Is this true?
One policeman mentioned this to me but he had not seen anything) She had not
taken the trouble to investigate further, and clearly indicated no intent to do
so.
Given the gravity of the
situation, it is incomprehensible that until the writing of this report the
National Commission for Women, mandated as the apex body for protection of
women’s rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India, had not visited the
State. This indicates a complete institutional breakdown as far as issues such
as violence against women are concerned. As the District Collector of
Panchmahals, clearly told us - ‘Maintaining Law and order is my primary concern.
It is not possible for me to look into cases of sexual violence. If something is
brought to my notice (like the Bilkees case, see below) I can take action, but
nothing more than that. NGOs should take on this job. I would welcome their
involvement.’
During our visits to the
camps, we were besieged with detailed testimonies from rape victims themselves
and from eyewitnesses - both activists and family members who witnessed the
crime. For instance, in the short time we spent at Halol camp (Panchmahals
district) we were able to get information about four incidents of rape. The
fact-finding team also saw video footage where women spoke of witnessing rapes.
In the film we saw slogans like - Muslims
Quit India - or we will f*** your mothers - written on the walls of charred
houses.
We reproduce below some of
the testimonies that we were able to record.
A. Testimonies of Sexual
Violence
WITNESSING
MASS RAPE (INCLUDING MINOR GIRLS)
NARODA
PATIA, AHMEDABAD, FEBRUARY 28, 2002[3]
“The mob started chasing us with burning tyres after we were forced to leave Gangotri society. It was then that they raped many girls. We saw about 8-10 rapes. We saw them strip 16-year-old Mehrunissa. They were stripping themselves and beckoning to the girls. Then they raped them right there on the road. We saw a girl’s vagina being slit open. Then they were burnt. Now there is no evidence.”
Source: Kulsum Bibi, Shah
e Alam Camp, March 27, 2002
“I saw Farzana being raped
by Guddu Chara. Farzana was about 13 years old. She was a resident of Hussain
Nagar. They put a saria (rod) in
Farzana’s stomach. She was later burnt. 12 year old Noorjahan was also raped.
The rapists were Guddu, Suresh and Naresh Chara and Haria. I also saw Bhawani
Singh, who works in the State Transport Department kill 5 men and a boy.”
Source: Azharuddin, 13
years. He witnessed the rapes while hiding on the terrace of Gangotri Society.
The Chara basti is located just behind Jawan Nagar.
The mob, which came from
Chara Nagar and Kuber Nagar, started burning people at around 6 in the evening.
The mob stripped all the girls of the locality, including my 22-year-old
daughter, and raped them. My daughter was engaged to be married. 7 members of my
family were burnt including my wife (aged 40), my sons (aged 18, 14 and 7) and
my daughters (aged 2, 4 and 22). My eldest daughter, who later died in the civil
hospital, told me that those who raped her were wearing shorts. They hit her on
the head and then burnt her. She died of 80% burn injuries.
Source: Abdul Usman,
Testimony recorded by Citizens Initiative
SULTANI, A RAPE survivor,
SPEAKS
VILLAGE ERAL, KALOL TALUKA,
PANCHMAHALS DISTRICT, FEBRUARY 28th, 2002[4]
On
the afternoon of February 28th
to escape the violent mob, about 40 of us got on to a tempo, wanting to escape
to Kalol. My husband Feroze was driving the tempo. Just outside Kalol a Maruti
car was blocking the road. A mob was lying in wait. Feroze had to swerve. The
tempo overturned. As we got out they started attacking us. People started
running in all directions. Some of us ran towards the river. I fell behind as I
was carrying my son, Faizan. The men caught me from behind and threw me on the
ground. Faizan fell from my arms and started crying. My clothes were stripped
off by the men and I was left stark naked. One by one the men raped me. All the
while I could hear my son crying. I lost count after 3. They then cut my foot
with a sharp weapon and left me there in that state.
Source:
Sultani, Kalol Camp, Panchmahals District, March 30, 2002
Additional
facts about the case:
· We
had heard about Sultani’s case from her relatives in Halol camp. The details and
sequence of events of both testimonies matched.
· Sultani
has not undergone a medical examination. Her leg had been swollen for three
weeks as a result of the injury inflicted by a sharp weapon, but it is healing
now.
· No
FIR has been filed though a written statement has been submitted to the DSP. In
her statement she names some men from the mob (Jitu Shah, PDS Shop owner of
Delol village; Ashok Patel alias Don Dadhi of Ramnath village)
· When
we spoke with her and her sister-in-law they both said they were feeling numb
and lost, as they did not know where to go from the Camp. She categorically
stated that they could not go back to her village. She was terribly worried
about the future especially her children’s. Sultani has still not been told that
her husband had died in the attack. She believes he is missing.
A MOTHER’S ACCOUNT OF HER
DAUGHTER’S RAPE
VILLAGE ERAL, KALOL TALUKA ,
PANCHMAHALS DISTRICT. MARCH 3, 2002[5]
My
father-in-law, a retired schoolteacher, refused to leave the village with the
other Muslim families who fled to Kalol on February 28th.
He believed no one would harm us. From the 28th
about 13 members of my family sought refuge in various people’s houses and the
fields. On Sunday afternoon (March 3rd) the hut we were hiding in was attacked.
We ran in different directions and hid in the field. But the mob found some of
us and started attacking. I could hear various members of my family shouting for
mercy as they were attacked. I recognized two people from my village - Gano
Baria and Sunil - pulling away my daughter Shabana. She screamed, telling the
men to get off her and leave her alone. The screams and cries of Ruqaiya,
Suhana, Shabana, begging for their izzat could clearly be heard. My mind
was seething with fear and fury. I could do nothing to help my daughter from
being assaulted sexually and tortured to death. My daughter was like a flower,
still to experience life. Why did they have to do this to her? What kind of men
are these? The monsters tore my beloved daughter to pieces. After a while, the
mob was saying “cut them to pieces, leave no evidence.” I saw fires being lit.
After some time the mob started leaving. And it became
quiet.
Source:
Medina Mustafa Ismail Sheikh, Kalol camp, Panchmahals district, March 30,
2002
Additional
facts about the case:
· Medina’s
testimony has been corroborated by the other two living witnesses - Mehboob and
Khushboo. Khushboo in her testimony also recounted how her grandfather (Medina’s
father-in-law) and Huriben were killed. She also narrated how Ruqaiya’s pajamas
were taken off and then one by one the men started “poking her in the lower part
with their body”.
· We
saw a copy of Medina’s FIR, where the police has charged 5 persons with murder
under section 302. Charges of rape have not been included. The FIR uses the
colloquial phrase ‘bura kaam’ rather than the specific term ‘rape’. We were also
given the case report prepared by the camp leaders. The names of some of the
accused are mentioned in the FIR.
GANG RAPE OF 25 YEAR OLD
ZARINA: A HUSBAND’S ACCOUNT
HUSSAIN NAGAR, NARODA PATIA,
AHMEDABAD. FEBRUARY 28, 2002
It started at 9 am on
February 28th. That’s when the mobs
arrived, shouting - Mian Bhai nikalo
(Bring out the Muslims). Many of
them were wearing kesari chaddis
(saffron shorts or underwear) The mob included boys from the neighbouring
buildings – Gopinath Society and Gangotri Society. I ran out of my house with
the entire family – mother, father, sister, sister’s daughter, my wife Zarina,
my brother, my sister-in-law, and my niece…there were 11 of us. We all ran
towards the Police chowki. The Police said, ‘Go towards Gopinath and Gangotri’.
In the melee, I was separated from my wife. What happened to her, she told me
later. She tried to escape the mobs by leaping over a wall. But found herself in
a cul-de-sac. They gang-raped her, and cut one arm. She was found naked. She was
kept in the civil hospital for many days. Now she is recovering with her mother
near the Khanpur darwaza.
Source: Naimuddin Ibrahim
Sheikh, 30 year old husband of Zarina. Shah-e-Alam Camp, March 27,
2002. His
family migrated from Gulbarga in Karnataka in 1971. He was born in Naroda.
Naimmudin’s testimony was corroborated by Mumtaz, who was among the women who
found Zarina naked in the maidan.
RAPE
OF 13 YEAR OLD YASMIN
VILLAGE
DELOL, PANCHMAHALS DISTRICT. MARCH 1, 2002
The extended families of
Mohammad Bhai and Bhuri Behn – about 20 people - were chased by the mob to the
river. Javed and another boy who managed to escape and hide behind a bush saw
the mob kill Mohammad Bhai and rape Yasmin. They were about to kill the mother
of the other boy who was hiding with him. So he screamed and ran out from behind
the bush and was caught. He was made to walk around the dead bodies that were
burnt (as if around a pyre) and he was then pushed into the fire.
Source: Women from Delol
at Halol Camp, Panchmahals district, March 30, 2002. Javed, Mohammad Bhai’s
nephew, had come to Delol to help his uncle. He had narrated this to several of
the women from Delol. Javed has returned to his village, Desar.
STRIPPING
AND BRUTALISING OF AN ENTIRE FAMILY, LIMKHEDA VILLAGE.
DHEROL
STATION, HALOL TALUKA, PANCHMAHALS DISTRICT. FEBRUARY 28,
2002
35 year
old Haseena Bibi Yasin Khan Pathan along with her entire extended family of 17
people ran from Limkheda on the morning of February 28th. At 7
am they caught the train from Limkheda Station, disembarked at Dherol Station at
10 am. That’s when they encountered the mob. Every one ran helter-skelter and
the family got separated. Haseena, her husband, and young daughter managed to
run towards Halol. Two children, Farzana (10 years old) and Sikandar (7 years
old) escaped into the fields. Four boys – Ayub, (age 12), Mushtaq, (age 12),
Mohsin, (age 10), and Shiraz (age 7) managed to hide behind bushes, and
witnessed what happened. There was a large crowd. They were wearing pant-shirt
and brandishing swords. According to Ayub, the mob caught his sister Afsana and
cousins Zebu, Noorjehan, Sitara, Akbar, Rehana, Yusuf, Imran, Khatun (Aunt) and
Zareef (brother). They were all stripped naked and made to run towards a nearby
canal. That’s the last Ayub saw of them. The bodies turned up charred near the
canal the following day. He doesn’t recognize the mob. No FIR has been
lodged.
Source: Ayub, Halol Camp,
Panchmahals district. The first part of the testimony is corroborated by his
mother, Haseena Bibi.
ACTIVISTS’ EXPERIENCES OF
DEALING WITH RAPE survivors
SHAH-E- ALAM RELIEF CAMP,
AHMEDABAD.
Naseem and Mahmooda, from
nearby Millat Nagar, work with Sahrwaru, a voluntary organization. They are
presently working at the Shah Alam camp. They testified that many women arrived
stark naked at the camp. Men took off their shirts to cover the women’s
nakedness. Some could barely walk because of torn genitals as a result of gang
rapes. While talking to them we met Zubeida Apa, an elderly woman who has
witnessed girls being gang raped. Her trauma was writ large on her face. We did
not dare to rake up her pain by asking her more questions. We were told about
Najma Bano who was brought to the camp unconscious, her body covered with bites
and nail marks. She was bleeding profusely. Pieces of wood, which had been
shoved up her vagina were extricated by the women who dressed her wounds. Najma
Bano herself was too traumatized to recount her own story. She says she does not
remember anything, except being chased by the men from Gangotri Society.
Accounts like these require further follow-up.
Source: Naseem and
Mehmooda, Millat Nagar
The following testimonies
have been taken from documentation supplied to the fact-finding team by Citizens
Initiative, Ahmedabad:
MASS RAPE AND
MURDER
NARODA PATIA. FEBRUARY 28,
2002[6]
By now
it was 6.30 in the evening. The mob caught my husband and hit him on his head
twice with the sword. Then they threw petrol in his eyes and then burned him. My
sister-in- law was stripped and raped. She had a three-month old baby in her
lap. They threw petrol on her and the child was taken from her lap and thrown in
the fire. My brother-in-law was also struck on the head with the sword and
thrown in the fire. We were at the time hiding on the terrace of a building. My
mother-in-law was unable to climb the stairs 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, then 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 into her stomach. The mayhem ended at
2.30 am. Then the ambulance came 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, which were
caused by the police beating. My husband (48 % burns), my daughter (95 % burns)
both died in the hospital after three days. The police was on the spot but they
were 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.
Source:
Jannat Sheikh, testimony to Citizens Initiative.
BILKEES:
ACCOUNT OF A RAPE Survivor
RANDHIKPUR
VILLAGE, DISTRICT DAHOD[7].
MARCH 3, 2002
Twenty-one year old Bilkees
was five months pregnant. When Muslim houses in her village were attacked on
February 28th, by a mob comprising upper caste people from her own village and
some outsiders, she and several of her family members fled. For two days they
ran from village to village. At a mosque near Kuajher, her cousin Shamim,
delivered a baby. But there was no respite for them. They had to leave
immediately, including Shamim who could barely walk, carrying her newborn baby.
On March 3rd we had started
moving towards Panivela village, which was in a remote and hilly area. Suddenly
we heard the sound of a vehicle. A truck came with people from our own village
and outsiders too. We realised that 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. The other women and I were taken aside and raped. I was raped by three
men. I was screaming all the time. 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 newborn baby, their bodies were covered with the
rocks and boulders used to kill them. 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 then brought to the Godhra Camp.
Testimony to AIDWA and
Anandi
Additional facts about the
case:
· Her
FIR has been filed and a medical examination done on the insistence of the
District collector, Jayanti Ravi, even though six-days had passed. Rape has been
confirmed.
· She has named the people who
killed her family members and those who raped her: Sailesh Bhatt, Mithesh Bhatt,
Vijay Maurya, Pradeep Maurya, Lala Vakil, Lala Doctor, Naresh Maurya, Jaswant
Nai and Govind Nai (the last three gang-raped her)
· Initially all her family
members were missing. Her father and husband have been traced to another camp at
Dahod and her brother, Saeed, is with her in Godhra.
|
A
META-NARRATIVE OF BESTIALITY “But what they did
to my sister-in-law’s sister Kausar Bano was horrific and heinous. She was
9 months pregnant. They cut open her belly, took out her foetus with a
sword and threw it into a blazing fire. Then they burnt her as
well.” Source: Saira Banu,
Naroda Patia (recorded at the Shah-e-Alam Camp on March 27th, 2002). During our
fact-finding mission, we were to hear this story many times. We read about
it in other fact-finding reports. We were told about it by many survivors
at the Shah-e-Alam camp. Sometimes the details would vary – the foetus was
dashed to the ground, the foetus was slaughtered with a sword, the foetus
was swung on the point of the sword and then thrown into a fire. Each
teller of the story owned it. It was as if it was their own story. Were
these simply the fevered imaginings of traumatized minds? We think not.
Kausar’s story has come to embody the numerous experiences of evil that
were felt by the Muslims of Naroda Patia on February 28, 2002. In all
instances where extreme violence is experienced collectively,
meta-narratives are constructed. Each victim is part of the narrative;
their experience subsumed by the collective experience. Kausar is that
collective experience – a meta-narrative of bestiality; a meta-narrative
of helpless victimhood. There are a thousand Kausars.
Members of the
fact-finding team have seen photographic evidence of the burnt bodies of a
mother and a foetus lying on the mother’s belly, as if torn from the
uterus and left on the gash. We do not know if that was Kausar
Bano. |
B.
Sexual Violence and the Media
In many ways women have been
the central characters in the Gujarat carnage, and their bodies the
battleground. The Gujarati vernacular press has been the agent provocateur. The
story starts with Godhra, where out of the 58 Hindus burnt, 26 were women and 14
children. But to really arouse the passions of the Hindu mob, death is not
enough. Far worse than death is the rape of Hindu women – for it is in and on
the bodies of these women that the izzat (honour) of the community is
vested. So on February 28th,
Sandesh, a leading Gujarati Daily, in addition to reporting the Godhra tragedy
in provocative language, also ran a story on Page 1 saying the following:
“10-15 Hindu women were dragged away by a
fanatic mob from the railway compartment”. The same story was repeated on Page 16 with
the heading “Mob dragged away 8-10 women
into the slums”. The story
was entirely false. The Police denied the incident, and other newspapers,
including the Times of India could not find confirmation of this news. A day
later, on March 1, 2002 Sandesh carried
a follow-up to this false story on Page 16 with the heading – “Out of kidnapped young ladies from
Sabarmati Express, dead bodies of two women recovered – breasts of women were
cut off.” [8]
Violation of Hindu honour was now compounded by extreme sexual violence and
bestiality. Both the abduction and the cutting of breasts were lies - totally
baseless stories, which were denied by the Police. The fact-finding team was
told that later Sandesh did publish
a small retraction, buried in some corner of its pages. But the damage had been
done. The murder and rape of Hindu women, emblazoned in banner headlines across
the vernacular press became the excuse, the emotional rallying point, the
justification for brutalizing Muslim women and children in ways not ever seen in
earlier communal carnages. Unhonne hamari auraton aur bachchon par
hamla kiya hai. Badla to lena tha (they have attacked our women and
children we had to take revenge) – goes the sentiment of the angry Hindu. The
newspaper literally became a weapon of war. According to a series of eyewitness
accounts from Naroda Patia, the worst affected area in Ahmedabad, the mobs who
attacked Muslim shops, homes, and brutalized Muslim women and children, were
brandishing in their hands not only swords and stones, but copies of the Sandesh with the Godhra attack as the
banner headline, shouting “khoon ka badla khoon” (blood for
blood).
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.
When the fact-finding team
met Aziz Tankarvi, editor of Gujarat Today, known to represent the
Muslim voice’ He said clearly. “ Murder
ho jata hai, chot lagti hai, to aadmi chup sahan kar leta hai, lekin agar maa,
behen, beti ke saath ziyadti hoti hai to voh jawaab dega, badla lega.” (When
someone is murdered you are hurt. But man can bear it quietly; it is when your
mothers and daughters are violated, then he definitely responds, takes revenge).
The fact that rape is perceived in this manner (as violating the honour of men, and not the
integrity of women) is problematic in and of itself. What is particularly
heinous is the fact that the Sandesh
newspaper should fabricate stories of sexual violence, and use images of
brutalized women’s bodies as a weapon of war; in terrible ways deliberately
designed to provoke real violence against women from the Muslim community. What
provocative lies a la Sandesh do, is
to provide justification for the carnage – both in the minds of the mobs who
carry out the violence, and in the minds of the general “Hindu” public which may
be far removed from the site of the violence.
Ironically while false
stories about the rape of Hindu women have done the rounds, there has been
virtual silence in the media, including in the English language papers, about
the real stories of sexual violence against Muslim women. Barring Gujarat Today, none of the Gujarati
vernacular papers has carried stories about the brutal, bestial ways in which
Muslim women were raped and burnt. Even Gujarat Today, despite being
sympathetic to the Muslim experience, could only supply us with one clipping
where the brutal experience of rape has been written about. The Times of India, since the beginning
of the carnage, until April 1,2002, carried only one story about rape. The
excuse was March 8th, International Women’s Day (TOI, 9/3/02,
“Women’s Day Means Nothing for Rape Riot Victims”). When members of the
fact-finding team spoke to senior journalists in Ahmedabad, their explanation
was that rape stories are provocative, and that in the early days of the
violence, they had to play a socially responsible role, and not incite more
violence. But in the weeks that followed, the Press has continued to do
self-censorship about rape stories.[9]
We find that, yet again
Muslim women are being victimized twice over. They have suffered the most
unimaginable forms of sexual abuse during the Gujarat carnage. And yet, there is
no one willing to tell their stories to the world. Women’s bodies have been
employed as weapons in this war – either through grotesque image-making or as
the site through which to dishonour men, and yet women are being asked to bear
all this silently. Women do not want more communal violence. But peace cannot be
bought at the expense of the truth, or at the expense of women’s right to tell
the world what they have suffered in Gujarat.
SCARS
ON THE MIND
Saira
age 12, Afsana, age 11, Naina, age 12, Anju, age 12, Rukhsat, age 9,
Nilofer, age 10, Nilofer, age 9, Hena, age 11 They’re all
survivors from the horrors of Naroda Patia in Ahmedabad where more than 80
people were burnt alive and
many women raped and maimed in what is probably the worst carnage in the
current spiral of violence. The girls are young and making sense of what
they have seen and heard seems impossible. But they have been scarred for
life, their trust in Hindus shattered. They speak of ‘evil Hindus’. The
Hindu who burnt our home. The Hindu who didn’t let us escape.
Some of them have seen
with their eyes things no child should see. Others have only heard things.
But they are still things no child should hear. “Hinduon ne bura kaam
kiya”(Hindus have done ‘bad things’ – a euphemism for rape), they tell us,
as their eyes shift uneasily. They look at each other as if seeking silent
affirmation of what none of them really comprehended.
Or, did
they? “Balatkaar” (Rape) –
they know this word. “Mein bataoon Didi” (Shall I tell you?), volunteers a
nine year old, “Balatkaar ka matlab jab aurat ko nanga karte hain aur phir
use jala deta hain.” (Rape is when a woman is stripped naked and then
burnt) And then looks fixedly at the floor. Only a child can tell it like
it is. For this is what happened again and again in Naroda Patia – women
were stripped, raped and burnt. Burning has now become an essential part
of the meaning of rape. Hindus hate us, they
say. Why? Because we celebrate all their festivals – we play Holi, we love patakas at Diwali, but the Hindus can’t celebrate our festivals. That’s why they’re jealous. So jealous that this year they did not even let us take out Tazia processions (in fact the decision to not allow tazia processions on the 10th of Moharram was taken by the Muslim community itself, for fear of violence). These girls
became friends only in the camp, although they all grew up and lived in
Naroda Patia. Now they will probably share a life-long unspoken bond of
victim-hood. But they are children still. Resilient. Survivors. Their eyes
still bright and curious. They even giggle occasionally, as they follow us
around Shah-e-Alam, scampering easily over human beings scattered like
debris around the relief camp. But will they ever forget? Will Naina, who
once had scores of Hindu friends, have them again? Will she trust
again? Venue:
Shah-e-Alam Relief Camp, Ahmedabad Date: March 27, 2002 |
Section II
WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES OF THE
STATE
A. POLITICAL
COMPLICITY
“Arre ye Narendra Modi ne hi
sab kuch kiya. Hamara zindagi barbaad kiya.” (That Narendra Modi, he
did all this. He is the one who has ruined our lives) This is how the Muslim
women of Gujarat see their Chief Minister - as the man who has ruined their
lives forever. “Sarkar” (Government)? “What sarkar, they ask?” In the words of
countless women who have been devastated by the continuing violence, the State
of Gujarat had simply disappeared when they needed it most. The State –
including elected representatives, the political executive, the administration,
and the police – abdicated its responsibility to protect all its citizens. Far worse, it
actively connived in the maiming, raping, and butchering of hundreds of women
and children of Gujarat. More than five weeks after the post-Godhra carnage
began, no effort is being made to ensure punishment of the guilty. FIRs are not
being lodged, compensation not given. The relief camps are running only through
the efforts of the Muslim community, with occasional help from the government.
Narendra Modi visited the Shah-e-Alam relief camp (among the largest, housing
over 10,000 refugees) for the first time when he accompanied the PM on April
4th, 2002.
MAYA KODNANI, BJP MLA
The fact-finding team met
Maya Kodnani, the BJP MLA from Naroda Patia, one of the worst affected areas in
Ahmedabad. She has also been named in an FIR as having participated in the
Naroda Patia carnage on February 28th, 2002.
Ø She showed no remorse at the
State abdicating responsibility. There was nothing the State could do, she says.
“There was a natural ghrina (hatred)
and aakrosh (anger) in the heart of
every Hindu and we could not control it.”
Ø Maya Kodnani’s estimates of
the size of the mobs that attacked Naroda Patia (50,000 to 1 lakh) far exceed
the largest estimates given by eyewitnesses to the mob violence. Her claim,
therefore, that the Police were “utterly helpless” in the face of this flood of
anger, appeared untenable.
Ø Maya Kodnani found time to
visit Ahmedabad Station to receive bodies of the Godhra victims, who are not her
constituents. But not once in over a month has she found time to visit the
Muslim relief camps, where thousands of her constituents are strewn around like
human debris.
Ø Ms. Kodnani denies even
knowing where all her Muslim constituents have fled.
Ø She also denies any
knowledge about the large number of rapes having occurred at Naroda Patia during
the mayhem.
Ø She admitted that only 16
people were arrested in the Naroda Patia incidents, out of which only 5 or 6
remain in jail, while the rest have been released on bail.
Ø Maya Kodnani claims that
this kind of communal violence is part of Gujarat ki prakruti and Gujarat ki taasir. It is a natural part
of life, and should be accepted as such.
Ø She dismissed the FIR lodged
against her as being false merely because it was filed 18 days after the
violence. She claimed that Doordarshan had footage proving that she was
elsewhere at the time.
(A detailed account of the
conversation with Maya Kodnani is attached in Annexure 2.1)
NATHIBEHN: MAHILA SARPANCH
Another case of State
participation in the violence was provided by Laxmipura Village in Khed Brahma Taluka
of Sabarkantha District. The fact-finding team visited this village because it
had a Mahila Sarpanch, Nathibehn,
whose husband and son have been identified as leading the mobs who torched
Muslim homes on the evening of February 27th, 2002. .
Ø Nathibehn was clearly only a puppet
Sarpanch. The de-facto Sarpanch was her husband Jitu Bhai Patel.
Ø Jitu Bhai Patel and his son Ramesh
Patel (both members of the local VHP unit) justified the torching of Muslim
homes, saying Godhra was the beginning and that Muslims always start everything,
never the Hindus. They also claimed that Muslims from almost every village in
Gujarat had gone to participate in the Godhra ‘murders’.
Ø The entire family – Nathibehn, Jitu
Bhai, and Ramesh expressed a great deal of hatred for Muslims, and said that
Muslims could only live in the village if they followed village tradition i.e.
shaved their beards, stopped wearing caps etc.
Ø Sarpanch Nathibehn denied knowing
the whereabouts of the Muslims who have been forced to flee
Laxmipura.
(A detailed account of the
discussions in Laxmipura is attached as Annexure 2.2)
KESHUBHAI PATEL, SARPANCH
While there are examples of elected representatives actively participating or condoning violence against Muslims, blaming it on an “unstoppable flood of Hindu anger”, the fact-finding team also found evidence that where State actors chose to protect Muslims, they managed to do so successfully. Chithroda Village in Khed Brahma Taluka provides an example. Here the Sarpanch Keshubhai Patel claims that he got anonymous phone calls from mob leaders trying to assess the level of support inside the village for their entry. He refused to allow the mobs to enter his village, or harm the 40 odd Muslim families in any wa