A break in Bareilly calm

At the end of a lane in the Chahbai neighbourhood in Bareilly stands Akash Saxena’s house — or what remains of it. Inside he points to a mangled heap and says “that was our Godrej almirah”,and then toward another heap “that was a washing machine”.

In another neighbourhood,Subhash Nagar,Ikrar Ahmed opens the shutters of his shop to a blackened room. Charred sofas lie next to ashen tables and crumbling chairs. The burnt,melted fans on the ceiling droop down despondently and a white rosary on the wall is the only thing that’s intact in the room.

The two are set apart by a distance of 5 km and 10 days. Saxena’s house was attacked on March 2,the day trouble began in Bareilly,and Khan’s on March 12,the day trouble revisited Bareilly.

It all began when members of an anjuman (committee) participating in Juloos-e-Mohammadi,a procession to mark the birth of Prophet Mohammad,clashed with a group of Hindus,who objected to their passing through that particular way. It was March 2,a day after Holi. The exchange soon turned ugly,with both camps throwing stones at each other,and later some people allegedly burnt down shops and homes in the neigbourhood. With about 250 to 300 constables,the outnumbered police force tried to control the mobs but it took them a few hours and some reinforcements before they could succeed. Curfew was imposed about 6 pm.

“This time the numbers were huge,there were over 75,000 people in the procession. The troublemakers on both sides were shouting,fighting but actually they had no clue what they were fighting for,” says Rakesh Kumar Jolly,SP (city).

For the last 16 years,Anjuman Khudame Rasool has been organising the procession in the city,initially under the leadership of Subhani Mian,head cleric of Dargah-e-Ala Hazrat,the dargah of Maulana Ahmad Raza Khan under whom the Barelwi movement grew in the late 19th century. But then three years ago when the festivals of Holi and Id came at the same time,the Anjuman said it would take out the procession two days after Holi so as not to cause inconvenience to both communities but Subhani Mian refused to defer the procession. So,for the last three years,Bareilly has been hosting two processions — one by the Anjuman and the other by Subhani Mian.

After trouble broke out at the juloos organised by the Anjuman,curfew was imposed and things began to slide back to normal but then on March 8,Maulana Taqueer Raza Khan,president of the Ittihad-e-Millat Council,was arrested for his alleged inflammatory speeches during the procession.

Taqueer’s elder brother Subhani Mian held protests to demand his release and finally on March 11,he was released on bail. Taqueer’s release was met with protests from Hindus,who alleged that the administration had buckled under pressure. The next day,shops in a few neighbourhoods of Bareilly were attacked and curfew that had been relaxed for a few hours in the day,was clamped again.

“Apart from a few skirmishes,Bareilly doesn’t have a history of communal violence,not even after the Babri Masjid was demolished. This is the longest curfew it has seen,” says ADM (city) Ram Manohar Mishra. In all,nearly 400 people were arrested for the riots,of whom around 80 were released till last Thursday.

As for why Taqueer was arrested days after the event and why he was released two days later,SP (city) Jolly says,“Well,investigation takes time and we arrested him after our probe found he had made provocative speeches,and he was released on bail.”

Ever since his arrest and subsequent release,Maulana Taqueer Raza Khan has been a busy man. The congratulatory calls have not stopped coming and he sits in his living room receiving visitors who have come to express their support. “What I couldn’t do for so many years,my arrest has managed to do,” says Taqueer,head of the Ittihad-e-Millat Council (IMC). He is referring to unity (ittihad) among Muslims,his quest that had been unattainable in the past because of the rift between his sect,the Barelwis,and the Deobandis,followers of the reformist and more austere movement named after the town in Uttar Pradesh that’s home to its famous madrasa.

While the Barelwis have considerable presence in UP and across the country,the Deobandis are a powerful minority and the tussle is often over gaining and retaining control over followers.

“After my arrest,everybody — Deobandis,Shias — have been calling me to pledge their support for me. And why just Muslims,my party is for everybody,” says Taqueer.

The new-found unity may be tenuous but Taqueer seems assured that the incident has consolidated his position as a leader among Muslims. But he says he has no idea why he was arrested and why he was subsequently released. “I was some distance away on a stage and not at the spot where trouble began,so how could I have incited violence?” asks Taqueer who had on previous occasions vehemently opposed Taslima Nasreen’s stay and George Bush’s visit to India.

But sitting behind a low table in his visitor’s room that has a small aquarium at one end,Taqueer sees politics behind his arrest. “I was arrested because I gave my support to the Congress in the last elections. We have an alliance with the Congress and I have paid for it. Only the BJP stands to gain from this. By arresting me,the state government has given oxygen to the BJP which has been fighting for survival after the last elections,” he says.

For years,Bareilly has been a stronghold of the BJP. Its veteran leader,Santosh Gangwar,had been elected MP from Bareilly for nearly 20 years but lost in the last election,though by a narrow margin,to the Congress’s Praveen Aron,a win that Taqueer takes credit for.

Many in the city believe the BSP,increasingly insecure after the Congress’s performance in the state,tried to help the BJP corner Hindu votes by polarising the communities. The Congress’s Aron says this “appears to me personally under a wider game plan chalked out after a tacit understanding between the BJP and the BSP. I believe Bareilly was a test case and unfortunately it was successful”.

The BJP’s Santosh Gangwar,meanwhile,says the maximum loss in the riots was suffered by the Hindus and that the Maulana is rumoured to have met Chief Minister Mayawati after his release.

AS political parties vie for the spoils of the battle,Bareilly is gradually picking up the pieces. Masons are hard at work at burnt-out houses,shop assistants sweep away ashes from blackened shops.

After almost three weeks of curfew,Rajwati’s father,a vegetable vendor,has taken out his cart for the first time. In their small house in one of the affected areas,Rajwati and her family are assessing the damage.

They escaped,she says,thanks to their Muslims neighbours. “We had locked ourselves in the room. Fortunately,there was a backdoor and as we came out,our Muslim neigbours took us and a few more people in. About 20 of us stayed in their house that night.”

Though the wounds on both sides may take some time to heal,Bareilly is counting on its relatively peaceful history to help bridge the divide. “Bareilly is known for its Ganga-Jamni tehzeeb (composite culture),” says Qazi Alimuddin,who is associated with the Bareilly College and other minority institutes. “The population in the city is mixed,the karobar (industry) of each community is dependent on the other,their houses are next to each other,they live alongside each other.”

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