Secular Perspectives Report on Dadri (India) Lynching
The report below is from the Secular Perspectives.
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Team members: Bonojit Hussain (New Socialist Initiative), Deepti
Sharma (Saheli), Kiran Shaheen (writer and activist), Naveen Chander (New
Socialist Initiative), Sanjay Kumar (People's Alliance for
Democracy and Secularism and New Socialist Initiative) and Sanjeev
Kumar (Delhi Solidarity Group)
On the night of 28 September, in a heinous instance
of hate crime Mohammad Akhlaq a resident of Bisara village of Dadri in western
Uttar Pradesh was lynched to death and his son Danish brutally assaulted by a
mob of villager over a rumour that Mr. Akhlaq and his family had slaughtered a
calf and consumed its meat. Just before the lynching, an announcement was made
from the local temple to spread the rumour, within moments a mob constituted
itself and attacked Mr. Akhlaq resulting in his lynching. Mr. Akhlaq’s son
Danish has been in hospital since that night and despite undergoing two brain
surgeries his condition is still said to be critical.
We, a six member team of activists, went to Bisara village in Dadri on 03
October 2015, the day when there were news reports that a thousand women have
been mobilized to prevent the media from entering the village. The women pelted
stones at media personnel and OB vans because of the alleged'disrepute’ they
were bringing to the village and for disrupting ‘normal’ life.
We arrived in the
afternoon and encountered some media OB vans on the road leading up to the
village. As we proceeded towards the village, the visibility of police presence
kept increasing. At one point we stopped to talk to the police about the
situation in the village and we were told very clearly that the villagers were
very angry about outsiders coming in and they can’t really tell us what kind of
reactions we might face from the villagers. The police strongly advised us to
not go in to the village and also told us that if something were to happen then
it would not be their responsibility.
We managed to
proceed to the village after speaking on the phone to the village
Pradhan,Sanjeev Rana, who sent someone to ‘safely’ escort usto his house, where
we met him and some other men from the village. After that, we visited Mohammad
Akhlaq’s house and met his family. We also briefly attended a meeting of
village elders called by the District Magistratewho upon figuring out that we are
not from the village requested us to leave saying they are trying to resolve
issues internally. In addition, there was some interaction with men who were
around.
1. Some Facts about Bisara Village
Bisara is a large
villagein Western UP. It has an inter-college, a market and the presence of
many industrial plants in the surrounding areas. A canal runs close to the
village. The village appeared to have a thriving agricultural economy. However,
we were told that a substantial number of men also work outside the village.
The area has recently been re-categorized from rural to an urban zone. It now
comes under Greater Noida urban administrative zone, due to which it is not
going to have village panchayat elections again.
The numbers for
the total population we got varied from 15000 to 18000 people. 300 were
reported to be Muslim. Rajputs (who mainly use the Rana surname) are the
dominant caste, owning most of the land. We were told that there are also over
100 Jatav families, and approximately similar numbers of Valmiki families.
Muslims appear to belargely landless artisans.
Mohammad Akhlaq
owned a shop in front of the village inter-college where he repaired iron
implements. Three Muslim households live in the main part of the village, in a
narrow lane behind village pradhan's house. Akhlaq's house is one of these. All
other Muslim families live in another part of the village. The village
apparently has an old mosque (approximately 70-80 years old) and an Idgah. It
is possible that before 1947 it was home to a substantial number of Muslim
Rajputs, who migrated out to Pakistan. We were told that the Muslims now living
there are Saifis (a caste of Muslim ironsmiths or Lohars).
2. Narratives in the Village
(a) The three
village youth we talked to outside the village near the canal told us in hushed
voices that the meat in the Akhlaq’s fridge indeed was beef (“Large hoofs, ears
and white skin, it could only be cow!” was their refrain). They all said they
had heard it from others who had seen these. They had little remorse over the
murder.
These three
village youth were Class XI/XII students in the village inter-college. When we
asked how and what happened. Their first reaction was what happened was both
“good and bad”. Bad because somebody lost his life and good because by
slaughtering a cow Akhlaq betrayed the goodwill of the Hindus. The Mosque and
the Idgah stands on Hindu land, despite the benevolence of the majority
community what Akhlaq did can be captured by the saying “jis thali main khaya, usi main ched kiya”. These youths also
strongly asserted that “Akhlaq’s family will get new house and compensation
from the Government, what else do they want?”
(b) A man on a
motorbike with milk cans argued vociferously against media induced disruption
of ordinary life. His refrain was 'our children are unable to go to school and
college' and ‘an internal matter of the village has been unnecessarily made
into this big issue’. However, we did later see two 7-8 year old girls in
uniform with big school bags, though perhaps they were coming from one of the
private schools, or tuition. The village has a Sarawati Shishu Mandir school,
with a large new board, close to the inter college on the main village road.
(c) The village
pradhan and others emphasized on how the Hindus have always cared for Muslims
in the village. The pradhan said that he had given Rs. 40,000/- from his own
pocketfor the renovation of village mosque because the Muslimcommunity did not
have the resources to renovate it by themselves. He said that other Rajputs of
the village too had contributed. To further illustrate this goodwill amongst
communities in the village, he narrated an incident of last year when the
Rajputs from the village had sat on a dharna in Dadri, after a Muslim woman (from
the village, but married outside) was killed in a road accident. Apparently,
men from the village were still facing a court case because of that protest.
When asked about
what according to him transpired on the night of the murder, the pradhan told us
that he was in his farm house that night, which is two kilometres away from the
village. He claims that he became aware in the incident only after the
announcement from the village temple had been made and the mob had already
proceeded towards Akhlaq's house, and by the time he managed to reach the
village Mr. Akhlaq's was already dead. According to him, only young men were
‘involved’ and elders came to know about it after the murder.
(d) Relatives/
family friends of Mr. Akhlaq thought he was targeted because theirs' was a
relatively well-off Muslim family.Mr. Akhlaq's elder brother in the meeting of
village elders called by the DM said that lumpenisation, everydayness of ruckus
after drinking, and petty crimes were on rise in the village for some time. But
villagers had not taken any action.
The DM in the
meeting with village elders was trying to impress upon them to disclose the
identity of the culprits. His refrain was those (young men) involved in the
crime will tomorrow attack their own villagers and families. He had allowed the
media in the village these past days because he did not want to create the
impression that the administration was trying to hide something. From next day,
only those with the clearance of the Commanding Officer (of the police), and
whom Akhlaq's family wanted to meet would be allowed in the village. On some of
us standing on the side, he asked us to leave as this was an 'internal'
meeting.
The estimates of
how many constituted the mob varied. While the Pradhan said it was anywhere
near 2000-2500 people; in the DM’s meeting two different estimates emerged. One
elderly Hindu man put the numbers at around 500 people, the DM himself referred
to it as mob of somewhere between 500 to 1500 men.
(e) At a rather
superficial level, most people we talked to said that killing of Akhlaq is sad.
But there was no visible sense of remorse in the village. While they claimed it
was an unfortunate event, in the same breath people pointed out that it had
been turned into a big issue by the media that has brought shame and bad name
to this supposedly “peaceful” 800 years old village.
(f) Leave aside
any lack of remorse, the major reason people were agitated is that the “media
has only been focusing on Akhlaq’s death and his family. It is not even mentioning
the concerns of the “other side” (the Hindus), ie; “Hindu youth being picked up
randomly by the police”.
3. Our Observations
(a) The narrow
lane leading to MohammadAkhlaq's house is barely four feet wide. It cannot
accommodate more than twenty people at a time. It is unlikely that the mob
which attacked could be a thousand strong. The heinous crime may actually be
the handiwork of a much smaller number of people. In fact, the talk of a large
mob may be a ruse to 'normalize' the crime, and show it somehow enjoying a
popular support. By all indications it appears that while there were a large
number of young men who were part of his mob, there was a small group of men
who actually murdered Mr. Akhlaq. The claim of a very large mob is also often a
ruse to prevent identification of individuals involved under the obfuscated
identity of thousands of people.
(b) The houses
are so cluttered and close to each other that it is impossible for Akhlaq to
have butchered a calf in his house without the neighbours noticing it. If he
butchered it outside his house, then it is very surprising that while he could
secretly kill the calf, but was foolish enough to be found with ears and hoofs,
as said in the narrative of the village young men we talked to. There is now a
clever shift in the dominant narrative. It has moved from butchering the cow to
beef found in his house.
(c) A spontaneous
mobs is not usually selective in their attack,in this case Akhlaq's brothers’
house right next to his and was not even touched; in all likelihood the crime
was not the result of a spontaneous mob fury. The crime was the result of a
criminal conspiracy, known to a few people, but who were very sure that the
people at large will not oppose them.
The immediate aim of the investigation should be to isolate these
people, and give them speedy punishment.
Media has
reported the existence of Hindutva organizations active in the area in the name
of 'cow protection'. Their role in the crime should be investigated.
In fact, on our
way out of the village, we noticed a Scorpio vehicle parked outside the village
road on the arterial road, which had a flex banner on the rear windshield,
which read “Hindu Gau Raksha Dal” (Hindu Cow Protection Party).
(d) MohammadAkhlaq's
family is terrified and isolated. We met his elder brother, younger sister,
daughter-in-law of the older son and few other relatives. Apart from the elder
brother, none of them live in the village and had arrived after hearing of the
incident. They are worried about the son (Danish) who is in hospital battling
injuries from the attack and also for their 82 year old mother who was injured.
We could not meet
Mr. Akhlaq’s wife or his mother but we briefly spoke to the other two women
separately, but in the presence of a womanpolice constable. They expressed
shock and horror about how this could have happened in a place where they have
been living for generations. They also said that hardly any neighbour or people
they knew for long have come to offer any help or condolence. They said they
don’t want to live in the village anymore and feel scared just by thinking
about what will happen when the police presence will not be there.
According to
them, the mob seemed large enough in number and many were known/familiar faces.
Mr. Akhlaq’s sister took us to the first floor of the house where the mob had
‘found’ him ‘hiding’. The bricks that were used to support the double bed were
used to attack him and his son. There were splashes of dried blood, broken
rods, spilt over rice, a broken sewing machine, an over turned fridge and
charpoy; all left intact the way it was. We were told that some people had most
likely come to collect some evidence/samples. Mr. Akhlaq’s sister told us ‘un logon ne usski biwi or maa ki izzat pe
haat dalne ki bhi koshish ki…’ (the mob tried to sexually attack Mr.
Akhlaq’s wife and mother). But circumstances and time did not allow us to talk
to the women more about it.
(e) Back in the
village, the pradhan again brought up the common narrative of peaceful co-existence.
It was asserted that even during the partition or Babri Masjid demolition or
during the Muzaffarnagar communal riots nothing apparently happened in this
village. The strong emphasis on this “history” seems to be ploy to put a
question mark to any suspicion/narrative of a planned attack that might arise
or have arisen. This emphasis is also a subtle way of putting the cause of the
outrage/attack on the alleged slaughter of a cow ie; Akhlaq’s house wouldn’t
have been attacked if he had allegedly (or rumoured) slaughtered a cow.
4) Brief Analysis
(a) The presence
of approximately 300 Muslims in a village of approximately 15000 people
dominated by Rajputs, in itself doesn’t give much scope for Hindu communal
mobilization. So a rumour of cow slaughter becomes the most feasible vehicle to
mobilize a certain dominant agrarian caste on a Hindu plank against Muslims in
general. This is a similar trend of mobilizing a dominant caste against Muslims
that was also visible during the riots in Muzaffarnagar in 2013.
(b) This
particular incident is also not something that can be seen in isolation just
because it happened for the first time in this particular village. There has
been a concerted campaign around ban on cow slaughter in India but more
specifically in Uttar Pradesh. In a recent event one person (from Sangh
Parivar) has been caught red-handed in Azamgarh while he was throwing cow meat
in a temple. Similarly such patterns of event and rumours were witnessed in
Muzaffarnagar, in Delhi’s Bawana and Najafgarh area in 2014. So, the narrative
of rather peaceful history might be true on the surface, but it does not
suggest that this “first of a kind incident” of this scale could have
happened just as an“accident”because of “hot-headedness of youth”.
(c) Another fact,
also common to other instance (also observed in the Muzaffarnagar
fact-findings), was women of the villages coming out very aggressively against
the police and media for their alleged “sympathies to Muslim family and biases
against the Hindus.” While in the meeting with the DM about maintaining peace
and identifying the culprits, there were no women present at all. Here it
should also be noted that as quoted in The Hindu, the SP (Rural) Dadri
confirmed that on Friday night Thakurs/Rajputs held two meetings to strategize
how to deal with media and its “one sided coverage”.
Even while it is
the work of a criminal conspiracy; the context of the crime is purely political
in the 'beef ban' politicking of the BJP. Many BJP ministers, MPs and others
have tried to deflect attention away from the enormity of the crime, by calling
it as an 'accident' (Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister and BJP MP from NOIDA), or
writing that 'lynching on mere suspicion is bad' (Tarun Vijay, spokesperson
BJP), indicating that if the suspicion turn out to be true it would have been
OK.
We demand:
- 1) Speedy arrest and bringing to book of all the men who participated in the murder of Mohammad Akhlaq.
- 2) That Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav ensures the safety of Akhlaq’s family and also of other Muslim families in the village.
- 3) That the Union Government take serious action against Union Minister Mahesh Sharma and other BJP leaders for attempting to justify this heinous crime and communally inciting the villagers further.
- 4) A criminal investigation of the role of Hindutva organizations who have been operating in this area be instituted.
- 5) That Prime Minister Modi break his shameful silence on this brutal incident.
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