Not Just People Next Door

Mohalla committees that sprang up in Mumbai after the riots of 1992-93 have gone a long way in brokering peace between Hindus and Muslims despite serious provocation, says Smruti Koppikar

FOR THOSE of us who had a street-side view of the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai, it has been a terrifying edge-of-the-seat journey through these years, forever wondering when the country’s so-called cosmopolitan metropolis will plumb the depths of communal frenzy again. What provocation would make men behave like hungry beasts after a prey, even the men in uniform whose duty it is to protect? What spark would ignite passions in the city yet again? What perceived injustice would the self-styled peddlers of Hindutva find to incite violence? And Mumbai being Mumbai, we wondered when a quibble over a water tap in a slum would escalate into a communal riot and engulf the entire city.

Somewhere in the ashes of the 92-93 riots lay the kernel for a peace-keeping formula too. Somehow, people from all walks of life and sections of society who stood up to the communal frenzy and went around with a healing touch figured out a way to institutionalise that effort. Sometime during those terrible aftermath months in early 1993, a simple idea became a workable reality. Now, nine years later, the mohalla committee is part of the civil society structure in a city that usually has little time or mental space for such niceties.

Sceptics and cynics need to rewind to the momentous events of last year alone to see how much mohalla committees have had to with keeping the peace in the city. There have been many a provocation, enough reason for communal sentiment to assume disgusting forms — rumours of the Quran burning in Delhi, communal violence in nearby Malegaon, the terrorist strikes in the United States and most recently, the highly incendiary Gujarat burning — but on no occasion was the peace breached in Mumbai.

The toughest test, so far, has been the provocation from Gujarat and the run-up to the VHP’s show of obstinacy on March 15. Even 48 hours before the D-day, as the Supreme Court made its mind clear, peace held out against all else. Sure, there is anger among Muslims and aggressiveness among Hindutvawadis but both have been kept in check in hundreds of little pockets across the city, especially the mixed areas. Mumbaiites who have been involved in the mohalla committee process believe that if March 15 passes off without an incident, it would be like Graduation Day for them.

What is the mohalla committee that has suddenly gained respect and become the subject of dissertation study? More importantly, why does the concept mostly work?

It’s simple: Give people some power and make them responsible for their well-being. Every mohalla committee — and there are 20-odd in the city — has a sizeable number of people from the area who are regarded as elders, or have a standing of their own, or have the charisma to make others listen to them. The primary task of the mohalla committee is to maintain more-than-cordial relations between the two communities, largely Hindus and Muslims.

Mohalla committee members intervene in disputes, even personal or domestic quarrels if need be, organise little meetings or the cliched variety programme and liaise with the nearest police station all in the effort to maintain peace. If trouble breaks out, they broker peace too. If rumours go around, they go around killing the rumours before the rumours can kill. In troubled times, such as the present, these people-next-door have become the quintessential diplomats.

Going on an evening hike with a mohalla committee in say Nagpada or Dongri is an education in human resources management. Committee members assume the role of arbitrators, have a glass of chai and a little chat with an unusually angry person on an issue that no one has bothered to address that day, walk around with a cop or two spreading word that these men in khaki can be trusted in times of trouble and so on. Intervening in paan shop and street-side discussions that young men had on the Ahmedabad pogrom helped as much, if not more than the march of the khaki did.

Farid Shaikh, one of the earliest mohalla committee members, says, ‘‘The method we use to build confidence or bhaichara depends on the area and the mood that day. Some days we have to do some tough-talking, on other days we sit around with as many people as possible and just chat. The idea is: let the leaders create a bad situation, we won’t react to it.’’

Mohalla committees get into top gear action when there is a good reason to do so. At other times, they are just around. The more enterprising ones have members meet regularly, organise cricket matches like the one in JJ Marg near Dongri did a day after Godhra and Ahmedabad with an equal number of Hindus and Muslims in the teams, involve themselves in civic affairs like getting a water connection closer to a cluster of houses or interface with civic officials for better access to the main road and so on.

Who are these people? Farid Shaikh or businessman Nafis Sardar who organised the match or customs official Uday Deshpande or lawyer Yasmin Shaikh are real people like us but willing to walk that extra mile for peace, people who will not just tch-tch about the deteriorating communal relations in their drawing rooms but who are willing to even take a small cut in their businesses to help the cause of peace.

What helps them is the presence of retired senior police officials like J F Ribeiro and Satish Sahney among others in the Mohalla Committee Movement Trust that networks with the current crop of police officials who, in turn, put pressure on senior inspectors of police stations to work closely with mohalla committees. At their worst, members of a mohalla committee have been accused of being informants of the police and the infamous Memons of the blasts fame were part of the Mahim Committee, but that is the odd one out. Top cops like Police Commissioner M N Singh and Joint Commissioner (law and order) V N Deshmukh readily acknowledge the role of the mohalla committees in the last few troubled months, how committee members have helped the police do proactive policing and keep peace.

If Mumbai is on even keel right through March, may be mohalla committees of Mumbai have a lesson or two for the rest of the nation.