The seesaw state

First and foremost, let’s get one thing straight. The land of the Mahatma is by no means a peaceful land. In 1985, travelling to Ahmedabad on the trail of the same ironic conundrum that hangs over the recent horrific events in Gujarat (namely, ‘violence in the land of the Mahatma’), I found hair-raising stories of arson and murder by hacking, expert knifing and burning both in the then ongoing anti-reservation-turned sectarian riots and in the past. In 1969, 2500 had died in less than a week. But then violence is part of human nature. What made the Mahatma special was that he found a way to rise above it.

The base and the transcendent. This dichotomy is apparent all over the state. If Ahmedabad sheltered the likes of hooch king Abdul Latif, it also spawned Ela Bhatt’s inspiring Self Employed Womens’ Association. Surat emerged from filth and disease in the last decade to become the second cleanest city in the country. In Gondal, rife with stories of the doings of a notorious local clan, there are also stoops built by a visionary maharajah for weary passers-by to rest their loads. Perhaps last year’s earthquake provided the best example of the divide: the heartlessness of people selling marked up tents donated for free distribution and the humanity of those who set up community kitchens.

The question is: which side will win?

About a year ago, on a trip to Ahmedabad, an acquaintance took me to see the region’s latest marvel: a lavish temple in Gandhinagar. A prototype of several built all over the state, this particular one was a sprawling affair with pillars in baby pink sandstone, ornate balconies, gold leaf and marble. There was fast food, rides with names like ‘Dragon Rider’ and gaudy tableaux in the garden. Synthetic heaven an hour’s drive away from Gandhi’s ashram sitting on its dry river bed. From khadi to polyester.

The comparison is not incidental. Flipping through a prominent magazine’s list of influential Indians recently, I found only one Gujarati mentioned in the five decades since Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel: Dhirubhai Ambani. A telling comment on the direction taken. Which is not of course to undermine the achievements of Ambani and his ilk. Indeed, enterprise and diligence are hallmarks of this western community, qualities that have ushered modernisation into its towns and villages and scattered its people all over the globe. Though, in terms of baggage, the Gujarati can be like a tortoise, a characteristic that gives rise to unique phenomena such as disco dandiya and the only vegetarian Pizza Hut in the world.

Caste has always been a significant factor in the state, deeply ingrained in social relations. Religion, also an integral part of life, is taking on a new appeal. In a tiny shop selling holy Hindu paintings in Rajkot a year ago, the shopkeeper told me his customers were increasingly the young and the NRI. Regardless of strong religious sentiment and the periodic outbreak of sectarian violence over the years, however, Muslims and Hindus have been more closely integrated in Gujarat than in many other parts of the country. During Partition, Ahmedabad was relatively incident free. And in general there is a larger degree of interaction and commonality in terms of dress, language and attitudes.

In fact, locals have always averred that past riots were manufactured by politicians. In 1969, the hidden agenda was said to be the hostility between Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai; in 1985 upper class Congressmen whipped up resentment against then chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki’s KHAM (Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Muslim) formula. And the early ’90s riots followed the complete rout of the Congress in the state.

In fact, 1989 saw the BJP go from 1 seat in the previous assembly poll to 12. In the same election, Congressmen were defeated with colossal margins. Though the reasons were many, one identified by outgoing chief minister Amarsinh Chaudhary was the Ram Janmabhoomi issue and the effective spadework done by the VHP in the villages. Since then, as one columnist has pointed out, Gujarat has been used by the sangh parivar as a laboratory for militant Hindutva with many of the early attacks against Christian missionaries carried out there. If the Congress had paid at least lip service to the concept of secularism, with the BJP in ascent that fig leaf was removed.

As far as the recent bout of violence is concerned, a comprehensive picture has yet to emerge. How the horrific incident at Godhra occurred, if there was indeed a deeper conspiracy — is still not fully clear. On the other hand, though anti-minority attitudes have gained ground in Gujarat as in other parts of the country, some local observers eschew the spontaneous reaction to Godhra theory to explain the aftermath pointing to the last relatively incident-free decade in the state and suggest a political hand following the BJP’s recent reversals and the emergence of Narendra Modi as chief minister.

But looking to the past, if there is one connection that is rarely made between the Mahatama and violence in Gujarat, it is that with peace Gandhi also taught people to agitate for their rights. In Gujarat this legacy had a somewhat unconventional result: a relatively peaceful labour class banded under the Gandhian Majoor Mahajan and a militant middle class. In 1964 the latter fought the Mongvari Hatao movement; in 1974 it waged the influential Nav Nirman movement. And in 1981 and 1985, it spearheaded the anti-reservation riots.

The reasons were economic: inflation and the potential loss of professional seats in colleges. In 1985 students voluntarily discontinued atten- ding classes and parents were seen actually preventing children from attending school in two of Ahmedabad’s largest schools. Given this background one can put in context perhaps the stories emanating from Gujarat these days of people ransacking stores and the middle class turning up in their Santros and Marutis to loot or to buy at throwaway prices from the makeshift stalls set up by rioters.

How will all this play out? Kartikeya Sarabhai who runs the Ahmedabad-based Centre for Environment Education talks despondently of the powerful imagery of the burning train at Godhra (shades of Partition) and the new levels of behaviour sanctified by recent events: the targeted economic destruction and the Viking-like glee of the middle class in taking home the spoils of rioting. An Ahmedabad-based writer says the only hope lies in the silent majority that does not believe in arson and murder to speak up.

The base and the transcendent. In many ways Gujarat is only a test case. The real question is how India, the land of the Mahatma, will measure up.

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