One Night in Deola

ELEMENTAL PASSIONS: Malegaon burns (top); one of the pipeline breaches that sparked a water crisis in the region.

IT’S past dinner time. The headlights pick the ghostly strands of the banyan trees on the road from Kalwan to Deola, the route communal tension took for the first time ever.

Kalwan has a history of Hindu-Muslim tension. As recently as August, four local youths on their way back from Chishti’s dargah were arrested with swords in Madhya Pradesh. There were loud clucks from the Hindu community. During Ganpati visarjan, the town simmered. But just 10 km away, Deola was proud of its clean riot slate. The population of 12,000 was rarely put out by the 25-30 families of Muslims.

The first rumour touched Deola on Saturday, the day after Malegaon erupted. The wild ones hit home on Sunday. Monday, local politicos of all parties — the BJP, the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party — called a bandh. In the heart of the town, effigies of Nihal Ahmed (universally blamed for sparking the Malegaon riots) and bin Laden were burnt. Inflammatory speeches followed: Throw them out, they said.

The crowd, high on the shock-value of the rumours, went back home. That very night, around 2 am, Deola changed forever. Around 15 shops and three vehicles were burnt. The arson continued for two hours.

At the crack of dawn, Rabbani Tambuli, 42, packed off his wife and two children to his relatives at another village. His paints shop had been broken into and people now tell him the looters who came on motorcycles and tractors and carted away the cans of paint were his familiars. Since that day, he has stepped out of the house only for the panchanama, besides going out to the balcony to check for Naik A K Gopal, who has been posted across his house.

Sitting on his verandah and muzzling his goat Chungi’s forehead, Ashraf Manujar, 52, said he heard the mob trashing his shop. R.K. Bangles Store is located just 30 meters away from his house. But they just stayed put. There is nothing but pieces of broken glass bangles in the shop. The panchanama is done. Rukhsana, his wife, says they had stocked up for Diwali. ‘‘Now, all’s gone.’’

Their neighbours are doctors. A graduate of Nashik Medical College, Dr Rekha Aiyre, 29, has a good practice. ‘‘We have very good relations with the Muslims in this town. That is why riots in other towns have never affected us. This time, however, what happened with the Hindu women of Malegaon was too much. The problem did not begin because Hindus were attacked but because Hindu women were abused. I agree, the Muslims in Deola whose property was destroyed were totally innocent but so were the Hindu women. But everything’s okay now.’’

Even a week after the riots, the doctor is unaware that they were all rumours.

— SC