An area harshly hit by communal violence in Gujarat.

By SU Rahman, Special to IOL

AHMEDABAD, February 13 (IslamOnline) - Things in the western Indian state of Gujarat changed amazingly in just six months time since ferocious riots and arson stopped. Life seemingly returned to normal and the horrific chapters of communal violence between Hindus and Muslims were relatively folded out of memory, at least for time being.

Ahmedabad is quite like any other city in the country. In Vadodara, Surat or even Godhra, from where the fire started, there is no trace of trouble in day-to-day life.

People are back to where they were before the fire of hatred erupted in many parts of the state culminating in the death of more than 2,000 people and destruction of property worth billions of rupees.

The dance of death continued for more than four months. However, during the last six months Muslim resilience has changed everything for the better.

Fear is still visible in remote parts of the state. But that is limited to some villages only. Life is normal in Ahmedabad city which witnessed some of the worst incidents of carnage and destruction. Peace is not only visible on the streets, but also inside the hearts of people who exude confidence.

Naroda Patia, the site of one of the worst scenes of death, destruction and crimes against women, is now calm. People outside the state cannot imagine that those who had fled in fear would return again to their burnt houses and restart their lives afresh from scratch. This has taken place not only in Naroda Patia but also in all other affected areas of the state. People have returned, repaired their houses, restarted their businesses and got on with their lives.

IslamOnline visited Gujarat at the height of the carnage to trace a few of the worst affected people of the carnage, and met at Shah Alam camp and other relief camps during the riots last April.

One of these extraordinary people is Jawed Sheikh, a 12-year old boy who had lost both his parents and a sister and had witnessed the gruesome incidents of their killing and burning.

The boy, now almost a year older and more mature, has been left to fend for himself. He has an elder brother who himself needs care and patronage. His brother Asrar works as a part-time tailor in one of the numerous small tailoring shops that dot this poor locality.

He must have been in some school, and he still wants to go to school, but does not know where and how. He needs guidance and obviously someone to finance his education. But who will do that?

NGOs' Concerted Efforts

But destruction is no more a usual scene in the state with active civilian efforts to rebuild shattered buildings.

Larger business houses, hotels, restaurants and small shops belonging to Muslims that dot Ahmedabad city are again functioning smoothly. Hotels that were turned to ashes and nobody had imagined that they would function again are not only rebuilt but are full of customers, both Hindus and Muslims, but mostly Hindus. Shops that were turned into temples and idols placed inside are back to being shops.

In Paldi area a big mutton shop was turned into a temple, but is back in business, selling fresh mutton. The nearby auto servicing shop has been rebuilt and is doing brisk business as ever before. Shalimar Business Centre, one of the big Muslim-owned markets reduced to ashes during the last wave of violence, is again rebuilt and functioning smoothly.

Mosques that were destroyed during the riots have been rebuilt and are in better shape than before.

The only sign that would indicate last year's hellish events is the new facades of houses and shops. Renovated mosques and schools indicate that all these were burnt, destroyed and that their occupants might have been burnt alive or chopped to death, young women living inside these houses might have been raped and thrown into fire to destroy evidence of the bestiality of the rioters.

NGOs have done a mammoth job of rebuilding the shattered lives of victims. Muslim organizations that are always at the receiving end of our uncharitable comments have done most of this work. Apart from NGOs, no government organization, nor even any UN agency, came to the rescue of victims. National and international NGOs, which become active whenever there is a natural calamity anywhere in the world, were absent from Gujarat. Perhaps victims of a certain community do not deserve help.

Muslim organizations like Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), Jamiatul Ulama-e-Hind (JUH) and other organizations have achieved virtually the impossible. People from Hyderabad, especially the publishers of the leading Urdu daily Siyasat, have also helped in a big way.

The JUH's role has been outstanding. It has constructed more than five hundred houses at a single place in Ramol in Ahmedabad city. The place is a small town in itself, complete with shops and a community hall. JUH has constructed 140 houses and shops at Hardespur, 40 houses at Dhobi ki Chawl, 59 on Ansar Nagar Highway and 56 at Janta Nagar.

Real Failure

The state government on the other hand has chosen not to do anything. Mahmood Madani, general secretary of JUH, says that the government has done nothing to help people get back on their feet. It has not provided them with any assistance. Others too are of the same opinion. But then nobody expected Gujarat's pogrom-tainted government or its backers in Delhi to do anything either.

The Human Rights Watch accused in a January report the Gujarat government and police for direct involvement in the riots. It accused New Delhi of exploiting rhetoric surrounding the global war against terrorism “in order to target religious minorities and political opponents.”

Sanjay, a student in an Ahmedabad college asks, "Why did the VHP, Bajrang Dal and their affiliates spend that much energy to destroy Muslims when they are back again?"

It is their real failure, says Dr JS Bandukwala, a professor of nuclear physics at the University of Baroda, who saved his life by shifting to a Muslim locality at the outset of the riots.

Muslims and Hindus have started interacting again. Muslims work for Hindu employers and vice-versa. Jayantibhai Purshottam Bhai is the contractor building Madani Nagar on Ramol Road in Ahmedabad. The place is being constructed by the JUH to rehabilitate riot victims looking for alternative sites to relocate.

Muslims want nothing from Gujarat government. But they expect something from courts, that is, to punish the guilty.

"A number of people have withdrawn cases under pressure. This pressure must end. Courts must deliver judgments fast, so that the rioters understand that there is someone more powerful around, who can take them to task and punish them," says Tanweer Jafri, the eldest son of the former MP Ehsan Jafri who was burnt alive in Ahmedabad's Gulbarg Colony on the very first day of the riots.