Hindus feel besieged:
From Moradabad and Meenakshipuram to Ayodhya and the Shah Bano case (1980–1986)
In 1979, dramatic events shook the Muslim world: revolution in Iran at the hands of Imam Khomeini, the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Army, while in Mecca a commando of fanatics wreaked havoc at the Muslim holy site. Would this fury reach India and its Muslims? What happened was more subtle but no less charged with danger. It underlines the role of rumors and the way they are able to affect the delicate balance that has been achieved between religious communities. In this case, rumors concerned the rather sudden increase of transactions with the Gulf region and the money sent back by Indian migrants working in the area. Colorful mosques sprung up and noisy calls to prayer appeared. Some small-scale Muslim entrepreneurs and even humble workers paraded their new wealth. In Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh), they would pay dearly for this. In August 1980, a dramatic clash with the police occurred at the idgah (ground for offering prayers) on the last day of Ramzan (Ramadan). The government did not display sufficient determination to curb the violence. The violence spread throughout Uttar Pradesh, first to Aligarh and Allahabad, and then to other cities (Delhi, and even Mhow).
Uneasiness permeated people again, in spite of Indira Gandhi ’s spectacular comeback in December 1979 (Weiner 1983). Was it because of her son, Sanjay; his sudden death in June 1980 and the shock it meant for his mother? Was it because of the disintegration of the Janata Party, leading to a difficult recomposition of the political arena? The same old groups were surfacing, including the former Jan Sangh, now the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It should be noted that the latter had taken to Gandhian attitudes, but this was certainly not the case for the satellites of the Sangh Parivar (the RSS, VHP, and Bajrang Dal) which were obviously looking for fresh opportunities in which to display their Hindu commitments.
One such opportunity came in a spectacular way in 1981, with the heavily reported mass conversion to Islam of several hundreds of Harijans (“Untouchables”, today called Dalits) in Tamil Nadu, at Meenakshipuram (Imtiaz Ahmad 1982; Sunday 07/09/1982; M. Khan 1991).
Another controversy followed when a rumor was spread about a Muslim “demographic coup”. According to that rumor, the president of the Jamaat-e-Islami, during an international gathering in Hyderabad, had made a strong appeal to the Millat, urging Muslim families to have more children. The response was an impressive Hindu rally, the Hindu Sammelan, held in Delhi in October 1981, at which a number of personalities, including the former ruler of Kashmir, called for a necessary rethinking of the Hindu society. The meeting left a deep impression and other steps followed. Should be mentioned the protracted efforts which were made in various places to bring back the Muslim “converts” to the Hindu fold, then the much publicized Ekatmata Yagna Yatra when, in November 1983, urns filled with Holy Ganga water crisscrossed India in motored caravans. Not to forget the controversy raised at the same time over the so-called beef-tallow issue (which looked very much like the 1857 events in which Hindu and Muslim sepoys fighting for the British East India company were supposedly issued animal-tallow-grease-smeared cartridges [which could have been either pork or beef tallow, thereby offending members of either or both religions]); nor, later on, the Ramjanmabhoomi procession organized to “liberate” and restore to its Hindu devotees the birthplace of Lord Ram in Uttar Pradesh, “occupied” by an old mosque built in the 16th century by Mughals, the Babri Masjid (Van der Veer, 1987).
Things came to a halt in 1984, when attentions were drawn to the Sikh crisis, and to a series of dramatic developments: the “Blue Star Operation” over the Golden Temple in Amritsar in June, the assassination of Indira Gandhi as a reprisal, on October 31, 1984, and the ghastly anti - Sikh pogrom which followed.
Indira’s elder son, Rajiv Gandhi , who had been assisting his mother, was asked to succeed her. A few weeks later, he was triumphantly elected in the Lok Sabha elections which followed, a period during which Muslims were more or less forgotten, or even set apart. One thing mattered: the Hindu vote (Graff 1987).
Rajiv Gandhi was known for having an open mind, and his first years as a Prime Minister were promising. He was able to solve a number of pending issues such as the Punjab question. However, he did not know much about problems related to secularism and, as it seemed, with the best intentions, he ignored the caution observed in the old days by the late Pandit Nehru and his secular companions.
There were two major instances which were to mark the period, and had deep consequences:
1/ In what is known as the Shah Bano case (1985–1986), the Union government was led to act against the Supreme Court - it was all about a controversial alimony received by a repudiated old Muslim woman from Bhopal - and the government supported the most conservative Muslim circles, together with a bill passed in Parliament, the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Bill, which meant an open support to the Sharia (Mahmood 1986; Z. Hasan 1989).
2/ At the same time, in February 1986, under pressure from various Hindu lobbies in Uttar Pradesh and in Delhi (including from friends of the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi ) and, as a compensation to the Hindu opinion, the gates of the Babri Masjid (which had been locked in 1949 after the mysterious introduction of a Hindu idol) were opened to the Hindu devotees. It was just the beginning of a dramatic series of violent events (Gopal 1991).