1983; September 7–9: Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh)

54% Hindus, 43% Muslims

Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh: N. T. Rama Rao, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), January 1983–August 1984

For a period of two days, the city of Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) was once again rocked by serious communal violence. The BJP and VHP were responsible for communal agitation in the city on the occasion of the Hindu festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. On September 7, a mentally handicapped Muslim leaving a mosque threw a stone at a Hindu temple. On September 8, a mosque on the premises of the Allwyn Metal Factory was desecrated by laborers from the trade union led by A. Narendra, a BJP MLA. Hindu idols were installed within the mosque and copies of the Quran were thrown into ablution tanks. The MIM (Majlis-e-Itthadul Muslimeen, Muslim party in Hyderabad), supported by other Muslim organizations (the Muslim League, the Tamir-e-Millat, the Jamaat-e-Islami, and the Amarat Millat Islamia) subsequently called for a bandh (general strike) on September 9. Although the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief minister, N. T. Rama Rao, did his best to dissuade them, the local Congress(I), eager to recover Muslim support, convinced the MIM leaders to maintain the bandh. The demonstration remained peaceful till MIM volunteers started coercing people to participate. A police officer fired, killing two young Muslims boys. After this event, isolated stabbing incidents began to take place in many sections of the city, but occurrences of mob violence were rare. Individual victims were killed in the narrow lanes of Hyderabad city. The city administration was reluctant to impose a curfew as this would have disturbed the Ganesh festival scheduled for September 10. As a result, the violence claimed 45 lives, according to official figures. Unofficial estimates put the actual death toll at 70 and the number of those injured at more than 200.

**(India Today, 15/10/1983: 8); **(Radiance, 30/10–5/11/1983: 7); ***(Engineer, 1983); ***(Ghosh, 1987: 120)