Bombay 67% Hindus, 19% Muslims
Bhiwandi 44% Hindus, 51% Muslims
Chief Minister of Maharashtra: Vasantrao Patil, Congress Party, February 1983–June 1985
Riots raged in Bombay, Bhiwandi, Thane, Kalyan, and Bhayander (Maharashtra). Together, these riots are often referred to as the “Bombay–Bhiwandi riots”. They left a deep scar on India’s collective memory.
The communal atmosphere had been tense in the region since April 1984, when, for his birthday, the leader of the Shiv Sena (Army of Shiv, Maharashtrian Hindu nationalist organization), Bal Thackeray, decided to form a united Hindu front, called the Hindu Maha Sangh, with several organizations. A meeting of the Maha Sangh was held in Bombay on April 21, during which Thackeray delivered highly inflammatory speeches, referring to the Muslim community as a cancer, which needed to be excised. Vasant Dada Patil, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, paid no attention to the incident. Instead, he allowed the procession to proceed on the festival of Shiv Jayanti - for the first time since 1970 (the procession was banned at that time after having provoked communal riots). On May 13, the Urdu newspaper Akhbar-e-Alam distorted Bal Thackeray’s speech, thus propagating a rumor that he had insulted the Prophet. Muslims organized demonstrations. In response, the Shiv Sena called for a bandh in different areas of Bombay on May 16. Muslims counter reacted on May 17 by hoisting green flags and removing Shiv Sena’s saffron flags. Violence erupted in Bhiwandi and spread to Kalyan, Thane, and Bombay. People from outlying villages attacked the outskirts of Bhiwandi. Armed mobs with kerosene destroyed parts of the city. On May 19, twenty-seven persons, who had taken refuge at the farm of a rich Muslim businessman, were burned alive by a mob of about one thousand people. The police did not intervene. It was not a spontaneous eruption of crowd violence: the murders were perpetrated by well-armed Hindutva activists, hooligans, and goondas.
The total death toll according to some accounts amounted to 278. In addition, 1,115 people were injured, and property worth 7 crores (70,000,000 rupees in Western notation) and 65 lakhs (6,500,000 rupees in Western notation) was destroyed. An inquiry led by Asghar Ali Engineer reported 500 deaths in Bhiwandi (400 Muslims, 100 Hindus), 104 in Thane (all Muslims), and 6 in the industrial township of Bhayander. The great majority of those killed belonged to the poorest segments of the population.
**(The Times of India, 3/06/1984); **(India Today, 15/06/1984); ***(Engineer, 1984c: 29; 160–163); ***(Ghosh, 1987: 202–205); ***(Saksena, 1990: 184–187); ***(Engineer, 1992d)