81% Hindus, 13% Muslims
Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj Singh Chauhan, BJP, November 2005–
The city of Indore (Madhya Pradesh) was hit by communal violence, over the conflict concerning the Amarnath temple in Kashmir. On May 2008, the Jammu and Kashmir state government announced the transfer of one hundred acres of forest land to the Amarnath temple-one of the most famous shrines in Hinduism-to set up temporary facilities for Hindu pilgrims. This led to widespread protests in the Kashmir valley (the local population was worried about the ecological repercussions of the transfer, while Muslim separatists saw it as a cultural invasion). On July 1, the state government had to revoke the land-transfer decision. On July 3, the BJP and the VHP called for an All India bandh (strike) to protest against the revocation. The issue had repercussions far from Kashmir, in Indore.
Recent years had been particularly tense ones for the city because of a dispute over a piece of land, the Karbala ground, where the Shias celebrated Muharram and which Hindu activists began to claim for themselves on the grounds that an old Hanuman shrine used to stand there. Moreover, in March 2008, the sensational arrest of 13 SIMI activists (Students’ Islamic Movement of India, banned by the Indian government in 2001) in the town had further weakened the Muslim community, that was being increasingly targeted by the police.
In this tense atmosphere, the bandh of July 3 offered the perfect opportunity to launch a riot. Hindu activists and bandh supporters marched in Muslim localities and harassed passers-by. Many were badly beaten up. The police remained totally passive, as a result of which Muslims attacked the police station. The police retaliated, helped by bandh supporters armed with private guns. The violence lasted for two days. Eight lives were lost, of which, seven were Muslims. A curfew was imposed for five days. Since the BJP came to power at the state level in 2003, Madhya Pradesh has become a center of Hindtuva propaganda, with new places nearby emerging as communal hot spots (Indore, Ujjain, and Dhar, where, in 2003, 2005, and 2006, riots erupted over the Kamaal Moula mosque, which allegedly stands on the site of the Hindu temple of Bhojshala).
***(Mehta and Tiwari 2008); ***(Engineer 2009)