Reflections on Communal Riots

the Quran, the Prophet and Islam—which, they declared, Muslims simply would not tolerate. On the 3rd of May, the Shiv Sena took out a procession in the town of Bhiwandi to mark the occasion of Shiv Jayanti. This procession had been banned after the riots that the town had witnessed in 1970. But in 1984, Shiv Sena leaders managed to secure permission from the governmental authorities and took out a Shiv Jayanti procession through the town. Muslims objected to the procession. Fearing trouble, the authorities had arranged for massive police presence, and the procession ended peacefully. The procession further stoked the flames of Muslim anger. To counter the Shiv Sena, a Muslim leader, A.R. Khan, mobilized a procession of Muslims in the neighbouring town of Parbhani. Fiery speeches were delivered on the occasion, denouncing the Shiv Sena. A group of Muslims garlanded an effigy of Mr. Thackeray with old slippers. It so happened that that year, Shab-e Barat12 fell on the 6th of May, and Muslims decided to observe the occasion as a day marking the glory of Islam. The roads and narrow lanes of the Muslim localities of Bhiwandi—that are lined with filth, and which Muslims have never displayed any enthusiasm to clean up—were suddenly festooned with green flags as a sign of the Muslims’ ‘Islamic zeal’. During this, some Muslims supplanted a Shiv Sena flag with a green flag, which, so they thought, was an ‘Islamic’ one. In this extremely tense situation, on 16th May the Shiv Sena decided to call for a strike in Mumbai. This further worsened the situation. The next day, horrific rioting broke out in Bhiwandi, which spread to neighbouring 12 This is the night preceding the 15th day of the eighth month of the Islamic calendar. Some Muslims consider this night as sacred, although there is no reference for this in the Quran or Traditions of the Prophet.