Research Aid Material On Inside India

Gujarat Massacre

An Eye Opening Report by a Panel of Indian Women.
South Asian Minority Affairs is reproducing below full report of the fact-finding team of
Indian women comment; about the impact of Gujarat Massacre on minority
sponsored by Citizen’s Initiative, Ahmadabad.

HOW HAS THE GUJARAT MASSACRE AFFECTED MINORITY WOMEN

The Survivors Speak

Fact-Finding or a Women's Panel

Syeda Hameed, Muslim Women’s Forum, Delhi Ruth Manorama, National Alliance of Woman, Bangalore Malini Ghose, Nirantar, Delhi Sheba George, Sahrwaru, Ahmadabad Farah Naqvi Independent Journalist, Delhi Mari Thekaekara, Accord, Tamil Nadu.

Sponsored by
Citizen’s Initiative, Ahmadabad
April 16, 2002

This report may be quoted, in whole or in part, with due acknowledgement.

Acknowledgements

The fact-finding team would like to acknowledge the following individuals in Gujarat, who gave generously of their time and insights at a time or continuing trauma for the people of Gujarat and the entire country:

Gagan Sethi, Mertin Macwan, Trupti Shah, Renu Khanna, Sejal Dand, Jhanvi Andheria, Neeta Hardikar, Stalin K, Mehmuda and Naseem from Sahrwana, Bahercharbhai Patel (for guiding us to remote rural relief camps) Achyut Yagnik, Ila Behn Pathak, Annie Prasad, and Valjibhai Patel (for sending us translations from the Gujarat vernacular Press).

We also thank the many local activists and coordinators of relief camps who found time to sit with us despite the urgency of the task they had at hand. Above all, a salute to the women survivors all, who had the will to live, and the courage to speak of the unspeakable?

Contents

• Introduction

Section I: Sexual Violence Against Women

• Testimonies of Sexual Violence
• Sexual Violence and the Media

Section II: Women’s Experiences of the State

• Political Complicity
• Role of the Police
• Women’s Testimonies of the Role of the State

Section III: In the Wake of Violence

• Visiting the Camps
• Ghettoisation: The Rural Experience
• Economic Destitution
• New Rural Divides
• VHP and Bajrang Dal: Women’s experiences
• Small Rays of Hope
• State Response: Peace Committees

Section IV:

• Violations of International Instruments

Section V:

• Conclusions and Recommendations

Section I: Sexual Violence Against Women

Annexure 1.1: Testimony of Sexual Violence
Annexure 1.2: Testimony of Sexual Violence
Annexure 1.3: Testimony of Sexual Violence
Annexure 1.4: Testimony of Sexual Violence
Annexure 1.5: Testimony of Sexual Violence
Annexure 1.6: Excerpts from two largest Gujarat Newspapers: Sandesh and GujaratSamachar

Section II: Women’s Experiences of the State

Annexure 2.1 A meeting with Maya Kodnani, BJP MLA from Naroda Patiya
Annexure 2.2 A meeting with Sarpanch Nathibehn, Laxmipura Village, Sabarkantha
Annexure 2.3 A meeting Sarpanch Keshubhai Patel, Chithroda Village

Gujarat ke Firaq se hai khaar khaar dil
Betaab hai seenay mein atish bahar dil
Marham nahim hai is ke zakhm ka jahan mein
Shamshir e hijr se jo hua hai figar dil

(My heart is thorn-filled with longing for Gujarat
Restless, frantic-wrapped in the spring
On the earth there exists to balm for its wound
My heart split as under by dagger of separation)

Vali Gujarati
Sufi saint poet
Born in Ahmadabad Circa 1650
Died in Ahmadabad 1707
Tomb razed February 28, 2002

“ I always swerve a bit to the side to avoid driving
over the spot where the mazaar stood.
It wouldn’t feel right to go over it. I know other
drivers do the same.”

Driver Shankar, while driving past the freshly tarred patch of road where Vali Gujarat mazaar had been for three hundred years March 30, 2002.