I was in Bombay in January 1993 after the “riots” when mobs went on a rampage burning their shops and killing them where they could find them. And before the retaliatory bomb blasts by the Memon gang.
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I remember walking around a familiar shopping area in Andheri, seeing once famous shops (owned by Muslim merchants) now gutted and still smoking in parts. The loss of property and business and employment was there for all to see. The more personal losses of life, not so visible. Everywhere, was a sense of fear and gloom. And in some households, triumph. They had shown them their place, destroyed their Masjid just a month ago in December 1992.
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The weeks following that event had seen the Shiv Sena lead triumphant maha aratis through their
neighbourhoods, a veiled threat in every clash of the cymbal. According to the Srikrishna Commission, the violence now unleashed by these mobs was led and instigated by the Shiv Sena, aided by the partisan elements in the Bombay police, and presided over by the Congress government then in power.
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We thought it couldn’t get any worse, but then it did. In March that year, came the terrible bomb blasts, crippling Bombay’s efficiency, killing over 300 people and injuring hundreds of others for life. Violence bred violence, and the cycle of despair continues until today.
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When Yakub Memon is hanged, will these unhappy families find closure? Will their desire for justice be fulfilled by ending the life of one brother instead of the other brother actually responsible for these crimes? Tiger Memon is supposed to have told Yakub, “You are going as a Gandhian. Beware, you may come to Godse’s end”. Will the terrorist be proved right? And the believer in peace, proved wrong? What of the victims who died or went missing in the ‘riots’?
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As I write this, the curative petition has been dismissed. The President has refused his pardon. The news has been welcomed by the leading political parties. Activists, however, continue to try and avert the inevitable that the morning of July 30 will bring.
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In this frenzy of hate and vendetta, I am reminded of nothing so much as the ancient Romans in the arena, baying for the blood of the next unfortunate brought before them. The victims were slaves or prisoners, the gladiators almost always, came from the poor and the marginalized, who did this awful work to make a living.Tomorrow, as one of the almost extinct species of India’s hangmen is dug out and made much of, please remember, it is not his but your blood thirst he will be slaking.
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Lina Krishnan lives in Bangalore and writes on culture, travel, cinema and the environment. She blogs at http://linakrish.wordpress.com/
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