Lessons for Conflict-Resolution
In May 1984, deadly riots rocked Mumbai and the neighbouring town of Bhiwandi. The then head of the Shiv Sena, Mr. Bal Thackeray, had delivered a speech on April 21 at a public rally in Mumbai. The media had not given it much attention, though some local Marathi papers reported on it, but in not a very provocative manner. But the Nasheman, a Bangalore-based Urdu newspaper, covered it—on the 5th of May, several days later. This was enough to inflame Muslim passions. Some days after this, it was highlighted by another Muslim newspaper, the Mumbai-based Alam, this time with bold headlines. And then, as is the norm for them, many other Urdu papers jumped into the fray, highlighting the speech and stoking Muslim emotions. They claimed that Mr. Thackeray had insulted 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 Barat 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 Thane and Mumbai. Large numbers of innocent lives were lost in the riots, and property worth millions went up in flames. The riots stopped only when the Army was called in. Needless to say, most of those who suffered in the riots were from one particular community.
In this case, Muslims acted in a very foolish way—like a watermelon in the face of a knife. Muslims who behave in this way may think that they are acting in accordance with Islam, but they are terribly mistaken.
According to a hadith, the Prophet said, “It does not behove a Muslim to humiliate himself.” Someone asked, “How can one humiliate oneself?” The Prophet replied, “When one engages in a task that is beyond one’s capacity.” (At-Tirmidhi)
In the light of this hadith, one can say that in this case, as in many others, Muslims acted in a very foolish way—like a watermelon in the face of a knife. Muslims who behave in this way may think that they are acting in accordance with Islam, but they are terribly mistaken.
ANALYSIS OF THE RIOT
One can analyze this riot in two ways. One way is to see it from the Muslim communal perspective. The other way is to see it from the Islamic perspective.
The Muslim communal perspective is the perspective that all Muslim leaders, big and small, always employ on such occasions—and they did this on this occasion, too. In the wake of this riot, every Muslim began speaking the same language, saying exactly the same things. They one-sidedly placed the entire blame for the riots on the Shiv Sena or the administration.
If you see things from a communal perspective, you do not distinguish between right and wrong. You only see things in terms of your community versus another community. And when a communal riot happens, you blindly support your community and start abusing the other community. This approach has been decried in the Hadith as asabiyyah, a form of tribal prejudice, which, in Islam, is utterly false and condemnable.
The other way to look at the question of riots is the Islamic way. The Islamic way is based on certain principles, and not on communal basis. When we analyze the Bhiwandi riots from the Islamic perspective, the first question that arises is: What was the issue or complaint which so angered Muslims that they took to angry demonstrations against the Shiv Sena and its leader?
Muslims said that the issue that had so incensed them was that, so they alleged, the Shiv Sena leader had demanded a ban on the Quran and insulted the Prophet. But facts revealed that this allegation was entirely false. The Shiv Sena leader did not say this at all.
The Shiv Sena leader was at that time in Mumbai. Yet, prior to the riots, no Muslim group went to meet him to find out if the allegations that Muslims were making against him were true nor not. No Muslim even bothered to contact him on the telephone in this regard. The so-called Muslim leaders, who stir into action in the aftermath of riots, did nothing at all to investigate these allegations before the riots broke out. The only thing that happened was that a Mumbai-based Muslim paper copied a report that had been published in a Bangalore-based Urdu paper that is known for its cheap reporting and sensationalism. It had only to be published in an Urdu paper that Muslims began making a huge hue and cry about it and began reprinting it in Urdu papers elsewhere, too. And so, in a few days the situation became so heated and tense that it was almost inevitable that riots would break out.
MR. THACKERAY’S INTERVIEW
After the riots, a representative of the Link magazine interviewed the Shiv Sena leader, Mr. Thackeray. The interview was published in the 3rd June 1984 issue of the magazine. Here are some excerpts from the interview:
Q: Some of the Urdu papers have alleged that you have demanded a ban on the Quran.
A: No, this is totally incorrect. I am not anti-Muslim.
Q: It is said that you used derogatory words against Prophet Muhammad.
A: This is another blatant lie. My speeches were tape-recorded. There was not a word against the Prophet. Actually, I gave his example. This is what I said in my speech: “Once, the Prophet was sitting in his mosque with his disciples. A Hindu came there and spat on one of the walls of the mosque. The disciples shouted, “Maro, Maro!” But the Prophet stopped them from becoming violent. Then, he washed the wall with a bucketful of water. The Hindu fell ashamed. And that is how we should win people, he told his disciples. But where is that kind of tolerance in this community now?”
Q: It is said that the speeches you made were inflammatory.
A: It’s a matter of interpretation. I wanted to ventilate my grievances. Hindu grievances. If we want to organize a meeting or want to take out a procession, it is prohibited. The Shiv Jayanti procession [in Bhiwandi] was allowed after 14 years. Everyone cares for their [Muslims’] feelings. What about our sentiments? As if we don’t have any emotions [and] are not human beings. As if we are not supposed to discuss our religion. Treat all religions at par. Why should mosques alone have special permission to use loudspeakers? Which religion preaches disturb[ing] somebody? Hindu temples don’t use loudspeakers.
Now they [Muslims] are asking for more concessions. It is indeed disturbing. After all, this country belongs to us. Whoever wants to stay here, can stay as brothers. We’re not going to put any restrictions. But to call them ‘minorities’ and give them special concessions will spoil the very unity of the country. I am not telling anything to my followers. I am not asking them to burn or hate this community. But the way they [Muslims] are working is generating hatred.
Q: How do you think the communal riots can be stopped?
A: Ask them [Muslims] not to attack us. And there will be no retaliation. We do not attack; we only retaliate. We will retaliate if they attack.
The incident related to the Prophet that the Shiv Sena leader related here is basically correct, although he made some partial errors in narrating it. These errors cannot be said to be tantamount to abusing Islam. At the very most we could correct these errors while accepting what he related as true. In the actual hadith, contained in the Sahih al-Bukhari, Abu Hurayrah narrates that one day a Bedouin came to the Prophet’s mosque in Madinah and urinated inside. On seeing what he was doing, some Companions of the Prophet rushed towards him. But the Prophet told them to leave the Bedouin and to pour some water on the place where he had urinated, because, he explained, his Companions had been given the task of creating ease, not difficulty. This meant that they should help people, not cause them trouble.
Reading Mr. Thackeray’s interview, it seems that he was not hypocritical in expressing his views. He actually spoke very openly. The reality is that by himself recalling a hadith of the Prophet, Mr. Thackeray informed us Muslims of a very valuable secret of how to emerge victorious over all forms of trials and tribulations. But because of their intellectual degeneration, Muslims used this, too, as a means to trigger off a deadly riot that hurt Muslims themselves the most.
How very ironic indeed!
THE ROOTS OF RIOTS
Why do Muslims repeatedly do such foolish things?
The reason for this is their psyche of pride. Whenever Muslims face decline, they develop a false sense of pride. The decline of Muslims worldwide today is because for them, religion is no longer linked to duty, but, rather, to pride.
The Quran (25:63) says:
The true servants of the Gracious One are those who walk upon the earth with humility and when they are addressed by the ignorant ones, their response is, ‘Peace’ […]
But when the Muslim community declines, a totally contradictory mentality develops. In this stage, Muslims invoke the teachings of Islam in order to stress their claims to superiority over others, not to mould their own lives according to these teachings. And so, Muslims in this stage of decline of the community will proudly declare, “Our religion is based on pure monotheism!” and at the very same time, they will worship dead and living personalities.
They will proudly announce, “Islam stands for equality!” But this claim will not be reflected in their relationships and dealings.
They will proudly claim, “Our religion exhorts us to promote goodness and combat evil!” But if you examine their actual behaviour in the light of this principle and critique them, you will immediately become their most inveterate enemy.
Explaining the glorious character of the Prophet, they will proudly relate that the Prophet never lost his temper despite efforts to provoke him. But at the very same time, they will resort to violent protests when faced with anything that goes against their way of thinking. They will wrongly try to justify this by saying, “When others are trying to provoke us, how can we not be provoked?”
In the course of seeking to prove other religions to be inferior, they will loudly declare, ‘Prophethood ends with our Prophet’. But they are completely heedless of the task of conveying the teachings of their prophet to other communities.
The fact is that this kind of psyche is the actual root of all sorts of strife, including communal riots. When religion becomes something to take pride in and boast about, the logical consequence is the emergence of a strong sense of what can be called a false superiority complex. People infected with this complex believe that they are always right and that others are always wrong. A natural result of this is that their behaviour vis-à-vis others becomes completely unrealistic. Such people revel in talking about the faults of others, but they are never ready to accept their own faults. They will live in a way as if they alone have the right to do as they please and that others have no such right.
Obviously, people who think like this cannot live in harmony with others. Their presence in this world can only give rise to riots and conflicts and other forms of strife. Needless to say, they can never play any role in building peace. People with this sort of mentality can only spread corruption and filth in this world. To live in this world with this sort of psyche is to live in an ungodly way. And those who want to live in God’s world in an ungodly way can never succeed.
