SFG: GMD007
Duration: 00:33:15; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 216.435; Saturation: 0.029; Lightness: 0.488; Volume: 0.208; Cuts per Minute: 3.007
Summary: This video is part of a collection documenting the events of three days in #AD4, a slum colony in Ahmedabad city, after the burning of Hindu activists on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra station on Feb 27th, 2002.
The Godhra killings were shocking in themselves, but the Hindu right-wing's systematic targeting of Muslim citizens for three days after Godhra shook the faith of all who had believed the country to be a secular democracy.
For three days – Feb 27th, 28th and March 1st - the state government and state police allowed the right-wing mobs to "retaliate". They raped, looted, burned and murdered freely. We know this through thousands of first-hand accounts related by the victims and witnesses of the rampaging mobs and indifferent government agencies.
About a month after the post-Godhra carnage, citizen journalists formed the Shared Footage Group that traveled through the relief camps, decimated slums and housing societies to record people’s accounts of what happened in those three days. The stories are varied. Victims in some cases comprised Dalit Hindus, and saviours, in some instances, included local political leaders and policemen with a conscience.
The story of this Basti, (locality) told through these events here, is relatively painless. Relatively, because people lost everything they possessed, but remained alive. Here is their telling of what happened to them in their own homes in those 'days of calamity' or "
qayamat ke din".
See other videos documenting the events at #AD4:
From One Basti in Ahmedabad
#AD27 near #AD4
Shot on 21.11.02 03:30pm
Visual
#AD4 story
shot of fencing between #AD27 & #AD4, taken from #AD27 compound(this is the place from where #AD4 ppl escaped to #AD27)
#AD27 near #AD4
Interview
Shot on 21.11.02 04:00pm
#AD4 story
int with #MN20, m , 35+, - talks about how they saved #AD4 people when they were attacked
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gives own name
A man introduces himself. He says he is a resident of Ahmedabad, has lived right here since he was born. He says that these were bad riots and he'd never seen anything like this. Rioters entered this colony, too, be they were prevailed upon to leave. They felt that only Hindus lived in this housing colony, and so they left without causing trouble.
int with #MN20, m , 35+, - talks about how they saved #AD4 people when they were attacked
Christians
Hindus
employees
railway police
Then when there was a riot at the neighbouring slum and people took shelter in his colony, he says they gave them food and a place to rest. The colony comprises Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and South Indians. There is no communal trouble here because they are all government employees.
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mentions #AD4
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mentions #AD27
He narrates how on 28th February he arrived from a trip out of town and found the place in chaos. The mob had just left after tearing things down.
He says that they all stayed up that night and for the next 6 months, didn't sleep through the night. The railway police from Delhi Board had arrived and supported them during that time. He says that the property belongs to the government and so there was no rioting on these premises.
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mentions locality
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mentions locality
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mentions locality
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interviewer mentions #AD4
He says that the slum-dwellers came for shelter on the morning of the 28th. They returned home but then came back at 4pm because the mob had attacked their homes again. The nearby government colony people kept them for 3-4 days and then saw them safely to the relief camp.
communal harmony
food
guards
shelter
slum-dwellers
The man explains that the people seeking shelter were a mix of Hindu and Muslim, and they had never fought between themselves. The colony people and the slum-dwellers, all of mixed communities, confronted the mob and sent them away. The mob came back in the evening. But the people took shelter inside. They stayed for about two days and then left for the relief camp.
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mentions #AD4
Interviewer asks about food arrangements for those two days. The man says that the colony families got together and cooked for the 700 people who took shelter here. They gave them three meals a day.
When the mob began to threaten the colony people for sheltering the slum-dwellers, then they decided to move the slum-dwellers to the relief camp as soon as it was set up. The mob threw stones at the government colony, which is when the residents realised the danger to themselves.
On the 1st of March the mob broke through the gate, but were told that the slum-dwellers had left here.
He says there's communal harmony here. No differences in the government colony, where they stayed away in shifts to guard the place.
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mentions locality
The Hindus from the slum stayed in an open ground in the government colony. They managed with packets of government relief food. Some of them brought food from elsewhere. Or the colony people would give them food and other things, so they didn't have to leave the safety of the colony.
About 15 to 20 Hindu families stayed here for about 2-3 months. They tied plastic sheets for shelter and lived under them.
After the three-day attack, there weren't anymore. The mob's intention was to trouble and destroy. Once they had done so, they didn't return.
This is the first time they saw a mob rioting and threatening government property. At first they didn't have security from government authorities. They took care of their own security. Later the railway police came and protected the place.
government property
railway police
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mentions locality
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mentions locality
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gives name and address
A young man introduces himself. He's a student who lives in the government colony. He describes the events of the 28th as he experienced them. He was playing cricket with the other boys of the colony. At 11 am, the mob came from the rear. It was a large crowd, and the boys went out to see. The mob was lobbing stones from the bridge.
#AD27 near #AD4
Interview
Shot on 21.11.02
#AD4 story
int with #MN21, m, 20+,- talks about the attack by the mob & how they saved #AD4 ppl
They closed the colony gate and gathered together. The crowd increased. The people of the colony said they didn't want trouble, and asked the mob to leave, but the mob wanted them to hand the slum-dwellers taking shelter in the colony over to them.
The railway people said they would not force the slum-dwellers out, and that they'd allow them to take shelter. The people of this colony had an argument with those of a neighbouring government colony. There was a skirmish. Nothing more. After this the railway people guarded their homes night after night. The Railway police had come also and stayed in the colony.
The young man says that they knew the mob had come when they heard the noise they were making. It was open on that side. Now there is a fence and a small gate. One of the colony's boys had gone to the slum to help douse a fire when the police caught him.
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mentions #AD4
The crowd that came to ask for the slum-dwellers to be handed over numbered 500 to a thousand. At first they lobbed stones at the colony. Then when the colony people came to talk with them they demanded that the people taking shelter be handed over. One time they even opened the gate. But the people of the colony went forward as a group and that made them retreat.
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mentions locality
He says that the government colony has a mixed community. He is himself a Christian. But the slum at the rear of the colony was largely Muslim. So the mob attacked it.
He says there were no casualties there because the people vacated their homes and went to live at the relief camp. Aside of their colony the whole area, included the bungalows, evacuated. Only this colony stayed on, guarding the place night after night.
evacuation
food
relief camp
safety
shelter
He explains that the people from the basti had been rendered homeless. At that point there were no relief camps opened. The refugees asked for shelter. The older members of the colony agreed to give them shelter. From various homes water and food were donated to them. They stayed for three or four days after which about half left for the relief camp. Some stayed back, whose houses were still staying in some form.
They shifted to the camp because they got better food and clothes and things. They left here empty-handed. Some clothes and a little money but nothing else. Everything had been burnt he says.
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mentions locality
While they were sheltering in the colony, their houses were set on fire. The man says that people from the colony tried to help douse the fire, but the mob lighting it was huge, so they couldn't go much. When they threw water on the fires, the mob stoned them.
One of the colony boys was arrested and kept in prison for a month. His case is yet to come up for hearing. He never returned to the colony after being released from prison. He was taken away to the village by his family.
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mentions locality
The boy's father appealed to the police, he said that he was a government servant, but they still locked the boy up.
For three to four months no one went to school or college, he says.
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mentions locality
Asked how they managed to provide for the refugees, the man says that on the 15th of every month people get paid their salaries and they buy their monthly provisions in advance, so they had a stock of food and supplies.
mob
patrol
police
relief camp
supplies
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mentions locality
The refugees went to the relief camp also because they thought it might be safer. So far any time there had been trouble in the city, no rioters had managed to come to the gates of the government colony. This time after the attacks, even the government officers vacated their houses.
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mentions locality
He says he wonders where so many people came from, from so many directions and even from over the bridge. They brought stones and some even had swords.
They did not get afraid. They went and reasoned hard with them. We live as brothers, they said, we don't want a fight. So the mob said, if you don't want a fight, stay within the gates of the colony. Later once the railway police arrived, they went away.
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mentions locality
The police, he says, was patrolling. But whenever they went away the mob would come back. The colony people phoned and faxed the railway police, who sent in a patrol.
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mentions locality
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mention of inspector #MN4
ambience shots
#AD27 near #AD4
Shot on 21.11.02
Visual
#AD4 story
shot of #AD27 fencing toward #AD25 road side, right mid f.g of frame public toilet, z.out to include #MN20's house
#AD27 near #AD4
Shot on 21.11.02
Visual
#AD4 story
shots of route inside #AD27 from where #AD4 ppl went to railway tracks, shown by #MN21 & his friends
#AD27 near #AD4
Shot on 21.11.02
Visual
#AD4 story
shot of opening between the wall which leads to railway tracks, then whole route is shot again statically in the backward route
#AD27 near #AD4
Shot on 21.11.02
Visual
#AD4 story
shot of temple inside #AD27 colony, b.g #MN20's house , zoom into the gali adjacent to his house leading to #AD4
#AD27 near #AD4
Shot on 21.11.02
Visual
#AD4 story
stock shots of #MN21 standing near #MN20's house
#AD27 near #AD4
Shot on 21.11.02
Visual
#AD4 story
shot of gali leading to #AD4 between #MN20's house(left of frame) & another house, zoom into, pan left to #AD25 side fencing then again pan back to gali then pan right to #AD27 colony gate road
#AD27 near #AD4
Shot on 21.11.02
Visual
#AD4 story
#MN21 going towards the #AD27 colony gate & enter his house
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crew member mentions his name
#AD27 near #AD4
Shot on 21.11.02
Visual
#AD4 story
shot of mandir from #AD4 basti then zoom out
#AD27 near #AD4
Shot on 21.11.02
Visual
#AD4 story
shot of #AD27 fence towards #AD25 road side, right of frame #AD4 fencing, pan left to gali going towards #AD27 pan more to complete 180 degree to #AD4 side fencing
Shot on 21.11.02
Visual
#AD4 story
#AD27 near #AD4
shot of gali from #AD4 basti pov, b.g mandir
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