Story of a Basti (#AD4)
Cinematographer: SFG
Duration: 00:23:21; Aspect Ratio: 1.366:1; Hue: 23.713; Saturation: 0.047; Lightness: 0.378; Volume: 0.191; Cuts per Minute: 7.875; Words per Minute: 98.906
Summary: This 23-minute video recounts the events of three days in 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, a self-organised group comprising of filmmakers, camerapersons, media students and other volunteers formed the Shared Footage Group (SFG). Over the course of the year, they travelled 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, told 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."
2002 Godhara riots
Gujarat
Following the attack on the train at Godhra carrying Hindu activists returning from Ayodhya, the state of Gujarat witnessed three days of organized rioting and an anti-Muslim carnage.
For three days, right-wing mobs burned, looted, raped, and killed with State complicity.
Here is an account from a Muslim and Hindu Dalit slum in Ahmedabad, culled from interviews gathered by the Shared Footage Group in 2002.
Names of people and places have been withheld to protect identities.
One the day of the
strike, what happened was...
...we were in the office
watching the Godhra news.
Here is an account from a Muslim and Hindu Dalit
slum in Ahmedabad, culled from interviews gathered
by the Shared Footage Group in 2002.
Names of people and places have been withheld to
protect identities.
How could we eat
with the TV on?
Corpses, train compartments
on fire...when we saw those...
...no one in office
could eat after that.
We left our food untouched.
At 4 or 5pm, the corpses
arrived at Mani Nagar in a van.
The corpses arrived and the
attacks began soon after.
There were explosions here,
explosions there.
All around,
explosions, explosions.
The corpses were kept
at the police station...
...the vans had
left there there...
The attack...that's when
the mob gathered.
...and got ready to
attack everywhere.
'Now that the bodies are here,
we won't spare them.'
That's how they must have
gathered them at night.
On the 28th,
the day of the strike.
On 27th, when the
Godhra massacre happened...
...the next day...the same
day, there was a decision...
...by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
to have a general strike.
No one went for work that
day. Everyone stayed home.
From that side, are the strongholds
of Bajrang Dal, VHP and RSS.
Its totally their
people who live there.
From that side, they set out
to shut everything down.
Not shutting, but burning
down was what they were after.
Burning everything along the way,
they reached the shoe shops.
The Muslims are in majority
there. They reached there.
We were sitting this side,
with no intention of fighting.
We didn't...
...touch anybody.
Burning along the way, they
came till the STD shop.
They were there.
How far is that from here?
They were right there.
To defend
ourselves, we...
...ran them out.
Then what we women and children did
was collect stones in a pile on the road.
Gather them and deposit.
So when the attackers
came...we had sticks...
...stones, bricks
that we had gathered.
When they came at us
on the 28th...at 7 pm...
...we got together
and went to fight them.
They threw bottles at us...
We threw stones
back at them...
...and chased them
away in the night.
On Thursday, the 28th,
in the morning at 10...
we learnt that in Naroda, 56 of
our people had been burnt alive.
Half an hour after that
we got to know that...
...in Gulbarg Society more
had been burnt alive.
After this, how were
we to trust these people?
They set out to burn. They
burnt shops, houses and people.
Burning house and
people. How could we...
A dialogue takes place between reasonable
people, who listen to each other. Get me?
You can have a conversaton,
if the other person is listening.
These people
hadn't come to talk...
...they'd come to fight.
To burn and destroy us.
At 6am, there was an attack.
We chased them away. They left.
There was another one at 10.
We chased them away too.
Then at 12.30, they returned
armed with swords, knives, maces.
They had surrounded from all four
sides. That's when our courage shattered.
They had weapons. And saffron
headbands. On their heads.
They had tridents in their
hands. They had knives.
Some had swords. Like this,
there were other weapons.
When we tried to escape this way,
they closed in on us from there.
When they closed in,
we ran the other way.
At 2, there
was a riot. At 2.
The fire
broke out at 2.
In the '85 riots too,
we lived here.
We didn't move. Even then,
nothing happened to us.
Even the colony people
didn't do anything.
Then when the Shah Bano
riots happened...in '92...
...nothing happened to us.
We didn't escape. We were unharmed.
But these...2002 riots
were so bad that...
...we'd never seen anything like
it and are unlikely to see again.
And the public
was from outside.
Who knows from where...
But we heard that the
government supported them.
Gave them 72 hours and said,
'Kill them. Do what you please.'
The police
wouldn't come.
When this area was on fire,
we called the fire brigade...
...but the fire brigade
wouldn't come.
The fire raged for
atleast 10 hours...
But in 10 hours, not one
fire brigade showed up.
Someone here made
at least 240 calls...
...to the Sub-Inspector.
But the Sub-Inspector
did not help us at all.
On the contrary, he
himelf took fuel out...
...took petrol out and
gave to the mob.
He went and shook
hands with the rioters.
Caught 12 or 13 of our boys...
...and went and shook
hands with those people.
With the Bajrang Dal people.
He said, 'With these few weapons,
those Muslims won't be chased away.'
'Go get more public.'
The MLA here...
We even called him.
He said, 'I'll try. I'll do
what I can from my side.'
We kept calling but
couldn't contact him.
Finally he said, 'We have no
standing with the government.'
Save yourselves.
That is your victory.
Those were his last words to us.
Save yourselves. That is your victory.
'The government isn't
paying any attention to us.'
Even an MLA was powerless.
Because he was from the Congress
and the government was BJP.
My son said, 'Father,
take the kids and run.'
We ran with just the
clothes on our backs.
It seemed like the
Day of Judgement.
It was a Friday.
My son said, 'Father,
take the children and run.'
So I took her by the hand
and went to the shrine...
...and told everyone.
Their father and my son-in-law...
They put a cot against the wall and got all
the mothers and sisters to climb over.
I took them along Line number 1.
The Bombay line. Line number 1.
It was like the
Day of Judgement.
It was God's mercy
that no one was wounded...
...and no one...four people were
standing on the flyover and firing.
Our innocent children
were all fighting.
Allah kept us all safe.
Our homes burned
on the 1st of March.
On the 1st, a
Friday, by 2pm...
...we had left our homes.
We stood at a
distance and watched.
Half the people stood in the
nearby colony, half a little ahead.
Half were hiding here. Even old people,
poor things, were hiding in others' homes.
This is how we fled.
Even people of
other communities...
...were troubled,
not just us Muslims.
In our houses,
no one was safe.
It wasn't just us Muslims
who suffered. No.
Everyone suffered
at that time.
Along this line, there
was a makeshift wall.
The public, climbed here, jumped
across and ran with our lives.
Like the kids...two people
stood here, two that side.
They'd pick the kids up
and hand them across.
That house you see there, near
the tree? We all hid there.
See. Straight ahead.
This is the house where we
hid with the women and children.
We ran from here and scaled the
wall there. Where the fence is.
Half went from
here, half from there.
This is a newly-built wall, right?
Earlier, the walls were
makeshift and smaller.
The doors opened
this side. Everyone's.
They came out
this way and ran.
Half the public jumped
from here and went in.
Everyone ran
with their lives.
It was about 10 or
11 in the morning.
All of us, boys from the
colony, were playing cricket.
So... a mob came from
here. From the rear.
We went to see, at first.
The mob was huge.
Then we went out.
We saw they were lobbing
stones from the bridge.
More were coming from
that way. Some from here.
The mob became huge.
Then we closed the
gate of the colony.
Everyone gathered
inside the colony.
The mob just
kept getting bigger.
We told them we
didn't want to fight.
Yet, they had a problem
that we'd given shelter...
...to the people
that lived behind us.
They asked, 'Why did
you give them shelter?'
'Force them out.'
We said, 'No. We won't force
them out. They will remain here.'
The arguement went
on for some time.
Again, we said,
'We don't want to fight.'
Then there was a little run in with
the people from the other colony.
There were a few injuries,
but nothing major happened.
The workers colony sheltered the fleeing residents of
the basti within the confines of their compound even
as some residents of the neighbouring officers colony
joined the mob.
The attack was such that
we were told to remain silent...
...while those people
burned our homes.
Why would we be
quiet? We also fought back.
We fought
lots..lots...lots...
In the meanwhile,
the police turned up.
The Sub-Inspector
was also there.
Along with the police.
The Sub-Inspector
said, 'Go hide! Go hide!'
Had we done that, they would
have burnt us alive in our houses.
We would have died.
We would
have also died.
Then a thought occured.
I said, 'Our children...
So we took
them that side.
We left the children
there and came back here.
All the young
people came back.
We were threatened.
They were even firing.
At us.
So we ran back
home in fright.
We hid in
this house.
The sub-inspector dragged us out of
the house and threw us into the van.
We saw the van
and ran back in.
Saw the van and ran...
There's a hut
like this, outside.
We hid in that hut.
A policeman saw us.
He saw us...He
kicked the door open.
There were about ten or fifteen of us
sitting there; everyone was picked up.
4 or 5 old people
were also picked up.
They were old,
so they left them.
But all the young
people were taken away.
We were inside the van.
All those whose homes were
burned, fell into their clutches...
How many? About
25 or 30. No, we were 20.
So, to the 20 that fell into
their cluthes, they said...
There was a mob
standing right there.
2002 Gujarat riots
They said, 'Leave them here.'
'Leave them
here so that...
...so that...
...they can
kill them.'
That's what
they were thinking.
Who was saying this?
The police!
What did they say?
The police said,
'Leave them here...
'Here,
let them...
...do what
they like.'
Then?
Then we asked...
'Why should
we get off here?'
'Take us to the police..
...police station.'
'Take us inside
the police station.'
Because we protested so
much, they finally took us away.
He was going to
leave you there?
Yes. He was going
to leave us there.
Weren't you afraid then
that they'd leave you there?
Yes, we were scared.
Very scared.
We thought they would
leave us here...
...and that we would die.
We refused
to leave the van.
Then, four or five policemen
stood in front like this...
...then we emerged
from the van...
...and ran...
...into the
police station.
That is how
we were saved.
How many mobs and rioters were
present, and were they armed?
There were many people.
There were people that
side, that side, that side.
In their midst, us.
And just ahead, the police
station. Just like this door.
We emerged from
the van and ran.
Into the
police station.
Didn't the police help?
Yes, the police also
helped us a little...
We raised such a hue and
cry. Then they helped us.
Else they would have
had us killed right there.
What happened
there was...
...a boy from the next area
had been also arrested.
A Gujarati, I mean...
He had been caught.
His mother came
to meet him.
Gujarati...I mean...
He was...he was with us
for two days. That boy.
Stayed together,
ate together, spoke.
So his mother had
come to meet him.
His mother had
come to meet him.
I recognised her and thought to myself,
'I think she is from the area behind ours.'
So I asked her...
(in Gujarati)
'Aunty, do you...
...do you know
my father?'
'Yes, I know him.',
she replied.
'Do me a favour.', I said.
'I'll write a letter to my father...
'Take this letter
to my father.'
That Gujarati woman went to my house
and gave my mother-in-law the letter.
My mother-in-law
gave it to my father.
That's when he got to know...
After five days he got to
know that I was in custody.
Who was going to come during the
curfew? No one was going to come.
But he was relieved to know
that I had only been arrested.
And I had no inkling of my
children's whereabouts.
We were left after...
...25 days...
...and 1.
After 25 days and 1.
26 days?
-26 days.
For 26 days,
we stayed there.
After 26 days,
we returned...
...and saw...
...everything...
...had been burned.
We looked everywhere.
There was nobody.
No one to ask us...
'Who are you? Where
have you come from?'
Then we learnt that our
people were at the camp...
...so we went
to the camp.
This is how the days
went by at the camp.
We'd get
enough to eat...
but if my son asked for even
one rupee, he would not get it.
This was the scene
for two months.
After about three months,
we received a cheque.
We got a cheque of
about 2500 - 3000 rupees.
When we encashed the cheque we were
able to use the money for our children.
Everything that
we had owned...
..not one thing remained.
Everything was looted.
I am 24 years of age...
...but I had never
heard of camps. Right?
I know of police camps
and military camps...
...but I had never thought that there
would be a time we would live in a camp.
We stayed there for a few days, then
it was declared an official camp.
Those poor people who
laboured and earned daily...
...now have no means to earn a
livelihood and feed their children.
For all those here...If this
relief camp did not exist...
...or if we didn't
receive any help here...
where would we take these children and
go? Which gutter would we cast them into?
And now the rains are upon us.
The situation is such that they haven't
been able to re-build their houses.
If the government or any committee
would build them homes even today...
...then with God's grace, they
can take their children and...
...go back and earn
their livelihood.
But no one, not even the
government is paying any attention.
What were they given?
Cheques for 2500,
2700 or 2800 rupees.
1200 rupees. When the paper
announces that people will be paid...
...per day of displacement,
5 or 8 rupees a day.
Its been 3 months,
so 1200 rupees.
There has been
no hearing for that.
As for the temples and
mosques that were destroyed...
Narendra Modi announced
in the Gujarat Today paper...
...that the government
was not responsible.
But if the government is not
responsible, what is your role?
When the BSF came,
Border Police, military...
...they should have
been given charge.
But they weren't given command
and returned disappointed.
Any other police that comes,
you don't give them charge.
Then what is it that you do?
I don't understand.
You don't want to resign,
you cling to your seats...
...and you want people to fight...
cause Hindu-Muslim riots...
What are they thinking?
What will you do with
all these interviews, tell me?
What will you do
with these interviews?
What?
-Cut.
Why cut?
- No, no. I'll explain what we're doing.
Everything that we
had was destroyed.
Everyone comes to interview us.
Everyone comes to interview us.
But does anyone come
with a cheque of 50,000...
'Here, rebuild your house.'
Does anyone
like this come?
No one comes.
Everyone comes with cameras to see
this spectacle of our destruction.
Right or wrong?
Then?
Giving interview after
interview, we're tired!
For four months, everyone's
just taking our interview.
People come with cameras slung on
their shoulders and demand interviews.
But how has this benifited
us? Giving interviews?
Is there any benefit?
Has anyone come up to us and
said, 'Your houses were destroyed...
...take this bundle,
settle down again.'
The government has more
pressing things on its mind.
They've given you this job-go around
with a camera and interview people.
We are not from
the government.
Wherever you may be from,
you must be drawing a salary?
No, we don't get one.
Then? Have you come
to do a good deed?
From an organisation...
To laugh at us.
Exactly. What else!
It is just that.
This life, this world is like that,
enjoying the spectacle of devastation.
Despite repeated attacks on the basti, no lives were
lost. Most Hindu residents didn't move to the camp
but lived some distance from it. Supplies were sent
to them from the camp till they moved back to their
homes.
Four months later, the camp was closed down and
the Muslims moved back as well.
The police refused to register an FIR against the Police Sub-Inspector who gave petrol to the rioting mob to burn the basti. An FIR was registered only when the Court intervened. The Sub-Inspector, unprosecuted, was transferred to Railway Police.
The case against him was closed by the police. Another case has been filed by activists against this decision, which is still pending in court.
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