Once Upon A Scream In Muzaffarnagar

On a sultry June afternoon, Tara Singh crossed the Ganga-Yam­una doab, from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh down to New Delhi바카라�s Jantar Mantar. He was joining thousands of other protesters, demanding justice for the Dalits of Shabbirpur in Saharanpur, whose homes were burned after clashes with local Rajputs in May. 바카라�The Yogi government has emboldened UP바카라�s Thakurs,바카라� says Tara. 바카라�They want to suppress us Dalits but we are unafraid.바카라�

The spectacular electoral victory of the BJP in the northern state may signal a decline in Mayawati바카라�s party, the BSP. It may also suggest a vacuum in Dalit politics바카라�one that a leader such as Chandra­shekhar Azad, Bhim Sena바카라�s founder, might try to fill. Yet, many Dalits of western UP바카라�for the flame from Shabbirpur has now spread across the entire region바카라�want to prove just the converse is true. 바카라�We support Chandra­she­khar and his Bhim Sena but only as a social movement. Mayawati remains our unequivocal political choice,바카라� says Lokendra from Muza­ff­arnagar. He바카라�s not alone in saying so. The sentiment is echoed across many parts of this large swathe, including in Muza­ffarnagar and Shamli바카라�two volatile districts that offer a snap­shot of the shifting canvas of community relations that characterises the region.

바카라�Almost all of UP is caught up in communal or caste conflicts. That has awakened the Dalits, though they were initially despondent after the BSP바카라�s defeat in the polls,바카라� says Dr Bale Ram, a professor and Dalit rights activist at Jansath. Accord­ing to him, the BJP consciously avoided wooing Mayaw­ati바카라�s core supporters, the Jatavs. By this, he feels, the BJP managed to drive a schism between the most vocal and politically conscious elements among BSP바카라�s supporters and the more silent among Dalits. 바카라�The Ambedkarites were split from the other Dalits, and this was achieved by making claims that Mayawati neglected all but her Jatav voters바카라�this is a strategy the Dalits now see through.바카라�

The Strategists

If a community바카라�s survival depends on sensing who controls the lever of power, such a state of awareness is high among the Jats of Muzaffarnagar. Take, for INS­tance, Madan Pal Singh. 바카라�Why would Jats vote only for other Jat leaders or a party of Jats,바카라� asks the prosperous Jat farmer of Bokaredi. 바카라�Is that the only way a Jat is supposed to think바카라�along caste lines?바카라� The Jats are 15 to 20 per cent of western UP, but in Muza­ffarnagar they hold power far disproportionate to their ten per cent share in the population. That usually overwhelming Jat iden­tity is, however, temporarily on ice.

Such extraordinary lines, like Madan Pal바카라�s, have bec­o­me commonplace since the assembly elections this summer. The jostle for power left the Rashtriya Lok Dal, a party the Jats once considered their natural political habitat, powerless and dispirited. The Jats had to seek comfort in melding with other Hindu castes under the BJP umbrella바카라�a place where old caste animosities are being re-enacted in new ways. The att­achment restores to the Jats a modicum of their old sense of power, and enables them to articulate their anger against groups that stand for reservation, including the Dalits.

This phenomenon is rooted in a tectonic shift in socio-­economic relations, visible everywh­ere in this region. For, Jats too are under the strain that farming middle castes feel everywhere. Madan Pal is among the last few farmers in the area who is not indebted, the only one whose lands haven바카라�t split as his family grew.

Recently, the farmers of Bokaredi and around collectively sent a dozen young boys to a training academy in Noida where they would be prepped to join the army바카라�but their literacy skills didn바카라�t quite match up. 바카라�All the boys were sent back; the institute said they cannot be trained,바카라� says Rampal Singh, a far­mer. 바카라�Our children need the sort of training Skill India provides,바카라� he says. In this context, the Jats find their support for the BJP a necessary trade-off: they subsume their hankering for a lead role in a rainbow coalition to try and melt into urban India. To do so they must align with a party poised to win, even if this isolates old allies: the Muslims. But it바카라�s not a happy divorce.

The Muslims, no matter that they are 38 per cent of the district, always needed to align with a powerful Hindu caste for a share in power. This suited both sides. So past coalitions smothered religious differences by fusing Hindu and Muslim castes바카라�such as Hindu Jats with Muslim (Muley) Jats. With the Hindu Jat turn to the BJP, that connection goes cold. As for the latter, from a dominant partner of formations that included Muslims, Gujj­ars, Rajputs and Ahirs바카라�the old MAJGAR바카라� they are now willing also-­rans in a large BJP courtyard. A glimmer of resentment shows up on this count, as Jats freely exp­ress remorse over the 2013 riots, in which they attacked and chased Muslim workers out of home and field.

The word khichav바카라�strain바카라�bubbles up when Jats refer to relations with Muslims. 바카라�We feel isolated,바카라� says Nepal Singh, a Jat farmer from Kookda, adjoining Muzaffar­nagar. 바카라�All we바카라�ve now is stubborn pride.바카라�

Muslims have pulled out of farm work, says Ravindra Arya from Jansath. 바카라�We pay more today, to hire labour from outside our villages,바카라� he adds. Muslim farm workers tend to be local, skilled and landless. They are perceived to be better workers. 바카라�Farmers in villages that rioted have to travel long distances to get their farm implements sharpened ever since the Muslims fled,바카라� says Arya. 바카라�Muslims are not returning to riot-affected areas, nor forgiving the Jats for 2013.바카라�

There is a perceptible disintegration of agrarian movements once led by Jats as well. Since 2014, Muslims, Rajputs and Gujjars have floated their own farmers바카라� outfits, fleeing the Jat-led Bharatiya Kisan Union, though it바카라�s still the most powerful. A prominent newcomer is Thakur Puran Singh, whose lobby, identified with Rajput farmers, opened six months after the riots. 바카라�The Tikaits only represent one community,바카라� he says, referring to Naresh and Rakesh Tikait from Sisoli in Muzaffarnagar. 바카라�Now nobody wants to be henpecked by the Jats.바카라� Ghu­lam Mohammad Jola, with his own outfit for Muslim farmers, rules out Jat-Muslim unity. 바카라�With daily news of Hindu-Muslim conflict, how can peace prevail? Jats have become Jats and Muslims have been turned Muslim,바카라� he says. What he means is, Muslim castes바카라�Jats, Rajputs, Gujjars바카라�are letting their caste identity sink. That further sequesters other Jats as Hindus.

The Stragglers

The Muslims feel besieged by their political segregation and a series of recent inc­idents in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli, which indicate the embers of 2013 are still smouldering. With Muslim MLAs down to 25 from 68 in 2012, the patronage networks that dealt out jobs, contracts and local leaders are drying out too.

Sherpur under Purkazi tehsil has roughly 10,000 Ranghars, a poor, barely-­educated community of Muslim Rajputs. This June, on an anonymous tip-off, the police raided this area in search of an all­egedly slaughtered cow. SSP Anant Dev Tiwari says Sherpur was no communal clash. 바카라�It was a fight bet­ween locals and the police.바카라� The reason, he says, is the loc­als resisted arrest, hurled brickbats and burned a police vehicle. The villagers admit the police search enr­aged them, what with the cops going from house to house바카라�and not just the one they were tipped off about. Also, their belongings were broken and communal slurs hurled. 바카라�The police overturned our pots and pans only to find lentils and potato,바카라� says Akil, a Sherpur resident. 바카라�Yet, the same night, they raided us again.바카라�

바카라�The tipoff turned out to be untrue,바카라� says the SSP. 바카라�We get scores of such tips daily. For Sherpur we had specific inform­ation. The force may have searched adjoi­ning houses too.바카라� The provocation for the second raid was that the Ranghars snat­ched their pradhan, Talib Hassan, from the clutches of the raiding police, set him free in adjoining fields, from where he went into hiding. 바카라�But our pradhan did no wrong바카라�so why does police want him,바카라� asks Shafiq, another resident. The Sherpur Muslims insist they are Rajput Muslims who have deep social ties with Hindu Rajputs. 바카라�I don바카라�t know why this cow matter is coming up,바카라� says Salim. Such incidents are a headache for local leaders. 바카라�Brickbats, sloganeering...make us want to tear our hair,바카라� says Rao Waris, who was with the BSP until recently.

Another local leader, Sudhir Panwar of the Samajwadi Party, finds local Muslims are either bewildered by or unmindful of the nervousness about terrorism and violence. 바카라�Most Muslims are poor and among the poor, life can be cheap,바카라� he says. Besides, aggression is almost part of wes­tern UP바카라�s culture. 바카라�The poor Muslims do not realise that things have changed.바카라� Sudhir Balyan, an old-timer with the BJP in UP, says, 바카라�I ask my party, will we pay attention only to Hindu-Muslim issues or  any other work in Muzaffarnagar?바카라�

Any incident involving touchy topics, or clashes in which the two sides happen to belong to different religions, get a communal flavour, he says. And priv­a­t­ely talking down Mus­lims is  like 바카라�a fashion바카라� among Muzaffarnag­ar바카라�s smartphone-savvy youth. 바카라�They draw compa­risons bet­ween ISIS, Taliban and all Muslims,바카라� he says. 바카라�Tell me, if a Hindu bumps into a Muslim, is that a communal incident? It doesn바카라�t, but here large crowds gather at the mere hint of a dispute.바카라�

Nasirpur, a kasba, erupted in June after Brijpal and Shahnawaz squabbled over a mere leaking drainpipe. 바카라�From an open drain, water splattered on a Muslim passerby and they argued,바카라� says Raju Pal, ex-pradhan, Nasirpur. The current prad­han, Sabbir, settled this argument but soon another duo squabbled, over a severed cable. Soon, brickbats were flying, shots rent the air. In the chaos, Brijpal바카라�s son got a fatal gunshot. The police arres­ted scores of men, inc­luding Sabbir. The narrative in Nasirpur is, had the pradhan called the police to resolve the drainpipe issue, the fight over cable would have been averted. 바카라�I support BJP and Modi but that incident had nothing to do with religion,바카라� says Manoj, a local. He attributes the communal tone of the incident to the arrival of a string of BJP leaders, from MP Sanjiv Balyan to MLA Kapil Agarwal, on invitation from a local RSS worker.

This is not how RSS worker Madan, Brijpal바카라�s neighbour, sees it. 바카라�It was a riot between Mus­lim Rajputs and Hindu Pals,바카라� he claims. 바카라�Over a drainpipe, lots of Muslims collected with sticks and stones, saying they are more in numbers.바카라� Nasir­pur바카라�s Muslims have locked themselves indoors and deny witnessing the events. Komal Devi, Brij­pal바카라�s grieving wife, says Muslims killed her son. 바카라�The bullet could have hit my son in the leg, in the chest,바카라� she says. 바카라�Why the skull?바카라�

RLD leader Chaudhary Mushtaq, a former Muzaffarnagar MLA, feels Hindu-Muslim amity, electorally at least, now turns on something beyond the Muslims바카라� control: 바카라�It depends now on when Hindus will vote agai­nst the BJP.바카라� Muslims are nervous that educated Hindus seem to be turning against them, a trend they often spot on social media. 바카라�Yes, Babri was painful but only poor Hindus seemed to have gotten involved in that,바카라� says Aarif Khan, a zam­indar from Garhi Abdulla­khan, a Pathan village in Shamli. 바카라�If today educated Hindus turn against Muslims, all India will become like Kashmir.바카라�

Muzaffarnagar and Sha­mli had, a decade ago, over two dozen big iron and steel units. Today, Shamli has just one steel fact­ory: Ashok Bansal바카라�s. He, and other industrialists, are engaged in hectic talks with the government to get electricity rates cut: it바카라�s the main culprit for the dec­line of industry. To top it, the growing communal schism. 바카라�When I was a child, nobody here was Muslim or Hindu,바카라� Bansal says. 바카라�They were only chacha or tau (uncle).바카라� Almost all of Bansal바카라�s ski­lled wor­kers바카라�cutters, binders, pressers바카라�are Muslim. They will leave, if tensions persist, he fears. Bansal, raised in a mixed neighbourhood, 바카라�now lives where there are only banias바카라�. 바카라�Everybody is thinking, 바카라�we have to save ourselves, stay among our own바카라�,바카라� he says. But he wonders if Hindus will do the skilled work. He hasn바카라�t seen any Hindus learning those trades.

 By Pragya Singh in Western UP