Articles by Lancy Lobo

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The demolition and displacement of two major slums in Vadodara has revealed that little, if any, of the pervasive communal politics has changed in Gujarat. This coupled with anti-poor policies of the state have ensured that poor Muslims are denied the right to housing in most urban areas of Gujarat.  

Though Gujarat has a history of communalism, adivasis were the last to be communalised. This paper attempts to explore the participation of adivasis in the riots that followed the Godhra carnage. It highlights the fact that the character of riots in adivasi areas was different from that in non-adivasi areas and attempts to reconstruct the developmental cycle of communalisation of adivasis from late 1980s onwards. It links this communalisation with the political economy of adivasis whose aspirations and problems are kept distorted and their attention diverted under the garb of religion and party politics.

DANGI DARBAR is generally held just before Holi. This year it was held on March 13, 1995. Five Bhil (tribal) rajas (kings) of Dangs were given their political pension'by the Dangs district adminisiration at a public function. This practice is 153- ycars old and was started by the British. The idea was to co-opt and appease the Rajas in exploiting Dang's resources The logic for continuing this institution alter independence remains the same. Following is a report of this year's Dangi Darbar followed by some comments on Dangs and on the nature of development in general, DANGI DARBAR Ahwa is the district headquarters of the Dangs. It is situated on a small plateau on the hills. It mainly houses government offices, and residential quarters mostly for non-tribal officers. The largest fair of the year in the area is set up mostly by the non- tribals. The most prominent items of the fair are the giant wheel, grocery shops, cloth, electronic items and other household items. A few forest products were also seen. The area gets crowded at the bazzar and the fair site. On the periphery of the fair a large number of Dangis, mostly Bhils, camp with their bullock carts. With small fires lit women prepared 'rotli' Others were eating, smoking and drinking, Just below the government circuit house a large 'shamiana' with a stage was set up for holding the darbar.

elements were nabbed in Surat on December 6 under PASA and TADA. Bootlegging and the spread of underground activities and the parallel economy had made the city a haven for the police. When P K Datta took over as Police Com- missioner in October 1992, he came down heavily on bootlegging and other illegal activities. 'Hafta' dried up. The police force became sullen. Builders became unhappy with an administration trying to enforce rules and regulations. The stage was set for Datta's transfer from Surat.4 The December 6 developments in Ayodhya came in handy for the vested interests to try to break this inconvenient impasse. When the minority over-reacted on the night of the 6th, the majority backlash was predictable as almost a reflex action. In 1991 tempers had run high when the Khetrapal temple had been tampered with by some Muslim hotheads. Thereafter the vituperative speeches of top BJP and VHP leaders in the city had rendered the at nosphcre communally surcharged. The OBCs and the Kanbis, who constitute the mainstream of the lumpens in Udhna, Vaxachha Road and Ved Road, sprang into action, attacking the minority community. Families were burnt alive and women were raped or made to strip with video cameras covering the dastardly acts.5 Surat lost about Rs 500 crore. Its 2,50,000 powerlooms, producing goods worth Rs 25 crore per day, remained closed during the period of curfew. The 4 lakh workers in the powerloom factories lost Rs 2 crore a day in wages. The dyeing houses, the processing units dealing with dyeing, warping and texturising and the textile mills too remained closed Inquiries revealed that about 1,75,000 tickets had been sold at the Surat station and ST bus stand up to December 17.6 Others leaving the city by other routes or for not-too- distant centres on foot were estimated to be about 50,000. This suggests an exodus of about 2 lakh migrant labour