2002 Gujarat riots

2002 Gujarat riots
Part of religious violence in India
The skyline of Ahmedabad filled with smoke as buildings and shops are set on fire by rioting mobs.
DateFebruary – March 2002
Location
Gujarat, India
Caused byGodhra train burning[1][2]
State terrorism[3][1]
Ethnic cleansing[2]
MethodsRioting, pogrom, arson, mass rape, kidnapping, mass murder
Casualties
Death(s)790 Muslims and 254 Hindus (official)
1,926 to 2,000+ total (other sources)[4][5][6]
Injuries2,500+
Part of a series on
Violence against Muslims
in independent India
Major incidents

The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence or the Gujarat pogrom,[7][8][9][10][11] was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims and karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, is cited as having instigated the violence.[12][13][14][15] Following the initial riot incidents, there were further outbreaks of violence in Ahmedabad for three months; statewide, there were further outbreaks of violence against the minority Muslim population of Gujarat for the next year.[7][16]

According to official figures, the riots ended with 1,044 dead, 223 missing, and 2,500 injured. Of the dead, 790 were Muslim and 254 Hindu.[17] The Concerned Citizens Tribunal Report,[18] estimated that as many as 1,926 may have been killed.[4] Other sources estimated death tolls in excess of 2,000.[5] Many brutal killings and rapes were reported on as well as widespread looting and destruction of property. Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat and later Prime Minister of India, was accused of condoning the violence, as were police and government officials who allegedly directed the rioters and gave lists of Muslim-owned properties to them.[19]

In 2012, Modi was cleared of complicity in the violence by Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court of India. The SIT also rejected claims that the state government had not done enough to prevent the riots.[20] The Muslim community was reported to have reacted with anger and disbelief.[21] In July 2013, allegations were made that the SIT had suppressed evidence.[22] That December, an Indian court upheld the earlier SIT report and rejected a petition seeking Modi's prosecution.[23] In April 2014, the Supreme Court expressed satisfaction over the SIT's investigations in nine cases related to the violence, and rejected a plea contesting the SIT report as "baseless".[24]

Though officially classified as a communalist riot, the events of 2002 have been described as a pogrom by many scholars,[25][26] with some commentators alleging that the attacks had been planned, with the attack on the train was a "staged trigger" for what was actually premeditated violence.[27][28] Other observers have stated that these events had met the "legal definition of genocide,"[29] or referred to them as state terrorism or ethnic cleansing.[3][1][2] Instances of mass violence include the Naroda Patiya massacre that took place directly adjacent to a police training camp;[30] the Gulbarg Society massacre where Ehsan Jafri, a former parliamentarian, was among those killed; and several incidents in Vadodara city.[31] Scholars studying the 2002 riots state that they were premeditated and constituted a form of ethnic cleansing, and that the state government and law enforcement were complicit in the violence that occurred.[27][3][30][32][33][34][35][36]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Baruah 2012 b was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference McLane 2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Pandey 2005 b was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Setalvad, Teesta (3 March 2017). "Talk by Teesta Setalvad at Ramjas college (March 2017)". www.youtube.com. You tube. Archived from the original on 27 November 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  5. ^ a b Jaffrelot, Christophe (July 2003). "Communal Riots in Gujarat: The State at Risk?" (PDF). Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics: 16. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  6. ^ The Ethics of Terrorism: Innovative Approaches from an International Perspective. Charles C Thomas Publisher. 2009. p. 28. ISBN 9780398079956. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  7. ^ a b Ghassem-Fachand 2012, p. 1-2.
  8. ^ "The Soul-Wounds of Massacre, or Why We Should Not Forget the 2002 Gujarat Pogrom". The Wire (India). 27 February 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2024. This article is extracted and adapted from the author's book Between Memory and Forgetting: Massacre and the Modi Years in Gujarat, Yoda Press, 2019.
  9. ^ Bilgrami, Akeel (1 February 2013). Democratic Culture: Historical and Philosophical Essays. Routledge. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-136-19777-2.
  10. ^ Berenschot, Ward (11 June 2014). "Rioting as Maintaining Relations: Hindu-Muslim Violence and Political Mediation in Gujarat, India". In Jutta Bakonyi; Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (eds.). A Micro-Sociology of Violence: Deciphering Patterns and Dynamics of Collective Violence. Routledge. pp. 18–37. ISBN 978-1-317-97796-4.
  11. ^ Indian Social Institute (2002). The Gujarat pogrom: compilation of various reports.
  12. ^ Nezar AlSayyad, Mejgan Massoumi (13 September 2010). The Fundamentalist City?: Religiosity and the Remaking of Urban Space. Routledge. p. 34. ISBN 9781136921209. Archived from the original on 9 March 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2017. godhra train burning which led to the gujarat riots of 2002
  13. ^ Sanjeevini Badigar Lokhande (13 October 2016). Communal Violence, Forced Migration and the State: Gujarat since 2002. Cambridge University Press. p. 98. ISBN 9781107065444. Archived from the original on 9 March 2020. Retrieved 1 January 2020. gujarat 2002 riots caused godhra burning
  14. ^ Resurgent India. Prabhat Prakashan. 2014. p. 70. ISBN 9788184302011. Archived from the original on 9 March 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
  15. ^ Isabelle Clark-Decès (10 February 2011). A Companion to the Anthropology of India. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444390582. Archived from the original on 10 November 2017. Retrieved 7 July 2017. the violence occurred in the aftermath of a fire that broke out in carriage of the Sabarmati Express train
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Escherle 2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Official death toll was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ "Report on Godhra riots". www.sabrang.com. Concerned Citizens Tribunal Report. Archived from the original on 15 January 2020. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Murphy 2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ "How SIT report on Gujarat riots exonerates Modi". CNN-IBN. 11 November 2011. Archived from the original on 11 May 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference Krishnan 2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference Times of India 2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ "Court Clears Narendra Modi in Riots Case". The Wall Street Journal. 26 December 2013.
  24. ^ "Supreme Court turns down plea questioning clean chit to Modi". India Today. 11 April 2014. Archived from the original on 10 January 2018. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  25. ^ Chris Ogden. 2012. A Lasting Legacy: The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and India's Politics Journal of Contemporary Asia Vol. 42, Iss. 1, 2012
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dhattiwala 2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ^ a b Brass 2005, p. 388.
  28. ^ Cite error: The named reference Baldwin 2002 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  29. ^ Cite error: The named reference Garlough 2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  30. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Patiya massacre was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  31. ^ Cite error: The named reference Vadodara 2007 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  32. ^ Nussbaum 2008, p. 50-51.
  33. ^ Bobbio, Tommaso (2012). "Making Gujarat Vibrant: Hindutva, development and the rise of subnationalism in India". Third World Quarterly. 33 (4): 657–672. doi:10.1080/01436597.2012.657423. S2CID 154422056. Archived from the original on 1 March 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2019.(subscription required)
  34. ^ Shani 2007b, pp. 168–173.
  35. ^ Buncombe, Andrew (19 September 2011). "A rebirth dogged by controversy". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 25 December 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  36. ^ Jaffrelot, Christophe (June 2013). "Gujarat Elections: The Sub-Text of Modi's 'Hattrick'—High Tech Populism and the 'Neo-middle Class'". Studies in Indian Politics. 1 (1): 79–95. doi:10.1177/2321023013482789. S2CID 154404089.