CHAPTER - 19

RECENT COMMUNAL RIOTS

Lok Sabha , 4 December 1978

EDITORIAL NOTE

This debate took place in the background of serious communal trouble in Aligarh. According to Chavan, Aligarh was merely symbolic. Sense of insecurity had gripped the mind of minority communities. The root of communal trouble lay in the communal politics of the country.

Chavan pointed out that before Independence, it was said that Hindu communalism, Muslim communalism and British imperalism were responsible for all conflicts in the Indian society. Now, Communal politics  had replaced British imperialism. According to him, if at all a solution had to answer and solution must be found to the problem of communal politics:

There were aspects of the communal problem; the administrative the political and the socio-economic and all the three aspects had dealt with simultaneously. He made several suggestions in the course of his speech to tackle these problems.

Shri Y. B. Chavan : Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am participating in this Debate, which is a very important Debate from the national point of view.

For, the last few weeks or for a few months, I would say, the country is full of an atmosphere of conflict and confrontation between the different sections of the community, sometimes in the name of caste and sometimes these communal troubles. I think it is a very good that we have decided to discuss this question on the floor of the House.

Prof. Samar Guha in the beginning said that his question needs to be looked into from a national perspective. I don’t think anybody would dispute that point. But discussing a question in national perspective does not mean to make it somewhat academic, the results of which ultimately, will lead to no conclusion. We are today provoked to discuss this question because of what happened in Aligarh. Therefore, Aligarh becomes very important and symbolic.

The sense of insecurity in the mind of minority of this country is the greatest disease that a democratic society can face. I would therefore feel that what has happened in Aligarh is something very serious. I know that it has not happened only in Aligarh. It has also happened in Kanpur, Lucknow, Sambhal and many other places, and in Hyderabad also. I don’t say that it has happened only in U.P It happened at different times at different places.