Malegaon..

Being born and raised in a city ill-known for the mutual communal rage of two ethnic groups, we were always taught to hate each other. In schools, the most interesting of the gossip stories were those of the riots and how ‘they’ have tortured ‘us’.
Malegaon is situated in the vicinity of two rivers, Girna and Mausam. Girna flows from outside of the city while Mausam flows right from the middle, dividing Malegaon geographically and ethnically, one side being dominated by each ethnic group, Hindus and Muslims. Earlier, only two bridges joined the two parts together, one of them being called ‘Ramsetu’, as if joining the Ramrajya with Ravan’s Lanka. The worst hit population of the riots has always been the minority ethnic group on either side. Lucky enough, we lived far away from the so called boundary of Mausam, nearly at the end of city. Hence we never really felt the direct heat of riots; in fact I used to be glad enough over the news of riots because this meant holiday from schools for at least a week, immature adolescent mind you see!
The first time I really came to know how horrible riots are, was during the 2001 riots. I was barely 11 year old, studying in 6^th grade. It was the day of Vijayadashami, the day of Ashvin Shukla Dashami, when Rama found Sita and defeated Ravana. Thus it is termed as Vijaya Dashami. On that day we saw the smoke of burning petrol pumps and burning slums go higher and higher in the air covering the sunlight and leaving us in darkness….
On that evening, as the custom goes, we all young ones were exchanging the token Gold (leaves of a plant named Apta) in the locality when suddenly the news spread of violence in the main city. Usually we never worried of these news as long as no one have gone inside the main city from family, so we continued our fun, but soon it was interrupted by a huge explosion noise, following by loads of smokes covering the skies. The explosion was at one of the petrol pump, hardly a km from our locality, which was set on fire by the ‘other’ side. This time the riots were very more serious than we thought they might be, we were immediately called home and the elder men from the whole colony gather together to discuss various possibilities as to what should be done if the rioters reach the area, fair enough as the rioters had already reached the vicinity.
It was the real scary evening as we all have heard the extreme horrible stories of the riots, and this time they were happening extremely close. We all took some bricks on the porch as a self-defense mechanism and the women and children including me were locked on the second floor of the bungalow only elderly men outside, carefully watching the area. That time we spent inside the cage was most horrible, even a cry from a man outside made us think that rioters have come. We spent almost two hours like that when we heard the sirens of police vans and the military vans patrolling the area. This meant that the danger is over and curfew is on. The horrible evening finally end with no major action but it was going to affect the thoughts of many of us. After ten long days the madness ended with 15 persons, most of them Muslims, killed in the police firing. The riots didn’t limit themselves over the city but they spread in the nearing villages and towns, where the most of the victims were Muslims.
While hearing the stories of riots at the school we never tend to thought that the persons being killed, whether Hindus or Muslims, are no different than us, innocent middle class people who have nothing to do with the rioters. This incident stirred my mind and made me think on the very basic question, ‘why?’
Why do people quarrel and why that quarrels escalates to this degree that we are ready to kill each other. My family was never over-religious, we visited temples, but not as routinely and ceremonially as peers used to. On birthdays of family members, people used to have various religious ceremonies at home, whereas we used to visit an orphanage to make donations, a kind of tradition started by my grandfather. Shirdi, a famous place of the saint Sai, which is visited by crores of people yearly from all over India is little over a couple of hours drive from Malegaon. It is visited by both Hindus and Muslims. And being so close people of Malegaon often visits the place. On other hand, I hardly remember even a single visit to the place by our family. May be it was because of this kind of background and of course because of the above incidence, I tend to become a moderate in religious views, my age of reason started from this time!
It was already 54 years since independence and we still were not safe in our own country. It was a disturbing fact that made even the 11 year old me sad. A whole decade has passed since; a lot of water is flown from under Ramsetu. Malegaon saw two blasts in this decade. The blasts were allegedly organized by Hindu extremists. Sad.
Malegaon is facing very serious illiteracy and poverty problems which results in poor medical treatments. Many times women refuse to give their children polio doses because of some ridiculous misconceptions. Poor personal and social hygiene leads to epidemics every year. Refusal for family planning methods have resulted in having two number family members which is the extra burden on home economy and this throws the generations to come in a vicious cycle. Though the power looms which are the major source of employment are plenty in number (2 lakh to be precise) the condition of this industry is very ill. The wages given are meager and working conditions are substandard. The owners are the elite group of one particular trading class of Hindus, which are becoming rich making the Hindu and Muslim workers poor.
But now Malegaon has learned its lessons. Because in last five years Maharashtra saw major riots like Miraj, Satara, Dhule riots, but not in once, without exception, Malegaon turned violent. During the Assam incidents also, peaceful demonstrations were made by Muslim groups. Since past five years the Eid prayers and the Ganesh festival are conducted without any major ill-incident. The fruits of democracy are reaching grassroots, however slow they may be.  
One simple answer to the harmony in the ethnic groups can be mutual dependency in economy. Political awareness could be the other one. But these will not be achieved unless the new well-literate, neutral and patriotic generation is ready to make the change. Hence all we need to do now is focus all attention on the primary education of children and wait patiently as they grow up as the next generation of the midnight’s children!