A riot in Nagpur over a long-dead emperor’s tomb Premium
The Hindu
Tensions escalated in Nagpur when protesters demanding the demolition of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb allegedly burnt a chadar. A mob attacked homes, set vehicles on fire, and went on a rampage. A report on the controversy over an emperor who died more than 300 years ago, and how communal flames were fanned in Maharashtra
On the evening of March 17, Mohammed Aslam, a 61-year-old realtor, was sitting in his office with his son, 31-year-old Sohil Shaikh, in the Motha Taj Bagh area of Nagpur in Maharashtra, when he got a call from his wife, Shakeela Banu.
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Banu sounded really scared, recalls Aslam. “She said riots were taking place near our house and asked us to come home immediately. But minutes later, she urged us to stay put saying the situation had worsened,” he says.
Aslam’s home is 15 kilometres from his office in Mahal. His is the only Muslim family in the neighbourhood. Mahal. His house is located barely a kilometre from Dr. Hedgewar Bhawan, the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS is the ideological fountainhead of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is the ruling party both at the Centre and in Maharashtra.
Defying Banu’s warning, Aslam and Shaikh rushed back, parked their car a few blocks away, and ran towards their house. They recall standing like human shields at the centre of the violence, pleading for calm, as hundreds of people hurled stones and abuses at each other, and torched vehicles. “With our hands raised, we kept screaming, ‘Stop, stop, stop!’” says Aslam.
“We didn’t think twice,” says Sohil. “The rioters, who were Muslim, were not from our area and didn’t recognise us. They began attacking us, too. They broke my phone and the CCTV cameras, and threw stones at our house.”
Aslam says, “Hindus then started throwing stones in defence, so we had to control both sides.” Aslam, who has spent his whole life in Mahal, has never seen communal strife in the area.
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