Page 83 - Non-violence and peace-building

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Nipping Inter-Community

Conflict in the Bud

very year, a wrestling match is held in Aligarh, a
Etown in northern India, in which both Hindu and
Muslim wrestlers take part. One year, a Muslim wrestler
complained that he had been cheated. The target of his
ire was a Hindu man, with whom he had a longstanding
enmity. After the match, the Muslim wrestler decided
he would take revenge on him. A few days later, he
and a group of his companions spotted the man alone.
They brutally stabbed him. He was rushed to hospital,
where he revealed the names of his attackers and then
succumbed to his wounds.

The man’s death proved to be a boon to certain
leaders of the town. They led an angry demonstration,
raising provocative slogans. “Blood in exchange for
blood!” they cried. Their emotion-driven rhetoric
created a very sensitive situation. And then the town
fell prey to deadly inter-communal violence.
Consider the case of another riot, that broke out in
1980 in Moradabad, another town in northern India.
Early that year, elections to the state assembly had been

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