| Published on 10-12-2007 In National | | Viewed 1236 times | | Communal Mindsets, Tribals and lack of Modi wave in South Gujarat |
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| Written by
Girish Nikam | 
What is this about the urban environment in Gujarat which makes people turn Muslim-haters and when they return to their villages or small towns, they are transformed? This is a question one faced after traveling extensively in the rural areas of Surat district and the neighbouring Valsad, Navasari and Dang districts.
A middle aged, scheduled caste man, feeling slightly under the weather as he waited for a doctor to attend on him in the small town of Kalod, in Bardoli constituency in Surat district, watching a caravan of trucks and vans loaded with people being taken to Sonia Gandhi's public rally in nearby Mandvi, was the reason for one to put such a poser.
This man, (name not asked, as he had to rush into the clinic) who has now shifted to Kalod and has become a small electronic dealer, used to work in Surat earlier. Surat being the sprawling industrial, textile and diamond city as it is, and known to be the least communalized among the major cities in Gujarat, apparently still gave this man a different mindset.
"I am a Congress supporter, I think Narendra Modi is an arrogant, loose-tongued, egoistic leader with dictatorial tendencies", he says just to ensure that I did not get him wrong about his Congress leanings. But, he says, "When I was in Surat even I supported him and the BJP. I even worked for the BJP". Now why this change of heart within 40 or 50 kms. which is, mind you the distance between Surat and Kalod. Is it the atmosphere in his hometown, which looks like a peaceful, quiet, people-going-about-their-business-town with enough signs of impending prosperity, just like most of these small towns one crossed in South Gujarat?
Why did he work for the BJP or support it in Surat and not in Kalod? He comes straight to the point, without mincing any words. "There in Surat those people (you have to read Muslims) are a different kind. They keep creating problems", he says almost in exasperation and half-apologetically what problems? He is not able to specify, but says, "Well the atmosphere there forces a person like me also to get annoyed with them".
Aren't there Muslims in Kalod? Just as one asked this question a middle-aged Muslim couple crossed the road, and looking at them he as well as another by-stander, both say in unison, "here there are no tensions, we all live like brothers".
Even when Godhra happened, the town did not see any communal tensions.
And remarkably in the present on-going election communal issues have not cropped up in any of the parties' propaganda, in this region. No wonder, except for making cursory mention about Modi's government creating fear and division, Sonia Gandhi later at her massively attended rally, did not raise any of the communal issues in her speech.
In this region, South Gujarat's rural areas, tribals dominate, to the extent of even 95 percent in some of the 21 constituencies. For these young tribals like Chandubhai Chowdhary and Ramesh Vasava, who have come to hear Sonia Gandhi, "putting petrol in my bike myself", as Chandubhai reminds us, communalism is not an issue. They are not impressed by the vitriol Modi has been pouring in the recent past. For them issues like water to their fields, regular power supply for irrigation, health facilities (we have to pay R.1,500 and organize a vehicle to bring our pregnant ladies to Mandvi—about 35 kms. away from our village).
So the next question which crops up is why the Muslims in rural areas don't provoke the Hindus as much as those in urban areas? Or do they at all? Is it the Hindu communal forces that provoke them taking advantage of the anonymity of a city, and create communal disturbances? Or is the anonymity of the big city used by the Muslims to create mischief?
One has to see these posers in the context of what one is witnessing nowadays in Gujarat, not in past, where in Central Gujarat even the rural areas had turned into a communal cauldron, post Godhra. Or is it that where tribals dominate the chances of communal divide is remote. Again post-Godhra certain parts of Central Gujarat where tribals are in large numbers, had joined forces with Modi-brigade and sought havoc on Muslims.
Is the present situation in South Gujarat therefore a sign of the changing mindset, in the rural areas and especially among the tribals? Difficult to say, but one thing seems certain--- BJP has a tough fight on hands in South Gujarat. And one more thing---there is no pro-Modi wave to be seen anywhere here, though there are certainly many admirers of him and his style!
Let us how things are shaping up in Saurashtra, where this column plans to travel early tomorrow. |
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