DESECRATION OF RELIGIOUS PLACES

July 7, 2012

During the genocide of 2002 numerous Muslim places of worship and respect were destroyed or desecrated in Gujarat. [Incidentally SPRAT has probably the single largest collection of photographic evidence on this, prepared at great risk, thanks to a friend Neeraj from FTI]

The Gujarat High Court decreed that the state should offer compensation to the keepers of these places. The state appealed at the Supreme Court which is now looking into the validity or otherwise of this order, in the light of the constitutional spirit of secularism.

It beats me: can it even be debated that the failure of the state ought not to result in depriving a community of its holy places? That for failing to protect the properties of its constituents the state ought to [a.] be punished and [b.] compensate the losers / victims.

Not doing so is a clear invitation to the hooligans to repeat this and the state would wash its hands off again.

Actually, not compensation: the state should ideally be ordered to rebuild the destroyed places as close to their original form as possible.

If you think this line is unfair or impractical or counter-productive, please comment.

The grave of sufi-scholar, Wali Gujarati [or

Deccani] standing in the middle of the vast road a few metres from the office of Ahmedabad’s police commissioner, was destroyed and the road paved overnight. As some of us – led by SPRAT – attempted to rebuild it we were threatened and asked to keep off. Incidentally, those that conclude from the picture below that the grave standing in the middle of the road deserved to be destroyed will do well to know that the grave is over 400 years old, and the road followed it!