Diaspora as a Result of Communalism

Diaspora is both internal as well as external. The settlement of people of UP and Bihar in towns like Malegaon and Bhiwandi in Maharashtra or Jabalpur in MP is an instance of the internal diaspora. There were 600 families of Gorakhpur that fled to Darbhanga and Calcutta. The minister of Dharbhanga helped them to migrate to Singapore in 1859. This is an example of external diaspora. Many who fled to Malegaon then migrated to Mauritius to work in sugar farms which needed them. Prime Minister Ramgoolam of Mauritius is of Bihari origin. There were many others who settled in Mumbai and worked in the textile mills. Those were the earliest arrivals into the city. This may be called the first wave of migrants into the city. The second wave is of much recent times as the city entered the globalized market economy because of its business potential. High rise buildings required construction workers and the huge infrastructure to sustain. Technical and manual workers as well as vendors of goods had a field day. The trade union strikes and closures led to the decline and then shift of the textile industry out of the city and state. The threat of closure of Bajaj auto plants in Pune is fresh enough for you to know how those who fight for sons of the soil can also spoil the achievements in the state.

This picture of many people going away, exodus, and settling in a place, diaspora, has a modern name to it. Floating population is the globalization version of exodus and diaspora. A notable example is Indians settled in Silicon Valley in California. Many of them are Marathi speakers, no doubt. The UP-Bihar migrants to Nashik industrial belts of Satpur and Ambad are desi version. Why are we proud of the former and unhappy about the latter? Many in America also do not like the Indians for their habits. But where law and order prevails there is hardly any violence. Even in the US whites prefer to live among their likes but without disturbing the migrants either with or without green cards.

Law and order is in fact the problem in Mumbai, Nashik, Ichalkaranji and other places. The lackadaisical attitude of the police has played havoc with the recent disturbances in all such places. Is it not sarcastically evident that the police in Maharashtra are entirely Marathi speaking sons of the soil with a smattering of officers from outside? Had the police been truly disciplined and composite perhaps we would have been spared much of the street violence. We get the government we deserve and the governance we want. When the central government planned to recruit Muslims into the police force the loudest and potentially dangerous warning and opposition came from no other than Shiv Sena chief. Rhetoric of setting crowds upon hapless workers is nothing new to the metropolis. But the steady coverage of scenes of brutality is etched on the minds of the people and has permanently scarred their psyche. The exodus would not have taken place had a cautious government nipped the rhetoric in the bud and swung into action. Precious time was lost in seeking legal opinion. Even after the legal advice made known our Nero preferred fiddling. The exodus of northerners from such places seems to be irreversible. Some of them may never dare to come back.

Restoring law and order and building up of confidence can reverse the trend of exodus and diaspora. The communal riots of October 26, 2001 in Malegaon produced exodus and diaspora. Muslims in more than 160 towns and villages had their houses and farms and shops ransacked and burnt or looted. They had migrated to Malegaon or other distant places for security. All of a sudden they became internally displaced persons of their state. As they were rural they were either farm hands or farmers and were sons of the soil. Hundreds of such refugees found asylum in school buildings in Malegaon. It is also fact that some Hindus within Malegaon moved to safer havens temporarily. The Muslim refugees put up until the government and the police persuaded them to return. If government policy and action clearly aims at maintaining the unity and integrity of the country at all cost we will have problem.

Indeed, there is diaspora within diaspora. The power loom workers of Ichalkaranji are migrating to Malegaon in the aftermath of the violence of MNS. This is a grave matter as Ichalkaranji is much different from sensitive places like Malegaon and Bhiwandi. If the workers do not feel safe it is the result of the failure of administration and the police. If there is a spirit of professionalism and discipline we can still reverse the trend.

However, the leader of MNS has attempted to justify his puissant retaliatory attitude and the violence in terms of the rathyatra of LK Advani and the action reaction exhortation of Narendra Modi vis-à-vis Godhra. Thus we are back to square one. This borders on the scourge of communal frenzy. Our condoning of one wrong is used in justifying and soliciting condoning of another. Two wrongs have made one right. Given this twisted syllogism what surprise is in store for developing another fault line?