Ram temple has erased the violence of 1992 from public memory. Mira Road is a reminder

Ram temple has erased the violence of 1992 from public memory. Mira Road is a reminder

In the run-up to 22 January—when the Ram Lalla idol was consecrated in Ayodhya— Mumbai, like most other Indian cities, was covered in shades of saffron and ‘Jai Shri Ram’ flags. There was a general sense of calm that belied just how much the city was affected 32 years ago when the Babri Masjid was brought down and the quest to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya began. Muslims and Hindus clashed, chants of Jai Shri Ram were weaponised and the city burned with communal riots followed by serial blasts.

But, the day before the Pran Partishtha, one incident brought back a flash of the bitter memories from 1992-93. Thirteen people were arrested from Mira Road’s Naya Nagar area, a Muslim-majority locality, after local residents allegedly attacked a procession of people chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’. A day after the clash, bulldozers mowed down ‘illegal’ shops, all owned by Muslims, following instructions from the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC).

What’s ironic is that even as protests crippled Mumbai in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition, Mira Road, a town just outside Mumbai, but part of the larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region, remained mostly peaceful.

This is why the Mira Road violence is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.

Foundation of communal harmony

In 1979, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray came together with Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader GM Banatwala to inaugurate a housing colony in the Thane district at the behest of Syed Nazar Hussain, the founder of Naya Nagar.

This was when the undivided Shiv Sena had not formally adopted Hindutva as one of its political ideologies. The party, born in 1966, only did so in 1985.

“My father wanted to establish a Muslim colony and by inviting Banatwala and Bal Thackeray to the township’s inauguration, he tried to send a message that if two leaders with different views could share a stage, nothing should stop Hindus and Muslims from living in harmony,” Muzaffar Hussain, Nazar Hussain’s son and a former Congress MLC had told The Times of India in 2012.

Gradually, the understanding between Thackeray and Banatwala broke down, but Naya Nagar continued to flourish.

Post the riots in 1992-93, many Muslims from South Central and Central Mumbai chose Naya Nagar as their new home. The rising property rates in Mumbai also pushed some Muslims toward the outskirts.

Naya Nagar’s residents add that the Hindus started getting better-paying job opportunities and moved out of the locality.

This led to Naya Nagar’s current demographic. As per the 2011 Census, 16 per cent of the population under MBMC—over 8 lakh— is Muslim, a majority of them reside in or near Naya Nagar. The residents are lower-middle-class and middle-class families. Some of them run micro-businesses, and some work as daily wage labourers. Many are migrants from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Most of the families, however, moved out of Mumbai city to settle on its fringes and have been living here for the past 30 years.

There is a mosque in every second building, but temples too are easy to find. An old Ganesh temple that was established 30 years ago on 25 March in Naya Nagar is an important part of the community. Its foundation day is celebrated every year with a puja and a mahaprasad, which is open to all residents. Many of the Muslim residents were tasked with cleaning the temple regularly. Even the lane where the violence occurred was a symbol of the Hindu-Muslim harmony the founder of the locality had envisioned. It housed many Hindu-owned jewellery shops, the clientele of which was mostly Muslims. But this peace was disrupted on 21 January.

Disturbed peace

A procession was planned in Naya Nagar on the occasion of the Ram temple inauguration. But tensions rose the night before, at around 10:30 pm. Eyewitnesses said that several young men on bikes entered Naya Nagar, shouting “Jai Shri Ram”.

As they entered a dead-end lane, many Muslims saw this as an attempt to provoke them, which led to an altercation between the two communities. A few people were injured in the violence, and the police arrested 13 people overnight.

On 22 January, Maharashtra’s Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the state home portfolio, said the state would take the “strictest action” against the perpetrators of the violence.

The next day, Naya Nagar was once again on edge as the civic body’s bulldozers made their way into the neighbourhood, knocking down the alleged illegal construction. The civic body called this a routine activity but did not explain why action was taken now.

Statements by BJP MLAs Nitesh Rane and Geeta Jain kept the pot boiling.

On X, Rane threatened to kill the Mira Road residents who had attacked the group of Hindu men.

मीरा रोड मद्ये जे काल रात्री झाल..

एक याद रखना..

चुन चुन के मारेंगे !!!

जय श्री राम 🚩🚩

— nitesh rane (@NiteshNRane) January 22, 2024

Jain told the media that if Hindus are given a “free hand for five minutes” they will be able to retaliate befittingly.

However, no FIRs have been registered against the leaders.

On the same night, Rane led a rally in a neighbouring area, Shanti Nagar. Post the rally, over 100 men on bikes allegedly attacked Muslim-owned establishments—or rather shops that did not have ‘Jai Shri Ram’ banners or saffron flags.

The victims of this round of violence say they have submitted ample proof of the attacks to the police, but there has been no action beyond registering a basic non-cognisable complaint.

After the consecration of Ram Lalla’s idol in Ayodhya, the memories of the 1992-93 violence may seem like a distant past for some. But, they are only being replaced by new episodes of conflict. Mira Road’s Naya Nagar is just one chapter.

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(Edited by Theres Sudeep)