WHEN THE BLOOD TURNS SAFFRON OR GREEN
SUMIT DALAL
Assistant professor
Delhi University

Abstract – India being home to countless communities and religion, taking pride in its diversity, is yet to fulfil the dream of secularism in a real sense. Even in 21st century when communal riots can be the potent way to settle political scores, it takes no time to understand that there is something severely wrong at the top level. Therefore the masses need to understand that ultimately its they who suffer and mourn, the ruling elite class goes untouched as always. The solution can thus, only come from the mango people itself.
Keywords- communal violence, bloodshed, caste and communities, religion, indifferent authorities.
Right in the middle of the violent clashes, the critically acclaimed Bollywood movie released a way back in 1995, demands a mention to portray the recent communal turmoil. The hindu protagonist in the film cuts the wrist of himself and his muslim love interest to prove that the blood flowing is of the same colour, making it impossible to differentiate on any basis, leave alone religion. Mr. Mani Ratnam would have never thought that his plot would win the test of times and still stand relevant in the seventh decade of independence of world’s largest democracy. With an economy among the world’s ten largest India’s status as a re-emerging global power is now not just recognised, but is increasingly institutionalised with a seat in G-20 , increasing clout in international financial institutions, growing acceptance as nuclear armed state and impressive peace keeping credentials under the UN1. But at the same time the pain and loss of innocent men, women and children caught in the web of destructive communal forces spiralling due to political support dents the shinning image of the future super power. Striking a balance between the India of 18th and 21stcentury at the same time, though seems to be difficult, but is crucial to save the international image of the nation.
Uttar Pradesh, being one of the states in India which has always been vulnerable to communal tensions, has seen yet another disgraceful communal riot between two such communities2, which comprise majority of its population.
Muzaffarnagar, located 125 km. away from Delhi, resembled a ghost town where only police and army personnel were seen on the road3. A very small incident of eve teasing was allowed to reach to such an extent that rendered 50,000 people displace their residence4 and death of around 44 innocents, reported. The whole violent chaos commenced on August 27 after an eve teasing incident, whose testimony is in doubt itself, led to the murder of one muslim and two hindu youngsters in Kawal village of Muzaffarnagar. The consecutive days followed with ablazing vehicles- property and pelting of stones by both the communities. Mahapanchayat being organised by Bhartiya Kisan Union further aggravated the situation to such an extent that turned man into beast in no time5.Its reported that after the killing of three youth, local intelligence units generated information regarding the further escalation of violence6, but the inputs were ignored by reasons best known to the authorities only.
The above incident prima facie depicts that the violence could have been easily averted if the authorities had intervened at the right time. The failure of police anticipation after the incidents of killing of 3 youths, allowing the mahapanchayat organised by the Bhartiya Kisan Union even after imposition of Section 144, IPC which bannes any such assembly and the onset of full fledged riots as a consequence of administration failure7, forces one to believe that the violence was not sudden but a well engineered plan to satisfy vested interests.

If only the present scenario is to be considered then all the political parties ranging from UPA to NDA, BSP to SP , stand in the same frame of doubt and disgust in the eyes of public. The incident no doubt has put humanity to shame but has also revealed the true picture of the rising global power , the shallow vote bank politics and the unsuccessful attempts of a democracy to make itself a true secular state.
No matter how much potential as a nation we have, to become a super power , the very fact that it takes just a small incident to start skirmish, which depending on political support, either sputters to a swift end or turns into a full blown conflagration6, can never be ignored.
Though our nation has had a long shameful history of such unfortunate and heinous riots, but the riots in Western U.P. has led to a stage where urgent redressal of such issues is not only a priority but also an opportunity to open doors for a clean, secular and sensible politics, where the caste , religion and community does not stand above the nation itself. Such incidents undoubtedly hamper the social peace and order but the credit of shifting our focus back to the deadly combination of communalism and administrative incompetence , still goes to them. The fact that mere spark which developed into fire, thanks to police inaction, political manipulations and circulation of a poisonous fake video , could have been easily avoided with little patience and a pinch of common sense, was forgotten. Muzaffarnagar riots can be analytically dealt in the light of two major trends, political interests and failure of social alliance . But unfortunately dominance of former has cast a shadow on the latter , which could have provided for a long term solution of such bloodshed.
Ironically, all the active political parties deriving their ideologies from socialist ideals, have participated shamelesely in the aftermaths of blame game, without any practical attempt to ease the situation. With the BSP having roots in teachings of Baba Saheb Ambedkar, SP in Ram Manohar Lohia and Congress in Mahatama Gandhi, not even a single serious effort of intervention was seen at the right time, that could have saved many innocent lives.

All the leaders of the past whose ideals form the so called base of present political parties, had different visions but fortunately of a same end. They all wanted a casteless and classless society, where the issue of human dignity prevailed over a mere statement of secularism and the religious identities bowed down to individual rights and freedom. To consider this violence in context of only a bad electoral cycle at work would be a gross mistake in judging the enormity of what is going on8.
Its high time that we stop hiding our stinking mindsets , religious intolerance and narrow outlook in the garb of diversity and secularism. Reality is far from disgusting , where our perception is still formed on the glimpse of topi and burqa, where we relate only a particular religion to terrorism, where communal violence is painted green and saffron.
Unfortunately, our breast beating about diversity is equally matched by fragility of tolerance; the growth in democracy matched by infantilism over relationships between individuals and communities.

The political order
The riots that left dozens dead is yet to find the authentic version of its story that can convincingly explain its commencement. The incident of eve teasing that sparked such a widespread violence still has its testimony under doubt. The girls, to one of the newspaper’s confessed that the harassment faced by them on way to school was not unusual. Such incidents though happening on every day basis were not even reported to the family in fear of diktats to sit home. What exactly led the people go mad so sudden is far from the scope of sense and logic, specially when the girls were unable to recall any particular incident leading to killing of their brothers9. The riots having different narratives from each community, however have two common threads: no molestation of girls preceded killings and that there was no pre-existing animosity between the communities10.
Now comes the question of why this communal cauldron actually started? And any explanation to this, can not afford to rule out the vested political interest, administrative failure and vote bank policies.
With the ruling Samajwadi party bearing the major blame, other parties too failed to come out with clean hands, leave alone intentions. Since Mr. Akhilesh Yadav took over in March 2012, there have been nearly 40 incidents of communal violence in the state11, with the fear of more such clashes in the wake of 2014 lok sabha polls. The data seems all the more horrifying if we consider the increase in no. of incidents of communal violence across the country. The count reahed 451 till august 31, whereas there were 410 such incidents in 201212.
The BJP may be for the first time in chorus with BSP demanded President’s rule in UP, the demand which was even supported by muslim community after the feeling of betrayal from SP. The competition of involvement doesn’t end here. The visit of Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi , where failed to impress the muslim community, left the other side with bitterness. With their votebank consisting of both the communities, and an impossible task of supporting only one, the dillemmas of RLD too does not seem to end.
It seems that the fury sweeping Muzaffarnagar has been generated because of the skittling of the MAJGAR – Muslim, Ahir, Jat, Gujjar and Rajput ; alliance and the intense competition among the political parties to grab its fragments13. It was former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh who stitched together this alliance, representing the interest of middle peasantry which gad economically benefitted from Green Revolution. Jats and Muslims were the cornerstones on which the edifice of MAJGAR was erected. As Paul Brass’s magnificient biography of Charan Singh reminds us ,that in Indian politics prejudices and openness to political alliance go hand in hand14. Charan Singh though being himself a great example of secular political alliance and communalism but his MAJGAR alliance thrived on politics of interests rather than on identity. In this bonding there was also a factor of propinquity-the social mix of villages was such as to foster the idea of mutual co existence. He brought the social alliance into political realm unlike today, where the social order is allowed to bleed in order to set the mathematics of politics correct.
Whether its Gujarat, Maharashtra or Uttar Pradesh, the incidents, the hatred and the madness remained the same. The ongoing blame game where UPA at the centre slammes the UP government for its failure to prevent riots ( where the centre’s concern of taking note, goes at the time of heinous rapes and consecutive corruption cases is though beyond explanation), SP blaming the BJP and BSP for flaming communal tensions to create disorder, the BJP- BSP- RLD blaming each other and the state government , is enough for a common man to understand that he has been made a puppet once again to satisfy the not so secular interests of the so called secular parties.
Every single political leader is busy toasting its own bread. The hate speeches given at the public gathering was not by any common man but by our chosen political leaders whom we vest with a duty to safeguard our interest. The Muslims on one hand, were disappointed with the Prime Minister’s luke warm response and failing in giving a strong assurance of justice, the Hindus on the other hand are poisoned with the partial coverage of the tragedy. Their concerns goes to the fact that the media and the leaders are only concerned about the pain of Muslims. The political equation formed by various parties in order to reap maximum benefits out of the violence , seems to be working well. With most of the situation being polarised almost all the parties seems to be benefitting.
The UPA where maintained its secular image by once again supporting the minority group and showing solidarity in Muslim villages, the BSP gains from its prior record that goes clean of any major communal clashes ( thanks to Mayawati’s efficient hold on administration that acted at the first sign of such trouble15) , BJP emerging as a sole protector of Hindutva and Hindus with a base in UP to promote its prime ministers candidate Mr. Narendar Modi.
SP seems to be in losses but, it is too early to predict ,with still 4 years left to their kitty and considering that we being Indians usually suffer from short term memory loss.
RLD with its trait of opportunism may stand in dilemma but may reverse back to its old ally BJP, specially when the Jats are giving a thought to “ give Modi a chance”16. However, there are two factors which can dissuade RLD from ditching congress. One, the UPA could announce the inclusion of Jats in OBC pool for reservation in central government jobs and educational institutes. Secondly, it could announce the establishment of a high court bench in Western UP, a demand its people voiced for years17. But in either case the critical situation may be handled by RLD, with its smart play.

The whole purpose of briefing with the persisting political situation is to make the mango people understand, that no matter what the situation is, our leaders are smart enough to play well, its only them who even after prolonged suffering repeats the same mistake, and allow blood stained history to repeat in the garb of elections.
On one side the BJP with support of RSS is trying to play the most audacious political experiment since the formal mandalisation and consequent fragmentation of Indian politics that came with V. P. Singh’s announcement of reservation for OBC nearly 25 years ago. And on the other hand the Congress hopes to overcome its lack of a clear cut prime ministerial candidature by shifting the focus from leadership to issues. It believes that it can only gain by contrast in style and content. In leadership, it will hold out modesty against self- promotion and in philosophy, pluralism against Hindutva . UPA , to hide its own indecisiveness, remains determined not to be drawn into what it describes as an attempt to convert a parliamentary contest into a presidential one18.
The whole tragedy , can be believed to create and maintain the gap between the Hindus and the Muslims, which seems to be the very soul of communal politics. These are the well planned developments bearing the potential to turn the peaceful villages of co- existence into sites of social instability and friction. Various newspapers has reported people admitting that the real problem did not persisted between Hindus and Muslims. It was somewhere between Muslims and Jats. The first instance of strain in the Jat – Muslim alliance came not from within but from the decision to implement the Mandal Commission recommendations for reservation for the OBC. The angered and confused Jats, though belonging to middle castes, were deprived of the preferential treatment, which made them jump on the anti Mandal bandwagon , turning them susceptible to saffron politics. Muslims eventually were pulled in the opposite direction palpably feeling insecure with the mandir agitation. The demolition of Babri Masjid made them join the Mulayam Singh brigade, furthering the gap. The two cornerstones of MAZGAR were no longer in sync19.
It’s the crop of these old seeds of political indecisiveness and absence of quality leadership, that we are forced to harvest even today. We seem to stuck in the same dreary of violence since ages. It is almost as if decades of democracy, growth and education have done little to dislodge the archetypal manifestations of hostility.
Sins of omission and commission by the state are central to producing riots. But the suffocating structure of discourse of identity that cracks at the slightest shifts in politics needs more attention. With wrong data interpretation being portrayed by the state made us believe that contingent political alliances between communities are harbingers of secularism. But do these political alliances move the needle for eradication of deep prejudice? There is peace while the political alliance last, but the alliances themselves do little to fundamentally alter the structure of underlying relations20. The underlying structure remains sensitive to the slightest political perturbation and the lives of thousands of innocents at the mercy of ruling elites.

The public that’s impressed by the sudden intervention of Rahul Gandhi , heroically criticising his own party’s ordinance, why never poses a question about his stand regarding other fundamental issues. Why we fall to the web of fake promises every time before the elections, forgetting the agony suffered by all in a way or the other.
The political vendettas have always been known, discussed, published, understood and criticised. Why it is still so difficult to apply common sense and stop reaping the cheap politics with our blood.

Breakdown of Social alliance
In order to understand , why despite of education, employment ,intellect and modernisation, we still keep falling in the vicious circle of caste and community, a discussion in real sense is desired. A discussion where talking about the root cause will not brand the author to be communal, a discussion where the base of understanding and maturity goes beyond religion, caste, class and treat all, as humans first.
So cacophonous is our public dialogue that the only way to be heard is to choose a side, to take a stand on one side of the fence or the other. The real picture usually goes unseen because it takes an effort to stand away from the fence instead of either side. To have an outlook broad enough to understand the despair and wrong of each side. Only after this, can a long lasting unbiased, fair solution to the bloodshed be expected.
By “communal” we understand, relating to a particular group or community (ethnic or religious). But this group or community has taken a colour in our sub- conscious minds. And whenever a question of communalism pops, we tend to paint the same green or saffron. Thus, differentiating people for ever. Referring even the minutest clash between Hindu and Muslim covers the newspapers under the headline of “communal violence”, whereas the plight of others go unnoticed.
When Dalit villages are systematically burnt , the news is taken to be of disturbance that’s tolerable. When the clashes between Shia and Sunni emerges, we read it as a yet another incident reported. But in case of Hindu and Muslim, what suddenly leaves us with a rush of blood so violent that it hardly takes a minute to incite a violence of irrevocable nature, is something that demands serious and urgent attention.
The flare up need not necessarily be communal at all, neither does it need to be so in its carriage and carnage, but when mayhem reigns people cluster for security and pick sides, often the easiest choice is the one based on the most obvious, religion21. People are the same, they choose religion to differentiate themselves and thereby open doors to politicians, who sustained by vote bank politics adds fuel to the fire. Amidst much handed wringing and a rerun of inanities over national televison ,talking heads seem to have missed the central narrative - the rising tide of violence, the political patronage and how segregation on class and community is an integral part of this hostile environment. As India staggers from a semi feudal society to one that’s embracing a strange version of capitalism, violence in its myriad form has emerged as the dominant template 22.
In a patriarchal society where the burden of honour is only shared by the females, the narrative of “women’s honour” can be stirred so easily into a communal cauldron. Women as commodities and women body as repositories of patriarchal honour are once again at the epicentre of this narrative. Ironically its happening in a district which has a child sex ratio of 863( in 2011 census), one of lowest in India23 and approximately two lakh licensed firearms owners, who heartedly extended their services during the recent riots24. The mahapanchayat on September 7 in violation to section 144, IPC ,was variously reported as “Beti bachao Bahu Bachao mahapanchayat” clearly indicates that women’s sexuality was used as a tool to be deployed only in service to community and patriarchy. When protection and control over women body are placed at the centre of any blood feud, one must fear the ground that communalists of all hues are preparing in such fertile soil25.
It has been a long journey from 1905 where Hindu – Muslim tied rakhis to each other in protest of partition of Bengal, on call of Rabindarnath Tagore26 and to 2013 where only a rumour is sufficient to cut each other in pieces. It is often said that lack of patience and fragility of tolerance is to be blamed for such incidents. Is it really so?
Today we work together in such close quarters, that any sort in intolerance would render us jobless. Nayee Mandi in Muzaffarnagar is one of biggest jaggery markets in western UP, where 90% of Muslims are involved in making jaggery and 90% Hindus are traders. According to them, the daily business is of around one crore, which is tremendously and would continue to suffer due to this fanatical approach27. Even if all the other factors are neglected, the social setup is so closely knit that it is unaffordable to be class based in daily life. The economic factors are one of the major binding force that makes it difficult for a common man to practise communal differentiation on daily basis.
The shallow politics is least bothered to the pain and despair of a common man. The leaders playing communal cards give scant regard for those who have suffered or the divides that will follow. For once a city is tainted with a past of communal violence, it remains, always festering under the surface of normal, everyday living. Politicians move on, but the people who remain in those street corners where loved ones fell, never do.
A photograph showing a Muslim man, beseeching the mighty powers for help, has been a bone of contention between the communities. Though the picture is showing just a visual of the visit, it portrays a singular version of the story. A photograph of human suffering so powerful that those of us who switch on the evening debates as a consequence of riots are shamed. But what is more disturbing is the representation of just one side of the story. How deviously provocative a stance it is in its communication of this skewed understanding of secularity. It is very easy to summarise that one half of our political spectrum is communal , falling prey to the convenient summation that the other half is secular. But it turns out to be a false dichotomy, because the fact is that any party that panders to faith as a means of gaining votes and support be it to a minority faith or majority one, cannot be defined as secular. Our politics are communal and so as our politicians. It is we the voter who has to resist this manipulation of one people based on faith28.
The photograph had the potential to anger both the sides. Those who are projected as victims and the others who feel that their victimhood has been denied to them yet again. Its time we view this mass scale displacement as a human tragedy and address the failure of law and order in the region. The free sale of tamanchas, the sexual harassment of women and the fuelling of tensions by politicians and the denial of school and education to the girls are the real problems that need to be addressed before any further aggravation.

Solution
“Riots” are always about the blame game that follows: the action reaction theory: the rationalisation foe what is indefensible- the taking of human life, the rendering homeless of innocents, and the inevitable polarisation benefitting political parties29. The rioting in Muzaffarnagar illustrates vividly the ramifications of a social alliance breaking down at grass roots level30.
Thus, the first and the very simple solution lies in strengthening of social alliance, for which no leadership is needed. Only an effort to understand the pain of the other, rising above community, would do. The fact that religion, class and community comes into picture after the birth, the birth of an individual, a human. Thus, the very immediate classification to be followed has to be of a homo sapien.
Next we need to move from a discourse of diversity to a discourse of freedom and human rights. The Indian discourse of diversity has always been about diversity, but it was about diversity where everyone had their place. From on high, diversity looks stunning, but this diversity can be compatible with imprisoning people in compulsory identities. It is compatible with the idea that boundaries should not be crossed; population should not mix, and to view the world as a competition between the groups is fine. There is no other country in the world that talks so much about diversity, yet no other country produces such a politically suffocating discourse of identity. Who you are seems to matter at every turn: what job you can get, what government scheme you are eligible for, how much institutional autonomy you can get and what house you can rent.
Conceptually , there is no incompatibility between celebrating the diversity of the nation and refusing to rent a house to a Muslim just because they are Muslim. The diversity based conception of tolerance does not work where the need is for boundaries to be crossed: people will inhabit same spaces, compete for same jobs, intermarry and so forth.
Our moral discourse is so centered on diversity, pluralism and community that it forgets the more basic ideas of freedom, equality and individual dignity31.

The headline reading “riots kills Kawal girl’s dream to study”, leave us with a more pertinent fact that was ignored somewhere in the mid of blood and hatred. The long term effects and serious issues are usually made to slip under the floor, as they have the potential to bring back the people to senses. In the times of economic hardships, where to make a decent living seems to be a war won on every day basis, the tool of education is usually thought to be a permanent solution to the hardships, by the middle class. In the prevailing times where it is difficult to secure a social or financial guarantee, education and employment are the yardsticks to measure the prosperity. But the sheer hatred and madness in the air made everyone forget about the ramifications that would follow once peace prevails. Unfortunately the casualty of education of two teenaged girls whose alleged molestation sparked the communal cauldron32, went unnoticed. Amid the rioting the travails of the two young girls to get education went in vain.
The politicians would move on, but will the scars of indecisiveness on the girls future would go? The plight of girls who were afraid to even report the harassment incidents to their families, show the real picture of the society where no matter what, the common man, specially women, stands on the receiving end. It is high time that we realise, that a politics of hatred, a politics of polarising the whole society and a politics of difference should never be allowed to hamper our spheres, specially when they are the only possible way to gain empowerment.
The starking similarity between the narratives of Gujarat and Muzaffarnagar are the “izzat” factor, which was shamelessely used to incite the violence. Where in Muzaffarnagar the brothers were allegedly killed saving the honour of their sisters, in Gujarat a false news of Hindu women being molested was allowed to go viral. The Indian society which justifies killing and sacrifice on the name of “saving honour of the family” stands at the verge of falling prey to even the slightest incitement from the communal politics, which use them again and again to gain benefits.
The Prime Minister’s announcement of Rs. 2 lakhs for the next of kin of those killed, leaves a deathly silence on the one piece of legislation promised in UPA’s manifesto – The Communal Violence Bill. A draft bill, crafted from the experience of victims and survivors of many communal carnages, sits on the back burner, while we watch one communal incident after another. We hear pleas from survivors, we rail helplessely at loopholes in our statutory frameworks that allow state inaction and derelictionat the cost of lives; that make displaced and violated citizens plead and grovel for justice and compensation from state authorities. So much would have been citizen’s right by law if such bill were in place today33.

We assume that generational shifts would automatically produce change in discourse. Often, riot prone cities can become calmer as economic prosperity induces the idea that people have more to lose because of violence. But in equal measure, it can unleash new forces for communality competition. One of the big casualties of statetism is that there is a temptation to reduce every problem to a problem of administration. Even all our rights discourse is about claims on the state, it seldom touches on how citizens treat each other, the assumptions they make about each other’s intentions. The videos of the mahapanchayats are enough to prove that there is an utter absence of moral leadership. The citizens mostly recoil from violence, thankfully, but the moral psychology of separation still marks how citizens view each other.

Laslty, the very important factor of “ insecurity” needs to be addressed. Just a simple question comes to mind as soon as the plea of insecurity of minorities is taken to justify the communal politics. If the minority, in this case Muslims, would have had the feeling of insecurity from the inception, their ancestors would have had never chosen to stay in India , when a whole new nation for Muslims was created. They chose to stay here with a belief of equality, security and rightfulness.
The insecurity was later created in their minds to segregate them from the rest and form a base of communal politics.
The benefits and privileges in the name of minority is not given to upgrade the social status of Muslims, but to keep them in difference with the majority. If the intent ever would have been of upgradation, the leaders would have tried to tackle the problem from the grass root level. But riots one after the other only proves the deliberate persistence of the problem in order to keep the option open to play politics at any point of time.
From ages the Muslims lived in villages dominated by Jats. No feeling of enmity was seen until the politicians launched a massive campaign of hatred. Even during the clashes, many Hindu neighbours saved the houses of Muslims from ransacking, who fled from the villages. The well planned tactics of keeping the majority and minority in constant state of war has been so beautifully played by the politicians that even the Liberalisation and Globalistaion failed to change that. The Indian leaders have learned the golden rule of “divide and rule” so impeccably from the Britishers, that the generations even today are falling to it.
The day we are able to understand and remember that the only beneficiaries of any sort of violence have always been either the politicians or the self appointed godmen, that day would open a whole new world of possibilities leading to a more peaceful nation.

The first and the last step remains the same, of sense, logic and rationality , to deal with a tragedy that left thousands dead and still having the potential to keep rising every time an unfortunate opportunity is provided to it.
As the protagonist of Mr. Ratnam’s film stated, blood has no colour difference when it comes to Hindu and Muslim. Its only our hidden enmity that paints the entire world green or saffron. Lets put efforts to change the colour to white, so that the upcoming generations are freed from the shackles of caste and communalism.

END NOTES 1. Bruce Jones and Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu, “Can India be a Rule Shaper”, The Hindu, September 12 ,2013. 2. Editorial, “Playing With Fire”, The Hindu, September 10, 2013. 3. Sandeep Unnithan, “3 Crucial Akhilesh Failures”, Mail Today, September 10, 2013. 4. Deeptiman Tiwary and Neeraj Chauhan, “Over 50,000 Riot Victims move to Relief Camps”, The Times Of India, September 17, 2013. 5. Rajat Rai, “Muzaffranagar Burning”, Mail Today , September 9,2013. 6. Abhishek Bhalla, “IB warns UP fire could spread”, Mail Today, September 10, 2013. 7. Editorial, “Playing With Fire”, The Hindu, September 10, 2013 8. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, “Fragility of Tolerance”, The Indian Express, September 19 ,2013. 9. Neeraj Chauhan and Deeptiman Tiwari “Riot kills Kawal girl’s dream to study", The Times Of India, September 17, 2013. 10. Deetiman Tiwary and Neeraj Chauhan, “Communal Cauldron”, The Times Of India, September 17, 2013. 11. Abhishek Bhalla, “IB warns UP fire could spread”, Mail Today, September 10, 2013. 12. Farah Naqvi, “The Chilling Familiarity of Muzaffarnagar”, The Hindu, September 18, 2013. 13. Ajaz Ashraf, “Meltdown of Majgar Alliance”, The Hindu, September 13, 2013. 14. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, “Fragility of Tolerance”, The Indian Express, September 19 ,2013. 15. Editorial, “Playing With Fire”, The Hindu, September 10, 2013. 16. M.K. Verma, “A New Chemistry Experiment”, The Hindu, September 27, 2013. 17. Ajaz Ashraf, “Meltdown of Majgar Alliance”, The Hindu, September 13, 2013. 18. Smita Gupta, “Understatement and Power of Three”, The Hindu, September 20, 2013. 19. Ajaz Ashraf, “Meltdown of Majgar Alliance”, The Hindu, September 13, 2013. 20. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, “Fragility of Tolerance”, The Indian Express, September 19 ,2013. 21. Advaita Kalra, “Tragedy is not green or saffron”, Mail Today, September 18, 2013. 22. Rajrishi Singhal, “The Political overlords of a violent underclass”, The Hindu, September 3, 2014. 23. Farah Naqvi, “The Chilling Familiarity of Muzaffarnagar”, The Hindu, September 18, 2013. 24. Advaita Kalra, “Tragedy is not green or saffron”, Mail Today, September 18, 2013. 25. Farah Naqvi, “The Chilling Familiarity of Muzaffarnagar”, The Hindu, September 18, 2013 26. Partition of Bengal in 1905, available at: www.speakingtree.in (visited on September 29, 2013) 27. Arunangsu Roy Chowdhary, “Traders in Muzaffarnagr say Riots scared away customers”, The Hindu, September 27, 2013. 28. Advaita Kalra, “Tragedy is not green or saffron”, Mail Today, September 18, 2013. 29. Farah Naqvi, “The Chilling Familiarity of Muzaffarnagar”, The Hindu, September 18, 2013. 30. Ajaz Ashraf, “Meltdown of Majgar Alliance”, The Hindu, September 13, 2013. 31. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, “Fragility of Tolerance”, The Indian Express, September 19 ,2013. 32. Neeraj Chauhan and Deeptiman Tiwari “Riot kills Kawal girl’s dream to study", The Times Of India, September 17, 2013. 33. Farah Naqvi, “The Chilling Familiarity of Muzaffarnagar”, The Hindu, September 18, 2013.