Hindu, Muslim ghettos arise in Gujarat

Back in his home in the small village of Navli, his decrepit house bears the scars of arson. Mr. Ibrahim's father, Haji Ghani Ibrahim, braved coming back after the communal flare-up was quelled, to tend to a grocery business. The only customers are the few Muslim families who have returned.

"This state," Haji Ibrahim says, "is ruled by Hindus and for Hindus. Muslims don't exist for them."

The Indian Express, a national daily, reported last month that Muslims are being sidelined from the Indian government's ambitious antipoverty project that promises the country's rural poor 100 days of employment every year.

"Where the communal divide was hardened, where violence led to murder and widespread arson ... Muslims are nowhere on the employment rolls," the newspaper reported after touring six districts within Gujarat where the scheme is being implemented. Not just are there information blackouts, even those Muslims who enquire about jobs are turned away, the report said.

In response, Bharat Barot, Gujarat's minister of state for rural development, said that in villages "the majority community called the shots." The state was probing whether the alienation of Muslims was deliberate, and, if so, "it'll be fixed immediately."

Chandrakant Pandya, a member of the ruling political party in Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), calls the committee's report a vicious attempt to defame Gujarat. "We're for the development of all Gujaratis – and Gujaratis includes Hindus and Muslims," he says.

Mr. Pandya points out that according to a 2005 report by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, a think tank led by BJP rival Sonia Gandhi, Gujarat emerged as the number one state in India in the economic freedom of its people. It also topped the nation in terms of development, administration, and curbing corruption.

"Such rapid industrialization and economic development wouldn't take place if such prejudices existed," says Pandya.

However, most of the data used by the foundation came from years prior to the 2002 riots. Activists say the situation has since deteriorated.

Social scientists point out that intercommunity dialogue is the only way to make acrimony between the religious groups subside.

Rahil Subedar runs a computer class for poor slum dwellers in a ramshackle apartment on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Besides imparting knowledge about computers, local Hindu and Muslim kids are made to intersperse and participate in plays and cultural programs.

"When you participate in cultural programs together, you forget what religion your colleagues belong to," he says. "Integration will heal wounds."

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