Ethnic conflict in India
In spite of being a secular democracy with generally peaceful co-existence amongst its diverse ethnic and religious communities, India has witnessed occasional bouts of large-scale violence sparked by underlying tensions between sections of its majority Hindu and minority Muslim communities.
Over the last decade, the focal point of the communal tension has been the site of the disputed Babri Mosque in Ayodhya which was destroyed in 1992.
In the 2002 Gujarat violence of February/March 2002, about 58 Hindu passengers died in a fire on a train, and at least 800 people died in the communal riots that followed. The BJP state government in Gujarat led by Narendra Modi came under fire for the perceived ineptitude of the administration to respond in time and prevent the breakdown of law and order, and some charge that the VHP supported the violence.
Thousands of Hindu activists razed a 16th-century Muslim mosque (the Babri Mosque) in Ayodhya, sparking nationwide riots between Hindus and Muslims that killed more than 2,000 people.
A series of 12 bomb blasts rocked Mumbai city. The attacks were allegedly masterminded by the Dawood Ibrahim gang. Dawood is a Muslim fugitive, who has taken shelter in Karachi, Pakistan; from where he runs his underworld empire. This series of attacks was supposedly in retaliation for the 1992 post-Babri riots.
58 people, Hindus apparently on a pilgrimage organised by the VHP, died in Godhra when a carriage on the Sabarmati Express train caught fire. The cause of the fire is disputed; some people claim that the local people (Muslims) lit the fire, while forensic reconstructions suggest that the fire was lit from inside the train. The train was en route to Ahmedabad. See 2002 Gujarat violence.
In retaliation for the previous day's violence, Hindu rioters set fire to about fifty buildings, mostly Muslim-owned, in Ahmedabad, killing more than 60 Muslims. Curfews were ordered in thirty towns in Gujarat.
28 people died in continuing violence in Ahmedabad. Police shot and killed five while attempting to control rioters.
2000 Muslims estimated to be killed by Hindu rioters and police by this date.
August 15 - In a sign of defiance against Indian Independence day, Christian separtists gunned down 34 Hindu cilivians.
August 25 - Two powerful bomb blasts rocked Mumbai again, leaving more than 50 people dead. These attacks were believed to have been carried out by Muslims.
See also
