At The Fire Ceremonies

Worshipping the ballot box, the BJP aims for a Hindu awakening in Bengal; the TMC plays along, then hits out

- Dola Mitra

FROM the charred remains of homes in the Hill Bosti slums of Raniganj, it is hard to distinguish between a Muslim hut and a Hindu one. Except perhaps for spaces of worship in individual shanties that the flames somehow missed. Those fires were lit by mobs that charged through the neighbourhood after communal clashes broke out during Ram Navami celebrations on March 26-27.

Take the house of 50-year-old widow China Badyanath, that was in the way of the rioting arsonists. She sits howling, hand on her head in a gesture of extreme hopelessness, a top the rubble—a tangled mass of burnt logs, pieces of soot-covered tin, its sharp, blackened edges jagging out. Nearby lie pieces of a trunk, its lid blown off, and which contained her life’s possessions—a few faded saris and some cash, a few thousand rupees, which she had saved up from her job as a domestic help. A rickety plywood cupboard for grocery—a sack of rice and some dal—is now a heap of cinders; the grain which had spilt out had got cooked in the intense heat; a splatter of dried lentil soup stains the floor. Incredibly, one corner of the tiny room, China’s pujor ghor, or prayer corner, remains intact. As framed pictures of Durga, Laxmi, Sara swati and RadhaKrishna stare benignly back, it even seems possible that they were intentionally spared by the attackers.

“Hindus and Muslims of this locality lived like brothers and sisters for...forever,” says “a Hindu housewife”, as she identifies herself. While religious beliefs were different, she says, no one interfered in other’s opinions. She cannot say what broke such perfect amity, but will not deny rising feelings of hurt and hatred. “Look what ‘they’ did to us,” she hisses, pointing to the wailing China.