Ahmadabad


In haze of evening smoke, non stop mobile rings and familiar roads with strange buildings, people of Ahmadabad or one would call them Amdavadis, seem to have stepped up in most areas of lifestyle. However, east Ahmadabad poses numerous contradictions to the pompous growth of west Ahmadabad. Buildings in east Ahmadabad seem to have aged drastically in last four years. Ruined textile industry and continuous loss of jobs has left the east Ahmadabad limping in last decade or so. Haunting Textile Campuses are up for grabs, attracting the developers to build slum like apartment complexes and strip malls. In contrast, west Ahmadabad boasts a number of new developments in form of fancy malls and multiplexes.

Ahmadabad has been quaked, flooded and traumatized in last few years. Of all tragedies, 2002 communal frenzy was the worst. February Riots left Ahmadabad limping and bedazzled, full of deep-rooted hatred and distrust all over. Every other day English dailies print hellish accounts of victims and sidelined police officers, in turn increasing popularity of those who committed heinous crimes during the deadly 2002 spring.

Blaming one community for the loss of lives and destruction could only worsen communal predicament. However, unfortunate outcomes of these events might give us some glimpse as to what can be done to prevent such communal disasters from happening again.

First thing that is immediately noticeable among other Ahmadabad’s riot scares, is the accelerated polarization. Thousands of people, who were looking for cover during the unrest, were forced into minority dominated areas, one of them being Juhapura. According to some statistics, Juhapura’s population has been increased three times in last four of years whereas the public facilities remain insufficient as ever. With so much dissatisfaction and concentrated anger, it becomes fairly easy to misdirect the youth in such localities. These slum-like neighborhoods can turn into recruiting grounds for destruction oriented organizations. It is imperative that the people of Gujarat disallow and reject the government and political parties that are using the state to play communal games that not only cause immediate damage to the well being of a society but also root a number of long term issues.