Once the nerve centre of nonviolent satyagraha movements, south Gujarat’s Dang district became a playground for right wing extremists.
In 1928, Vallabhbhai Patel led a Bardoli satyagraha, and its success earned him the title of Sardar. In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi led the historic salt satyagraha at Dandi, about 60 kms from Bardoli. Sarojini Naidu and Maulana Azad kept up the spirit of Dandi march at Dharasana satyagraha the same year. In many ways, south Gujarat, then part of the Bombay presidency, became the nerve centre of nonviolent satyagraha movements.
Unfortunately, by the last decade of the 20th century, the land of South Gujarat, particularly the densely forested region of Dang and surroundings, became the laboratory for right wing extremists. Through social engineering they penetrated deep into the tribal belt.
Aseemanand, a fire brand Hindu fanatic, originally from West Bengal, started operating from the Dang in 1996. He started his activity under Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, an organisation part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. His main motive was the conversion of Adivasis from Christianity to Hinduism. The Adivasi community worships nature, mountains, rivers, jungles, animals etc since eons. They were never a part of the organised religions and follow their own indigenous customs. Some converted to Christianity when Christian missionaries landed in the region in the first decade of the 20th century. Aseemanand, reportedly converted thousands of Christian tribals into Hinduism in a short span of time. He managed to polarise the tribal community in such a way that just within two years of his entry into the region, Dang faced the worst of the religious conflicts in Gujarat.
International organisations, including Human Rights Watch, reported his direct involvement in the 1998 riots against Christians in Dang. Dozens of churches were burnt down, properties damaged and followers of Christianity attacked. Aseemanand’s Hindu Jagaran March, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and other Hindu extremist groups led these attacks. Ram Janmabhoomi Andolan in late 1980s and early ’90s had already polarised Gujarat’s urban population. Aseemanand ’s dangerous experiments deepened the religious divide in the tribal belt too. In the same year, BJP won the Gujarat assembly elections and Keshubhai Patel became the chief minister. Aseemanand, hailed as ‘hero of Dang’ by RSS mouthpiece ‘Organiser’, continued his hindutva project and spread it in other tribal belts of Gujarat including Panchmahal which became the epicentre of 2002 Gujarat riots. The rest is history – history created in the laboratory of Gujarat politics, and then repeated throughout the country.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.