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Scarred: Experiments with Violence in Gujarat is an Indian, non-fiction book that covers the violence in the Indian province of Gujarat, that was targeted largely at the region's Muslim community. It is authored by award-winning Mumbai-based journalist Dionne Bunsha, and published by Penguin in 2006.
This book argues that there was a "much larger politics of violence" behind the riots in Gujarat, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence, and is based on the first-hand experiences and interviews of a journalist who covered this region of India during the period. Gujarat has been called "Hindutva’s laboratory", because of what some see as an attempt to use the region to engineer politics based on intense-religious strife within India and its long-term impacts on the social landscape.
Scarred also captures the trauma of the Sabarmati Express survivors, those hit by a mystery fire on a train that killed nearly 58 Hindu pilgrims, and was blamed by some as triggering off the anti-Muslim violence. This has also been called the Godhra Train Burning. But this book is also an intense portrait of refugees scarred by the prolonged anti-Muslim violence, people fighting for justice amidst fear and turmoil, unable to return home.
This book looks at "the minds of the perpetrators" and "the world they seek to construct", the "ghettoisation" and the boycott of Muslims, which have become the norm.
It raises questions such as: Was it just a burning train that sparked the communal carnage in March 2002? Why did India's political leaders fiddle while Gandhi’s Gujarat burned?
India Today's Book Club termed this the "pick of the season". In The Hindu, C T Kurien has termed the book "meticulous, moving, sensitive, thought-provoking." Amit Sengupta, writing in Tehelka said: "Beautiful...Scarred is not dark, it is one assured step forward inside the darkness, to explore light... It’s straight-forward, honest to the core, a reporter’s authentic notebook on the wounds that have refused to heal." Sunil Sethi in Indian national TV network NDTV's Just Books called it "much more than just a story but an extraordinary document."
Dionne Bunsha is a special correspondent for the Indian mainstream Frontline newsmagazine, published from Chennai, in South India. She has won three journalism awards for her reportage in Frontline on communal violence in Gujarat and its aftermath. These awards are the International Federation of Journalists' Tolerance Prize for South Asia 2005, the Sanskriti Award for Excellence in Journalism 2003 and the People's Union for Civil Liberties Human Rights Journalism Award 2003.
She earlier worked as a reporter for The Times of India, Mumbai. Apart from her coverage of the violence in Gujarat, she has also written widely on human rights, environmental and social justice issues.
Some of her other coverage focuses on themes such as abuses in juvenile homes, the agriculture crisis and consequent farmer suicides in Vidarbha, environmental issues like industrial pollution, wildlife conservation in the Gir forest, displacement due to SEZs (special economic zones) and other projects, housing and employment problems in Mumbai, public health, education and politics.
Godhra is a municipality in Panchmahal district in Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Panchmahal district. Originally the name came from gou which means "cow" and dhara- which have two meanings depending on how you pronounce the word: 'dharaa' means a feminine thing or person that "holds" something and it usually means"land", and the other pronunciation is 'dhaaraa' in which means "flow". However, the second pronunciation is not popular nor is usually associated with this word. Hence, 'Godhra or Godharaa' means the Land of the Cow.
Pravin Togadia is an Indian doctor, cancer surgeon and an advocate for Hindu nationalism, coming from the state of Gujarat. He was the former International Working President of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and a cancer surgeon by qualification. He is Current President of Antarashtriya Hindu Parishad. He had a falling out with the Sangh Parivar and is a vocal critic of Narendra Modi.
Rajdeep Sardesai is an Indian news anchor, reporter, journalist and author. He is a consulting editor and an anchor of India Today Television. He was the Editor-in-Chief of Global Broadcast News, that included CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBN-Lokmat, before resigning in July 2014.
Frontline is a fortnightly English language magazine published by The Hindu Group of publications headquartered in Chennai, India. Vaishna Roy is the editor of the magazine. It is a news and views magazine that provides in-depth coverage on various topics such as politics, world affairs, culture, science, health, business and personalities. Frontline gives coverage to developmental issues and issues related to the working classes, unorganized sectors, tribal regions and other under-served regions in India.
The Godhra train burning occurred on the morning of 27 February 2002, in which 59 Hindu pilgrims and karsevaks returning from Ayodhya were killed in a fire inside the Sabarmati Express train near the Godhra railway station in the Indian state of Gujarat. The cause of the fire remains disputed. The incident led to severe retribution against Muslims, during the Gujarat riots.
The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims and karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, is cited as having instigated the violence. Following the initial riot incidents, there were further outbreaks of violence in Ahmedabad for three months; statewide, there were further outbreaks of violence against the minority Muslim population of Gujarat for the next year.
Final Solution is a 2004 documentary film directed by Rakesh Sharma concerning the 2002 Gujarat riots in the state of Gujarat in which 254 Hindus and 790 Muslims lost lives. Hindu right wing organizations were supposedly blamed for these riots, who claimed that their actions were in fact a "spontaneous response" to the massacre of 70 Hindu Pilgrims in Godhra Train Burning incident by a Muslim mob on 27 February 2002. But as the film proceeds with victims continuing to come forward and share their experiences, a more unsettling possibility seems to emerge- that far from being a spontaneous expression of outrage. The makers of the film claim that the violence had been carefully coordinated and planned.
Dionne Bunsha is Climate and Conservation Engagement Coordinator, at the University of British Columbia Botanical Gardens in Canada. She was a prominent journalist in India.
Jai Shri Ram is an expression in Indic languages, translating as "Glory to Lord Rama" or "Victory to Lord Rama". The proclamation has been used by Hindus as an informal greeting, as a symbol of adhering to Hindu faith, or for projection of varied faith-centered emotions.
Religious violence in India includes acts of violence by followers of one religious group against followers and institutions of another religious group, often in the form of rioting. Religious violence in India has generally involved Hindus and Muslims.
Anti-Christian violence in India is religiously motivated violence against Christians in India. Human Rights Watch has classified violence against Christians in India as a tactic used by the right-wing Sangh Parivar organizations to encourage and exploit communal violence in furtherance of their political ends. The acts of violence include arson of churches, conversion of Christians by force, physical violence, sexual assaults, murders, rapes, and the destruction of Christian schools, colleges, and cemeteries.
Babubhai Patel, known by his alias Babu Bajrangi, is a leader of the Gujarat-wing of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu right wing organization in India. He was a central figure during the 2002 Gujarat violence. He was sentenced to life term imprisonment by a special court for his role in masterminding the Naroda Patiya massacre in which 97 Muslims were murdered including 36 women, 26 men and 35 children. The Supreme Court of India granted him bail on medical grounds in March 2019.
The 2006 Vadodara riots also known as the 2006 Dargah riots occurred on 1 May of that year in the city of Vadodara in the state of Gujarat in India. The riots were caused by the municipal council's decision to remove the dargah (shrine) of Syed Chishti Rashiduddin, a medieval Sufi saint. The shrine was between two and three hundred years old. The incident resulted in six to eight people being killed and forty-two injured, 16 of these were from police shooting.
Sabrang Communications is an organization founded in 1993 that publishes the monthly Communalism Combat magazine and that operates KHOJ, a secular education program, in schools in Mumbai, India. Communalism Combat is edited by Javed Anand and Teesta Setalvad. The Khoj programs try to help children to get past identity labels.
Javed Anand is an Indian journalist and civil rights activist who founded the Mumbai-based Sabrang Communications in 1983. He is married to Teesta Setalvad and they co-edit the monthly Communalism Combat.
The Naroda Patiya massacre took place on 28 February 2002 at Naroda, in Ahmedabad, India, during the 2002 Gujarat riots. 97 Muslims were killed by a mob of approximately 5,000 people, organised by the Bajrang Dal, a wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, and allegedly supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party which was in power in the Gujarat State Government. The massacre at Naroda occurred during the bandh (strike) called by Vishwa Hindu Parishad a day after the Godhra train burning. The riot lasted over 10 hours, during which the mob looted, stabbed, sexually assaulted, gang-raped and burnt people individually and in groups. After the conflict, a curfew was imposed in the state and army troops were called in to contain further violence.
Gordhan Zadafia is an Indian politician from Gujarat, India. He was a leader in Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) for 15 years before joining Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The 1969 Gujarat riots involved communal violence between Hindus and Muslims during September–October 1969, in Gujarat, India. The violence was Gujarat's first major riot that involved massacre, arson, and looting on a large scale. It was the most deadly Hindu-Muslim violence since the partition of India in 1947, and remained so until the 1989 Bhagalpur violence.
There have been several instances of religious violence against Muslims since the partition of India in 1947, frequently in the form of violent attacks on Muslims by Hindu nationalist mobs that form a pattern of sporadic sectarian violence between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Over 10,000 people have been killed in Hindu-Muslim communal violence since 1950 in 6,933 instances of communal violence between 1954 and 1982.
Jaideep Patel is a medical doctor who runs a pathology lab in Naroda, Ahmedabad, Gujarat in India. He served as the Gujarat state general secretary for Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindu nationalist organisation, during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
