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Sourjya Bhowmick, August 20, 2013
Highlights
*Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of communal incidents in the last 4 years
*Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland reported no communal
incidents, Jammu and Kashmir reported only two incidents in 4 years
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A
communal flare-up (clashes between communities) occurred in Kishtwar district
in Jammu and Kashmir around the Eid festival on August 9, 2013.
There
were four casualties and around 80 people were injured. Kishtwar town
continues to be under curfew at the time of writing this report, which the
Government is easing, but intermittently.
The Kishtwar incident triggered a hailstorm of media
coverage and political heave-ho. So much so that Omar Abdullah, J&K’s Chief
Minister complained in a public function last week that J&K got attention for
communal incidents while such incidents also occur elsewhere in the country.
This
is not to defend the state of J&K or its young Chief Minister. But the fact
is he is right.IndiaSpend used his plea to examine the overall
numbers for such incidents (or riots though we are using the term
descriptively) across the country. And came up with some disturbing findings.
Sample
this. In the last four years, there have been 61 communal incidents or riots, 9
deaths/killings and 192 injuries every month, on an average.
IndiaSpend looked at this data sourced from questions raised
in Parliament (as opposed to individual states) and found that from 2009 to
2013 (up to March), there have been 2,969 incidents of communal riots in the
country where 9,228 people have been injured and 442 were killed. It is
possible the data could vary if there are differences in the interpretation of
communal incident or riot in specific states.
Uttar
Pradesh had the highest number of communal riots with 482 incidents during
2009-2013, followed closely by Maharashtra with 454 incidents. The highest
number of injuries due to riots was reported from U.P. and Maharashtra with
1,866 and 1,497, respectively. Riots killed 105 people in U.P while 76
people were killed in Maharashtra.
The
data IndiaSpend looked at does not throw light on the causes
behind the deaths, for instance, whether it was due to police firing or the
clashes themselves.
Bihar,
which recently witnessed communal tension, had 137 incidents between 2009 and
2013 with 19 killings. Incidentally, Jammu and Kashmir had only 2 incidents of
communal tensions with no injuries or killings in this period.
Figure
1
The
number of communal clashes declined from 2009 till 2011 but escalated again in
2012. The same is true for the number of people injured and killed due to
riots. The trend shows that the number of incidents is reducing again this
year.
The
table below lists the top 10 states with the highest number of communal clashes
between 2009 and 2013.
Figure
2
U.P.
and Maharashtra lead the rankings while Madhya Pradesh with 432 incidents and
60 killings follows closely. Gujarat, which witnessed one of the biggest riots
in recent history, finds a place in the top 5 states with 246 incidents and 804
injuries. Rajasthan, with 175 incidents and 44 killings had lesser communal
clashes than these states.
Kerala
and Andhra Pradesh witnessed more clashes but lower deaths when compared with
Tamil Nadu.
Interestingly,
Goa and Jammu and Kashmir are the states with the lowest number of communal
clashes with only 7 and 2 incidents reported with no casualties reported. The
North-Eastern states, except Assam, have reported zero incidences. Assam
reported 39 clashes in four years.
To
return to J&K, Chief Minister Abdullah had said that during the last four
years he had been in power, the Kishtwar incident was the first of its nature.
Our viewing of the data seems to suggest he was right.
Courtesy- http://www.indiaspend.com/investigations/indias-disturbing-communal-incidents-data-61-a-month-50269
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