The trust of people on the protectors of law and order in a country is imperative for peace to exist. Any mistrust could escalate violence by acting as an incipient point for crime. Cooperation between the police and the public ensures that people are comfortable divulging secret information and helping the police in every way possible to nab the criminal. The protectors of law are a support to the people, someone who could be dependent on in times of distress. Efficient judiciary coupled with agile police force is something which every country aims at.
Unfortunately Muslims in India have been a victim of police biasness. This prejudice has been fueled by the bloody partition. Allegations of being a Pakistani are levied on Indian Muslims on account of common religion and thus the word ‘traitor’ finds a synonym with Muslims. The law & order and judicial system of this country is heavily biased against the poorer section of the society, this biasness multiplies in case of poor Muslims. There have been incidents of indiscriminate firing on Muslims which have completely evaporated the trust of Indian Muslim on the police.
During the Gujarat riots of 2002 many newspapers published special stories regarding the divide existing in the metros in India. In a story regarding Delhi someone from a Muslim majority area was quoted as, “We are safe here. The only thing that can destroy us here is air bombing”. Now this is being extremely cynical but this definitely offers some insight on the kind of mistrust that exists among ordinary Muslims. Recent terrorism has further contributed to this prejudice existing among non-Muslims.
Hashimpura is another sordid incident in this regard. Police firing during the riots are also known for killing more Muslims even though there are more Hindu rioters. Police is so biased against Muslims that incidents against them are assumed as a matter of internal feud or link to the international terrorism. Security is denied on these grounds.
We have to look into solutions for the above problem. The thing to be noted here is that the prejudice is more prominent among the under-privileged (economically) section of the society. Our police force is mainly composed of men from this section. Increasing the number of Muslims in police force is our best bet. An increased proportion could imply a less biased approach. Plus increased interaction could possibly reduce the hatred that fuels such incidents.
If we compare the unbiased army with the police force then it can be easily concluded that the affect of politicians on the functioning of police is apparent. The police force takes orders from heads, who is turn are under the influence of politicians. If you see the early history of Roman Empire, when it was a republic under the Senate, then you will realise that the army was strictly kept away from the city limits. Warmonger generals were asked to keep their armies near the borders to guard. This helped in giving the Senate more power, without fear of being questioned by a armed force, to govern; corruption is another thing. The great empire finally declied because this law was broken by Julies Caesar. India’s biggest achievement and Pakistan’s biggest failure has been in this regard; the former kept it armies and generals away from politics but the later failed in this regard and hence proved a failed state in which any mushy-bushy general can capture power. Army represents strength, with this strength comes ego and this ego through the path of self-conceit insinuates the lust for power within generals. This was a digression. My point is to keep the police force away from the influence of politicians. Modi’s orders, to the police, to help the social workers carry out their work during the riots of 2002 is not hidden anymore. Similar was the case with anti-Sikh riots after the assassination of Indra Gandhi and perhaps this tale repeats itself in every riot. So again our best bet lies in keeping the police force away from this influence. This clubbed with increased proportion of Muslims in the army could work wonders.
Saying all these, the impetus is on Indian Muslims to come forward and join the police force in greater numbers. Blaming the government for each and every woe doesn’t solve the purpose. I just don’t buy the argument that the biasness if the sole reason responsible for lesser number of Muslims in the police force.
I think there is lot to be learned from the RSS methodology of organization. RSS preaches and believes that the only way to change a person is by personal example. Preaching in forms of speeches, or media can’t change a person. If Muslims wants to change Hindus, they will have to do it by setting examples themselves.
[quote post="252"]Preaching in forms of speeches, or media can’t change a person. If Muslims wants to change Hindus, they will have to do it by setting examples themselves.[/quote]
I don’t agree. Media and speeches change generations. Dictators use the power of speech to influence masses. Media is playing the role of opinion creators. As a matter of fact media today is the single biggest opinion creator.
Nobody trusts police in india unless you are influential and can ‘trust’ the police to do your bidding. this is a problem all across the developing world. look at the example of the firing in rajasthan yesterday. police resort to firing when they can not control crowds. police is almost always vastly outnumbered (look at the picture on the post) and its the easiest way out for them. is it right? No. is it right for crowds to rule? No. is it right to always give this a communal color? NO. I’ve seen the riots in mumbai. many police were brutally killed and dumped into underground gutters in muslim areas. i’m sure muslims also have tales to tell of police bias in mumbai. but dude, police have the guns and you can’t argue with them in a riot situation. why do some people behave as if they are too stupid to understand this fact? why riot in the first place??? why the choice of violence and then complain of police bias? its very easy to look at things from one side and analyze it to reach predecided conclusions.
I’m sure some people in lucknow would say that had police resorted to firing in time, the lives of four hindu traders could have been saved. they had not planted any bombs in a mosque had they? look at the other side too. somebody mentioned that there are highranking muslim officers in AP police force. but that does not solve the problem for us.. and it won’t as long as the problem is us too.
[quote post="252"]police resort to firing when they can not control crowds.[/quote]
How about using rubber bullets for a change? Or if they are too lazy to even try them, how about shooting on legs? Why shoot to kill when the purpose is to control crowds?
@ Ravi Kumar
[quote post="252"]If Muslims wants to change Hindus[/quote]
What gave you that idea? What exactly do you mean by that?
Absolutely agree, police should NEVER kill anyone. However, my point is that police do not save rubber bullets for Hindus and use real ones for Muslims.
@ triple
I wish it was true. However, the reality is different. Read this on the recent unfortunate incident in Rajasthan.
Does the police follows the same procedures against Muslim crowds?
@ Mohib, firts of all, you are quoting a police official. Here’s from BBC – A Gujjar community leader, Avinash Badana, told India’s state-run Doordarshan channel that the police had fired on “unarmed people”. sounds familiar.
The fact of the matter is that people were bent on violence. ‘leaders’ who see an ‘opportunity’ were inciting it and hoping that police fire so that their votes get too scared to go away. Lets face it. Mecca masjid is a regular violence spot. people conveniently forget it. Why regular violence at a place of worship. who does it? what purpose?
This takes me back to a post on this site abt the firing in baroda after the Dargah demolition. All legal procedures were followed and still there were riots. Two hindu bystanders were killed, court and lawyers were attacked and when there was firing (i’m SURE police was not sitting quietly while all ths happened and then suddenly woke up and fired), it was police bias in modi’s gujarat.
many on the blog proudly proclaim that religion is more important than everything else. i’m sure they also interpret it conveniently. somewhere this attitude clashes with the authority of the law and the police… u like it or not. religion beyond reason, religion greater than secular law is a result.
as far as police brutality goes, India can not become a developed country unless this (and many more) structural issues are resolved. I have nothing more to add.
Fire-to-kill is possible only when police is convinced that crowd is other people.
They draw this mentality from colonial era, when British were the rulers and Indians were to be ruled. Their aim was to rule and control the masses , not to protect them.
Sadly same mentality is continuing. Particularly for Muslims, Police aim has never been to give protection, but to control.And RSS contributes substantially to this mentality that Muslims are not their(i.e. Indian) people and have no right.
The following article has the typical procedure for crowd control laid down for various police forces. While the extract is from the police manual of Kerala, it would be similar elsewhere.
http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/programs/aj/police/papers/standard_procedure_for_crowd_control.pdf
Did the Hyderabad incident involve a similar process? Are there any reliable reports on what exactly happened? Any eyewitness accounts?
Muslims around the world must follow Islam to the teeth and they shall not be harmed.
The best rules to be followed are very simple
Islam to be practiced at home, mothers must be instrumental in this.
Other religions must and should be respected. No hatred at all.
Other than your spouse, treat the rest of human beings as if they were your father, mother, sister or brother. (This is the root cause of all evils)
Be very respectful of all your and other elders from any religion. A Hindu parent is equivalent to any parent from any other religion weather it be Christian, Sikh, Muslim, Jain, Buddhist, Parsee, etc.
Prophet Muhammad SAS always said “Muslims must set examples
Dear Muslim,
Although your spirit is right but examples are not quite accurate. I request you to revisit and study more.
Better you present this lesson to RSS goons who even didnt spare the unborn children in womb of women after mass raping them during Gujarat Genocide.
Further they are defending these evil acts and proud of this. can there be more evil ideology.
You cant learn anything from RSS. You cant negotiate with devil.
Mohib at #7,
Yes I do believe so.
1. A ‘mourn Saddam’ rally was organized in my city, here in India, 1000s of miles away from Iraq, almost overnight and abt 2 weeks after this worthy great had been executed, to be presided over by a prominent Muslim leader.
It rather looked like a set-up clash with a ‘Hindu’ (RSS/ something) gathering that had been planned long before and would take place 2 days after the ‘mourning’. The police slept on the job as the ‘mourners’ raised Cain, hit some people, went around defacing the banners/ posters for this other gathering, and the desired (it must be suspected) backlash was generated. The police were tougher on the backlash probably due to greater time they got in preparation, but the whole thing kind of stinked.
2. It was reported / rumored that Congress govts were soft on mob violence in the Old City of Hyderabad, ~20 yrs ago, and this had something to do with the profile of the rioters, their vote-bankability. I wouldnt know of this directly though, I was too young at the time. I do remember there was a depressing regularity with which some of these localities featured in riot news nearly every year.
Senior relatives tell me one of these broke out with a protest against some violence on Indian pilgrims, in Arabia at a Hajj that year, by other Muslims from some other nation. The protest quickly turned violent with stone pelting etc. They could not quite get over this, why the Hyderabadi Hindu had to get hit for this. Again I stress I dont know of this directly.
3. More recently with some Danish cartoons, it was much the same, Indian non-Muslims had to suffer a bit. It is believed that some people in some places got away with more violence than they could have by virtue of belonging to a particular religion- the police didnt quite follow it up too vigorously.
The dangerous thing that BJP is doing is institutionalizing this for Hindu beneficiaries and their project is far along the way in Gujarat. Their denial/ defensiveness at the sting and their support for Modi renewed my belief that leopards cant change their spots.
This doesnt mean that secular govts dont have the incentive to try and do similar things wherever they can get away with it. I believe they have in some circumstances. Further I believe that a refusal to acknowledge that some of this happens ( or happened) will only strengthen the Hindutva crowd.
regards,
Jai
PS: On the main topic, agree. Have been calling for something similar, more enrollment into the police ranks, and some sensitization even before.
regards,
Jai
i parot to bi indian muslim