Old law classifying neighborhoods as ‘disturbed areas’ has led to the segregation of Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat
Gujarat Police and paramilitary personnel conduct a security rehearsal ahead of the Annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath in Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, India on June 28. (Photo: AFP)
By Basant Rawat
The Disturbed Areas Act, 1991, is a unique law that exists in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat in western India.
The Indian prime minister and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claim that the province, which he led as chief minister for more than a decade, is peaceful and business-friendly.
How is that possible? Or do they mean to convey that Gujarat is a ‘peacefully disturbed’ state?
Modi’s successful transition from a chief minister to prime minister was aided by the ‘Gujarat model,’ which was based on quantum progress in social peace, economic growth, and corporate investment between 2002 and 2014 under his stewardship.
It is true that the state has not witnessed any major violence since the 2002 riots and yet the provincial government continues to renew the three-decade-old law, declaring the state’s major cities and towns as disturbed areas.
So, what is this Disturbed Areas Act that gets an extension every three years all about?
"Across Gujarat, in all major cities and towns now, Muslims are forced into ghettos with little chance of escaping them"
Interestingly, the law was enacted in 1991 to strengthen a previous law that sought to prevent religious ghettoization as a result of panic sales of properties in the aftermath of major riots in the state’s principal city of Ahmedabad around the mid-1980s
“Unfortunately, the outcome of the act or law turned out to be exactly the opposite,” says activist Danish Qureshi who has challenged its validity and continuation in the Gujarat High Court.
Qureshi believes the law needs to be repealed because it was meant to be a temporary measure to prevent the vulnerable minorities, both Hindus and Muslims, from being forcibly evicted from the neighborhoods or localities they resided in.
Unfortunately, the law ended up fueling religious strife and ghettoization, changing the very social demography of this western state. In Ahmedabad, it aided the drawing of sharper new ‘borders’ along religious lines.
Across Gujarat, in all major cities and towns now, Muslims are forced into ghettos with little chance of escaping them. The Disturbed Area Act requires citizens in these particular areas to seek prior permission from the authorities before selling or buying any property or even finalizing a tenant.
Qureshi, in his petition filed in 2018, mentions how Muslims living in Hindu-dominated areas ended up selling their properties to Hindus and vice-a-versa and ended up in their own ghettos, one of the most prominent being Juhapura in Ahmedabad.
"Authorities are expected to lift the imposition of the law in the cities or areas once peace is restored"
The law came in handy for the pro-Hindu BJP, which has been ruling the state since the mid-1990s, to permanently push the Muslims into a corner, by not allowing them to buy properties in Hindu areas.
Little surprise that the party that now dominates Indian polity chose to renew the provincial law for a record tenth time in 2021, imposing it across seven districts in a state that has served as its ‘laboratory’ for experiments in religious polarization.
The Gujarat High Court has prevented it from classifying any more disturbed areas following a petition filed by the Muslim organization, Jamiat Ulema -e-Hind (JUeH), pleading to halt the growing ghettoization of the community.
The authorities are expected to lift the imposition of the law in the cities or areas once peace is restored and let the buying and selling of properties between different communities resume. But that has not happened. Even without violence, the areas remain disturbed.
In 2019, the Modi-led state government amended the law to give additional powers to district authorities to stop even mutually agreed transactions. Successive governments have further tightened the screw by completely leaving the selling or buying of properties to the discretion of authorities.
So, in case a district collector feels a particular transaction may cause ‘disturbance to the demographic equilibrium’ of a particular area, he may cancel the deal.
“Isn’t it ironic that the BJP insists on allowing all Indians to buy property in Kashmir while not allowing native Gujaratis to buy freely in their own state”
This “dubious law” has actually turned into an “instrument of harassment” for Muslims, says Qureshi. It remains in force in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Himmatnagar, Godhra, Kapadvanj, and Bharuch districts.
Before the law came into effect, Muslims who make up around 10 percent of Gujarat’s 63.91 million people now, would elect about a dozen legislators. Three decades down the line, their votes barely send three members to the state’s legislative assembly. Not a single Muslim has been elected to the Indian parliament from the state since the law was enacted.
Interestingly, both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress, which swears by secular ideals, are partners in this crime with their eyes set on their respective vote banks.
Congress legislator Imran Khedawala says he’s been a strong opponent of the law. “Isn’t it ironic that the BJP insists on allowing all Indians to buy property in Kashmir while not allowing native Gujaratis to buy freely in their own state,” he said.
In fact, outsiders are free to buy property in Gujarat but not Gujarati Muslims.
Anwar Hussain, a lawyer and active member of the BJP, says the biggest beneficiaries have been Muslim builders who are making money by exploiting the insecurities felt by their own lot.
This may be true because the demand for properties in Muslim-dominated areas remains high despite the steep pricing.
Perhaps, it's profit, not peace, that’s at the heart of the Disturbed Areas Act in business-friendly Gujarat.
* The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
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