Word: bhiwandi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...troubles began in Bhiwandi, a cotton and silk weaving center 35 miles north of Bombay, Maharashtra's capital. Bhiwandi's most prominent Moslems agreed to join Hindus in an anniversary procession honoring the 17th century warrior Shivaji, who is remembered for his rout of the Moslem Moguls who dominated India for over 200 years. So delicate are relationships between the sects that marching slogans had to be approved before the procession started out. All of them were about as inoffensive as LONG LIVE MOTHER INDIA. Midway through the parade, however, a few marchers began to shout scurrilous slogans...
...through Maharashtra with predictable results. In Jalgaon, 200 miles away, Hindus forced an entire Moslem wedding party into a building and set it afire; 19 Moslems, including small children, died. In the town of Broach, 300 people rioted after a pedicab knocked down an eight-year-old boy. In Bhiwandi, Hindus chased six Moslem moneylenders into a thicket, set it afire and hacked the men to death as they fled the flames...
...riot? To me it seems a strange coincidence." A Moslem speaker in parliament noted bitterly that "most of the riots break out in areas where Moslems are prosperous." Nobody was more bitter, however, than Home Minister Y.B. Chavan, a native of Maharashtra, who after a visit to Bhiwandi told of how small children had been burned alive in front of their mothers. "I have met such a mother," said Chavan, "and her face will haunt me throughout my life...