HYDERABAD : Riots elsewhere might erupt spontaneously, but, certainly, not the communal riots of Hyderabad . The city has a 400-year-old history, but until 1978 one had not heard of any clashes between the communities.

 

Though, people, to some extent, were divided on communal lines to face the ‘Razakars’ during the pre-Independence days, communal strife was confined to certain pockets, and surely had not engulfed the state as a whole. However, Hyderabad witnessed the first-ever communal clashes when Nallakunta police allegedly raped Rameeza Bee and killed her husband.

 

A section among the minorities, who were nursing political ambitions, used it to instigate the community. The police had to resort to firing and clamp curfew to bring normalcy the mayhem that followed, but not before dozens losing lives. Another section in the opposition saw a greater scope in the communal strife to raise their share in the political arena. No single year passed without the city witnessing riots. The Nayapul bridge across Musi witnessed another kind of partition, with people migrating to area where their community dominated.

 

The city remained peaceful for about five years from 1985-89 during N T Rama Rao’s rule. But the communal riots erupted again in 1991, claiming over 200 lives. A pregnant woman and her husband were killed near Charminar and so were dozens of people in a colony abutting Musi. The riots cost the Congress chief minister Marri Channa Reddy his job.

 

Though the city has been witnessing minor incidents of communal riots with some even claiming lives, like the recent riots in which six were killed, alert administration and matured citizens are ensuring that they are not fanning further. Old timers recall that tensions builds up only on the eve of elections. “It becomes part of our life, every individual in the Old City knows who is the culprit,” says Md Siraj, 65, a resident of Khilwat.

 

According to Muniamma, 50, a vendor of Shahaliband, unnecessary projection of the riots in the old city in the media created more tension to the residents, than the ground situation. “Our relatives from other parts of the city are really tensed up on hearing the riots and the subsequent curfew. Now we have a function at home next week, I doubt if any one would come.”