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Death of a Soldier

I know nothing about Jamaluddin Khan. Except that a photograph of him and his mother is arguably the most famous image from the riots in Bombay in 1992-93. She sits on what looks like a chair, her head resting on his shoulder. He kneels there, one large hand holding hers consolingly, the other resting on her knee. He is looking up over his left shoulder. At what?

Jamaluddin looks shell-shocked and bewildered. His mother is weeping, devastated. One day during the riots, a mob assaulted this man, destroyed his home and looted all he owns. In another well-known photograph taken at the same time, Jamaluddin stands near a small coir basket. It is the only visibly intact object in the whole house.

You look at these pictures and the word "Why" comes to mind. The futility of that rioting, the horror of it, is written all over this man's bewildered face, in his mother's sorrow. Why this devastation for these Indians? For their India, our India?

I also know nothing about Pratap Save. Except that on the night of April 7 this year, the police arrested him from his home in the coastal town of Umbergaon, a two hour train ride north of Bombay. He was part of the Kinara Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (Committee for the Struggle to Save the Coast) an organisation that is fighting plans to build a port on that stretch of the coast. He and several other members of the Samiti were beaten severely at the police station. One account says that "Save was held by policemen and repeatedly struck blows with the lathi on his chest till he collapsed on the ground, but the beating continued."

A CT scan later showed that Save suffered a brain haemorrhage as a result of this beating. He lapsed into a coma and was taken to a local hospital. The doctors there realised this was a more serious case than they were equipped to handle. So the police handed him over to his relatives, who shifted him to the Hinduja hospital in Bombay on April 9. He had a brain operation there, but Save never regained consciousness. On April 20, he died.

What ties these two men together, except that disaster struck them both? This: the military. Jamaluddin Khan is a soldier in the Indian Army. He had just returned home from a spell on duty when he was attacked that January day in 1993. In the photographs, he is still wearing his uniform. Pratap Save was a Lieutenant Colonel, retired from the Army some years ago. He was a resident of Umbergaon and disturbed about that proposed port.

When I heard about Pratap Save, I remembered Jamaluddin Khan. These men fought for India, but lived to see Indians destroy their lives. That's why, while thinking about the two of them, I also remembered a famous incident from nearly a year ago, during the Kargil war. I know you remember it too. When the news came that Pakistan had tortured six Indian soldiers, the country erupted in a storm of anger and hatred towards Pakistan.

It is a source of dismay and wonder to me that nothing remotely similar erupted over what happened to these two Indian soldiers: not courtesy Pakistan, but at the hands of other Indians.

In fact, far from outrage, the riots that reached out to so brutally touch Jamaluddin are simply rationalised away. That is, if they are remembered at all. They were the "lesson" that Jamaluddin's kind were "taught". Not only have his assaulters escaped justice, so have the powerful men who instigated them into their crimes.

As for Lt Col Pratap Save, his death was barely noticed. After all, it was just another in the long and sorry record of brutality our police have built for themselves, directed and winked at always by the men we elect to rule us. Who cares? Do you?

The Government of Gujarat plans to build a large industrial port at Umbergaon. The development rights for the project were given to a consortium made up of Natelco -- apparently an Indian telephone and pager company, of all things -- and Unocal Corporation -- a US-based oil and gas firm, of all things.

Nobody seems to have consulted the people of Umbergaon and vicinity about the proposal to build a port there. Mostly fisherfolk and farmers, they were alarmed when they got wind of the plans. For they knew a port on this scale would only destroy the fishing and agriculture in the area. These residents have been protesting the project for over a year now, under the banner of the KBSS.

On April 7, a large contingent of state reserve police moved into Umbergaon, apparently to help company representatives complete a land survey for the port that had been held up because of the demostrations. I'm not sure what happened next, but there seem to have been protests from the locals because the police pitched their tents on private land. Suddenly, the police began a lathi-charge and burst tear gas shells into the crowd of protesters. Late that night, the police came for Save and other leaders of the KBSS.

Two weeks later, Save was dead.

That, briefly and as I understand it, is the background to what happened to Lt. Col. Pratap Save. But it seems to me the facts are immaterial. For while I believe the locals in Umbergaon must be consulted about this port, that their wishes must be accounted for, I know there is a whole section who will say this only interferes with India's "development" and "progress." To that section, people like Save and the KBSS are the villains, for they stand in the way of this progress. To that section, a port equals development, period.

But look at it like this: whether that port is built or not, must development always happen this way? Must it always be pushed down the throats of certain people? Is it conceivable that every single protest against such development is motivated and suspect, as that section I mentioned would claim it is? Will those who object to the damage to their lives in the only way they know how always be met with firings and lathi-charges and beatings in jail and death?

Whether that port is built or not, is it development and progress if it includes the death of Lt Col Pratap Save? For that matter, do we develop and progress if we watch the assault on Jamaluddin Khan and refuse to punish his assaulters?

In the statements that have been circulated about Umbergaon and Lt Col Save's death, there is an running implicit question. Oddly enough, it was also heard at the time of the assault on Khan. If something like this could happen to a soldier in the Indian Army, the question asks, what about ordinary Indians? What protects them from this kind of injustice?

My feeling is, the question is slightly mis-phrased. This is how I believe it should read: if this could happen to Indians in India, what about other Indians? What about you?

What you can do about the situation in Umbergaon:

1) Support the people of Umbergaon and call for the protection of their human-rights; ask the Gujarat government to consult the local people and address their concerns.

2) Write letters of support to the Kinara Bachao Sangharsh Samiti.

3) Petition the National Human Rights Commission on India to investigate and punish those responsible for the brutality and murder of Lt Col Pratap Save.

The India-Together website (http://www.indiatogether.org) has a petition that you can sign and support. It includes various fact-sheets, press-clippings, and sample letters that you could use to draft your own.

I urge you to support the people of Umbergaon and sign this petition by visiting http://www.indiatogether.org/petitions/maroli.htm

Dilip D'Souza