Mewat: A New Laboratory?

A lot has been said about Nuh, the headquarters of Mewat region in Haryana. It was so far guesses that the flare up was sudden. Now administration is almost certain that it was premeditated, provoked and despite the knowledge of escalated preparations there were policemen with lathis only to take the major brunt.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad had made elaborate arrangements and many allege they had arms with them. While VHP leaders, joint general secretary Surendra Jain or others are accusing Muslim Meos of organised attack, the Muslims say that they were subjected to assault, a mosque burnt and an imam killed. Arson was widespread in an area which is known to be the most backward in the country. Who the killers of policemen are yet to be established. The incident needs a judicial probe to establish who is the culprit. But the locals say that there had been sever exchange of fire, stone pelting and assault with sword like weapon between the two communities.
Meos were also equally prepared and they ae alleged to have set afire about 100 cars.
Nuh has 79.2 percent Muslims but it has no record of a communal riot in the last five years, according to National Crime Records Bu,reau. It is also true according to the NCRB that Nuh is the epicentre of crime and now almost a national headquarters of cyber crime.
Now there are many reports afloat that the majority community also resorted to firing and arson. The presence of arms which union minister and Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh has flagged also establish intelligence failure. “Who provided swords and weapons to both the communities during the yatra to Nalhar Shiv Temple”, Singh asked
For local politics, the incidence has little political value. All the three district MLAs are from the Congress. But the mood and campaign of violence apparently is to create an atmosphere of victimised Hindus beyond the district. This may be to create an image of at national level of the majority is being prevented from performing religious duties. The policemen and administration officials agree that incident of this scale could not have been spontaneous.
For the present it seems to be under control but an age-old tradition of Nuh that was visited by Mahatma Gandhi just before the Partition raises many hoary memories. They were converted to Islam during Slave dynasty Sultan Balban’s time in 12th century. But they have been carrying on a mixed Hindu-Muslim complex practices despite their well-known criminality that had shaken almost all Delhi rulers and Britishers gave them the criminal tribe tag. Their tale is interesting.
16 March 1527, there was Battle of Khanwa. Under the leadership of Maharana Sanga, the princely states of North India stood against raider Babur. Babur sent his messenger to Nawab Hasan Khan of Mewat cajoling that a Muslim should not fight a Muslim. Jettisoning the Rana, he should help Babur, was the message. Hasan Khan’s son, in Babur’s custody, was released. But the Mewat chieftain replied, “This is my country and you are an outsider. I am with my loved ones”. The Baburnama describes how Hasan Khan Mewati was tortuously put to death by Babar’s men.
Times changed. In the beginning of the 20th century, a new kind of movement was taking place in Mewat. The rule of Alwar was over. Naruka Rajput in Alwar and Sinsinwar Jat in Bharatpur were on the throne.
Meos are Muslims but say they are Rajput by caste. They were celebrating Muharram, Eid and Janmashtami together, lighting lamps on Diwali. They would name their children Ram and Dilip. At the birth of a child, his birth papers are written by a village Brahmin with Lord Krishna’s name on the top.
Apart from the Nikah marriage, other rituals are Hindu replica. But in the eyes of the princely states of Alwar and Bharatpur, they were identified as criminal tribe.
In the 1920s, Mewat saw Swami Shraddhanand starting his Shuddhi mission, a move to re-Hinduize the Malkana Muslim Rajputs of Western United Provinces, but at the instigation of Bharatpur princely state, it gradually started spreading into the then Rajputana.
On the other side was Tablighi Jamaat’s Maulana Shah Ilyas, the scion of the a zamindar family of western UP. He sold his property and established hundreds of madrassas in Mewat so to radicalise the Meos.
In the 1930s, the Meos locked horns with the princely state of Alwar. At that time Jai Singh used to be the Maharaja of Alwar. He studied at Mayo College, spoke fluent English, lived a luxurious life. He had a deep inclination towards religion. He had bestowed himself with titles like Raj Rishi and Dharma Prabhakar. He had an extravaganza in 1929 for his coronation’s silver jubilee. It left the coffers empty. Taxes were quadrupled. The Meos protested. The soldiers of the princely state opened fire killing a 100 Meos. The protest was turned into Hindu-Muslim strife. The Tablighi Jamaat fished in the troubled waters.
Then in 1947, Narayan Bhaskar Khare, the then Prime Minister of Alwar, a close aide of KM Munshi, associate of Hindu Mahasabha, sent a heavy state army, had 30,000 Meos killed and over a lakh displaced.
In December 1947. After returning from Noakhali, Mahatma Gandhi visited Ghaseda in Mewat and called upon Meos not to desert their ancestral home for Pakistan. Mewatis’ still mourn the killing of Gandhi.
The Ranganath Mishra Committee report termed the Muslims of Mewat as the most backward minority population in the country. They were subjected to cow vigilante lynchings and now they are subject to VHP experiment. But for an immediate dialogue and stern steps there are every chance of the region getting into a whirlpool.