Contested Homelands by Nazima Parveen

Author:Nazima Parveen [Parveen, Nazima]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2021-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

Map 4: Muslim Camps, Muslim Zones and the Locations of Organised Communal Violence, 194892

In the backdrop of this contest over refugee rehabilitation in Muslim concentrated areas, a new, powerful political metaphor—mini Pakistan—emerged, which became a stereotypical reference point in the years to come. The Muslim zones were said to pose a ‘serious threat’ to internal security, especially when Delhi’s displaced Muslims started returning from refugee camps in 1948. The reversed migration of Muslims from Pakistan also contributed to the growing controversies around Muslim zones. Randhawa’s comment is worth mentioning here:

The refugees were living in the hope that they will be able to get these houses, but with the return of Muslims, these hopes are vanishing. Consequently they want to create panic among Muslims by spreading rumours that some trouble will take place. Creation of the so-called Muslim zones, which are nothing but miniature Pakistans, is also resented [by Hindu and Sikh refugees]. Common criticism is that if we are building a secular state then why this compartmentalization and zoning of citizens.93 (Emphasis added.)

His reports also established an important connection between Delhi’s Muslims and Pakistan by describing these localities as a ‘serious menace to law and order’.94 In one of the reports, he claimed that ‘the influx of a large number of Muslims to this place is due to a deep conspiracy aimed at the establishment of a Muslim rule at this place.’95

This official attitude shows how the discourse of homeland deeply permeated the administrative structures. Any collective Muslim spatial presence was to be understood as ‘mini Pakistans’ in India. The areas occupied by Muslims were characterised as ‘communally sensitive areas’ that were in need of strict surveillance. If for Nehru these localities were sensitive because they needed protection from organised attacks and violence, for others they posed potential threats to the security of Indian nation.96 In this sense, the Muslim-dominated areas called Muslim zones became a contested category of Delhi’s urban geography.97

The Muslim zones also came under attack in the Constituent Assembly.98 It was argued that the rehabilitation of Hindu and Sikh refugees should be the priority of the Indian government because they ‘are natives of this country, born of the soil … they have a right to live in these portions of the country’ and ‘they must be made proper citizens of India’.99 Sardar Patel stridently claimed that ‘whatever the definition [of Indian citizenship] may [be] … Hindus and Sikhs of Pakistan cannot be considered as alien in India’.100 By this definition, Hindus and Sikhs were to become natural Indian citizens while Muslim’s citizenship status had always to be negotiated. This popular notion of national identity was established as the criterion to evaluate Muslim’s claims on their own residential and commercial properties. It is worth noting here that authorities directly related to the ministry of rehabilitation (formed in 1950) also claimed that Muslim zones were to be opened up for settling down refugees.101

The Hindu Mahasabha leader Ram Singh argued in public meetings and press conferences that Muslim evacuee properties should be made available to refugees.

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