Chaibasa: Anatomy of a Riot

A scene from Dharm, a powerful movie on communal riots NK SINGH CHAIBASA - the headquarter of the adivasi district of Singhbhum - has about 30,000 people, of whom eight thousand are Muslims. A considerable number of East Pakistan refugees too live in this clumsy town. Since it is not an industrial area, Chaibasa has not got many working class people. In the last mid-term elections, the Jharkhand Party had won the seat of Chaibasa, which is a reserved constituency. No municipal elections have been held here for 12 years. Mr Sita Ram Rungta , a local bigwig is the city father. The Jana Sangh and RSS are quite active here and Shakhas, rallies are organised by them regularly. There had never been any communal riot at Chaibasa. It remained unaffected even during the widespread riots in 1964 which enveloped the district including the steel city of Jamshedpur. Background The Chaibasa riots started in the wake of Ram Navami p...