The consequences of anti-minorityism, however, cannot be wished away so easily. The last six years have seen no further disturbances in Ahmedabad, unusual for a city known for endemic communal violence. Yet this calm is a mere veneer and discrimination from Hindus and fear among Muslims has driven the latter out of mixed neighbourhoods.

Migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan form a substantial part of these enclaves; they were prominent targets in the 2002 riots. These and other victims have rebuilt their lives but still live with memories of past horrors and a belief that the state is not even-handed in its treatment of its citizens. Religion however is not the only grounds of disparity. Moving about the city, it is impossible to miss the blatant difference between the gleaming towers and lifestyle of the nouveau riche and the proliferating slums of the back streets.

Migration, discrimination and a growing disparity among the rich and the poor — these are the features prominently visible in Ahmedabad; they are also emerging characteristics of many Indian cities today. Suggestions made by intelligence authorities of local involvement in the blasts have still to be fully probed but these are possibly some issues for policy-makers to address for long-term measures in the fight against terrorism.

Mumbai-based Shah is the author of ‘Hype, Hypocrisy and Television in Urban India’

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