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Last month Thackeray coolly announced that henceforth no government minister would be allowed to enter Bombay until a decision was made. The ban was challenged by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Morarji Desai less than two weeks later, and the Shiv Sena turned out in force. In the ensuing fracas, Desai's car seriously injured two of Thackeray's troopers, and a riot followed. Bombay's police fought back bitterly—all but .one of the 52 dead were killed by police bullets. The riot damage was awesome. Five suburban rail stations were burned, 34 buses went up in smoke, and more than 100 private cars were burned. Despite the best efforts of the police, the rioting ended only when Thackeray, who was jailed on the second day of the riots, sent orders from his cell that peace be restored.
Hindu Mistrust. The Bombay affray focused attention on regional antipathy, the latest communalist problem to surface. Religious hatred, however, has been a serious concern for years. At least 100,000 Hindus and Moslems died in the vicious clashes that marked the division of former British India into the Indian Republic and Islamic Pakistan in 1947. For a time, the religious wounds seemed to be healing: between 1954 and 1959, only 367 clashes were recorded, but then the trend reversed. In 1964, the temporary disappearance from a Kashmir mosque of a sacred hair from Mohammed's head ignited trouble all across India. In 1967 alone, there were more than 200 outbreaks. The number al most doubled last year, the worst since independence.
Many Hindus mistrust Moslems on principle. "It is very difficult," asserts Professor Balraj Madhok of the pro-Hindu Jana Sangh Party, "for a religious-minded Moslem to be patriotic —Islam does not believe in territorial nationalism." Other Indians disagree, feeling that India's 70 million Moslems support Pakistan in its feuds with New Delhi. The accusation is denied by Moslems, who point out that they chose to stay in India, and they charge Hindus with discrimination despite the fact that India's President, Dr. Zakir Husain, and Chief Justice Mohammed Hidayatullah are both Moslems.
Caste Problems. The dark shadows of Hindu caste prejudice, illegal since 1950, are just as pervasive as religious differences. Food and Agriculture Minister Jagjivan Ram, himself a member of the fourth and lowest caste, the untouchables, says that "the overpowering influence of the caste system has not been eradicated but has become inherent in the entire Indian society."
Kshatriyas and Vaisyas, though high-caste Brahmans, today no longer visibly flinch if an untouchable sits next to them in a bus or restaurant but they will not, if they can help it, lease a house, flat or room to one. At village council meetings, untouchables are often forced to sit apart. In Andhra Pradesh early last year, a 19-year-old untouchable youth, accused of stealing a few rupees worth of cooking utensils, was tied up and burned alive.