Situated on the banks of the Tapi river, the historical city of Surat in the western state of Gujarat is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Lying close to the Arabian Sea, Surat is one of the main centres in the world for cutting and polishing of diamonds. The city’s another flourishing trade in clothes provides jobs to more than 450,000 workers. Despite the glitter and grand history of commerce, Surat is also best known across the country for its communal violence.

Riots, Politics and Gods

Peace was the buzzword in the city till 1992 when communal riots, said to be one of the worst in post-independent times erupted engulfing the whole society. Even during the horrifying riots of 1969 in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in Gujarat the city had remained calm. Political race for ascendancy between two major parties, Congress and BJP, as well as arousal of communal passions among Hindus after the mid-1980s worked as a precursor to the horrifying events. The 1990 state assembly elections had witnessed communal strife in one prestigious seat. Clashes had taken place between workers of Congress and BJP on communal lines even then. When Hindutva organisations began their vociferous campaign for the construction of a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, Surat too got entangled in communal passion.

Booming Trade, Rising Tension

The changing character of Surat with its rapid development of small-scale industries too has to be taken into account while analysing the communal strife. The city’s population increased three-fold between 1971 and 1991 mainly due to mushrooming of small scale industries in the textile and diamond industries as that caused a huge influx of migrant workers. Though they received better livelihoods the working and living conditions were pathetically bad. The minds of most of the migrants were filled with anxiety and tension because of the alien and hostile urban milieu as well as total absence of social security. They had to rely more on old community bonds instead of the new pattern of relations that are considered to be an integral part of industrial production. The migrant workers became an easy prey to the design of divisive politics. The emerging neo-rich of the city imbibed values and ethos that were in accordance with the prevalent value system of consumerism and individualism, changing traditional ethos and value system of inter-dependence and mutuality significantly. The entire social set-up of Surat thus provided a conducive and fertile ground for parochial and reactionary forces to breed and implement their hideous designs. Thus, Surat, which had remained free of communal hatred due to close ties between its two major communities, too got polluted with communal ideology.

Workers the Worst-Hit

The last decade was tumultuous for Surat. Starting from 1992 riots it has to pass through natural as well as man-made calamities of varied kinds. The violence of 1992 resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people and enormous loss of properties. For several months industrial activities came to a standstill. The communal madness was soon followed by natural calamity of massive floods again causing enormous damage to industrial activity. If that was not enough, the deadly disease of plague created havoc. The events not only deteriorated the image of the city in the international community, it also made the migrant workers running away hampering industries badly. The city, which is known for its economic entrepreneurship, could hardly recover from the series of setbacks within a short duration. The city was hit by another flood in 1998. Apart from these intermittent adversities, Surat’s industrial activities have been going through a tough phase in last decade, especially after introduction of the new economic policy. The production activities have to be either cut down or halted mainly due to recession. Twice the owners went on strike stopping the textile units for prolonged periods. The city thus was in no position to face another catastrophe in the form communal disturbance.

Surat, the 12th largest city in the country, provides an extraordinary scope of employment in terms of its sheer size and types of activities. Textile and diamond are the two prominent industries of the city, which have been attracting large sections of migrant work seekers. At present most of the workers earning their livelihood from these two activities are migrants in character. But these industries thrive on illegal practices, which are more pronounced in the sphere of labour practice. It is very convenient to employ child labour in such environment as they are easy to handle and gives scope for higher margin of profits.

Situated almost at the midpoint between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, Surat records 57.60 per cent male work force participation rate which is the highest in all the six big cities of the state, which in turn indicates very high employment potential of the place. Surat is one of the leading centres in the artificial silk production. It is estimated that at present round about three lakh looms are in operation, which are about half of the total powerlooms in operation in the country. Similarly, Surat produces 60 percentage of the total production of the art silk of the entire country. Most of the units are small units, not having more than ten to twelve looms. However, most of the units are devided artificially in order to escape from the clutches of legal liabilities, mainly the factory Act, in order to decrease the labour cost. It is estimated that the total labour cost is around 10 per cent to 11 per cent of the production cost. Thus, most of the small units are not genuine.

 According to one estimate, textile industry provide employment to approximately 450,000 people, which constitute more than 50 percentage of the entire work-force of the city. The textile workers are denied their legal dues in terms of benefits and other rights. Payment is made on piece rate method to extract more work for them. Most of them live in slums where there are total lack of primary facilities. Unions are conspicuously absent. Surat is considered to be the world’s main centre for cutting and polishing of ‘small’, anything below 5 ‘cents’ diamonds.The polishing and cutting work is being carried out in small workshops which are mainly located in one area, called Varachha Road. Most of the diamond units are situated in and around the area, called Sardar Chowk. Likewise in the textile industry, it is difficult to get exact number of workshops carrying cutting and polishing work as a number of small workshops are not registered. However, the Diamond Association of Surat puts the number of workshops at around 11,000. Most of the owners of these units are ‘Patels’ and belong to one specific sub-region of Gujarat state, Saurashtra.

A Never Dying Spirit

Industry and trade are the backbone of this industrial city. The social and other spheres of life revolve around its economy. The varied activities in major industries are divided among different communities in mutual and amicable manner. Monopoly of a community in a specific process and sphere of industrial production has been accepted. The city hence has an impeccable record of pluralist harmonious communal relationship. Economic interest is primary and everything else is dependent on that. Influx of people from outside certainly has effects on the social ethos and norms. But yet underpinning emphasis on production-related activities would not be changed. Parochial interest and fanatic communal forces may succeed for a while as seen in 1992. But eventually Surat’s ethos would prevail as 2002 has proved when the city remained free of the pogrom witnessed in other parts of the state following the Godhra carnage.