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Pune:
Forget receiving credits, Malegaon is actually paying the
price and punished for the role it had played during the Indian freedom
struggle.
So says Dr. Malika Mistry. Dr.
Malika,
Development Economist and Demographer, was speaking to ummid.com
on the sidelines of the second State Convention of the All India
Secular Forum (AISF) recently held in Pune.
"Malegaon should have been given credits for
the extraordinary role the town had played during the freedom
struggle and the sacrifices it had made for the independence of
the country. But, far from receiving credits, the town is actually been ignored, suppressed, sidelined
and punished... in a systematic and perhaps deliberate manner",
she says.
Stating that somewhat similar
observations were made by Ms. Meeta Lochan, an IAS officer who
served the town for few months as Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM),
Dr. Malika says, "I experienced this feeling while in Malegaon to
complete my thesis. I noticed with shock that the hostile police
and the ignorant officials who were the fate of the town during
the British era persisted even after the independence."
Observing that the root-cause of
many problems in the country lies in our failure to realise the
need for police and administrative reforms after the independence,
she says, "Instead of reforms, we allowed our machineries to function as they
were during the British regime. But the sufferings of the people
in Malegaon show that we made the mistake and the country should
have opted for
police and administrative reforms immediately after the
independence."
Malegaon is the Muslim dominated
town in North Maharashtra and has witnessed a series of communal
riots and terrorist attacks in its post-independence history. It
also has an equally long history of negligence on the parts of
successive governments. Dr. Malika was in Malegaon for her research work on 'Fertility and
Family Planning among Muslims in Malegaon'. She was later awarded
doctorate by Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics for this
research.
In reply to the question, why she
chose Malegaon for her research work, Dr. Malika says, "The town
has quite a few number of Madrasas and its people have a very
strong religious connection. At the same time, it is
also a known high-fertility zone."
About her research, she says, she was surprised to note that despite all odds and the sufferings
the town has undergone, it has maintained a good literacy level,
which is an impressive more than 70%.
"It is where that Malegaon has a
chance. If administration changes its attitude towards the town
even today, there is no reason why Malegaon, which has always been
regarded as a liability, doesn't become a major source of income
and talented workforce for the state as well as the country", she
says.
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