9 riots or massacres in India post Independence that rocked the country

Hyderabad massacre (1948)

Operation Polo, the code name of the Hyderabad "police action" was a military operation in September 1948 in which the Indian Armed Forces invaded the State of Hyderabad, annexing the state into the Indian Union.[citation needed.
At the time of Partition in 1947, the princely states of India, who in principle had self-government within their own territories, were subject to subsidiary alliances with the British, giving them control of their external relations. In the Indian Independence Act 1947 the British abandoned all such alliances, leaving the states with the option of opting for full independence. However, by 1948 almost all had acceded to either India or Pakistan. One major exception was that of the wealthiest and most powerful principality, Hyderabad, where the Nizam, Osman Ali Khan, Asif Jah VII, a Muslim ruler who presided over a largely Hindu population, chose independence and hoped to maintain this with an irregular army recruited from the Muslim aristocracy, known as the Razakars. The Nizam was also beset by the Telangana uprising, which he was unable to subjugate.

The Gujarat riots (1969)

The 1969 Gujarat riots refers to the communal violence between Hindus and Muslims during September–October 1969, in Gujarat, India. The violence was Gujarat's first major riot that involved massacre, arson and looting on a large scale. It was the most deadly Hindu-Muslim violence since the 1947 partition of India, and remained such until the 1989 Bhagalpur violence.

According to the official figures, 660 people were killed, 1074 people were injured and over 48,000 lost their property. Unofficial reports claim as high as 2000 deaths.

Moradabad riots (1980)

The 1980 Moradabad riots refers to violence that happened in the Indian city of Moradabad during August–November 1980. The violence was partly a Hindu-Muslim conflict, and partly a Muslim-Police conflict. It started when a group of Muslims pelted stones at the local police for their refusal to remove a pig from the local Idgah on 13 August. The police responded with indiscriminate firing, which led to over one hundred deaths. This was followed by a series of violent incidents which became religious in nature, and led to arson, looting and murders.
The violent incidents continued until November 1980. The total death tally is uncertain: the government recognized and paid compensation for 400 deaths, while the unofficial estimates run as high as 2500. The riots greatly affected the city's noted brassware industry, which saw a sharp decline in the production and export figures.

Nellie massacre (1983)

The Nellie massacre took place in central Assam during a six-hour period in the morning of 18 February 1983. Although the involvement of members of mainstream Assamese communities and lower castes in carrying out the massacre is commonly evoked, the identities of the rioters are debated by scholars. The massacre claimed the lives of 2,191 people (unofficial figures run at more than 10,000) from 14 villages—Alisingha, Khulapathar, Basundhari, Bugduba Beel, Bugduba Habi, Borjola, Butuni, Indurmari, Mati Parbat, Muladhari, Mati Parbat no. 8, Silbheta, Borburi and Nellie—of Nagaon district. The victims were East Bengal rooted Muslims whose ancestors had relocated in pre-partition British India. Three media personnel — Hemendra Narayan of Indian Express, Bedabrata Lahkar of Assam Tribune and Sharma of ABC — were witnesses to the massacre.[citation needed] The victims were descendants of Muslims who came to Assam on the direct patronage of the then Assam Government of British India in the first decade of the 20th century.
The violence that took place in Nellie was seen as a fallout of the decision to hold the controversial state elections in 1983 in the midst of the Assam Agitation, after Indira Gandhi's decision to give 4 million immigrants from Bangladesh the right to vote. It has been described as one of the worst pogroms since World War II.

The 1984 anti-sikh riots

The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre or 1984 genocide of Sikhs, was a series of pogroms directed against Sikhs in India, by anti-Sikh mobs, most notably by members of the Congress party, in response to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Official Indian government reports admit to about 2,800 deaths across India, including 2,100 in Delhi. Other independent sources estimate the number of deaths to be around 8,000, including at least 3,000 in Delhi.

Bhagalpur riots (1989)

The Bhagalpur riots of 1989 refers to the violence between the Hindus and the Muslims in the Bhagalpur district of Bihar, India. The riots started on 24 October 1989, and the violent incidents continued to happen for 2 months. The violence affected the Bhagalpur city and 250 villages around it. Over 1,000 people (around 900 of which were Muslims), were killed, and another 50,000 were displaced as a result of the violence. It was the worst Hindu-Muslim violence in independent India at the time, surpassing the 1969 Gujarat riots.

Bombay riots (1992-1993)

The Bombay Riots usually refers to the riots in Mumbai, in December 1992 and January 1993, in which around 900 people died. The riots were mainly due to escalations of hostilities after large scale protests (initially peaceful then turned violent) by Muslims in reaction to the 1992 Babri Masjid Demolition by Hindu Karsevaks in Ayodhya.
An investigative commission was formed under Justice B.N. Srikrishna, but the recommendations of the Inquiry were not enforced.
Many scholars stated that the riots were pre-planned, and that the Hindu rioters were granted access to information about the locations of Muslim homes and businesses through sources that were not public. The violence was widely reported as having been orchestrated by the Shiv Sena, a Hindu-nationalist political party in Maharashtra. A high-ranking member of the special branch later stated that the police were fully aware of the Shiv Sena's capabilities to commit acts of violence, and that they had incited hate against the minority communities. Historian Barbara Metcalf has stated that the riots were anti-Muslim pogrom.
The riots were followed by a retaliatory 12 March 1993 Bombay Bombings, perpetrated by criminal groups with alleged help of ganglord Dawood Ibrahim and his D-Company syndicate, in which more than 300 people were killed.

Gujarat violence {Godhra} (2002)

The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence and the Gujarat pogrom, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Following the initial incident there were further outbreaks of violence in Ahmedabad for three months; statewide, there were further outbreaks of communal riots against the minority Muslim population for next one year. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, is believed to have triggered the violence.

According to official figures, the riots resulted in the deaths of 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus; 2,500 people were injured non-fatally, and 223 more were reported missing. Other sources estimate that over 2000 people died. There were instances of rape, children being burned alive, and widespread looting and destruction of property. The Chief Minister of Gujarat at that time, Narendra Modi, has been accused of initiating and condoning the violence, as have police and government officials who allegedly directed the rioters and gave lists of Muslim-owned properties to them.

Muzzafarnagar riots (2013)

The clashes between the Hindu and Muslim communities in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, India in August–September 2013, resulted in at least 62 deaths including 42 Muslims and 20 Hindus[3] and injured 93 and left more than 50,000 displaced. By 17 September, the curfew was lifted from all riot affected areas and the army was also withdrawn.

The riot has been described as "the worst violence in Uttar Pradesh in recent history", with the army, as a result, being deployed in the state for the first time in last 20 years. Supreme Court of India while hearing petitions in relation to the riots held the Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party, prima facie guilty of negligence in preventing the violence and ordered it to immediately arrest all those accused irrespective of their political affiliation. Court also blamed the Central government for its failure to provide intelligence inputs to the Samajwadi Party-ruled state government in time to help sound alerts.


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