Riot-torn Gujarat through the lens

NEW DELHI: A riot-ravaged city is not everyone’s muse. Especially when that city happens to have been home to 20th century’s greatest apostle of peace, Mahatma Gandhi. But when a teenager sets out to capture the devastation, loss to life and property and the seeming senselessness of it all on his camera, it makes news. Sahir Raza (15) was bewildered to find that even high court judges were not spared.Which is why there are a number of photographs of Justice Diwecha’s house, set on fire by rioting mobs in Ahmedabad. ‘‘The judiciary is one of the pillars of democracy. But the perpetrators attacked one of its symbols. This really shocked me,’’ says Raza. He was further taken aback to learn that the judge had to start afresh with whatever belongings were left. ‘‘There was hardly anything which the rioters had not destroyed. Even the National Citizen’s Award conferred upon him has been charred,’’ says Raza while pointing towards the photo of the remains. Raza’s title for his exhibition of photographs — titled And They Killed Him Again along with a caricature of Gandhi — was a chilling reminder how little Gandhi’s theory of non-violence meant in his own home state. ‘‘I want my photographs to remind people about this,’’ Raza says. Raza travelled extensively — the places of destruction, the relief camps, homes burnt down...His experiences find utterance in the captions accompanying each photograph. In one of the pictures Raza has captured the conditions at a relief camp where people are ‘‘trying to rebuild life.’’ Similarly, in another photograph he has frozen the expressions of a few children who look into the future with unseeing eyes. The caption speaks of a child’s innocence on the issue of religion. Raza says he saw fear in the eyes of people and there was very little sign of hope. He spent four days in Ahmedabad and now wants to go back to Gujarat. ‘‘I have not visited Godhra yet. There are several areas where I want to go. I could not cover the regions in one visit. But I will the next time,’’ he says.