Communal violence between the Hindus and Muslims in Andhra Pradesh were reported in 1984, 1987, and 1988. For a detailed account of these incidents, please see the following articles herewith attached:
Ajoy Bose "Eleven Die and 100 injured in Hyderabad", Manchester Guardian Weekly, 5 August 1984, p.6.
Ganguly, Dilip «India's Legacy of Nonviolence is Disappearing in Regional Rebellions, Terrorism, Los Angeles Times, 24 January 1988, p.12.

It is important to note that Muslims are scattered in all parts of India and communal problems are not limited to Hydrabad and Andhra Pradesh. For instance, riots between Hindus and Muslims in 1987 reportedly claimed 179 lives in New Delhi, Meerut, Ahmedabad and Baroda (Ganguly, p.12).

Intercommunal problems between Muslims and Hindus date back to 1947. At the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, Muslim élite opted for Pakistan leaving behind "a socially fragmented and economically depressed Muslim community" (Hasan, p.819). It was at this time that Muslims lost their influence in the government as most professionals had emigrated to Pakistan (Ibid).

In 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru declared that India would be a secular state but the principles of secularism were diametrically opposed to the fundamentals of Islam (Hasan, p.818). Nonetheless, Muslims supported the National Congress in the hope that the latter would meet their needs but in the 1960s Muslims began to question the wisdom of their support and dependency on the congress "because the Congress had ceased to be a vehicle for their aspirations, and had shown insensitivity towards their specific complaints regarding unequal educational opportunities, discrimination in government employment, and poor representation in central and state government, in Indian Administrative Service, the police and the army" (Hasan, p.823).

The Muslim Majlis-i Mushawat was formed in 1964 with the object of voicing Muslim grievances and seeking ways of redress (Ibid). A nine-point People's Manifesto was published in 1967 but the Majlis-i failed to achieve its objectives due to the disunity and fragmentation of the Muslim community (Ibid).

Hasan (1988) further observes that the 1960s were a period of communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in which Muslims suffered the most (p.827). In the 1969 riots in Ahmedabad, reportedly over 1,000 died and the majority were Muslims (Ibid).

Violence is reported to have continued in the 1980s under Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi (Hasan, p.830). Allegedly Muslim interests were neglected and consequently their economic situation declined reducing them to "the lowest rung of the ladder in terms of the basic categories of socio-economic indicators" (Hasan, p.832). According to Hasan (1988) the Muslim community in India is alienated from the democratic and secular processes (p.842).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bose, Ajoy

"Eleven Die and 100 injured in Hyderabad", Manchester Guardian Weekly, 5 August 1984, p.6.
Ganguly, Dilip

«India's Legacy of Nonviolence is Disappearing in Regional Rebellions, Terrorism, Los Angeles Times, 24 January 1988, p.12.
Hasan, Mushirul

"Indian Muslims Since Independence: In Search of Integration and Identity", Third World Quarterly, April 1988, pp. 819-843.