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AHMEDABAD, India, March 3 (AFP) - In the state where Mahatma Gandhi lived, two communities are now at the center of India's worst sectarian violence in a decade and have sworn undying revenge.

Sabarmati Ashram, where India's apostle of non-violence started his Salt March defying a British tax in 1930, is shut.

All roads leading to the independence hero's living quarters in the western city of Ahmedabad are deserted.

A wave of communal violence was triggered on Wednesday in Gandhi's home state of Gujarat when a Muslim mob killed 58 Hindu activists on a train.

Hundreds of people have since died in Gujarat in Hindu-Muslim blood-letting.

Gandhi spearheaded India's freedom movement from British rule, which ended in 1947 with the partition of the subcontinent and the creation of Pakistan.

He was bitterly opposed to partition, stressing that Hindus and Muslims were brothers. He undertook a fast to protest the terrible riots which came with partition.

But old communal scars were opened this week by the rioting that swept large areas of Gujarat.

"I am a daily wage earner and now I am starving as they (Hindu mobs) have burned down my house," said a tearful Mohammed Salim, a labourer.

"They snatched my daily bread and you think I am going to forgive them ever," said barefooted Salim, 43, wearing a Muslim cap and soiled trousers, near a burial ground where five bodies were being buried.

About 5,000 Muslims live nearby in Gomtipur town and earn about 70 dollars a month working as porters, rickshaw-pullers, vegetable sellers and labourers.

The bylanes of Gomtipur resemble a war zone with carts turned turtle, smoke billowing from shops and mangled remains of torched cars and trucks.

A curfew has been clamped in the area and people refuse to come out of their homes, leaving only troops, policemen, ambulances and aid workers on the roads.

"For the last three days I am running from pillar to post trying to get some help," said Bismullah Shamshudin, a 28-year-old who owned a generator business.

"During the police firing at my colony, where only the poor people live, five people were killed and when I look at their families I have only one feeling. It is of revenge," Shamshudin said.

"When I look at the bodies it is like the final script of a film where the hero shoots the villan in the head. I will never forget or forgive. No one who goes through such an experience would forgive," he said.

Social activists said unwillingness for higher learning among Gujaratis and the tendency of politicians to fuel sectarian rivalry were among the main factors for the current state of affairs.

"This is a highly communal and casteist state," said human rights activist Seeba George. "People are more bothered about making money than learning ... Systematic campaign by right-wing parties have worsened the situation."

Ahmedabad has witnessed sectarian violence frequently since the mid-1950s.

The Hindus in Ahmedabad are unrepentant.

"Maybe Pakistan is behind the Godhra attack," said Kishore Patel, a doctor by profession. "We have never seen anything like this for quite a long time. Every time they (Muslims) start the violence.

"Hindus are a tolerant lot. If I forget this incident then I look like a coward. I will not be cowed down," Patel said.

Prakash Dayna, 22, a cosmetic trader said India was "Hindustan" and "only Hindus can live here."

Gujarat is one of India's most industrialised states and borders Pakistan. 

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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