India Ranks 11th in Displaced- People List

The communal violence in Gujarat and Orissa had led to the displacement of at least 29,000 people. The 2002 Gujarat violence was a series of incidents that included the Godhra train burning incident and the outbreak of communal riots between the Hindus and the Muslims. The communal riots had claimed about 790 Muslims and 254 Hindu lives and some 19,000 people were displaced due to the incident. In 2007, the Hindu- Christian violence in Orissa state had caused the displacement of at least 10,000 people. Violence first broke out between these two communities over Christmas celebrations in Orissa’s Kandhamal district. For many years in Orissa, extremist Hindu groups have been conducting anti-Christian campaign that had grown violent at times. About 10,000 people were displaced because of the incident.

India is not the only country that has witnessed the displacement of many people due to communal violence, other countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Occupied Palestinian Territory like the Gaza Strip have also caused the displacement of many people due to military and communal violence. In Afghanistan, at least 448,000 people were displaced because of the unrest in the country. At least 230,000-260,000 were displaced in Iraq. Unrests caused by communal violence in African countries like Zimbabwe, Chad, Nigeria, Sudan and Somalia in recent years have caused displacement of millions of people in these countries as per the survey.