Vaijyanath Madhatte, a 78-year-old resident of Gorta B (pronounced GO-RA-TA), a Lingayat-dominated village in Basavakalyan taluk of Bidar district in the northeast corner of Karnataka, was three when members of the Razakar militia overran the village on May 10, 1948. While the septuagenarian has lost most of his teeth and needs support to ascend stairs, he recounted clearly to Frontline what his parents and other eyewitnesses had told him about the events of that day.

Madhatte said: “There was a Muslim official called Hishammuddin stationed in Gorta who represented the [Hyderabad] Nizam’s government. He was murdered a few weeks before May 1948, by members of the Arya Samaj. In retaliation, the Razakars unleashed hell on our village. Two hundred Hindus were lined up and killed in cold blood, our women were raped and there was widespread looting. A saying was popular among the Razakars then: Bamman ko looto, Baniye ko kaato, Aapas mein sab baato (Loot the Brahmin, kill the trader, and share in the pillage). There were around 40 Muslim homes in our village at that time and some of them even protected us [Hindus] but they were too weak to resist the outsiders.