Rajdeep Sardesai’s answer to his daughter’s question—“So, was Sanjay really a terrorist or not?”—is “Well, yes and no.” In his 2018 Scroll retrospective, he argues that Sanjay Dutt’s connections to people involved in the blasts conspiracy, his illegal possession of a weapon, what he knew about the planned attacks, and the legal outcome are separate questions. The essay uses Dutt’s story to revisit a city’s wider trauma, not to deliver a simple verdict on the actor.
What is Sardesai recalling?
Sardesai published the essay on July 9, 2018, after watching Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanju with his children. He writes from the perspective of a journalist who says he was city editor of The Times of India in Mumbai during the winter of 1992–93. His account is therefore a first-person retrospective and an argument about how the period is remembered, rather than a neutral or comprehensive history.
The daughter’s question gives the essay its central problem: a film biography can invite a clean judgment about one person, while the events around him involved communal violence, political responsibility, criminal networks and a mass-casualty attack. Sardesai’s answer asks readers to keep those strands distinct.
How does the essay describe the violence and blasts?
Sardesai frames Mumbai’s communal violence as unfolding in two phases: an initial period after the Babri Masjid demolition in December 1992, followed by renewed violence in January 1993. He argues that the second phase developed amid sharper political and criminal dynamics. These are his characterizations of the sequence and its causes.
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He connects the violence, growing communal polarization, underworld activity and the March 1993 blasts as parts of the same troubled period, while resisting the idea that this connection establishes Dutt’s knowledge of, or participation in, the blasts. Sardesai invokes the Srikrishna Commission’s account of the blasts as a “reaction” to events in Ayodhya and Mumbai in December 1992 and January 1993; that wording is quoted here as Sardesai reproduces it, not as an independently checked quotation from the commission report.
What are the essay’s ten main points?
1. The blasts cannot be separated from the preceding turmoil
Sardesai uses the commission’s “reaction” framing to argue that the attacks followed a wider chain of events, rather than appearing in isolation. It is his explanation of the relationship between the violence and the blasts, not a finding about Dutt’s individual culpability.
2. Mumbai experienced two phases of communal violence
He distinguishes violence following the Babri Masjid demolition in December 1992 from renewed violence in January 1993, and says the later phase had different triggers and actors. This is the structure of events as he presents it.
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3. The underworld became more sharply communalized
Sardesai argues that criminal networks in Mumbai took on a more explicitly communal character around this period. He treats that shift as part of the context for understanding the blasts and the people connected to them.
4. Dawood Ibrahim’s earlier reputation is not the same as proof of later claims
Sardesai describes Dawood Ibrahim as a feared gangster and gold smuggler before the blasts, but argues that evidence for calling him a terrorist or an ISI agent before December 1992 was limited. That assessment is his interpretation; the essay does not independently establish it as a settled historical conclusion.
5. Film-industry relationships with the underworld form part of the backdrop
The essay describes social and financial connections between parts of the film industry and underworld figures, placing Dutt within those circles. Sardesai’s point is that such proximity matters to the story, but it does not by itself answer what Dutt knew about the blasts.
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6. Dutt’s weapon case and the blasts conspiracy are distinct questions
Sardesai recounts Dutt’s contact with underworld figures after the January riots and his acquisition and disposal of an AK-56. He disputes the suggestion that Dutt was wholly unaware of the people around him, yet the essay’s central distinction remains: contact with people connected to a conspiracy, illegal weapon possession and knowledge of the planned blasts are not interchangeable claims.
7. Sunil Dutt’s relief work brought threats and accusations, according to the essay
Sardesai recalls Sunil Dutt’s relief work after the violence and the threats and accusations he says followed. He also acknowledges uncertainty about how much actual danger Sunil Dutt faced, rather than presenting that risk as fully established.
8. Political power and alleged responsibility require separate scrutiny
Sardesai argues that the Shiv Sena and Bal Thackeray rose politically during and after the violence, and discusses allegations and convictions relating to the period. His broader concern is that political responsibility should not disappear from the story simply because a film centers on a celebrity’s personal troubles.
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9. TADA shaped the prosecution
The essay discusses the role of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, or TADA, in Dutt’s prosecution and argues that the law shaped how the case was understood. Sardesai’s discussion is a retrospective account, not a substitute for the legislation or court records.
10. Sardesai contrasts Dutt’s case with Zaibunissa Kazi’s
Sardesai says Dutt was acquitted under TADA but served five years under the Arms Act for illegal weapon possession. He contrasts the attention and legal support Dutt received with Zaibunissa Kazi’s conviction and circumstances. The essay calls attention to differences in public visibility and advocacy; it does not establish that the two cases were legally identical.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What figures does Sardesai report?
The following numbers are reported in Sardesai’s 2018 Scroll article. They should be read as figures attributed to that retrospective, not as independently verified totals here.
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- Sardesai says more than 1,000 people were killed in the December and January riots.
- He reports 257 people killed in the blasts.
- He says there were fewer than a dozen major convictions for the riots.
- A photograph caption reproduced in the article describes 12 bomb explosions on March 12, 1993, within two hours. The article also refers to the attacks as serial blasts; the caption’s count is reported as printed, without reconciling it against other counts.
Why does the essay resist a simple verdict on Dutt?
Sardesai separates four matters that public debate can collapse into one: Dutt’s relationships with people connected to the blasts conspiracy, his possession of an illegal weapon, whether he knew about the planned attacks, and the legal outcomes under different laws. The essay reports an acquittal under TADA and a conviction under the Arms Act; neither outcome, on its own, answers every question about his relationships or knowledge.
That distinction also shapes the comparison with Kazi. Sardesai’s concern is that Dutt’s celebrity brought greater media attention and legal support, while Kazi’s case received less public notice. The comparison highlights unequal visibility and advocacy, but should not be mistaken for proof that the charges, evidence or circumstances were the same.
What does the retrospective say about film and memory?
Sanju prompted Sardesai to revisit a period in which, as he tells it, celebrity, political conflict, communal violence and criminal networks intersected. His objection is not simply that a biopic leaves things out; it is that a story focused on one famous person can draw attention away from mass violence and questions of political responsibility. The article’s lasting value is its insistence that Dutt’s case belongs within that larger history without being treated as a proxy for all of it.
For readers seeking more on the period, Sardesai names When Bombay Burned, a book by The Times of India journalists, published by UBS Publishers, and S. Husain Zaidi’s Black Friday as further reading.
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