Naya Nagar in the Mumbai suburb of Mira Road that finds itself in the midst of communal tension, following the Ayodhya Ram Temple consecration, was once imagined as a haven precisely against this.

Around 44 years back, two men representing opposite ends of the political spectrum had come together to lay the foundation of the housing colony in Thane district — one was Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, the other Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader G M Banatwala.

On Tuesday, a dozen-odd allegedly illegal shops belonging to the minority community were bulldozed by the local administration, two days after a clash broke out when a procession celebrating the Ram Temple with provocative slogans was stopped as it passed through the area.

The sprawling Naya Nagar, located in close proximity to the Mira Road Railway Station, was the brainchild of social activist and real estate developer Syed Nazar Hussain, who wanted to turn the swampy area into a planned residential zone for the Muslim community.

Hussain invited slurs of a “conspiracy” to set up a “mini-Pakistan”, but he had the last laugh when Thackeray appeared together with Banatwala to give the colony his blessing in 1979. This was the time when the Shiv Sena was seeking all possible support to claim power in the then Bombay Municipal Corporation. The Sena and IUML, in fact, had a tacit political understanding in the mid-70s, with the League’s Corporators backing the Sena candidate for the mayoral elections.

While the Sena-IUML bonhomie did not last, Naya Nagar’s foundations as a symbol of communal harmony proved stronger, with the colony avoiding communal strife even in the tension following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992.

The peace prevailed even as the riots that followed the demolition prompted many Muslim families to move from congested areas of south-central Mumbai to localities in the suburbs such as Navi Mumbai, Thane, Mumbra, Mira Road, and Naya Nagar, leading to a property boom there. The unaffordable real estate market of Mumbai was another reason for the rush, with Naya Nagar emerging as a haunt for eateries.

As per the 2011 Census, of the Mira Road Municipal Corporation’s population of over 8 lakh, 16% were Muslim, a bulk of them residents in the vicinity of Naya Nagar.

The BJP has dominated the area since the formation of the Mira Bhayander Assembly constituency in 2009, with either the party or its affiliates winning both the seat and the Municipal Corporation.

The last time Naya Nagar drew an uneasy spotlight was when three of the accused in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts – later convicted – were found to be its residents.

However, even then the arrests didn’t descend into violence. Lamenting the events of the past few days, Dr Azimuddin Syed, a social activist who is a resident of Mira Road, said: “Mira Road was deemed as a safe haven. Even when riots erupted across Mumbai in 1992-93, Mira Road was peaceful. So many Muslims displaced due to the riots chose to settle down in Naya Nagar. This place kept its peace and we hardly had any communal strife in the past.”

Ehtesham Parvez, a resident of Naya Nagar, said he wishes there had been no retaliation to the “provocation”. “People should have held their peace… but they lost their cool over the provocative slogans being raised at the rally. That momentary lapse of judgment has brought this immense trouble to locals in our area,” Parvez said.

By Tuesday evening, the entry and exit points to Naya Nagar were barricaded, with IDs of people being checked.

“Naya Nagar was meant to be a place which would bring communities together. These barricades seem to have amplified the distance,” said Anil Patel, a resident of Mira Road.