AHMEDABAD, India: Gujarat has seen sharp religious polarization since 2002 Godhra riots, so much that Muslims use a Hindu name for their survival.

One such story is of a taxi driver Mohammed Habib who for the past five years has led a life being Munnabhai or else customers were likely to avoid him.

Munnabhai aka Mohammad Habib said, ''I changed my name after the 2002 riots, I was having trouble because of my name. It would be difficult for me to go to some areas in the city and people also didn't react well otherwise.''

After the riots Mohammad Habib was sacked and was jobless for two years. Now he works for a transport company run by a Muslim.

He is not the only one alone at this taxi stand in Ahmedabad using aliases name on their licence to earn a living.

Muneer Bhai is called Raju Bhai, Gul Mohammed calls himself Gullu Bhai and Khurshid Sayed was lucky that he was nicknamed Chotu.

Sayed aka Chottubhai said, ''My grandmother had given me the name of Chotu and that's what I use.''

Chottubhai has been in the taxi business in Gujarat since 1955, he says things have never been so bad. ''When my customer call and hear a Muslim name, they hesitate. So there is no need to use these names and we give some Hindu name.''

Subba Bhai has called his taxi company Surbhi, though he would have loved to name it after his daughter Sanaa instead.

Subba Bhai said, ''What can you do? My driver's name is Anwar but he calls himself Manu, the customer will call and if it is a Muslim name they ganh up saying they will call back.''

Not only names appearances matter a lot too, so most taxi drivers here are clean shaven because a beard is a giveaway of being Muslim.

Naim said, ''70-80 per cent of us will never keep a beard.''

Gullu Bhai has gone a step further he has placed a Hindu symbol in his car. He said, ''I have put a Jai Swaminaryan sticker in my car because most of the people who are clientele are Gujaratis. Do you think that Muslims have the money to sit in taxis? Only 20 per cent do, rest of them are all Hindus.''

With fake names, looks and fluent Gujarati as opposed to Hindi or Urdu, they can get away with the customers.

But business is still tough, Muneer aka Rajubhai said, ''The ones who finance our cars, when they hear where we stay they don't want to give us loans. They say that it is a sensitive area.''

And for them elections change very little, Munnabhai said, ''I will not vote for either congress or the BJP.''

These men don't blame the Gujarat administration for forcing them to take on fake identities. It is the customers uneasiness from them being Muslim that is a problem.