I AM BOTH PERPLEXED and amused by the aggressive response in support of your work (India Writes Back, Nov 17). Make no mistake, my soul was in peace when I saw the stories that I had hoping would see the light of day sometime in the history of this country, around elections or not.But why is all of India so suddenly horrified with these details? Gujarat is not the first carnage in our country. We have had the Partition, the anti-Sikh riots, the Babri Masjid riots, the Bombay riots%u2026 when the country burned, bled and died a thousand deaths under the hatred of its own inhabitants, brother against brother. I am an undergraduate student who has lived all his life in a Muslim-dominated residential society, studied in a school with a large number of Muslim students, and I can quite confidently say that Muslims do not face hatred and ostracism in Gujarat alone.
It is a dominant reality in supposedly secular India that Muslims are disliked, distrusted and distanced very consciously by fellow Indians. We find them a most backward and fanatic lot. We have all warned our daughters/sons against falling in love with a Muslim. In a country that hero-worships the Khans of Bollywood, we wrinkle up our noses and turn our face the other way upon passing by a burqa-clad woman or an old Muslim man with a hennaed beard and a faiz on his head. The discrimination we practice in our daily social interactions is what Gujarat took two steps ahead in connivance with the State machinery.
RE:THE INDIAN MUSLIM
by on on Dec 02, 2007 05:07 PM Permalink
I am afraid to say this, but we have proved true Jinnah%u2019s fears and betrayed Gandhi. You can argue that Partition was the trigger to Hindu-Muslim tensions in the country, but the example we have set for our children by way of our prejudices and dogmas beneath our virtuous-thanthou garb, are shameful.While Gujarat under Modi has embarked on a Nazi agenda, the rest of us are not far behind. We dislike the Muslims, the Dalits and the tribals, and see the illiterate, poverty-ridden bulk of our population as a burden that continues to breed thanks to us, the taxpayers! We also hate the politicians whom we ourselves elect or allow to be elected by refusing to step out to vote or stand for elections, we hate the lazy bureaucrats, we hate the corrupt police, we hate the ineffective municipal corporations/ panchayats...
We have a million reasons to hate institutions, communities and individuals, but not one incentive, apart from self-interest, to treat each other with respect and compassion, or participate in the political processes. The more this economy opens up and life (for a section of Indian society) gets more comfortable, we get more conservative and fanatical by the day. Kudos to the emerging superpower
RE:RE:THE INDIAN MUSLIM
by purna on Dec 02, 2007 05:17 PM Permalink
What sympathy you expect calling gujarathis as Nazis under Modi - your inner hate of hindus and distrust and blaming modi and hindus for the ills of muslims comes out strongly. When hindus suffer under muslims and bear without protests, everything is dongi-dori. The moment one speaks out and starts retaliation, muslims are seen as under dogs. I hope Gujarath will show the way how to treat muslims and live in peace - so that all communities prosper.
