Kanta ben, in Ahmedabad, lost her only son in the riots. She says that Muslims are not even worth keeping contact with. Firoze, a Muslim, and her son went out together but her son never returned back. Firoze has been absconding since.
Ahmed bhai, in Patna, lost his son few years ago. His son went out with his Hindu friends but was later found burnt to death in a remote location. Since his death the whole family is scared and they are planning to leave India forever.
A little girl, during the Gujarat pogrom, was praying that Amir Khan’s Lagaan shouldn’t win the Oscars as he is a Muslim.
Muslims are accused of supporting Pakistan in sports
Stories like these are so common. The bloody partition left the whole population too prejudiced against each other. Slightest of provocation cause riots. Deep down everyone’s heart lies this hatred towards the other religion. I could think of the following reasons-
1. British government’s deliberate distortion of history to depict Muslim rulers as hate mongers and destroyers of temples.
Eaton argues that British colonial historians were at pains to project the image of Muslim rulers as wholly oppressive and anti-Hindu, in order to present British rule as enlightened and civilized and thereby enlist Hindu support. For this they carefully selected from the earlier Persian chronicles those reports that glorified various Muslim Sultans as destroyers of temples and presented these as proof that Hindus and Muslims could not possibly live peacefully with each other without the presence of the British to rule over them to prevent them from massacring each other. Although some of these reports quoted in British texts were true, many others were simply the figment of the imagination of court chroniclers anxious to present their royal patrons as great champions of Islamic orthodoxy even if in actual fact these rulers were lax Muslims.[Yoginder Sikand]
This formed the basis of hatred towards Muslims. Hindus were already infuriated at being ruled by aliens for hundred of years and this image further added fuel to fire. Divide and Rule police was successful!
2. The bloody partition is still fresh in the minds of Indians. Thousands were killed in the riots that broke out during the partition. Stories of inhuman and barbaric tortures keep the hatred alive.
3. Politicians always wanted to exploit the situation for their advantage. VHP & RSS’s venomous speeches keep the Hindu hatred alive. Muslims, fortunately or unfortunately, still don’t have a political party of caliber of BJP which basically survives on this victimized mentality-
Muslims favour Pakistan and other Islamic countries based on religion, and they do not support India though they live in secular India. This is very obvious when India and Pakistan play cricket.
Muslims have support of underworld/Pakistan. This is visible from the kind of weapons were/are available to Muslims in riots, just look at the way Muslims carried out attack in last 10-15 years.
Attack on Hindus in a train near Godhra cannot be dismissed as attack by mobs, they were hundreds, not 10 or 20, and all were Muslims. If anyone says it was an accident, Gujaratis have nothing more to talk. Hindus and Muslims know well that legal system in India does not work. If one community hopes the system to catch and punish the guilty, nothing will happen and in future, the history will be repeated. The only way for survival is to fight back and attacker will think before attacking again.
4. Pakistan’s support to terrorists in Kashmir. Terrorism is the biggest allegation against Muslims all over the world. The attacks on Hindu temples and other blasts just widens the gap between the two communities. All Muslims are considered sympathizers to terrorists. Speedy judgement in case of a Muslim accused compared to slow, or no, action in case of arrest of Hindus accused of riots strengthens an Indian Muslim’s fear that India is definitely not a safe place to be in. I remember during the Gujarat pogrom a resident of chandi chowk remarked, “We are safe in here at least from the Bajrangis. Indian government can still kill us in air raid”
Indian Muslims are considered traitors. More here
This is a movie ‘Making of a Muslim Terrorist’ which won Best Documentary & Critic’s Choice at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, as well as the Wolfgang Staudte Award & Special Jury Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.
I know there are many other reason but I felt that the above ones are the most important. But the big question still remains unanswered, what’s the solution to this hatred? I request the readers to drop in their views regarding this issue. I thank you all for the support via comments, emails and scraps.
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trip 03.08.07 at 8:14 am
I don’t think the problem is identified yet, solution can only come after that is done.
The problem is “RELIGION”
We are educated youth interested in a dialogue and we admit we have prejudices and hatred deep down. but what causes that? frankly i don’t care abt my Hindu neighbor, don’t know his name and will never talk to him beyond a Hi occasionally. i don’t know what kind of person he is and i don’t care. but a similar muslim neighbor is ‘them’!!! why?
what is religion? religion is bureaucracy between God and man. By his very nature God does not talk to us, but we do. religion tries to take this role of God, the role of talking to us. telling us what to do. imagine how ridiculous this is? God (Allah) decided where i was to be born, He knew! he decided i was to be born in India in a Hindu family and not in Saudi. Then he did not come to me and tell me that don’t follow X religion but follow Y or u’ll go to hell!!! now why would God (Allah) do that? does he hate me? I’m sure he does not. then whats this religion nonsense? how can religion Y say that I’ll go to hell if i don’t follow them? its just a way of scaring into submitting to their power, and this ‘them’ is the religious bureaucracy that wants to use us, not God. religion is created by man, hence is impure and bad, not pure like the nature and a new born baby… as thats created by God.
In Catch22, an atheist character says that the God she does not believe in is a good kind God. As believers, do we give God that much credit?
Tarana 03.08.07 at 12:15 pm
You’re right. Partition is the root of this divide. A solution is hard to come by, as you cannot end the prejudices of people. But I think the best way out would be to seperate politics from religion at the highest levels. We need to re-look our laws for all kinds of religious bias. Secularity is something our politicians are scared of. Despite a history of bloody riots, it is surprising that the law has done nothing to put in place legislation to control them. So, how will this work? Maybe by placing a central-level body of legislators, human rights activists and political representatives to develop anti-communal laws and make sure that riot cases are investigated fully – and perpetrators of the crimes are given a befitting punishment. Maybe I am expecting too much. And I am sure the same human rights activists will cry foul if too many laws are put in place. But just food for thought…when Saddam Hussain’s dictatorial regime was in power, how many communal riots took place vis-a-vis now that US forces have taken over the country. Plus, the people that he is accused of killing were mostly political dissenters – but he did not let bombs go off in cities with civilian habitation.
Sharique 03.08.07 at 2:40 pm
trip and Tarana,
Thanks for the suggestions. I will collect all these suggestions and post them as a separate article.
jaleel ahmed 03.08.07 at 6:14 pm
dear sharique
nicely written article. i think almost all muslims have gone through these feelings after gujarat riots. feeling angry , helpless.. and losing hope as no one in power really came for help. till today i get shivers when i read about the incidents that happened there. keep searching for answers as to why it happened .. how insane people can be.
is building an army the solution ..did we think of building an army when thousands of innocents died in 9/11 … or when the kashmiri pandits suffered .. or when taliban threw stones and killed women.. those who suffered were all innocents (atleast they dint deserve the treatment they got). muslims also killed many innocents in the name of jihad … did we think of building an army to stop the suffering of the victims of jihad… this needs to be answered honestly. somewhere between these lines we will get the actual problem. do we get angry .. or do we suffer more only if we see muslims getting killed and just show sympathy if it is someone else …if it is so then our concerns are dishonest .. and here lies the problem, our anger here is uncalled for as is the anger of those who were furious over muslims because of godhra train fire, and if we dont tap this anger we are susceptible to become insane as those killers and we can easily be exploited because of this anger. those who killed innocents in gujarat think their forefathers suffered at the hands of muslims’ forefathers and they get angry ..and get exploited because of this anger.
may be it is time we realise that suffering has no religious or political affiliations , may be we can sensitise ppl around us about this by our behaviour , influence those who interact with us , get women educated and teach our kids to be tolerant and human. changing the already spoilt fabric of our society is a long time process… things cant get better overnight. but then it is always better to start from within ..change ourselves first..our family, kids , friends and spread the message of love and compassion. it is to be realised that hatred cannot be removed by legislations , or by force of law, it has to go by love only … and mutual respect for each others religion. unfortunately most of the muslim mullahs are busy talking about the clothes women wear …spreading conspiracy theories. how america is responsible for everything that goes wrong with muslims.
there is suffering everywhere .. God does it the most..more number of ppl have suffered due to natural calamities..tsunami , earthquakes .volcanoes… and many more. and we cant think of building an army against Him to stop this.. we never get angry on God for what ever suffering he gives to people,may be because we think he is the one who gives life .. and he is the one who takes it… death is not a problem . problem is not for those who get killed .. but problem is for those who are left behind….problem is that those who kill start thinking they are powerfull enough to take lives , and play god.
love and peace
jaleel
Sharique 03.08.07 at 10:02 pm
Dear Jaleel,
Thanks a lot for the thought provoking comment. I will include all the comments here as a post. Do watch out!
aamir 03.09.07 at 2:30 am
feeling nauseated.
whatever little faith i had with indian government system is now fully blown to pieces.
trip 03.09.07 at 3:21 pm
Thanks Aamir, we were hoping to hear abt the way ahead… anything to add there?
Kaul 03.09.07 at 10:04 pm
Truth – would be a nice place to start.
Everybody honestly owns up to their mistakes, historical and contemporary.
A great first step would be, as Jaleel suggested, to view pain and suffering in human terms. Rather than in Hindu or Muslim terms.
For example, when Saddam, ruthless bloody dictator is deposed, educated Indians should refrain from positing it is a defeat of Islam by the infidel.
Also, when Kashmiri Pandits are ethnically cleansed from the land of their ancestors, Indians intelligentsia should be outraged. At least as much, as they were by the Gujarati Progroms.
p.s. Tarana – what is unfolding in Iraq, was inevitable.
A majority had been brutally supresed by the minority for than three decades, and when the pressure cooker lid came off….
mahi 03.10.07 at 2:40 am
@ trip: good take about God. Before blaming religion though, I’d say may be it has served its purpose and its time for genuine spirituality to take root.
Sharique, am writing up my idea of how to look beyond the mess. Its rather long, but I’ll send it along in a couple of days.
Sharique 03.10.07 at 11:47 am
Kaul,
Thanks the suggestion. Will include as a final post on this series.
mahi,
Got your email. It really offered many insights into your mindset and particularly as someone elder to me
Harsha 03.19.07 at 6:42 pm
One simple step is to stop identifying people on the basis of their religion/caste.Its nice to see that the columns that asked for the religion/caste of the person have been removed from passport application form and other forms,but we have a long way to go.Everyday we see reports like ’6 Dalits lose lives in a road mishap’,'Muslim becomes the Chief Justice of High Court’,etc.Aren’t all people equal?
It’s sad to hear that 6 people have lost their lives.But why should you mention their caste/religion? So we have a new CJ of HC.How does it affect your life?You may say that it is going to inspire thousands of disadvantaged people to work hard.But there are disadvantaged people in all communities.Everybody needs inspiration.So are you going to publish the ‘inspirational stories’ of people from all communities?
The main problem that is plaguing India is poverty.The politicians never work hard to remove poverty.Coz they need votes.And the No.1 evil that has happened to India is pseudo-secularism.No party talks about the welfare of minorities without the vote bank in mind.
Once both these are banished,India is going to shine,incredibly!!!
N junta,awaiting your brickbats on my thought..
http://gentledude.blogspot.com/2007/03/babri-saga.html
Sharique 03.19.07 at 11:20 pm
Harsha,
Completely agreed. This pseudo discrimination has to stop. But politicians are always a pain in the ***. I hope someday we can find a way to either cleanse politicians.
Kaul 03.19.07 at 11:40 pm
Sharique – Do you have a policy of agreeing with anybody who comments on your blog?
Take a stand for god’s sake.
Either you are championing the minority postion or you are not
Sharique 03.20.07 at 12:45 am
Kaul,
I wonder what makes you feel so. I hope you have read my replies above or on other posts. How does championing for minority cause makes me reject Harsha’s claims? And plus why would i disagree just for taking a stand?
Hindu 07.19.07 at 2:37 am
The last bit with the kid is positively chilling (referring to the video).
I know he has suffered, but I would have hoped he would be taught that returning the favour is not the solution.
Ah the joys of a vicious cycle!