We are going to pay the price

We are going to pay the price for our apathy.

When Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984, more than three thousand Sikhs were butchered in the streets of New Delhi, and there are enough indications to suggest that the members of the ruling party (Congress) took to the streets and actually instigated, helped and supported those killings. Since the members were form the ruling party, that particular episode was never investigated. The culprits were never caught.

The ire of the affected community (Sikh) gave vent to a militant movement (Khalistan Liberation) that led to killings of thousands more in the next few years. It has affected the economy of a state (Punjab), brought it to a standstill, uprooted many youth from their homes, and incarcerated many more young people.

A book detailing those 1984 killings was even banned.

That’s how India looks at its own crimes. It just covers it up, bans the books that detail it, and stop all investigations into it. How do the people react to it? They just accept it out of their apathy. They don’t demand investigation. They don’t demand prosecution of the perpetrators, and instead vote them back into power.

The consequences of apathy on such moral crises are dire. You just cannot maintain neutrality in such situations. You have to take a stand and fight for the right cause. Otherwise you will witness Hell right here, in our midst, and the hottest seats in that Hell will be reserved for you.

In 2002, another such event took place. Thousands of Muslims in Gujarat were targeted and killed by Hindus supported by the ruling party. The administration and the state apparatus aided, supported and sometimes participated in such killings. And how do the people of India react?

They are once again silent, out of apathy.

The recent Tehelka expose was in the news for a day or two and then it became a footnote. [On the other hand, the wedding of Abhishek-Aishwarya held sway of Indians for over a month and it looks like that mania hasn’t receded even now though the couple has come out of their honeymoon]. India is behaving as if this pogrom in Gujarat had never happened. As if this gruesome event has no significance whatsoever. We are actually ready to forget it. We are ready to erase it from our memories. Talking more about it would mean knowing more about ourselves- which is quite distasteful. Discussing more about it would be undermining the image of India, especially when its economy is booming.

We just don’t want to talk about it. We just don’t want to take any actions. We are ready to ignore it and sweep it under the carpet.

But will the people of Muslim community react the same way? Not really. The way the Sikhs felt they were persecuted and targeted in this country and hence sought a new country for themselves and fought for it- a bloody fight indeed, the Muslims of India will not go down dying. They will fight and retaliate, in a way they think is their method. And there will be enough funds coming form outside this country to fuel that hatred and transform it into action- and that action won’t be pleasant. We will see more killings. We will see more blood on our streets. And we will be wondering why it happened, the way we wondered why so many Sikhs created a Hell in this place demanding a separate nation.

Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.

-- George Santayana

We will never learn. We will never bring to book the perpetrators of such heinous crimes. The elite, the educated, the media, the politicians of India just want to forget this chapter. They don’t want to dig into it. They think, by digging into it, we will only uncover the bitter truths. They think, by ignoring it, everyone will ignore it. That’s NOT how it works. The rest of Indians might have ignored the 1984 killings. But Sikhs did not. They remembered it. And they remembered it well and hard. They kept remembering it so much that thousands of its youth were ready to kill and die for protecting their community from this apathetic and cruel India.

The same thing will happen now. Whether we like it or not, the Muslims of India will see those tapes, will read those transcripts, the horrific details, where Hindus targeted Muslims just because they were Muslims and it will not go easy on them. They will know that this country didn’t do much to protect them. They will know that this country which was supposed to protect them actually helped the killers. They will know that the people who perpetrated this are still at large and they are still in power. Nobody gets booked, nobody gets convicted.

And that won’t go down easy on anyone. Would I not be angry if people of my region are targeted just because they belong to that region? Would I not be angry if people of my identity get massacred and this nation rubbishes the evidences as a political game? We have certain expectations from this nation and its people. We want them to do the right thing, especially when so many people have been killed. When the country doesn’t heed, when its people go about their own way nonchalantly as if nothing ever happened, it’s not a good picture.

We are doing an excellent job of marginalizing Muslims out of every sphere of our mainstream society. Barring few elite and privileged Muslims, and some exceptions, Muslims are being marginalized out of every opportunity in this country. Every study indicates that India is on a massive campaign to marginalize and isolate Muslims.

When I went to college in early 1990s, there was one Muslim in a college community of 1300 students. In my previous job there was less than 1% Muslim representation in a company of more than 2500 employees. Muslims are getting rarer in the sphere of new opportunity. A study indicates that our biases are acting in corporate world too to result in discrimination against Muslims. The recent Sachar Committee Report has clearly put the Muslims of India below OBCs and a little above SC/STs. I guess it is the aim of certain Hindus in India to push them even below that notch to put them at the rock bottom.

This country is headed for doom. Its booming economy will not save it. Its rising Sensex will not save it. It’s crumbling within. You just cannot reap the rewards of this economy on sustainable level unless the opportunities and the resulting wealth get distributed in equitable proportions amongst various groups. If there is clear demarcation of spread of opportunities and wealth along the lines of religious lines, it’s going to cause friction. That friction will lead to civil wars- where very city and town of India will witness rioting and killing. And the very innocents who are now silent out of apathy will be the victims. Our liberal views will not save us then. Our economies will not save us then. We will create Hell right here for all of us.

There’s a price one has to pay for one’s apathy. And we are going to pay for it!

Related: Significance of Tehelka, Hindu Fascism, Dawn of Indian Hindu fascism