Saturday, November 03, 2007

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


12 comments:

  1. Sujai - thanks for all the good work that you and this Blog are doing to lead this country with virtues like fear and hatred.

    "This country is headed for doom." - "And there will be enough funds coming form outside this country to fuel that hatred and transform it into action"

    Thanks angry young man :). It looks like you are succeeding in your mission and the hatred does not need to be imported from "other" countries - there are enough people here who would like to see this country doomed.

    Sujai -> "Would I not be angry if people of my region are targeted just because they belong to that region?"

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am a Sikh survivor of Delhi 84. I have dedicated my life to people knowing what happened there.

    In response to the movie Amu,which is now out on DVD,

    http://www.amudvd.com/amu/CDInfo.aspx

    the Indian censor board (why a censor board in a modern democracy?) said :

    “Why should young people know a history that is better buried and forgotten?”

    It is true, we Sikhs have long memories. I will not forget my husband, son, brothers, two unborn daughters that were killed in the combat. (Our little group was prepared and we fought.)

    Telling the truth is telling the truth, not spreading 'fear and hatred.'

    A shameless plug: you might be interested in reading our personal stories from 23 years ago, almost to the day:

    http://mai-sometimes.blogspot.com/2007/08/our-stories-from-1984.html

    Please keep telling the truth.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You may have to be careful about which quarters you are getting endorsements from. While I share Mai's pain and sense of betrayal, I do not think that her hate propaganda is any more virtuous than what she is trying to fight.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Vivek Behal:

    I fail to see how telling the truth about what happened to us is either hate or propaganda.

    We will keep telling our stories until the whole knows what happened in 1984.

    In the end, the truth will out!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mai:

    I am not talking about telling the truth. I am talikng about propagating hate.

    I visited your blog and even as an atheist found your dig on hindu gods (shiva, parvathi and ganesh) quite tasteless. Obviously, such things are written to promote hate, not telling the truth.

    Life has been cruel to you, but you are entitled to your dream. Never mind even if that dream is now all but dead beyond the gurudwaras of greater washington, new york, ontario and vancouver. Good luck with your search of khalistan.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Vivek,

    I went back and reread the post you referred to. You are right; it was in bad taste. If someone had said something similar about our Guru's family, I would have been livid. So, for that, I apologise. I have removed the offending picture and comment.

    You know, though, you would have gotten the same response from me if you had politely stated your complaint, instead of vilifying me.

    Life is neutral and has not been cruel to me. The cruelty is from specific human beings acting like monsters. They are still out there, living their lives. I still demand justice.

    The dream of Khalistan is not dead or dying, just more quiet.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mai said:

    "I went back and reread the post you referred to. You are right; it was in bad taste. If someone had said something similar about our Guru's family, I would have been livid. So, for that, I apologise. I have removed the offending picture and comment."

    Mai, it is very gracious of you to accept it and take corrective action. Internet boards are not known for such civilized behavior. Personally, I do not care about any gods, but I do accept people's right to hold sacred whatever they may wish to as long as it does not affect anyone else.

    Mai said:

    "You know, though, you would have gotten the same response from me if you had politely stated your complaint, instead of vilifying me."

    There was no intention to vilify you. I based my comments on what I saw on your blog. Nonetheless, I apologize, if I hurt you.

    Mai said:

    "Life is neutral and has not been cruel to me. The cruelty is from specific human beings acting like monsters. They are still out there, living their lives. I still demand justice."

    100% agreed.

    Mai said:

    "The dream of Khalistan is not dead or dying, just more quiet."

    As I said, you are entitled to your dreams. From my side, good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yet another very relevant post, Sujai. Keep it coming!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Vivek said:

    "Mai, it is very gracious of you to accept it and take corrective action. Internet boards are not known for such civilized behavior. Personally, I do not care about any gods, but I do accept people's right to hold sacred whatever they may wish to as long as it does not affect anyone else."



    Vivek,Thank you. It's astonishing what a little civility can accomplish. For my part, the most freeing day of my life was when I learned that the world wouldn't crash in on itself if I was wrong about something - and said so and corrected the situation. The weight of needing to be perfect fell off my shoulders and I fancy my gigantic ego shrunk an infintesimal amount.

    Vivek said:
    "There was no intention to vilify you. I based my comments on what I saw on your blog. Nonetheless, I apologize, if I hurt you."

    I'm not really that thin-skinned, so no apology is necessary. It is good, though, since such courtesy has become very rare in this world.

    Vivek said:

    "100% agreed."

    :)

    Vivek said:

    "As I said, you are entitled to your dreams. From my side, good luck!"

    You, too, are most gracious. Thank you. May all disputes be so settled.

    And what does Sujai say? After all, it is your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  10. " 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. "

    Very very well said, Sujai. I guess educated Indians like to live in their imaginary India, blinded by patriotism - where tolerance and love is the presumed characteristic of all Indians - walking angels on earth. "We made no wars on others and were always attacked" and nonesense like that. About time someone said it loud and clear that our society stinks with hate, avarice, divisions and prejudice. That is as much a reality of India as the sharing and tolerance that goes on. If we do not acknowledge the disease in our society and in our selves and deal with it we will fall victims to this disease. And you, Sujai, are doing the gretest service to India and Indians in precisely doing that through your blog.

    Keep them coming, Sujai.

    ~ Vinod

    ReplyDelete
  11. sujai,
    we need to keep this issue in discussion so that indians will never forget this. If we are gonna hide it again, as u said, we dont know what is going to happen in 2012. We need to remember that we are sons of killings..

    I am reviewing Parzania, in my blog.(I write in my mothertounge malayalam). we need to do something to bring it to international attention.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Reminds me of the old Panchatantra fable of the three fishes in the pond. Most of us Indians are of the 'Yadbhavishyat' type .
    Only the rest of the world will hear our screams when we are torn apart by violence and civil war.. which is an ominous possibility in the neat future.

    ReplyDelete

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