Two men casually walk into a restaurant and open fire. Randomly aiming at anything that moves. After surveying the room to make sure none of the bodies show any sign of life they move into the kitchen and mow down some more. Casually grab something to eat, laugh and chat amongst themselves as if they were meeting at a bar. No remorse at the dastardly act they just committed. The audacity of such a crime makes me cringe with anger and I want to play that scene again and again in my head so that I do not forget. So that I do not calm down. I do not want to stop reminding myself that it could have been me or God forbid my loved one at a restaurant or a mall or a market or at the station, just enjoying a casual evening or shopping for diwali or celebrating a promotion or going for a holiday.
The last two weeks since the horrible Mumbai carnage has left me feeling stunned, shocked, sad, helpless, scared and angry. A range of emotions I’m sure many a Indian would have felt and rightly so. I don’t know whether to blame the media or applaud them for telecasting the attack minute by minute on national television. On one hand it seemed as though they were cashing in on the event, being insensitive to the ongoing combat operation by exposing crucial strategies. One channel even flashed this as breaking news “Terrorists hamara channel dekh rahe hain!”. Sick. But on the other hand I feel like applauding them because if it were not for the in your face coverage we would never have been so shaken to have woken up to say Enough is Enough.
We have had enough of the fear, the absolutely unnecessary loss of innocent lives, of politicians who are more interested in safeguarding their sorry asses, in power and money at any cost, the lack of basic infrastructure, and the corruption.
But somehow we have NOT had enough of Muslim bashing, fighting amongst religions on the basis of religion, community, caste. Terrorism is our biggest enemy today or so we think. Ponder over this, why do you think terrorists have managed to strike so many times this year. And no. I am not indicating at the lack of intelligence and security in our country to counter them. That a whole other topic. But because, they saw India as a potential ground where they could succeed. The same way the British saw us.
We are a diverse country. Over 80 percent of Indians are Hindus, with some significant minorities. Muslims number about 110 million, there are over 20 million Christians, about 18 million Sikhs, close to 6 million Buddhists and a number of other small religious groups. To an outsider, who gets taken in by the various languages and cultures it sounds like a mystical land. But the truth is, we are just as divided in our cultures, as we are divided in our unity.
These terrorists are unfortunately Muslim by birth, who come from poor families, are young and fiercely religious. Get some lunatic religious extremist to brainwash them saying that Islam preaches that with Jihad you will please Allah and he will welcome you with open arms in heaven. Any well educated human (irrespective of gender, religion) will agree that this is bullshit. You don’t get praise from God for killing innocent people. The terrorists claim that they strike because of the treatment meted out by Hindus to their Muslim brothers. They know by saying this, the divide between Hindus and Muslims will deepen and cause more disharmony. Pretty soon, Hindu-Muslims will fight amongst themselves and the terrorists will sit back and watch the show. Is this what we want? By Muslim bashing, stating that all Muslims are terrorists we are helping the terrorists accomplish their goal. Let’s not forget these terrorists kill their own as well. We blame Pakistan because all evidence points that it breeds from their country, but lets not forget the terrorists have not spared the Pakistani people either. Because of this they are a bruised and battered nation that is on the verge of falling into a deep abyss. Expecting them to clean out the terrorist camps or even blaming them for it all is not the solution.
We can say that by going back to our routine lives will show the terrorists that they can’t break our resilient spirit but who are we kidding? A majority of people in India are still prejudiced towards Muslims. It’s bad enough that they have this enormous task of reforming the misled Muslims within their community but now they also have to defend their religion to the misled countrymen!
I consider myself to be a very liberal Indian. I embrace every religion and am not a staunch Sikh. I have many Christian friends, I have attended church with them, had the honor of being a bridesmaid. I also have loads of Muslim friends and of course Hindu friends too. I consider myself an Indian first and realize the beauty in every religion and culture. I am patriotic that way. I also believe India is NOT shining. We focus on image management more than the issues that are really degrading our country. So it’s important to tell the world we signed a nuclear deal when the fact is that we couldn’t even stop 10 young terrorists from causing havoc. God forbid if a country attacks us, we probably don’t have anyone skilled enough to use our new nuclear toys!
We have for so long brushed the dirt under the carpet that now a hole in it has exposed all the mess under it to the world. We boast about the diversity of our culture but we can’t see eye to eye with another religion, caste or creed. We crib that politicians are criminals, corrupt and greedy yet we vote and bring them to power. We light candles at the gateway of India for peace and solidarity but when someone is hurt on the road we look the other way. We say that the police is corrupt yet we don’t think twice before offering them a bribe just so that they would let us go. Its sad but a fact - we are a nation of hypocrites.
Its time to stop focusing only on the good things and pay more attention to our flaws. Because how long are we going to hide behind the farce of being a so called “emerging superpower”. Sooner or later our cover will be blown and the world will know our deep dark secrets.
I am hopeful that this time there will be change. We have been jolted out of our sleep, coz now terror has hit home. I hope that we are seeing history in the making. We have come together to raise our voice against the government but I also hope we introspect and start the change from within us only then will it spread and unite us in the true sense.
“I'm Gonna Make A Change,
For Once In My Life
It's Gonna Feel Real Good,
Gonna Make A Difference
Gonna Make It Right . .
I'm Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change
(Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na,
Na Nah)
- Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson
