Sachaee chhup nahin saktee...

I thought it was time to gloat that I had managed my first real big cut-and-paste job in the earlier ilog…even that seems to have bothered people.

If you don’t see what I am writing it does not mean I have “risen from slumber”. I have been expressing my views in other places very clearly. And if these academics are from “nowherepura”, you would not know their names, addresses and qualifications. They are mentioned. Something you do not dare to even reveal. Because the freedom of speech inside you is dead. You are a voiceless person creating hollow sounds.

My first article on this site (posted by someone without my permission) was on Kashmir autonomy, so what has changed?

If “Allah-u-Akbar’’ slogans rent the air in Srinagar on Independence Day then it was “Bamb Bamb Bhole” in Jammu. It was in Jammu that they boycotted official functions. It was in Jammu that they announced the jail bharo Andolan.

Someone here says “it is difficult to forgive FV for her stand on Kashmiri Pandits.” Does the person even know what my stand is? Does the person have an individual stand? Has that person spent time talking with Kashmiris – both Muslim and Pandit living in those regions? Has the person visited any ‘refugee camps’? I do not remember asking, wanting forgiveness from anyone – not the KPs, not Hindutva parties, and not even the Hurriyat or any faction should they ever want it.

At the beginning of this year thousands from the J&K minority community, who had fled the state in 1989 after militancy erupted in Kashmir, are now being rehabilitated by the state government in ‘safe zones’. As a further measure for their integration, a Pandit group has demanded reservation of three seats in the assembly and one in Parliament for the community

This sort of news does not get prominence. It is the state government that took the initiative. Where are the safe zones for the other Kashmiris? Where are the reservations for those who lead unprotected lives? And do remember that Panun Kashmir is a separatist idea. Just because they want a separate union within India does not make it superior in any way.

It is also time people stopped referring to what is happening in Kashmir as a “separatist movement” now; it is a people’s movement all the way. Therefore, by denouncing Mehbooba and FV as “pro-separatists” you are in fact saying we are pro-people (I am not with Mehbooba on most issues, though).

I have maintained that most Kashmiris want ‘azadi’ and are not with Pakistan or India. A friend wanted to quote something I had written (he is the publisher-editor of a newspaper in Kashmir) and do you know what his worry was? “Am trying to gather courage to reproduce it. It may invite death sentence for me by likes of Geelani…”

As you know, Geelani is the hardliner pro-Pakistani faction of the Hurriyat. Not many Kashmiris are with him.

The Jammu agitation has been politically engineered and is a different ballgame. And if some of us are “lying” about the blockade, then how do we know that those disagreeing with us are speaking the truth? Were they around to see there was no blockade? Have they spoken to anyone in Kashmir? Do they know that Pandits are ‘voluntarily” boycotting goods from Muslim Kashmir Valley?

Here is a letter I received regarding this:

“I will make only few points:

They want to carve out separate Jammu state from the whole of Kashmir.

There are 175 Million Muslims in India. Just imagine if they realise there buying power and start buying Muslim Only. Imagine that. The Hindus always destroy Muslim business during an agitation throughout India, including my town Bombay.
Remember Martin Luther King started his campaign for Black civil Liberties thru’ Selma (Alabama) Bus boycott.

This was after Rosa Parks was not allowed to sit in the front of the bus. Those buses were owned and operated by whites. What happened after that?”

Muslims should start doing and promoting business amongst themselves. Economic power is very important. The person with money makes the rules.”

Therefore, it is at the most amusing to read comments about how Kashmiris can leave without their land. This kind of dadagiri may work on MSN with straw warriors. The ground reality will not give you even a rope to hang yourselves with.

It is these Indians who reveal their true colours when they point out to the petition I posted and start counting the number of Bengali, Punjabi etc signatories are there…and you people want to call yourselves Indian? Don’t even try. You are parochial NRIs trying to recreate your ghettoes of masala-paapad in the cyber world. Don’t mess with those of us who live in India.

It was I who ticked off someone who was posting nasty pictures about my city when all you ‘Indians’ sat quiet; it was I who raised my voice about participation of Pakistanis in music reality shows when Indians cannot perform there, not you ‘Indians’. In fact, one so-called Indian has been raving about several Pakistani singers. Had I done so, he would have jumped around with his patented line of “non-Indian resident”. What gives these people the right to say just what they want?

Where is the sense of responsibility of this website that someone can get away with such misleading nonsense?

Next time quote the whole context if you really need to.
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How completely removed these people are from reality is evident in the comments on Indian Muslims unable to get a house in Mumbai.

Oh, someone lives on Napean Sea Road…oh Nargis and Madhubala “managed to live and become so famous there”. Oh yeah? Like they owe it to you…

I don’t care about the sly Shabana Azmi who brought this up NOW, and am going to take her on elsewhere…but this is not new. The laws are being twisted. Societies insist on vegetarians, for example. Or, a builder may accept an advance payment and then renege mentioning a society member’s objection. This is happening. Has been happening.

But obviously many of you wouldn’t know. After you wake up from your dream sleep, then you might like to read this what I wrote almost two years ago about a personal experience and had in fact posted as an ilog. Let me budge your weak memory. Perhaps you will then discover what it means to be an Indian too…don’t thank me…I do these things for the ‘greater common good’.

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http://www.countercurrents.org/ind-versey091106.htm

Ghettoes Reserved For Muslims?

By Farzana Versey

09 November, 2006
Countercurrents.org

As an Indian Muslim I might like to state that there ought not to be reservations, because Muslims have traditionally been a convenient vote-bank (and not just for politicians, but for anyone wanting to make a 'liberal' point). The result is that they are accused of purportedly suffering from a victim syndrome only because others are weeping over their freshly-dug graves.

Watch how everyone is flinging figures in our faces from the Sachar Committee Report on the current status of social, economic and educational condition of Indian Muslims. This has only led to further stereotyping.

Television tends to reduce everything to the lowest common denominator. It was therefore a bit disconcerting to watch Madhu Kishwar talk about how Muslims are not backward because most weavers and craftsmen come from the community. What really does this mean? That they should remain in those jobs? What value is placed on such professions?

They are crassly exploited, as anyone in such work is. The kaarigars barely get any money, and all the zardozi that you see on designer wear gives them a pittance in return.

The apathy towards their plight and destiny was revealed during the riots in Mumbai in 1992-93 when most of them had left, that is if they weren't affected physically. A small tour of the areas would show that many of the migrants to the city had lost their sustenance. So, how does their talent really help them?

Instead of salivating over the statistics that say there are more illiterates among the Muslims than even the scheduled castes and tribes, it might be prudent to ask whether reservations can solve the social problem. Would it not result in further alienating the community into a 'super-appeased' slot?

The fact is that the point about ghettoisation is brought in time and again. "The problem is Muslims are ghettoised," is the refrain.

It is time to take a reality check on this. A ghetto is a group of people that gets together due to some common identity, be it religion, occupation, social affiliation. The Communists formed their communes and it was considered perfectly legitimate. The elite form theirs and again no one raises an eyebrow.

Let me give you a personal example and it is a fairly recent one. We had been looking for an apartment due to some renovation work that was to be undertaken at our present residence. This is in what is a cosmopolitan and elite neighbourhood. I called up an estate agency. It had a business-like sounding name.

The gentleman who I was giving the specifications to stopped me mid-way. "Ma'am, don't mind, but what community are you from?" I had given my first name.

"How is that important?" I asked.

"See, are you Muslim? I am Muslim too," he said by way of reassurance.

"Does that make a difference?"

"I am sorry to say this but there are problems. The apartment you want to see is not possible. I can show you some others."

As it turned out, the choices, even for the so-called elite in a city like Mumbai, are limited. The deal was Muslim will sell to Muslim. Some builders may not directly tell you, but there are sudden retractions. Therefore, a Muslim builder who sells his property to everyone has become the only hope for Muslims.

It suddenly struck me: would it also not be easy to target such habitats far more easily?

For one accustomed to living with people of all communities, I was completely disoriented by the thought that suddenly one would be surrounded by people one had nothing in common with except a flimsy religious identity.

This may be seen as the luxury of multiculturalism that some of us can afford, but what about the ostentatiousness of pennant-waving that has become a part of posh communities in equal measure?

One has heard of instances about how the Malabar Hill-Napeansea road belt (the most prized and pricey areas of Mumbai) are being take over by the Jain-Marwari business families. Old Parsi bungalows are being bought just to ensure that the particular part of the city is left pure for a group of people.

Christians too have begun to form their own buildings, so do Parsis and Gujaratis and Sikhs. But these are not called ghettoes.

Why, then, must Muslim-populated areas be deemed ghettoes?

What is wrong with madrassas? Some commentators are declaiming that Muslims must be taken out of madrassas and be given 'mainstream education', whatever that means. It is completely forgotten that madrassas are merely religious-run educational outfits, not religious-indoctrinating institutions. Religious education is imparted in educational institutions run by all communities. And wasn't it the BJP government that wanted astrology as a part of the curriculum?

Where jobs are concerned, all Muslims need is equal opportunities; perhaps co-operative movements at the grassroots level could ensure that.

The more educated will have to stand together with the rest; there is no doubt a sense of alienation and discrimination. It reveals the malaise that besets our society.

Names, like rabbits from magicians' hats, are taken out from the world of cricket, cinema, and business to showcase how Muslims are 'accepted'. That is not the idea. There is no question about anyone accepting another who is accomplished. But not everyone has a head start.

It would be foolish to remove religious leaders at this juncture from the process of upward mobility. The reason being that they need to be co-opted as they too are a part of the community; besides, where are the liberal Muslim voices that have been talking about the veil and Islamic terrorism?

It is disturbing to find that even on a subject that concerns Muslims, the commentators are either the more rabid Islamic faces or intellectuals from the majority community, which once again reaffirms a stereotype: WE are tolerant lot; We have no problems if Muslims are given a bit of the share of the pie.

Reservations are far less patronising than this sort of colonisation of the Muslim mind. Be it sops or sympathy, the message is the same. Muslims need to become a part of the mainstream. The idea that they 'need to', emphasises what ought to be disabused: That they aren't.

The mainstream in contemporary India is not a stagnant pool of historical rights and wrongs. Therefore, no one community can define it or circumscribe it for others. It is time for everyone to get out of the ghettoes of their minds.