Myths and Dreams: Hindutva Nationalism and the Indian Diaspora

re: saminasha

{Why dont you and arjun just handpick the Muslims you`d like to live in India? }

...i don`t need to...they will self select themselves and the rest like farzana will leave for the sands of arabia in due time....

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Dost Mittar,

Did you see a recent episode of `Question Time India` which was held at Srinagar...

Just wondering what you thought of it?

Rsax,

Why dont you and arjun just handpick the Muslims you`d like to live in India?

re: #153


{On CNN, there was this gentleman describing, in English, scenes of destruction near the Gateway. He was clearly alarmed, angry and Muslim. There were others interviewed who had Hindu or Christian-sounding names but in the papers this morning there was this senior police officer talking determinedly about finding the culprits and he had a Muslim name. There was that elderly Muslim gentleman in Zaveri Bazar, standing in the rubble, quietly sobbing, and the family of Muslims, who had lost loved ones, expressing disgust with all terrorists. And there was a distraught shop-owner, Tilak Raj, mourning the death of his Muslim employee, Abdul Mullah. }

...we need more coverage of stories like this...to balance the noise from the farzana versey-types...

arjun_m:
``And exactly which one of these things happened to the following people..

1. Mohd Atta
2. Osama Bin Laden
3. Khalid Sheikh Mohd
4. Hambali ``

Pray, when did I support these people?
I had said at the time of the Gujarat riots that I could understand the angry reaction of the Hindu mobs in Ahmedabad to the Godhra murders. It was the reaction of the police and the state administration which was totally unacceptable. Their job was to control the anger of the aroused mobs, not to feed it or to facilitate their ``work``.

Hot Piece of Coal


[ FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2003 12:01:06 AM ]

Islam, Honour and Democracy



WASHINGTON, DC: Why are Indian Muslims so different? No, that`s not my question. It`s being asked of me by a number of thoughtful people here as they watch and read of the happenings in Mumbai following the ghastly blasts last Monday. What they want to know is why Indian Muslims, at least those seen and quoted in the media here, sound so different from the radical Islamists in other countries who seem always ready to justify terrorism or those Islamic scholars who criticise terrorists mildly and add ``Yes, but``.



On CNN, there was this gentleman describing, in English, scenes of destruction near the Gateway. He was clearly alarmed, angry and Muslim. There were others interviewed who had Hindu or Christian-sounding names but in the papers this morning there was this senior police officer talking determinedly about finding the culprits and he had a Muslim name. There was that elderly Muslim gentleman in Zaveri Bazar, standing in the rubble, quietly sobbing, and the family of Muslims, who had lost loved ones, expressing disgust with all terrorists. And there was a distraught shop-owner, Tilak Raj, mourning the death of his Muslim employee, Abdul Mullah.



When someone asks ``Why are Indian Muslims different?`` I point to two remarkable successes of the Indian experiment. One is a sense of nationhood; the other is democracy. Nationhood does not mean any of that wild nationalism promoted by the hard right of Hindu fanatics and other extremists. It is a sense of belonging to a family full of diversity, where differences are not merely to be tolerated but actually to be celebrated. Not that it is a happy family all the time. Family members fight a lot among themselves. But it is held together by a sense of Indian-ness — nurtured by both ancient and modern culture, social customs, norms, music, food, a growing common market, and a body of legal remedies against disruption written in a constitution — that transcends other identities. That`s why an Indian Muslim is first an Indian and then a Muslim. Oh, sure there are crazies who are fanatically Muslim or Hindu first before they are Indian but such people remain a tiny minority. The rest of us prefer to vote, disagree and talk freely.



We can do that because we live in a democracy, with all its flaws, shortcomings and imperfections. If you hold deep religious views and want everyone to follow your faith, just go to your rooftop and shout. You can let off steam in a democracy. But allow me that glow of pride when Shabana Azmi comes on global television before a forest of mikes and appeals for calm in the wake of Monday`s blasts. The screen below her face doesn`t tout her for being a great actress or for being a renowned activist for civil rights. It just says: ``Member of Parliament``.



Unfortunately, you won`t see much of that in most Islamic countries. Why not? It`s a question that a few Islamic scholars are starting to ask. ``What is going wrong?`` asks Professor Akbar Ahmed, for instance, in a chapter heading of his new book Islam Under Siege (Polity Press, UK). A former Pakistani civil servant, Prof Ahmed holds the Ibn Khaldun chair of Islamic Studies at American University here. He begins his book by quoting a clairvoyant assertion from the Prophet Mohammed.



``There will be a time,`` said the Prophet, ``when your religion will be like a hot piece of coal in the palm of your hand; you will not be able to hold it.`` When someone asked ``Would this mean there would be very few Muslims?`` he replied: ``No, they will be large in numbers, more than ever before, but powerless like the foam on the ocean waves.``



The Muslim community has been caught unawares by a world changing rapidly through globalisation, writes Prof Ahmed. It is a ``post-honour`` world, where traditional ideas of honour are either irrelevant or stand rejected. But Muslim political rhetoric and behaviour remain strongly influenced by a notion of honour under attack. ``A feeling of loss of honour is not new,`` says the author. ``What is new is the sense of apocalyptic destruction, which forces individuals to reconsider the interpretation of honour and invariably emphasise revenge as its simplest expression.``



Osama bin Laden seized upon this notion of honour in his effort to arouse Muslims. He blamed corrupt Muslim rulers, supported by the West, for robbing Muslims of honour and dignity. The solution, he believed, was to attack violently in revenge. The result, as we can all see, is an Islam under a lengthening shadow of suspicion the world over.



For Prof Ahmed, the solution is different. First, Muslims must ``stop seeing a global conspiracy all around them``.



Second, the Muslim world will need to institute and ensure the success of democracy. The rest of the world must help in this endeavour instead of supporting corrupt dictatorial regimes. With democracy will come a narrowing of the gap between the privileged and the deprived, a broadening of affordable education that will emphasise knowledge over dogma, a direly necessary improvement in the status of women, and a rebuilding of an idea of Islam that includes justice, tolerance, and the quest for knowledge. In other words, the kind of civilisation that once made Islam great.



Otherwise, Islam will be a hot piece of coal burning the palm of any hand that holds it.

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temporal: I see that sabroto caught you playing with words when asking how ``Yadav`` does it. this is very bad. There are underage children and also holy virgins on chowk, as you know, and this will lead them astray.

rsaxena#146:
Mufti is slowly healing the wounds of ordinary Kashmiris. He is thereby drying up the support base of terrorists, especially the ``Mehmaan`` types. As far as terrorists, I am all for using robust measures against them.

nasah#147
Right on target!

Subroto#148
I do believe that the Bombay blasts are a reaction to Gujarat. Indeed, if anyone remembers, this is precisely what I had predicted when the holocaust was taking place in Ahmedabad last year.

Re DM # 144 ``I use a simple rule in these matters - to ask myself how I would feel if I were in a similar situation. And when I put myself in the position of someone who has seen his entire family go up in flames and his sister and mother raped before his eyes while the police looked on, I know that my blood would boil too. ``

Now sir this is in a different context form what you said earlier i.e. ``youth who is discriminated, disaffected, alienated and insecure, unsafe, unwanted and unloved in his own country`` - now if you had said that this is in context to the Gujrat riots, then I don`t really have an answer for you. The rule of law broke down/was sabotaged in Gujrat. The perpetuators need to be bought to justice and unless that happens we will hang our heads in shame. Knowing the games played by the politicians (BJP had promised action against the perpetuators of the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi but nothing has really happened) and the slow Indian legal system this will probably take another twenty years.

But when you put ``discriminated, disaffected, alienated`` in the total Indian context then I am sorry but I do not agree wih you.

SHAME on those who call the profane Hindutva Fascism -- ``Hindu Nationalism`` --

Nationalism -- in the Subcontinental and Irish context -- is a sacred freedom word.... not a profanity

it is a gross INSULT to the word Nationalism --

not only that --

it`s even an INSULT to FASCISM -- because at least the real fascists had a swank Swastika to pledge allegiance to -- before committing their grand genocide..

what do the pathetic Hindutvas have -- except some cheap imitation of Islamist Extremism....

Heres what I love: people can reference African Americans but not make a single reference to any African American theorist/writer/economist/political scientist that a. proves their dubious position or b. challenges their dubious position. And some of us have learned how to say ``Uncle Tom`s Cabin`` without knowing who Harriet Beecher Stowe, Derrick Bell, Henry Louis Gates, Julius Irving, Patricia Williams, etc are...and yet they expect to be taken seriously. Esp. when stereotyping Indian Muslims.

re: dost-mittar

{Mufti has already shown in Kahmir how such a policy can work. }

...and how exactly has the policy worked?...terrorists are still running amock...

arjunm, subroto:
I use a simple rule in these matters - to ask myself how I would feel if I were in a similar situation. And when I put myself in the position of someone who has seen his entire family go up in flames and his sister and mother raped before his eyes while the police looked on, I know that my blood would boil too.
This does not mean that the society should condone terrorism, but it does mean that ruthless gunning down is not enough, it must also use some healing balm on the hurting wounds. Mufti has already shown in Kahmir how such a policy can work.