[Reader-list] Not so peaceful message from Hazratbal

[Rahul Asthana]

(sorry for repost..it bounced last time for some reason)
I wonder why we don't want to get out of their ideological comfort zones. Is it because we are too old or we are too young?
On one side there are people who will argue there was nothing communal in the resistance to the so called "disturbing of demographic balance" and on other side we have people who have great disdain for covertly communal pseudo seculars but cant acknowledge the overtly communal BJP etc.
I think this is because our world views and our politics hinge on some assumptions and we think we will disintegrate if we have to reconcile it with something contrary to that assumption.So, A group believes that the Muslims are incapable of being communal and the other group believes that all Hindu communalism is just a reaction to Muslim communalism.
Are we only capable of thinking in binaries? I normally desist from discussing people but I think it is extremely important to understand the psychology at work here.It also doesn't help that the binary people will invariably be more passionate about their cause than the non-binary ones; and these people are making peaceful coexistence in India difficult.
Now,RSS-BJP has always had this concept of Hindu India.There are factions of it which have a communal product to sell,all over India,wherever it can find any takers.If we refuse to acknowledge the inherent communalism in some of the politics of this issue,we are basically opening up  a market for BJP  in which they have a monopoly.
Finally,I can't thank Sonia Jabbar enough for her posts to this list.I admit I am biased towards people who can see without having to rely on ideological lenses.



--- On Sat, 7/5/08, S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Not so peaceful message from Hazratbal
> To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net
> Cc: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Saturday, July 5, 2008, 10:22 PM
> Behen Radhika,
> 
> Which Hindus dislike self-appointed Muslim leaders?
> Yourself, some others,
> all 800 plus million in this country?
> 
> Which Hindus dislike self-appointed Hindu leaders?  For
> instance, Togadia
> and Singhal are all self-appointed leaders of something
> they call the VHP or
> World Hindu Organisation.  Do they represent all Hindus
> across the globe (I
> don't think any of my neighbours or friends were asked
> to vote) or do all
> Hindus like these self-appointed Hindu leaders just because
> they happen not
> to be Muslim?  In which case what percentage of the 800+
> million do you
> reckon?
> 
> And conversely do all Muslims therefore like self-appointed
> Muslim leaders?
> What percent of Muslims dislike self-appointed Muslim
> leaders or for that
> matter self-appointed Zoroastrian, Manichean or Nath sadhu
> leaders?
> 
> Do you see where my logic is leading?
> To nowhere, to a dead-end, at best to cuckoo land.  I'm
> afraid since it
> mirrors yours you can draw conclusions about how you sound
> to others.
> 
> Now you are entitled to your opinions, but it bothers me
> when people can't
> come up with examples of their own and choose to fire their
> cannons off my
> shoulder.  
> 
> By your logic if the 133 million Muslims of India went on a
> rampage every
> Friday this country would, no doubt, be beset by
> 'action-reactions' every
> weekend.  I know I goofed off yesterday, didn't attend
> Jumma namaz, snoozed
> the afternoon off instead and then watched Wimbledon all
> evening (where our
> only female tennis star was absent, no doubt because she
> was out burning
> down a tennis stadium after Friday prayers), but when it
> came to the news
> this morning, the papers only had stories of rampaging
> Hindu mobs in Indore
> and in Jammu.  
> 
> In fact, in Indore, the mob surrounded a Hindu jeweler and
> bullied him to
> the point where he poured kerosene on himself and set
> himself alight.
> Scanning the papers I was convinced it was the beasts who
> ran out after
> Friday prayers and lynched him, but no, they were not
> Salims, Hanifs or
> Aslams but mini Rajs, Bals, Narendras and Lal Krishnas,
> bless their little
> souls.
> 
> Yesterday's HT had an interesting layout in their the
> edit page, and I'd
> urge people to look at it  There were 2 unrelated
> photographs, but both as
> uncannily similar and different as they can get.
> 
>  One had three or four small Chinese kids (5 or 6 yr olds)
> in a provincial
> school in China.  The blurb explained: these were special
> sports schools in
> the provinces (not just the metropolises, mind you), geared
> to train
> children to excel in sports.  This photo showed potential
> Olympic star
> gymnasts stretching their limbs.  One was bent down, two
> stretched their
> arms sky high.
> 
> The other photograph needed no blurb.  It is something we
> see every other
> day splashed across Indian newspapers: 3 old, bearded men,
> vermillion
> smeared across their foreheads, mouths contorted into a
> ghastly O, hands
> raised to the sky-- no, no, not doing gymnastics, but in
> outrage about their
> religious rights.  Now you can switch the costume, replace
> the tika with a
> green cap or a turban and lo! You have the picture of our
> great democracy
> and people's right to get outraged, and the right to
> burn shops, beat up
> passers by, pelt stones, close down highways and schools
> and generally have
> the time of their lives whether it is about a cartoon or
> whether it is a
> canvas, a mosque, gurudwara or a temple.... And all of us
> tearing our hair
> out & wasting our time & energy on these useless
> debates...
> 
> In the meanwhile there will be other countries where
> children will wake up
> after a good night's sleep, eat a full breakfast, drink
> clean water, have
> access to toilets and showers, wear clean clothes, go to
> school,  study, and
> then go to train to become the best a human being can
> become, whether in the
> arts or sciences or sport.
> 
> Best
> sj
> 
> 
> On 7/5/08 1:42 PM, "radhikarajen at vsnl.net"
> <radhikarajen at vsnl.net> wrote:
> 
> > Behen Sonia,
> > 
> >  this is precisely why hindus dislike the self
> appointed muslim leaders who
> > use religious places not for prayer but for
> confrontation with other followers
> > of different faith. On friday, we always see the
> unruly mob getting infuriated
> > by the leaders and provokes into show off the united
> strength on unleashing
> > the mob fury. Even if the population is hardly 17
> percent of one billion, on
> > fridays it becomes a potent force of damage to
> national unity at the behest of
> > self appointed leaders, unlike hindus who go to temple
> at the their choice on
> > different day, too many deities and too many
> worshippers on too different
> > shrines but altogether not enough to damage the
> nation. That is why the
> > attitude of such muslim leaders who use the poor
> muslim on his /her faith to
> > be anti-national are hated.
> > 
> >   regards.
> > 
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "S. Jabbar"
> <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
> > Date: Saturday, July 5, 2008 1:21 pm
> > Subject: [Reader-list] Not so peaceful message from
> Hazratbal
> > To: sarai list <reader-list at sarai.net>
> > 
> >> Hurriyat Seizes Hazratbal Stage
> >> 
> >> Srinagar, July 04, KONS: Brushing aside the Waqf
> Board¹s resistance,
> >> Hurriyat leaders today took hold of the
> politically potent
> >> Hazratbal stage
> >> in a bid to make an unmistakable display of their
> public clout in
> >> Kashmir.The shrine has been a centre of public
> movements for
> >> decades, successively
> >> and artfully used by major political figures,
> Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah
> >> included, to retain their hold on the masses.
> >> After falling into the militant lap during the
> early nineties, the
> >> currentrulers of the state tried to de-politicize
> it by
> >> overhauling its management
> >> system by replacing the NC-backed Muslim Auqaf
> Trust with the
> >> seeminglyneutral Waqf Board.
> >> Both Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and Ghulam Nabi Azad
> have scrupulously
> >> avoidedturning the shrine into a platform for
> themselves, perhaps
> >> out of the
> >> conviction that it was a double-edged sword which
> their opponents,
> >> bothmainstream and separatist, could turn against
> them.
> >> But the tide seemed to have turned today, despite
> the Waqf Board¹s
> >> warningthe other day that Hazratbal would not be
> allowed to be
> >> used for political
> >> activities.
> >> Filling in for their respective chairmen, senior
> Hurriyat leaders,
> >> ShabirAhmad Shah and Muhammad Ashraf Sahrai,
> addressed the
> >> congregation at
> >> Hazratbal in defiance of the government-controlled
> Waqf Board¹s
> >> ban on
> >> political activity at the holy shrine.
> >> Shah said that the people of the state were united
> and ready to
> >> counter any
> >> conspiracy. 
> >> Calling for a total boycott of the forthcoming
> assembly elections,
> >> Shahsaidthat polls were not a solution to the
> Kashmir issue and
> >> ³we cannot benefit
> >> India by taking part in the polls in a betrayal of
> the sacrifices of
> >> martyrs.² 
> >> ³Boycott is a powerful and peaceful weapon in the
> hands of the
> >> people by
> >> which they can counter Indian propaganda on
> Kashmir,² he said.
> >> Referring to the land transfer issue, Shah said
> that it was not a
> >> matter of
> >> land alone but a question of the national identity
> of Kashmiris
> >> for which
> >> the entire state had marched with steeled breasts.
> >> ³We are not against the yatra, nor do we want to
> harm the yatris,
> >> and the
> >> Kashmiris have proved it in the recent days,² he
> said.
> >> ³It is unfortunate that Muslims are being
> targeted with violence
> >> in Jammu,
> >> and the police is a mute spectator, even though no
> yatri or
> >> tourist suffered
> >> as much as a scratch in the nine days of agitation
> in the valley,²
> >> he said.
> >> Attacking pro-India parties, Shah said that they
> had been exposed
> >> and that
> >> the people had realized that they were out to
> barter away Kashmiri
> >> land.³In the present circumstances, people should
> take timely and
> >> correctdecisions, as even a minor mistake can
> prove to be a heavy
> >> burden on coming
> >> generations,² he said.
> >> Condemning the aggressive designs of the extremist
> Hindu parties,
> >> he said
> >> that they had begun to serve their ends by giving
> communal colour
> >> to even
> >> peaceful issues.
> >> ³They are spawning hatred in the name of
> religion. The people of
> >> Jammu and
> >> Kashmir will have to defeat their plots,² he
> said.
> >> Geelani¹s right hand man, Muhammad Ashraf Sahrai,
> said that
> >> Kashmiris would
> >> complete the mission of the martyrs as they had
> offered immense
> >> sacrificesduring the ongoing struggle and there
> would be no
> >> compromise on these
> >> sacrifices. 
> >> The congregation also offered thanksgiving prayers
> over the
> >> success of the
> >> public agitation against the transfer of land to
> the Shrine Board.
> >> 
> >> From the Kashmir Observer
> >> 
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