[Reader-list] INDIA: Others Among Us

[Naeem Mohaiemen]

...even "famous Muslims" find it difficult to find a house."


Others Among Us
By Suroor Mander

04 October, 2008
Countercurrents.org

I opened newspapers today, to be frank, after many days. Newspaper
after newspaper had articles on Eid. It had to be, Eid was just
yesterday (October 2). I went through article after article, my heart
sinking as I read. What have we done I wondered. So much fear in
Muslim community, that too in secular India, on Gandhi Jayanti.

It seems as if the community is under siege, trying hard to keep
watchful eyes at bay. Speeches from every Imam, cries from every
Muslim ghetto begging people accept them.

It isn't as if these voices weren't around earlier they just became
more prominent after the Jamia encounter in the heart of the national
capital. Floodgates opened. Every Muslim who could write, be it
teachers, journalists, techies tried every forum – the newspapers,
internet, television, in one way or another imploring people to stop
hating them. They tried hard to explain that they weren't the
terrorists, some even adding that those young boys also might not have
been terrorists. The more I would read, the more I was disgusted with
us.

What have we done? We have let the Hindutva forces win. Golwarkar
didn't want the Muslims to be banished to another land or
exterminated; they wanted them to live in fear as second class
citizens.

Since when was it a curse for people to believe in their faith? Why it
is so bad if the Muslims believe in their faith, staunch about their
namaaz, rozas guided by the tenets of their religion, aren't all
believers? Hindus who pray everyday, leaving their house with a tika
or stop eating meat and other things during Navratras etc aren't
viewed with contempt then why Muslims? If secular Indian gives Hindus
the freedom to walk out of their homes with Tikas, then why do we
stare at every skull capped and bearded Muslims?

We have forced a community to stand up and condemn every act allegedly
done by their fundamentalists; expecting this from the educated, the
literate, the clerics and the ignorant. However, we don't have any
such expectation from Hindus against violence perpetuated by
fundamentalists from their community.

We are thriving on the grief of terrified mothers beseeching people to
give their children a chance to access justice; gloating on the fact
that even "famous Muslims" find it difficult to find a house."
Strangely none of this has horrified us. We are happy to let the
community reiterate their secular identity while none of us ever have
to.

We have become complacent in this hate, allowing our silences to be
read as our consent. If we truly believe in the secular identity of
this country we have to actively voice our dissent against hate.

I am still haunted by the words of that man in Thane "Where will I go?
This is the place where I was born. This is the place I will die." I
wonder how many agonised voices it would take for us to speak what our
hearts feel.

Suroor Mander is attached to the NGO Aman Biradari in new Delhi.