It’s Christmas day and instead of hearing about midnight masses, festivities and cheer, we’re hearing about churches being scanned for explosives, terror threats in Goa, tension in Kandhamal, issues of conversion and what have you.
I can understand the security with respect to threats by terrorists but what about the threats to citizens of the country from other citizens within the country? Why do we have a different stance for one and a different stance for the other?
While everyone is condemning the terror threats, why are the same voices silent when Christians in Orissa and for that matter in most ‘communally sensitive’ parts of the country being asked to keep the Christmas celebrations low-key?
Mumbai faced terror from the outside. There are parts of the country living with everyday terror within society. Where are the protestors in that case? Or is it ok for citizens to terrorise other citizens because we’re after all Indians.. and we can do no wrong?
To clarify my stand, this post is not against or in favour of any community. It is simply meant to (as usual) raise a few questions which to my mind need to be addressed.
I am a north Indian, living in Mumbai. I have studied in a wonderful convent school and in a sindhi community run college. I have completed my graduation from a college which was set up by a Parsi and is today being run by the government.
My school was a fantastic Jesuit run institution where we had some of the best teachers who came from all communities. There was (to my mind) no bias for or against any community. We said prayers every morning, sometimes we went to the chapel; we sang the national anthem every day and also said the oath of “India is my country…. ’’. We hoisted the flag on every national holiday. There was no discrimination at any of these institutions based on caste or community.
Those were the days when people didn’t think of who is Hindu, Muslim, Christain or Dalit. We were taught to respect all religions and not believe that one was superior to the other.
What has happened to us now?!! Why do we have these feelings of resentment towards people?
Why do we not protest when Raj Thakerey rants and raves against north-indians? I work with teams of carpenters and regular masons and other labourers and most of them are north-indians. There are hardly any Maharashtrians who want to work on menial labour-oriented jobs. And yet we are willing to throw out these poor labourers who work hard at earning their livelihood instead of squatting and waiting for better work to fall in their laps. They are also better skilled at this kind of work.. but do we appreciate that? We don’t. We force them to live with the terror of being a north-indian in Mumbai or force them to leave.
The Kandhamal incident is the other such example. Did we protest when churches were being burnt and Christians being rendered homeless? Did any of us raise our voice against such grave injustice within the country? We did not; simply because it was happening in some remote location in Orissa and did not affect our lives. Why can we not understand that by ignoring these incidents we are allowing resentment and discontent to breed in our midst? How many of us know the reason behind the Kandhamal violence? We do know that it was related to alleged forced conversions by the Christian community but nothing beyond that.
The point is not why it happened. The point is that the law and order situation in the region was in question and nothing was being done to restore normalcy. A community was (and still is) being forced to live with the terror of being attacked. This is horrifying. And what is worse is that when finally action was taken, it was taken because the leaders (and the people of India) believed that the image of India was taking a beating globally. It simply did not seem to matter to anyone that citizens of the country were being denied justice and were being forced to live in a lawless environment.
Even today, half the country is protesting the legal counsel being provided to the terrorist who has been arrested. People want him hung without trial. The same seems to be the view of most lawyers and the bar council. As has been pointed out, this is a dangerous thing.
We are heading towards anarchy.
I do appreciate citizens involvement in the security situation of the country and I’m thrilled that a lot of us are raising our voices wanting to be heard.. but we must learn to be responsible in this.
Politicians will listen to the people and will follow the mood of the citizenry to get votes. Do we want to send them in the direction of war and lawlessness? We must stop and think about this.
-It’s not the decision you face, it’s the choice you make.
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your post got me thinking of the past.... when we were growing up we never bothered who was of what religion ... strangely somewhere during that phase this discrimination crept in and has not grown to such mammoth proportions... i am remind of a popular song from the carpenters... what the world needs now is love sweet love... Its the only thing that there*s just too little of.
ReplyDeletefear breeds more fear ... and that's what's happening .... is there a solution ?
i know what you mean.. but the solution is to bring about the change first within ourselves and then to try and bring about the change in society. It's only when such divisive notions go unchallenged that they are allowed to propagate. The idea is to stand up and raise our voice against what we don't believe in. A thousand voices will join in... they just need a start-point.
ReplyDeleteAnd i hope that together we can all be the start-point to a more positive outlook towards life and people around us.. :-)
well so we join together and stand up ... what now ? where are those thousand voices... buried behind the garbs of wanting to make ends meet ?
ReplyDeleteMaking ends meet is a primary requirement. it will always take precedence over everything. Survival is the most basic of all instincts.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the point is not to give up everything and fight for a cause. The point is to do it all together; to have our heads on our shoulders.. to first get our own principles in place and to not bow down to injustice... anywhere and against anyone..
Perhaps the other post 'We have a choice' explains it better..
Cheers..
From Sriraman Ganapathi
ReplyDeleteHi,
I have also studied in Convent School run both by Jesuits and Salesians, college in Khalsa and SIES and professionally worked with almost everyone, professing different religeous faiths.
However there is one event that happened today that perhaps summarises what you are saying. I was in a Private Bank opening an account for my parents and the forms asks about religon. I refused saying it is personal matter and the bank staff inisted that it is a RBI guideline. I continued to refuse and had threaten then saying I will take my account somewhere else. They reluctantly relented.
The point Meghna says and I agree with her , it is these king of small stands that finally make up the Ocean and change
I am sure all of you will agree that the reaction from the people in the country to 26/11 was unprecedented and shook the politicians and the babus out of the stupor.
Thanks Sriraman.. that's exactly what i mean.
ReplyDeleteAnd i must congratulate you on the stand you took. Most of us would have (and do) filled up the form without a second thought. It has become second nature to just do what we are told is required. We don't stop to think twice.
Your stand on not filling up the 'religion' information is an example that i hope a lot of us will follow. :-)