By Aijaz Ilmi,
An open letter to Chetan Bhagat in response to his article “Don’t let them divide and rule anymore” published in Sunday TOI Sep. 25th 2011.
Let me begin by congratulating you on your concerns about the Indian Muslims. As a fellow Indian we value your views as an emerging youth icon. You are not being audacious to say the least; we do have a problem when the West imposes its version of democratic homilies while they abet totalitarian regimes in most Muslim countries. Yes, we also abhor any connectivity with Pakistani Muslims or Arabs because of the unique identity of being Indian Muslims who are the second largest Muslim bloc in the world of 180 million Muslims is inspired by a multi-cultural,multi-ethic mileu.
Anyone who acknowledges that the minorities in India have been ‘had’ and are oppressed is joining this debate without a blinkered vision and without a preconceived prejudiced mindset. Let me qualify that I am writing this to you, not as an oppressed minority but someone who is an Indian Muslim who is blessed to be a citizen of India without suffering the real oppression of poverty and prejudice.
Allow me to elaborate why you feel and we the Indian Muslims agree about your calling us as being oppressed. When an act of terror afflicts any part of the nation, we suffer twice over. Firstly as victims itself, because these abominable heinous acts of terror don’t distinguish between a majority or minority limb or life and secondly from the immediate accusations made afterwards. This constant vilification and demonization makes us very insecure sometimes. The constant barrage of innuendos and repeated questioning of our patriotism is responsible for our cultural retreat into the various ghetto-like peri-urban colonies we inhabit. You say “Yes, you have been fooled time and again by these politicians who promised you the world, but kept you as oppressed as ever. They may have given you an odd freebie, but they kept the whole nation poor due to bad governance’. Not entirely true.
I would like to take you on a guided tour to either Juhapura in Ahmedabad or Seelampur in the capital or even Chamanganj in Kanpur from where I come from. Even a cursory analysis of infrastructure, sanitation, roads, condition of schools and health facilities shows a dramatic divergence when you compare Muslim dominated and Majority dominated localities. Sometimes the contrast is really stark. Minority hovels and ghettos are far worse off even in well managed cities and towns. So good governance is crucial, but given the bureaucratic insensitivity and general apathy over six decades, we don’t expect much from any government.
The problem arises when the perpetrators of the hate agenda and communal crimes as in various communal riots roam free and the endless delays of the justice delivery system tests the patience of the victims. The dichotomy of contrived legal delays is practiced by all political parties, loaded in favour of the practitioners of hate.
A detailed reading of the Sachar report will enlighten you further on the abysmal level of destitution and poverty the minorities suffer, even greater than the original ‘oppressed for centuries’ the SC communities. You wish the Muslims of India to keep the heat on politicians; invariably a lot of them are busy running away from the heat of oppression and prejudice themselves. But all is not lost, the emerging new India and Muslims too are seeking education and employment in large numbers. This is where the private sector and corporate India can help. The only sector where minority employment crosses 10% is the IT/ITES. Unfortunately the Muslim ‘haves’ (well off) have also abdicated their sense of responsibility and no new community enterprise or initiative aimed at uplifting the depressed minorities is evident. Muslim ‘haves’ equally responsible for the mess we are in today.
Yes, the value of en bloc vote is very well understood by the Indian Muslims. When their back is against the wall as after Babri demolition and Gujarat riots, they will and did vote against the purveyors of hate and forces inimical to them. The perception of connivance in the 1992 demolition decimated the Congress in the heartland where a majority of the minority dwells for 15 years. An analysis of the Muslim vote in 2009 general elections clearly showed voting along national and regional trends by the minorities. In fact the myth of targeted minority vote bank politics has been repeatedly shattered. As recently in the Bihar elections, where despite a 13% vote share the JD (U) prospered despite its alliance with the BJP. The desire of future good governance under Nitish Kumar was responsible but also the fact the Nitish Kumar rejected Narendra Modi’s presence to campaign showed him as someone finally standing up to the perceived Hindutva mascot. The Muslims in India, 180 million can’t be gassed or wished away so political parties will have to work also for their betterment, unless of course we are comfortable with an increasing gangrenous limb hobbling the growth of the nation.
Steeped in poverty they maybe but they are unique as an Indian Muslim entity. You can only differentiate them by their rituals but they sweat and sow together with the teeming millions. They suffer from similar problems of lack of good governance as their majority neighbour’s do but when oppressed with the racial profiling tag or police brutality they resent silently. The Indian Muslim communities have shunned the various religious ideologues and terror recruiters who are active in the ghettos which are very fertile in discontented young unemployables with an apparent bleak future. Despite the size, not a single Indian Muslim has been an active member of the Al Qaeda or have we seen any fidayeen suicide bombers as we see elsewhere. Yes, the groups like the Indian Mujahideen need to be neutralized as every terror group should be.
You say ‘a significant part of the population is craving for change’, yes so are the Indian Muslims. Change from having to repeatedly show their credentials as being patriotic Indians, change from the oppression of the callous insensitivity and apathy of the ruling elite and they want a honest chance for a decent living with equitable opportunities in fields of education and employment. They are equally proud of being Indians and aspire as everyone else for a secure environment to contribute as equals.
Lastly you say ‘Are you on board’ well the option of ‘boarding’ was taken in 1947 when despite the promise of the ‘promised land’ Pakistan, the large majority of the minority chose to remain in Mahatma’s vision of India rather than the Jinnah version of a potential Islamic state. And the democratic secular nation of India does not have the option of deplaning this 180 million community. Between the skulls, skull caps and the skulduggery of political parties I am grateful for your concern of your fellow Indians. Speaking for myself specifically.
(Courtesy to http://blogs.newsx.com. The story was first posted on the site on 26th Sept. 2011)
Chetan Bhagat’s article published in TOI on 25th Sep.
Don’t let them divide and rule any more
Chetan Bhagat Sep 25, 2011, 12.40am IST
Sometimes i wonder what it would be like to be a member of an oppressed Indian minority. I am neither a Muslim nor a dalit. I am not a woman. I don’t even belong to the northeast; people from there are often discriminated against in various parts of India. The closest i felt like a minority was when i worked in a bank abroad, and felt the occasional tinge of discrimination against Indians. Still, that was minor.
In a sense, i can never fully understand the feelings a minority person goes through. Hence, any attempt to give advice to the minorities of India is audacious. None of us majority members are completely qualified to comment on your situation.
However, a better India would require better leaders, something we have to work together for. We have to learn to vote better. We haven’t been doing so, and that is why we often find some of the most dishonest people in society right at the top. Perhaps we have a bad system, or we don’t know how to vote. Most likely, the candidates managed to fool us.
One way some politicians fool us is by playing vote-bank politics. They understand the emotion of oppression felt by the minority, claim to be their saviors and ask for their vote in return. The minority votes for the candidate or party in the hope that they will come to power and protect them. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. What happens is that the wrong guy is chosen for the job, someone who is neither competent nor honest. He is chosen because he is a symbol of hope for the minority.
However, decades pass and the minority remains as oppressed as ever. Of all the minorities lured into such deceptive vote-bank schemes, our Muslim citizens are wooed the most because their community is one of the largest in terms of actual numbers. They are often believed to vote en-bloc. Also, as a community, they face significant oppression. Appeal to that injustice, and one can bring them all together, and hopefully, get a nice block vote for a politician.
However, my dear Muslim brothers and sisters, you have been had. Yes, you have been fooled time and again by these politicians who promised you the world, but kept you as oppressed as ever. They may have given you an odd freebie, but they kept the whole nation poor due to bad governance. They never built proper infrastructure, irrigation facilities, enough schools, colleges or healthcare to make sure citizens enjoy a respectable life. And yes, they have fooled the whole nation. They kept us busy with the Hindu vs Muslim debate, while they hid the fact that the entire country suffered due to their misgovernance. For when an Indian student doesn’t get a good college after school, it doesn’t matter if he is Muslim or Hindu, it still hurts the same. When government hospitals treat Indians worse than animals, the religion of the patient doesn’t matter. When 90% of Indians cannot afford fresh fruit because of inflation, it isn’t the Hindus or Muslims who feel the pinch. We all do, and it is time to we ask our leaders to fix the problems rather than create new, artificial ones.
I want to urge the Muslims of India to keep the heat on politicians. Do not commit your vote or loyalty to any political party forever. Time has shown, they will only take you for granted. One should keep their vote floating, and in the end vote for the better (or less worse) party. Your vote has much more power if it can change over time.
The above, however, still doesn’t take away the fact that minorities face oppression. Laws should be in place to prevent discrimination, and culturally, Indians will have to become open-minded if they have any dream of seeing their country as a developed nation. We as majority members have to be extra cautious to not hurt feelings of minorities. Of course, there have been situations where even the majority community has suffered because they were a local minority — Kashmiri Pandits, for instance. In such cases, the Muslim community should be sensitive to the feelings of Hindus too.
We are at a unique point in India’s history. A significant part of the population is craving for change. Vote-bank politics and hating each other’s religion should be chastised and branded un-Indian. After all, our religions have stood the test of time and are great. It is our nation, yours and mine, that has to be made great now. Are you on board?