Open Letter to Prime Minister Vajpayee

temporal # 40

``And your point was? There was one? Right?``

Eklavya will point out irony he noticed.

Here is what I see. Farzana belongs to a minority like me and we can speak out against what the real or perceived issues are as loudly as we want. Can you say same thing about Pakistan? The people you mentioned are all muslims, right?

Let me hasten to add, indian record is not perfect on communal harmony. Examples are hindu-muslim riots in Bombay and many others before that. Sikh butchering in 1984 is another case in point. But for god sake they are at least trying to live together. Can you say same thing about minorities in Pakistan? To make it more clear, how many of your minorities (i.e., Christians, Hindus) have reached the level of country`s president, chief of staff, chief justice, top scientists etc.?

Do you see the irony now?

A historian from U.Wisc-Madison wrote the following.

-Arun the Infidelator

Furthermore, my research in judicial documents of medieval Samarqand and other Central Asian sources has disclosed the presence there of many thousands of Indian slaves throughout the medieval period. Indeed, the Indian sources make it clear that, from the early Ghaznavid raids to the late Mughal period, unfortunate men, women and children (amounting to hundreds of thousands, if not millions over the centuries) were marched to slave markets in Iran and Central Asia, i.e. beyond the northwest frontier of India, and out of the reach of their familial support systems in India. Please pardon me for not giving a lengthy bibliography here; this is the topic of an article I have submitted for publication.

The same historian from U.Wisc-Madison concludes as follows :

-Arun the Infidelator

Does building a historical narrative cleansed of what we each independently consider to be potentially divisive elements really consitute history? And, can such ventures really contribute to the establishment and maintenance of a lasting peace in South Asia?

Time to stop the sophistry and wake up while there is still time.

``In an Islamic country there is no concept of idols and our holy prophet taught us to break the idols,`` a statement from the Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant group, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, said.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-afghan-.html

Truth #36,

I see you`ve missed the whole point Bina was trying to make, and what I agreed with.

The point is, and what Bina was saying is that the concept of possible destruction of some statues has evoked more cries of protest by the media and the West than the thousands of children and women suffering in Afghanistan.

Why don`t people do something about that?

Sure, destroying artifacts is bad, but worse things are happening in the world, which haven`t been exploited as much as this.

Why all of a sudden have Buddha statues become more valuable than human life that they deserve more media attention?

Your nick is ``Truth,`` please be true to your nick and acknowledge media bias when it`s present.

By the way, don`t ask Pakistanis what they have done for Rwanda, there`s just so much we can do with the scarcity of resources that we have. You know better than that. We can`t feed our own people, what will we give to Rwanda?

The documentary that Sadna refers to was called ``Ram ke Naam`` and was available on VHS before its telecating on the TV. It was a courageous effort by Anand.

I guess the present indian government populated by people like Advani, Joshi and Uma Bharati is in no position to condemn the Taliban. The real losers will be the Afghan people,who at present are trying to keep their heads over water and barely succeeding in doing so. They are caught between UN sanctions on one hand and the mad mullahs on the other.

Someone mentioned that the majority of Indians outside India are supporting the BJP and VHP. That is unfortunate and true.Also true is the fact that the upper and middle classes in India (at least in the north)are the major support groups of BJP. But equally true seems to be the fact that a large section of the educated, middle class Pakistanis are supporting the worst kind of fundamentalists in the name of jihad in Kashmir.In this context, my arguments are not against suporting a position.....rather,in the name of support, whom are you supporting.

Anyway,all power to people like Patwardhan, wherever and whoever they may be!

bakait

Solitude,

I am afraid you just present oneside of the picture...what happened in Kaaba was sociopolitical necessity... A monotheistic Faith with Kaaba its center was required to rid its holiest place of Symbol of ancient Paganism.....

However, Art forms and religious symbols of other communities have survived and have been protected

by Muslims a lot of the times if they have been destroyed at other times....

Ancient statues, and figures in Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, are examples of this. After all the statues in Afghanistan also survived through out the Muslim rule .....

Amr ibn Aas was the ruler of Egypt in the times of Umar the second caliph. In Alexandria, I believe, there was a big statue of Jesus Christ, which was left unharmed by the Muslims.... one stupid Muslim Zealot broke the nose of that statue at night... Next day there was a lot of Hue and cry ... and the christians took their case to Amr ibn Aas... Placed in such a drastic position, Amr apologized and asked what he could do as rectification. The Christians demanded that a statue of Muhammad should be made and then the nose of that statue should be broken...Amr was infuriated but he controlled his temper, and offered to have his own nose cut instead ... when the ruling was being carried out the Zealot ran out and admitted his deed...

I would say that while writing this article Mr. Patwardan has missed the underlying idea behind the agitation to bring down the Babri masjid.

The Bamiyan Buddhas were carved out by no foreigners or conquerors, but the indigenous people of Afghanistan may be under the reign of Khushan. It was not built over the ruins of a mosque. Whereas the argument given by the RSS and its allies are that the Babri masjid was built on the site of Ram janmabhoomi (which is not proved, but definitely over some existing temple of that time probably a Jain.It was a symbol of cuiltural domination of the invaders over the native one. Which is not a secret.

Hence the campaign was wipe out the insult and the indignantion faced by the native culture over centuries of foreign rule.

Regarding the atomic bomb, I think Mr. Patwardan is naive about international affairs. If he thinks that India got an expertise in handling the A-bomb only after the Pokharan tests than he needs to do a rethink.

By the way have you made any documentaries on the lives of the Kashmiri Pandits who are living a life of a refugee in Jammu. Also, could you get some time to interview the relatives of the victims who were set ablaze in Radhabai chawl, which infact sparked fresh rounds of rioting.

Temporal:

There are people of courage & character in both sides of the divide. There are people who hold dear - and fight for - the concepts of inclusiveness & equality, on both sides of the divide. The difference however is this:

On my side of the divide these good folk - despite tremendous odds - merely uphold the rules. On your side of the divide these good folk - despite tremendous odds - are able to challenge the rules.

The end result may be the same right now...but the conceptual difference is vast. Maybe to most people such a conceptual difference will only mean something if and when it manifests itself in material terms.

t #43

You are one of the many interactors from the `other side of the border` who stand very tall in my opinion. So don`t worry a bit about the tone. Chances are we will almost always disagree on many important issues but that doesn`t mean I will take anything you say amiss.

I myself rarely manage to keep my tone as civil it as it should be. For example, when I mouth off about this Pakistani or that, I almost always mean a group of people who (in my opinion) have come to dominate the decision-making apparatus in Pakistan. Do I make that clear as often as I should? No!!

This is the true face of secular India... the tolerant India.... this is reality of the ``composite`` Nationalism, in which one ``Indian`` burns the holy book of another ``Indian``. This in the wake of the fact that the entire Islamic World is united in condemnation for the barbaric act of the foolish Taliban... and yet, the Hindus have a keera up their dhotis.

If interactors on Chowk had any shame, they would never question the right of Pakistan to exist... but Indian chowkies are a shameless breed!

Qura`an desecrated in India

``NEW DELHI: Hindu hardliners in India burned a copy of the Holy Quran on Monday as international outrage grew at the destruction by Taliban of historic statues in the name of Islam. About 200 right-wing Indian Hindus burnt a copy of the Holy Quran and tore up posters of Islamic shrines in New Delhi on Monday to protest the Taliban`s destruction of statues.

``Down with the Taliban. We will break Mecca and Medina,`` shouted the protesters belonging to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), or World Hindu Council, outside UN offices in the city. As Taliban leader Mullah Omar defended his destruction order, a German minister compared the attack on the statues to the book-burning by the Nazis; and an Afghan news agency said Japan had warned the drought and war-ravaged nation aid

could be hit.``

This is the true face of secular India... the tolerant India.... this is reality of the ``composite`` Nationalism, in which one ``Indian`` burns the holy book of another ``Indian``. This in the wake of the fact that the entire Islamic World is united in condemnation for the barbaric act of the foolish Taliban... and yet, the Hindus have a keera up their dhotis.

If interactors on Chowk had any shame, they would never question the right of Pakistan to exist... but Indian chowkies are a shameless breed!

Qura`an desecrated in India

``NEW DELHI: Hindu hardliners in India burned a copy of the Holy Quran on Monday as international outrage grew at the destruction by Taliban of historic statues in the name of Islam. About 200 right-wing Indian Hindus burnt a copy of the Holy Quran and tore up posters of Islamic shrines in New Delhi on Monday to protest the Taliban`s destruction of statues.

``Down with the Taliban. We will break Mecca and Medina,`` shouted the protesters belonging to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), or World Hindu Council, outside UN offices in the city. As Taliban leader Mullah Omar defended his destruction order, a German minister compared the attack on the statues to the book-burning by the Nazis; and an Afghan news agency said Japan had warned the drought and war-ravaged nation aid

could be hit.``

Before I put my foot in my mouth (given the flow of arguments, that is quite likely to happen), I will like to reiterate that when I speak of Pakistan and its sympathizers, I mean NOTHING at all about Islam. It is important to keep this distinction in mind because many Pakistanis (and, I think in response, Indians) confuse the boundaries between Islam and Pakistan.

I am no authority on Islam. others can debate the merits and demerits of this religion. It does seem to me that Islam is broader, deeper, and older than Pakistan. Some of the greatest Indians have been and are Muslims. The father of our missile program is a Muslim.

My personal opinion is that the religion of Pakistan is not Islam but militaristic exclusivism and anti-Indianism. In worshipping the god of anti-Indianism, if they have to sell Indian muslims down the river, they would do so without batting an eyelid.

Scout:

I understood your point the first time - my point was there are always ``worse`` things to focus on and the fact that we dont focus on the ``worse`` things may open people up to hypocrisy or media bias. I consider that an impossible standard to meet and generally a defence of indefensible positions.

Yes, worse than the treatment of statues are the living conditions of the Afghans. And similarly worse than the treatment of Kashmiris is the treatment of the Rwandans. So?

And for the record, the inhuman treatment of the Taliban of women is well documented - the destructions was a new chaper in their barbarism and therefore worthy of media attention and condemnation.

Bina and you were hiding behind other issues.

ylh,

Agreed. We do have our own psychopaths. You have to wonder about the mental condition of people who are going to `break Mecca Medina!` I condemn them as strongly as anyone can.

ylh # 61

VHS guys are disgusting. Every sane Indian should feel ashamed by their act.