India’s Communal Gamble

re banjara

``Did you go to SPS ? When did you live there??``

Pardon my ignorance, but I am not sure I know what SPS is. I have never `lived` in Chittagong myself.

Reply Scout # 200

“Do you really think the Indian film industry is representative of the real India?

The film industry does not depict India as it is, it depicts India’s dreams and aspirations. (Granted these can be escapist, trashy, vulgar, etc. etc. – nobody has everyu accused us of universal good taste.)

We may not all be fighting off villains and marrying Aishwarya Rai after cavorting (love that word) through France, Switzerland, Australia, the Bahamas etc. etc. But many of us would LIKE to. That’s what the films tell you – not what people have or are, but what they want or would like to be.

As such the industry does say something important about the country.

“Can Indian men still jump from 10 story buildings on their feet and their big poof hair styles intact?”

Actually this is quite factual. Aap kabhi aiye dekhne.

Zafar

Reply Babu # 207

Babu

“Any attempt by Muslim minorities in India at secession and to practice Islam beyond the personal realm should be met with maximum force.”

I don’t think there are any such attempts – unless you accept that the situation in Kashmir is a communal conflict.

“Of course that also applies at a lower level to the Hindu majority in India.”

Why at a lower level?

Zafar

Zafar #201
``Or the intellectual saathhi of our belowwwed Imam Bukhari.``
Imam Bukhari has his moments too, donot forget. Our hotheaded clerics are better than their hotheaded clerics :).

www.truthindia.com

Its a very long article, so pl. read

UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN AZAMGARH: AN INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

Posted March 22, 2000
(submitted by Shamsul Islam)

under ``Events and other News`` in the left margin.

I think its another example of a typical situation where a local numerical majority of Hindus, and the bias of the police works against a minority group.

The question to ask is whether things have changed for the better or worse in the past few years:

www.truthindia.com

Khaki Prejudice

Ram R. Punyani
Posted June 16, 2000


The episode of (9th April, 2000) police force barging in to the Hostel of Jamia Milia Isalmia on the pretext of looking for two offenders, and then going on rampage is not only highly disturbing, but is one more reminder of the communalsiation of state apparatus in general and of the police force in particular. Earlier there was a fracas in which two of the students were involved and were to be apprehended. The police contingent of close to a thousand broke open the gate of the hostel, beat up the warden and then mercilessly beat all around while hurling highly communal abuses, calling the students Pakistani agents, ISI agents and also made other derogatory remarks. It is worth recalling that Jamia Milia Islamia is one of the products of the struggle for independence and has been the flag bearer of Indian Nationalism, Secularism and Democracy.

The list of biased behavior of police can be infinitesimally long. Not very long ago in Post demolition Mumbai riots most of the victims of police `action` were Muslims. In the first phase of riots when police was using the bullets with gay abandon, the victims who during this phase happened to be mostly Muslims suffered bullet wounds. While in the second phase the victims suffered stab wounds mainly due to the action instigated by the Shiv Sena.

One of the police officials, Vibhuti Narayan Rai, conducted a study in to the behavior of police in the communal riots (Record of Police Neutrality in Communal Riots, Indian Journal of Secularism, Dec 97). The finding of this study is very disturbing. The study is based on the interviews with the community leaders, feedback from serving and the retired police personnel, record of the police academy, and study of the reports of different communal riots. While we know that 65% the victims of communal riots have been Muslims the arrest and casualty figures are very revealing. In Bhiwandi riots 1970 of those arrested in cognisable offences, 21 were Hindus while 901 were Muslims, casualties wise, 17 were Hindus and 59 were Muslims. In Meerut riots of 1982 the pattern is no different 124 Hindus were arrested, as against 231 Muslims while 2 Hindus and 8 Muslims were the victims of casualty. As in Mumbai, here also police bullets selective hit the body of Muslims and soul of secular values. In Bhiwandi (1970), Firozabad (1972), Aligarh (1978), Meerut (1982) there was not a single Hindu victim of police bullets while the number of Muslims dying of police bullets respectively was-9, 6,7,and 6.

Let us have a look at come of the glaring examples of the police partiality. In Meerut riot in 1987 P.A.C. was deployed to control the riots. As the violence continued unabated for some time, PAC according to its theory that Muslims are responsible for the riots and should be taught a lesson, picked up more than two dozen Muslims from a locality known as Hashimpura and killed them at two places in Gaziabad after transporting them in their truck. One of the worst complicity of the police in communal violence was seen in Bhagalpur riots (1989). Here the police was a mute witness to the murder of 116 Muslims who were buried in a field and cauliflower was grown on it to cover up the episode. Bhagalpur police administration kept denying this till another police party led by a DIG dug out some of these dead bodies.

Police ``Understanding`` of the situation

Because of the heavy communalsation of the police force it believes that communal riots are due to Muslims and this is what guides their conduct. Their communalised consciousness is supplemented by brutal savagery, which gets further compounded by their non-professional approach in dealing with these situations. Many Muslim predominant areas are termed as `mini-Pakistan` and police force while entering these areas enter with the preparation and the spirit as if they are entering the enemy territory. This also makes them do the riot investigation in apathetic manner and years after years they keep sitting on the available evidence, which goes against their deep-set biases. Two of the comments from inquiry commission reports will give us a good glimpse of the attitude of some of the officers of the police. In the Bhiwandi-Jalgaon riot the Madon commission commented ``The real reason for the inadequacy of the measures taken by the authorities was the communal bent of mind of some of the officers and incompetence of others?Unfortunately, the SP, Mr. S.T.Raman appears to have possessed a communal bent of mind and perhaps a pro Jana Sangh (Previous avatar of BJP)?he fully realised the seriousness of situation but chose to turn a blind eye?``

In more recent Mumbai riots those who were implicated in the riots dubbed Justice Shri Krishna as anti Hindu. The police also got its `due share` in the report, `` police officers, particularly at the junior level, appeared to have an in built bias against the Muslims which was evident in their treatment of the Muslims and Muslim victims of the riots. The treatment given was harsh and brutal and, on occasions, bordering on inhuman, hardly doing any credit to the police. The bias of policemen was seen in active connivance of police constables with the rioting Hindu mobs on occasions, with their adopting the role of passive onlookers on other occasions, and finally, in their lack of enthusiasm in registering offences against Hindus even when the accused were clearly identified ?(vol., p.25-26) And ``Despite clues, miscreants were not pursued, arrested and interrogated, particularly when the suspected accused happened to be Hindus with connections to Shiv Sena or Shiv Sainiks. This general apathy appears to be the outcome of built-in prejudices in the minds of average policeman that every Muslim is prone to crime``(Vol. I, p.26)

Commission after commission of inquiry are full of these and similar type of examples of maltreatment and biased behavior against Muslims. Police not only behave in a partial manner during riots, in most of the `regular` situations also these biases govern their attitudes. Mostly the police act more as a `Hindu force` rather than as an arm of secular state. The discrimination in their behavior is obvious at all the levels. By now minorities have starting looking at them as the hostile force. Lately it is the experience of the second largest minority, the Christians as well.

What is the remedy to this impasse? On one hand the communalisation of society is cornering the minorities and on the other the supposedly protective force has no qualms in conniving and even acting on behalf of the offending communal elements. This is of course due to multiple factors. The recruits to the police force are from the same group, which is on the communal offensive.

The training programmes of police academies etc. are not at all geared for secularisation of its trainees. On the contrary many a top officials themselves are having heavy communal bias. The representation of the minorities in the police force is abysmal and the recruitment policy of the state has remained lop sided resulting in a very low percentage of Muslims in the police force. All these need to be reversed as early as possible. Not only that there should be a conscious effort to improve the percentage of Muslims in the police force but also the training programme needs to be recast with an emphasis not only on the Human rights of minorities but also the general communalisation has to be fought against at all the levels.

anNy#193
Its hard for me to ignore that you`re the one of those who turns up to defend ali1 after his beautiful and classy posts. However, this will not prevent me from replying to him whenever he deserves it.

Banjaara,Eklavya, whoever

I would suggest you either take a hike or spend your valuable time posting on the subject at hand. Just like I donot pay attention to insults(mostly), I donot pay attention to commendations and criticism either. I am NOT interested in explaining myself to any person here who demands it or to take instruction from you, I am here to express my own views on the subject for my own sake. As I asked soysauce, who ARE you?


scout
Its hard to take people like you seriously. I would like you to take a deep breath and see where exactly I was trying to prove India`s secularism through B`bay movies before posting multiple posts lecturing me on it. If you can find it, THEN I may consider taking you seriously.

babu 207

You made a mistake without wanting to make it perhaps. Separtism by *anyone * (hindu muslim donkey) should be met with maximum force because those ideas cause too many problems creating hatred. Nip the evil in the bud.

re: Rdesikan # 188

Really?! See, that`s why I never enter into an argument with you techno types :(

Seriously, though, doesn`t night-vision technology merely amplify ambient light (or, possibly, it could employ non-optical parts of the EM spectrum)?

Woh tau phir light hi huee naa? :)

Tr. Isn`t that just another form of light?:)

Regards.

Sadna,

Banjara # 195 makes a valid point. Please don`t lose patience (now, who am I to talk?).

anNy # 193

Girl, that`s some class.

Zafar, nasah, faruk, other Indian Muslims,

For some people it is easier to dismiss me calling me Islam hater than do the hard thinking I ask them to do.

That is why I call them brainwashed. Two people I admire, zafar and eklivya. Both are too patient at least in my view.

Some things I cant stand for which Pakistanis call me Islam hater.

One fool (he may be Indian) argues that using green tiles means insult to Islam.

Another Pakistani crook says hateful things and adds Allah knows best. Every body accepts that hateful argument because Allah is supposed to know best.

Third idiot uses twenty foot sh&t before someone`s name to scare people into believing him even if that guys ideas are absurd. In India we used to have many such idiots thirty years ago. Most are dead. I never respected them. I am not going to respect new idiots just because they are Pakistani.

Another Paksitani idiot keeps using real problems in India to sell his snake oil telling Indian Muslims that they are world`s most suffering, exploited, terrorized, oppressed population hoping to incite hatred. Now he is openly suggesting another partition! Why does he do that? Individual hindus may be good. But overall Hindus are bad. He couldnt live with them. How can you?

Blood of five million people hindus, muslims, children, men, women, old, young, who were killed in the last partition is not enough for this blood thirsty man whose mind is drenched in blood. He likes to pretend to be spreading religion using big words! I hate him for his dirty thoughts. I dont hate Islam. He will tell you he is Islam. Pakistan is Islam. By hating him, I hate Islam. Sh$t on him, I say.

All these ``Islam loving`` Pakistanis want to grab Kashmir using Islam card. If they loved Islam so much they would go save shias being killed in their country. No one speaks of them on Chowk. If they loved Islam so much they would take back those more than million Biharis stuck in Bangladesh. If they loved Islam so much they would speak out against China for it is doing to Muslims. If they loved Islam so much they would not have destroyed raped a Muslim country Afghanistan to build ``strategic depth`` against India. Such a crime!

These Islam using Pakistanis are hypocrites using religion for war. Islam is very far from their minds.

jay #163 ``I am one of the few on chowk directly affected by the WTC attack, I am fired by morgan stanley, nearly half of our fleet are on the ground, and who needs an engine specialist when the engines are not running, and th silly bas/tards know that I have no where to go.``

I dont belive a word of what you write - remember the last time you told me you lived in Kerala, and then a few posts later assured me that there was no way I could tell whether you were lying or not and you could be living anywhere? So, excuse me if I fail to take your word no more seriously than you do.

In his latest column Ayaz Amir says:

“”After the historic referendum the political scene has shifted and is no longer putty or French plaster in General Musharraf`s hands. His cohorts could not manage a one-sided referendum. How will they manage a contentious and contested general election? One, moreover, likely to be dominated by the hated spectres of the PPP and the Nawaz League.

In a world not driven by paranoia or megalomania, a fiasco such as the referendum would call for a re-examination of priorities.

But nothing of the sort is occurring in Islamabad.

Far from sounding chastened, the general has spoken of a permanent political role for the armed forces while his trumpeters, Memon in the lead, continue to insist upon the transparency and fairness of the referendum.

__________________________________________________

They are even saying the coming elections would be as transparent as the referendum (oh, boy) - which is meant as an affirmation of good faith but sounds more like a threat.

__________________________________________________

In any case, the choices on offer are stark. The original theory was built on Gen Musharraf`s popularity:

``People tell me that I am very popular. I thought if I am really popular, I must go to the people.``

These are verbatim Musharraf quotes from an ARY interview.

On the coattails of his popularity the right sort of parliament would be elected in October. But the referendum has cast these happy forecasts into doubt. In its aftermath how can ``positive results`` be ensured?

Tongas on their own can`t do it. Nor can the patched-up quilt of a Quisling League deliver the kind of vote the general is banking upon.

Thus barring wholesale disqualifications or massive rigging, the military government is left holding the strings of an uncertain future.

Of course it can do the right thing by holding proper elections without regard to the outcome.

But this is hoping for the moon.

If such good sense could prevail in Pakistan we wouldn`t be in the mess we find ourselves in.(Dawn)

tvarad 183

Very good article you posted. Aslam Qadar Khan is right mostly. One important point. This pan islamic thing is not only media creation. Both evil fundamentalists muslims and hindus promote that idea.

Muslim fundamentalists like hobbyty on chowk think nothing but pan islam (surprisingly sensing the mood on chowk he has not come out against Pakistan in favor of Bin Laden yet but he will do so soon. Still, for him Islam is Pakistan and Pakistan is Islam). Hindu fundamentalists look at people like Hobbyty and take him as confirmation of their already existing hatreds.

No difference between Hobbyty types and RSS types. Both promote violence in which average peaceful Indian Muslims suffer. We should shut the mouths of these hateful people.

Mr Shahid Akhter Makhfi,

Your article is devoid of any coherence as the moon is of life. Shame on you Chowk for publishing garbage.

NotAMullah