Excavating India

Farzana .... what venom ....... you are making me struggle for words. Right now I`m too stunned to say anything. Dar ul Islam or Pinko stuff ? huh.

...hehe...someone get this woman on a PIA flight fast...please, she is begging for it in clean, clear language...i think even zaheer khan or kaif would be happy to help pay for it...

Excellent write up Farzana.

Sad as it is, but I see no hope for Muslims in India. At present, their best bet to stay alive is by arming themselves. On the political front, they must forge alliances with Dalits and Shudras and other oppressed communities. There must also be a political wing, established in Europe and may be in USA, to raise human rights issues at such forrums as EU and International Criminal Court. I think in next two to three years, the secular constitution of India will be abolished. Muslims have a window of opportunity of about two years to organize themselves to survive in the coming Bosnia.

So what`s new?
There is just too much going on in this piece. What`s your beef du jour with the evil hindus? That there are going to be archeological excavations in Ayodhya? That some charlatan is able to dupe thousands of people? That some Indians painted their faces in tri-color before India-Pakistan match?
Unsolicited advice from an academic article writer. If you have a lot to say, write it in different articles. Increases your article count.:)

Urstruly # 3, could you please explain to me what is excellent about this write-up? Is it excellent as an individual`s opinion, or is it excellent on verified facts?

Hello Farzana . . .

1) Ayodhaya = Kashmir? I don`t know, there is no comparision. There are hardly any Hindus or other non-Muslims left in Kashmir, while at last count, the distribution of people by religion hadn`t changed much in Ayodhya and the rest of UP and the rest of India. So, an old building is under dispute? There are many more in India, including in Bombay, and they fall down all the time on their own. How does the Rent Control Act and its unfairness towards humans differ from a litigation for Babri/Ayodhya and its unfairness towards humans?

2) On beef, is mad-cow enough reason, on date, to avoid beef? Anyway, if one community makes an animal their mother, another community decides that a stone in a desert far away is the devil, yet others dip in water and some swallow spit from the mouth of a priest, others walk around with chaddars collecting money, tazias being buried are not far away and I shall participate in all of them if possible, all this is symbolic, right? And I do hope you will appreciate that there will always be aberrations, exceptions? ``Got to go whip myself while you make fun of my cow?``

3) When houses are burnt and people are killed, there are enough cries of Jai Siya Ram as well as Allah Oh Akbar. So?

4) What is wrong with Muslims flying and displaying the flag, why does it get your goat? Do you also object to Muslims in India serving in the Armed Forces or other professions where religion doesn`t matter? Come on, speak up, are the educated Muslims in India afraid that they are about to lose their constituency of illiterate and simple Muslims, with whom they have been playing with for centuries? Boogie times here lady, the number of elderly statesmen like Muslims who sidle up to me and say ``kaum khatre mein hai`` has now reached amazing numbers. Obviously, others are not listening to them. Does it also upset you that auto andtaxi drivers in cities like Poona and Lucknow now sport multi-religious symbols and flags on their vehicles?

5) Come on, even you can`t take a stand for Imam Bukhari of Delhi versus Sai Baba of Puttaparthi. For a moment put aside the means and look at the ends achieved? One has taken the trouble to bring drinking water on tap to drought ridden districts, raise education amongst women, set up super speciality hospitals, make cleanliness a fetish. The other subjugates women, preaches violence and as for hygeine . . . give it a break, Farzana? And I think you are absolutely mis-informed on the white Caucasian supremacy bit, I know what I am talking about here, as an agnostic.

6) Accusations are a part of the horizon when anybody becomes somebody. But go into reality. The problem here is that while I can probably escort you into the Sai Baba Ashram without any worry courtesy friends of mine who are OK over there, you would not be able to do the same for me at the Jama Masjid in Delhi, and not just because you are a woman unable to get past the first few steps, inspite of my beard and knowledge of Muslim customs.

7) Another Bosnia? I don`t know, wherever I look, I see a panic on the faces of the upper class Muslims in India, worried as they are that almost 99% of the 150 million ordinary Muslims in India seem to be busy trying to settle down and get along with their lives and ignoring the ``leaders`` from their own community.

If there was one or one hundred or one lakh Muslims with their hands folded in terror at any given time in India, how many of them were in this state of terror because of the feudal mai-baaps from their own community? Think about that, Farzana, before you put across such absolute desperate material. Who runs the beggar gangs in Bombay, Farzana, and at any given moment, how many children are folding their hands in terror to whom, what do you think? You have walked Dharavi, so have I, as well as the backlanes of Saki Naka. I`ve also walked the Docks, hey, what do you know, would it surprise you if I confirmed to you that these are Muslim fiefdoms to an exclusive extent, even in Shiv Sena controlled Bombay, linked in an internecine fashion to the trade in human foetus and placenta for life extension therapies in Switzerland and Brazil, as well as to the body-part shopping? Hey, that must be OK, that`s business, right?

Gujarat was a bump, so is Kashmir, so was Punjab, so are large parts of the North East . . . these things evolve. At least we get a chance in India to bring up those we`ve pressed into the mud for centuries. And then you get upset if they bake pastries in the flag colours? Well, the flag does have green in it, so it also does saffron.

First of all nations are not made on the basis of religion. The two states formed on this basis are witness to the failure of religion as the foundation of a nation. Unfortunately, the trend these days for some secular states is to go the way of having religion form the basis of nationhood.

One of the biggest issues that Muslims face all over the world is that it is the Mullah who ends up as the public face of Islam and the representative of the Muslims. Once the Muslims disown the mullahs and look towards the libereal intellegentsia for leadership, there may be some hope left for progress.

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Urstruly:

``Muslims have a window of opportunity of about two years to organize themselves to survive in the coming Bosnia``

Yeah right!!! You`ve been saying similar bull since I`ve come to chowk and that`s been two years as well.

Veeresh


This article is an excellent write up on various accounts. First of all it is the writer herself. Speaking the word of truth, when one is the member of a minority community, in a country where state apparatus is used for genocide of minorities, without impunity, in the living daylights, in front of whole world, is a feat itself; a feat that probably only prophets, Socrates, and Mansur Hallaj can muster. She speaks truth, in a country where, fascist government has destroyed the lives and businesses of journalists of tehleka.com for exposing government`s corruption. She speaks in a country where press turns a blind eye towards the atrocities their government commits towards minorities and towards people in occupied territories. She speaks truth where press is so unethical that it gladly tows the government line and disseminates hate against minorities and neighboring countries without any burden on its conscience. That speaks volume about the strength of her character and purity of her political convictions. As a matter of fact, after seeing women like Benazir, Begum Abida Hussain, Indra Gandhi, Haseena Sheikh, our current female members of parliament and Emalda Marcus I had totally lost faith in women folk. It is only the women like Farzana, Zahida Hina, Kishwar Naheed and to some extent Arundhati Roy, that have restored my faith in womenfolk.

This article puts almost everyone in an extremely uncomfortable position, because through this article Farzana shows a mirror to the people as to what they are and what they are not. Don`t you understand, it is this uncomfort and unease that helps create the best of art, and motivate human beings to better themselves. You ungrateful Indians should be thankful to your bhagwans, that they have blessed you with a living conscience named Farzana. Because people like her are an asset and a source of pride for the countries.

Farzana:

I read this article and I get enough of a sense about what riles you but no sense of what you think a solution is.

``There are 163 million of us. And instead of waiting in the sidelines only to be told that we have been taught a lesson and should now toe the line to live peacefully in a land we are contributing to, must we not take the plunge and be ready to dig our own political graves? Dissent is not anyone’s personal fiefdom. ``

As the above is the concluding paragrapgh, I assume it points the way to the solution. What exactly does it say? Yes, there are 163 million Muslims. So what? Do they have the exact same political needs? They are not in a majority anywhere except the Kashmir valley so building a political identity based on religion alone will be counter productive.

If you were the spokesperson for all 183 Million Muslims, what direction would you give to them?

Urstruly #8, still doesn`t answer my question, what in Farzana`s article, specifically, is excellent? Her facts are not correct, so what else could be excellent?

Farzana - Welcome to Pakistan. Yet another mohajir to feed.

``If the majority community wants peace, then they should respect the rights enshrined in the Constitution that have been created for the protection of the minorities.``

What do you mean by ``majority community``? This is an example of blatant categorization with an interesting spin( i.e. of not naming the community directly) and could only be matched by the muderous logic of ``us and them`` employed by the neo-fascists whether of Hindutva origins or Islamic.