Khamosh Pani Crosses the Border Noisily

#117:
I wish to make a correction. In fact, I did once state that riots in India are sometimes also started by Muslims.

sadna:

I must improve my communication skills:-)

I never intended to convey that a community of 140 million is a homogeneous monolith. Muslims can be divided into any number of groups in India, and a very large number of them in absolute terms have joined the mainstream, almost all of the IM chowkies would be in that category.

I am not blaming Indian muslims for communal riots in India, and have not done so in my several years at chowk. I do not even blame them for their lack of integration with the mainstram, instead, I blame those leaders who encouraged ghettoisation in them from the time of independence and these leaders were almost all hindus. If you go to the debate on the constitution in the legislative assembly, you will find that the representatives of the minorities, including Muslims, were almost all for a uniform civil code.

Of course, IMs have nothing to do with the policies of Pakistan, whether of Zia or Musharraf. And whether Pakistan becomes a totally islamic society, supports taliban, issues edicts against Ahmedi and others has no effect on IMs. But they are impacted by the hostility between the two countries. Whether they should or should not be impacted is a different matter and I would agree that they should not be. But it would be pure ``lal bujhakkarhism` to pretend that they are not. Do I need to remind you that in the not-so-polite company, Muslims are often called Pakistanis and not only in Gujarat? The unfortunate part is that it is the BJP which explicity talked about this link - the message does not become invalid just because the messenger stinks.

Hear hear for your opinion on the need for dialogue. A theatre or two along the lines of Chowk would be fantastic. What a dream it would be! I would like to defend attempts like Khamosh Pani. Honest attempts to depict facts are valuable. Politics and Cinema should not be mixed. Art should always be for the sake of art. But it takes the vision of a Satayajit Ray to convey difficult themes without inciting knee jerk emotionalism. Not all directors have that genius. Ray does not incite to anger or emotion but thought. It sounds like Sumer doesn`t get there, -maybe next time. Perhaps the fact that this is a Pakistani lady says something about the progressive path that Pakistan seems to be taking. Let`s see how mature the political thought of that region is--can they stand the history, the truth the provocation or buckle into hatred under threat? It is more and more apparent that moderate opinions are in their self interest. I think people can stand being told that their past is bloody with hatred.

Dilip, great to see you. On an aside, I will most certainly watch Swades, now that I heard the background of it.

Regards

S

Sadna, #61:

The the first thing is I would force the whole head-in-the-clouds Dilip Dsouza, Pankaj Mishra, Arundhati ``Hamid Gul`` Roy, Praful Bidwai , Anand Patwardhan crowd to see Khamosh Pani, twice if possible. Let THEM be exposed to some realism.

Dunno about Mishra, Roy, Bidwai and Patwardhan, but I am supposed to ``be exposed to some realism`` by going to see a film? Very interesting.

I suppose I had better give up on other futile pursuits of the last few years: visiting Gujarat during the violence there (and getting stoned among other delights); roaming Bombay during the riots here, meeting injured in hospitals and people whose homes were burned down; visiting Kashmir and soldiers on duty there all the way to the LoC and Pandit camps and victims of violence; visiting Pakistan itself ...

Yeah, forget that unreal stuff! Take me to the movies, man!

re:#97 by HP
India would not have any communalism or riots if there were no muslims and all had migrated to Pakistan. As simple as that. Except the sikh riot of 1984, all riots that ever happened after 1947 have been between Hindus and muslims.
Pak solved the problem of riots by simply eliminating the Hindus: either killing them or just converting them so that they are now in such an insignificant minority that they don`t really matter.
Right now, India has a sikh PM, a muslim President and a sikh Chief of Army. And, you have the balls to say India is communal.
Godhra or no Godhra, there aint` a country like India on that part of the world.
Sridhar

mohar11 #103, dost-mittar#100
I feel quite sure that those currently trying to get FIRs lodged or cases prosecuted against murderers of their family lost in communal mob violence would have liked to have an extra or special law for communal riots on the books.

Currently to have a case put in the system and to get it prosected, they depend on the same police and bureacratic system, which under political influence abandoned them in the riots, to acknowledge that these murders had taken place and must be punished- a loss-loss proposition for the victims.

A law dealing with communal riots would (presumably) hold the state responsible for pursuing justice after large scale breakdown of law-and-order. With such a law, it would be possible for public interest litigation to force the state to take action(again presumably). It will be a extra deterrent to elected officials who consider presiding over riots as a politically profitable gambit.

It is simply not the letter of the law which is important, it is also a statement of intent/responsibility of the state regarding certain issues. Moreover, passing such legislation would require rallying a political consensus, and the votes of various political parties for or against will be on record. Let those hypocrites sweat a little.

It is similar to the case with the dowry death law, which can also be considered redundant because dowry death is also simply murder or abetment of suicide so why have a separate law.

But a special law has meant that the special circumstance of a woman`s death within 7 years of marriage has to be investigated by police and is an extra tool in the hands of laDki walas. Of course, the law is bypassed but it has not be totally ineffective - not many but a number of mothers-in-law are in jail because of it.

dost-mittar #100

``People who will see Khamosh Pani or similar films are least likely to indulge in communal rioting. On the other hand, those who see Akbar-Amar-Anthony (I haven`t seen it but presume it had a filmy masala treatment of hindu-muslim-isaayee aapas mein sab bhai theme) are also the ones who clap while watching Gadar and indulge in rioting.``

I disagree. Positive images/reinforcements are always good and negative ones are bad. Perhaps Amar Akbar Anthony has saved a few lives, we can not say. My understanding of the polarization in Gujarat, for instance is that it existed before Godhra train burning and developed under a steady drip-drip of negative rhetoric/feedback in both communities which ruling party BJP encouraged or did nothing to counter in those days of Ram Mandir mobilisations.


``At the same time they did nothing to provide Muslims with the one thing that needed and still need more than anything else, a sense of complete safety and security, that if there were to be a communal riot, they could count upon the support of the police and army to protect them, their honour and their properties.``

I agree.

``A fiction was maintained that there is no linkage between India-Pakistan relationship and communal harmony in India, a fiction which was loudly mouthed recently when the BJP rightly pointed out that its peace overtures towards Pakistan also served the interests of IMs. It seems that political correctness is more important in India than to crreate the proper conditions for communal harmony. ``

I agree with a lot of what you say in your whole post but you are generalizing about Indian Muslims and your statement could prob. hurt many of them.

There does exist(naturally) historic, cultural and religious connections between some groups of Indian Muslims and Pakistan but these do not imply that there is a strong political connection between Indian and Pakistani Muslims as well, particularly of the sort which existed before and around Partition.

Pakistan is a sovereign nation which has been pursuing its own choice of policies with respect to India and the rest of the region for 57 years. Indian Muslims do not have a say in what choices Pakistan makes even those which affect India and Indian Muslims can not be held responsible by other Indians for them.

For instance, Indian Muslims did not have a say in Zia Ul Haq`s policy choices whose fallout eventually destroyed peace between India and Pakistan. And what did Indian Muslims have to do with Hameed Gul and Taliban? Indian Muslims had no say in Pakistan declaring itself an ideological state and declaring its Army as the guardian of its ideology - something which is responsible for a lot of what comes out of Pakistan still. Indian Muslims had no say in Pakistan`s adoption of armed jihad without frontiers, in the re-writing of its textbooks for this purpose. These Pakistani choices have had a profound effect on Indo-Pak relations, why are you intent on hanging these choices around Indian Muslims` necks?

What needs to be discussed openly in India are separate issues
1. Pakistan`s and Bangladesh`s polices (a large subset of which are influenced by their so-called `Islamic` fervor)
2. The choices of some Muslim groups in India which are influenced by Pakistan`s and Bangladesh`s policies or by the worldwide mobilization of radical Islam against perceived enemies, the West and `modernization`.

Putting all Indian Muslims in one basket or putting all Indian and Pakistani Muslims in one basket obscures these issues not clarifies them. BJP loves obscuring issue when it comes to Hindu-Muslim relations because doing so is very profitable for it.

If BJP can leverage Pakistan`s policies in Kashmir and Afghanistan to prevent VHP goondas from being convicted for rape and arson in Gujarat, it will. That is precisely what it is doing.

By lumping Indo-Pak relations with communal harmony in India, you are helping BJP do this. You are also putting the onus on Indian Muslims for what they in fact have absolutely no influence over-Pakistan`s policies.

hear, hear! HP #97

Its amazing how selectively amnesic the world opinion is when it comes to Muslims being at the receiving end of `terrorism` especially in Secular democracies such as India. (I better go wash my mouth out with soap).

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arjun_m,
those pictures are in exceedingly poor taste. Everyone knows what happened.

``......Let the stink overwhelm nostrils of ivory-tower dwellers and other busy-bodies wearing wide blinkers. Only then this issue will be addressed.....``


Yes, Everyday some or other stink is raised about the Indian society and the local governments by the news channels in countless stories all of which exposes the lunatic streak of the social psyche. There was a woman who was sold seven times by her `relatives` and who cried out before the world about the police inaction and the cruelity of her near ones. The police desperately tried to block the story because it probably strengthened the `stereotype` of a cruel police administration....

So what is the `proper` contextualization` of this film that the author wants?? What are the sweet pills about communalism and TNT that he wants the IM-s to swallow....and does showing OBL as a great religious leader in the back drop of Palestine and Kashmir provide the `correct` contextualization of the communalists?
I fail to understand why he is making an issue out of this film which puts Pakistani communalism in bad light?

Omar:

``stuka it`s quraishi with a Q dear -- the clarification because Omer Kureishi is a cricket commentator who freelances for Dawn -- ``

My spelling mistake. I know who you are talking about and I did not mean him.

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Omar #98,
I certainly do not know terminology about different types of ``write-ups`` in a newspapers. There is not need for you to be sarcastic on my lack of that knowledge. Everyone has there own domain of expertise and my area of expertise is certainly not in literature and news papers.

However, I can certainly identify a good piece of writing. I will again repeat that quality of outputs and interactions of professional writers like you is just pathetic. One example is your juvenile attempt at sarcasm by resorting to ``jee``s. Your interactions pale in comparison to those from amateurs hamidm, truly, salim, & Latif Chappu (where is he now?).

Sadna
//..And such polarization happens also when pressing issues are not tackled, including Muslim communalism. What does this movie do for this situation? ..//

This movie reminds you the need to tackle muslim communalism, instead ignoring the menace.

You don`t need new laws to prevent/manage communal conflicts. The existing laws will do - as long as they are enforced. In case of riots - timing is crucial. A battalion of police at right time on the spot would prevent most of these flare ups.