Intimacies Remapped

Ballukhan`s very right in his post that nobody this day can be held guilty for events which happened centuries ago. We should stop considering all muslims to be the fifth columnists for Pakistan. By doing that we could end up driving even the sane and sensible people who are the majority towards the insane ones.

Another myth that needs to be debunked is that Middle/Lower Caste Hindus share a ommon cause with Muslims against the Upper Castes. Anybody familiar with North India know that Middle Caste Yadavs, Kurmis, Jatts (Jatts in India being mostly Hindu/Sikh) etc are the worst nightmares of Muslims in India. It is another matter that these middle castes usually do not vote for BJP.
There is one exception though: Gujrat.

Why should Hindutva be defended all the time? Pakistan and other Muslim countries being ``Islamic`` is not debated; it is a given. Then why should Hindutva be such a hard concept to sell? I vivdly remember something very peculiar: when the Hindutva movement was gathering momentum in the late 80s-early 90s, Shabana Azmi had said ``nowadays even young people are saying ``Garv Se Kahon Hum Hindu Hain````. As if there is something inherently wrong in being proud of one`s heritage. Nobody asks if Muslims are proud of their background. It is again a given. Then why should Hindus have to be apologetic?
Somebody mentioned ``denying basic human rights`` to minorities and dalits. That`s plain bull. Under Indian law, every citizen has equal rights. As a matter of fact, it can be argued that minorities enjoy more rights in certain sense. Yes, there are societal prejudices but that acts both ways. On the other hand, the second class citizenship of non-Muslims in Islamic countries is official. Nothing is left for imagination. This is what I like about Islam. There is no room for confusion. Everything has been clearly spelt out.
Anyways, people who consider Prithviraj Chauhan, Rana Pratap, Shivaji Maharaj, Maharaja Ranjit Singh as their heroes have nothing to fear from Hindutva. However, people who either associate with or rationalise the invasions of Bin-Qasim, Mahmud, Ghauri, Babar, Akbar and Aurangzeb have plenty to worry about from the Hindutva movement.

Re: # 32
here the thing - you just equated hinduism with hindutva. Shivaji, Rana Pratap etc were not hindutvavadis they were Hindus. that is why the hindu middle classes ``that have nothing in common with the muslim elite and are the nightmare of muslims`` do not vote for the BJP.

Netizen ,

India`s forex reserves are worth $135 billion.

As far as FDI is concerned , this might interest you ,

---

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1020718.cms


``The most popular fable of the day is the race between the elephant and the dragon. The lumbering pachyderm is believed to stand no chance against the Middle Kingdom. Not so any more — such are the respective strengths and failings that in broad welfare terms they nullify each other. India is set to attract record foreign direct investment, narrowly defined, of $15 billion this fiscal, at least thrice the annual flows in post-reform years. Our FII flows are close to $10 billion, and with remittances set to cross $20 billion, our total foreign investment flows in 2004-05, defined in Chinese terms, will end up at about $50 billion. This is pretty close to China`s $60 billion inflows, whereas till only the other day our FDI flows seemed a fraction of China`s...``

---

I liked the article - it was an honest effort from the writer and can only be applauded. But I don`t think this statement of his stands true to facts >>

``fallout of that horrific incident was that an entire state erupted into a revenge- killing spree that would shame India, and severely damage the country’s new found pace of economic development``

That is untrue. The hindu-muslim riots of Gujarat happened in the year 2002. Since then Indian economy has registered its best growth rates - including a high of 8.4% for the year 2003.

It is a self-serving myth propagated by the self-appointed conscience keepers of the society or the self-proclaimed `secularists` that the Gujarat riots affected the Gujarat economy and scared the foreign investor from India. But the opposite is true.Gujarat is booming. Forex reserves to India reached $135 billion recently. So things look good.

Investment is dictated by economic policies , infrastructure and quality/cost/quatity of labor. Muslims may no longer be safe in Gujarat , but investors get a huge return for their money. And thats good enough for them.

I enjoyed reading your peice but have to say your writing tends to get a little wordy at times. Anyhow i am looking forward to the reading next part.

HP #4,
I have to say that you don`t really know India. Like in the Gujarat riots most of the participants came from the lower classes including dalits. In many rural places dalits are the ones who often have more animosity towards muslims than others. The violence against Sikhs was a one-time exception. Christians have never been a target of major riots anywhere, even in states where their population is almost the same as of Hindus. That said, I am not condoning communalism. Communalism unfortunately exists, but it is far more complicated than the picture you have in mind.

Quite th amateurish piece of writing. Too much time wasted in description and background. I do hope the next pice is better.

Secondly a clarification, was it actually the muslim mob which burnt the train or was it some cooking incident inside the train. Do mention what has happened in the case in court.

Harish,

Am waiting for the next part. It is amazing how similar my childhood experiences, growing up in Hyderabad among multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual friends, are to the ones related in this article. And how ridiculous our reaction then to the Babri Masjid demolition seems now. As 7th grade students, we were just glad to get a whole week off as curfew was imposed in the city. My parents were worried sick and we couldnt understand why.

On a different note you write:

``Chachi, the wife of the man whose husband sold cigarettes and beedis, would give us the sweets made on Eid.``

The circumventing, unnecessarily complex language and sentence structure you used throughout the article was getting to me, but that sentence put me off for a while. You are a journalist, come on, you can do better.

regards,

Kabuli

harish:

nice to see this here...a pleasure to read it again...look forward to reading all of it here in time...will comment later after a few more instalments...hoping that the knee-jerker`s immediate reactions would have dissipated by that time

rgds

t

Look - No doubt everybody here is gonna bad-mouth Modi and Gujarat....that is understandable given the Gujarat riots where 2000-3000 muslims were massacred and scores of muslim women raped. But then thats one part of the picture.

What people have failed to notice or feigned ignorance is how Modi has completely and singlehandedly transformed Gujarat`s economy and made Gujarat a truely modern state.

Gujarat is more like China than India in terms of economic growth. Gujarat economy grows at an extraordinary pace of 10% plus , while Indian economy grows at 7% plus.Some of the biggest industries in India are situated in Gujarat. Gujarat accounts for 5% of India`s population , but over 20% of the exports. Gujarat ranks among highest as far as Indian states are concerned in terms of literacy , per capita and hdi. Poverty in Gujarat is minimal...barely 5-8% of the population.

Modi has shown himself to be the most reformist politician in Indian history. He has introduced and executed wide range of administrative and economic reforms. His working is like that of a CEO of a Fortune 500 rather than that of a politician. He has de-bureaucratised and de-politicised Gujarat and done away with corruption and the red-tape. While most big states in India like Maharashtra , Andhra , Punjab etc. are revenue deficit states - Gujarat is by far revenue surplus.There is nobody in the world who is as pro-globalisation and pro-liberalisation as Modi is.Thanks to Modi`s tireless efforts , investments are flowing into Gujarat in billions of $ virtually every day - mostly from foreign investors.

The significance of Gujarat is it is more like a part of China than India given the sort of industries , investment friendly administration and excellent infrastructure that Gujarat has. If South India is all about IT , Gujarat is all about China-style gung-ho manufacturing.

So the choice is for Indians to make. How would they like to view Modi ? As India`s most visionary reformer , as somebody has transformed sleepy Gujarat into India`s industrially and financially most dynamic state with little or no corruption , or as one who doesn`t like the paki-lovers too much..

The people of Gujarat sure have announced their verdict.

Re: # 19


``Modi has completely and singlehandedly transformed Gujarat`s economy and made Gujarat a truely modern state``
``Thanks to Modi`s tireless efforts , investments are flowing into Gujarat in billions of $ virtually every day - mostly from foreign investors. ``
``As India`s most visionary reformer , as somebody has transformed sleepy Gujarat into India`s industrially and financially most dynamic state ``

Gujarat is among those indian states who are doing much better in comparison to other states. But I don`t think all the credit should go to Modi. Modi has been CM only for 7-8 years now. Gujarat has been doing good for much more than that. There are many industries like chemical, grounnut oil, textiles, diamond, petrochemicals, pharmaceutical, ..... which have built a strong economy in that state. The facts that favor Modi are that he has preferred better economics rather than populism (eg. not bowing to the farmers demand), sound economic decisions (investing in oil-exploration and finding oil rich areas). But it wouldn`t be a justice to Gujarat and its hardworking economy savy people, to say that it was just a backwater before Modi came. In addition, I heard all that india could attract last year was 4 billion dollars as FDI, so how come Gujarat got billion $ FDI in a day? Nevertheless, Modi has provided good leadership in making Gujarat more prosperous and investor friendly. Some one made a remark that if Modi had not been a pracharak cum politician he would been a successful bussinessman.

I just heard that ``small hotels association in america`` are inviting Modi as a guest speaker, several muslim org (group against genocide) are lobbying to ban him from entering u.s.

#11 Ballukhan

That is rubbish!!! going by this logic I would first ask the Hindu first borns to atone for the sins of their forefathers when they used to put molten lead in the ears of the Shudras.....or atone for all those tribal kingdoms that were razed and their people massacred by the Kshatriya kings....I would like all the Brahmins to atone for the sin of enslaving the shudras in their households.....or of Vaishnavas for killing the Shaivas vice versa....or ......

as a person born in a ``upper caste`` hindu family, i would like to apologize for the inhuman treatment my forefathers would have committed against the ``harijan`` people. I ask for their forgiveness (``harijan``) and I am shameful and embarrassed by their (my forefathers) deeds.
This is not just to meet your condition but I truly believe that doing so would be the first step towards accepting the facts and preventing it from happening again. Thats the reason young Germans are taught about Nazi concentration camps.


``the Hindu kings who vanquished the Buddhists and ensured that Buddhism is wiped out from India forever``
there were a few such kings which did that, but not to the extent that it ``wiped`` out Buddhism from india. How come Jainism continued to stay. Also, what happened to Buddhists in Afghanistan, central asia areas. Infact, I have come across many indian muslims who subscribe to this thinking, that hindu kings killed all the buddhists in india.

I think fundos are really not the source of the problem. They are merely a spark, the gruesome physical display of our own gruesome internal prejudices we allow to exist and bow to.

Whatever the nature of the prejudices, has the walk down right-wing Fascist Lane been reversed with the new government in place? Or do you feel more needs to be ‘unearthed’ before the ‘emotional thirst’ of historical ‘rectification’ is complete?