Remembering Mushtaq Gazdar Mushtaqda was a filmmaker who was both positive and powerful. He will be missed.

The Soft Option to Farzana #563 and MaheshG #564

1. Ghettoes do harbour ISI agents. Only it would be more appropriate to say that ISI agents can most easily infiltrate ghettoes. There is nothing surprising about that, and nor does it imply that the residents of the ghettoes have anything to do with it. It is just that is one wishes to set up a militant fundamentalist organisation in an area that is ghetto-ised, there is no alternative to setting up shop in the ghetto of the community one is (supposedly) trying to organise. That takes care of Farzana`s reference to the Bombay political party as well as Mahesh`s reference to ghettoes - the people may not be `harbouring` them in an active sense. That is an assumption that needs facts to back it up.

2. The Muslim community and `integrating`. I think it is fair to make two points - the first is that people willingly go to Christian schools that are quite as sectarian as many most madrasas - every Christian certainly does. I did. Yet that is the `mainstream` because the quality of education provided is considered better. Muslims congregate in specific areas because of concerns for their own security. That`s pretty obvious. The Muslims are not alone in opposition to a Uniform Civil Code, so are other communities - there is much discussion on right now about the Christian divorce bill, yet these communities are not considered outside the mainstream for that reason.

That being said, it is nevertheless true that the Muslim community is outside the mainstream in some sense - basically that it is economically less priviliged. Whether this is because of lack of leadership in the community encouraging people to educate their children or choose such methods of advancement, or systematized discrimination is open to question. I personally think it is a mix of these two factors. I also believe that the fact that the entire middle class was lost to us at the time of Partition has something to do with it, as it broke down the internal dynamics of the community and also meant that there were no clearly defined `role models`. This means that the community would tend to get stuck in the ghettoes.

The Uniform Civil Code is a knotty problem. I personally believe that it would go far to breaking down the resistance within the Muslim community to social reform and the consequent economic prosperity. However, there needs to be broader consensus within the community about it - this can only occur when elements within the community that are currently not sufficiently represented in the decision-making process within the community - I mean women, for example- are given more of a voice.

3. Individual Muslim successes have been frankly few and far between and have tended to be from the remnants of that pre-partition Muslim middle class. There have been no Muslim Ambanis. I think it is fair to say that for the vast majority Muslims the combination of social stagnation and stereotyping by those in positions of power has meant that they cannot succeed.

4. A non-issue. I think that the Muslim leadership has been met more than half-way by many political decision-makers in the past. The problems that Farzana has been talking about are those that are in spite of this and thus arise from (a) the community`s dependence on this leadership and (b) the inability of mainstream politicians to directly address the deprived Muslim`s concerns.

5. I dont think that Farzana considers that BD and Pkstn have treated their minorities better than we have. I think that she agrees that they have been treated worse there. And Mahesh`s point is that this means that subcontinental Muslims in general distrust Hindus. I dont think that is a fair leap of logic. The Muslims of India are a different set of people from those in BD/Pkstn because of 50 years of distinct development. The fact is that we have been remarkably liberal and secular when judged against our neighbours, Farzana - and that there is nothing that you can assume about Indian Muslims based on Bangladeshi ones, Mahesh. Unless you are one of those that believe that most Indian Muslims are illegal immigrants anyway.

6. Another non-issue. The Muslim community needs to look inward as well as outward to examine what went wrong, and I think that they are doing that. Even the new Shahi Imam has said that the community has to do that.

7. As above. I`d like to see Farzana talk about what she thinks is wrong with the community internally.

Happy New Year to all, though I expect Ill have to respond to a few things before that.

Oh, and RSaxena, `diction` is only used for spoken words. Another reason why you for one are not a widely-read and respected author. If another was needed.

Mihir

Compilation of Opinions on the Military Takeover in Pakistan I have just one thing to say. Whether or not the coup was the only way out of the situtsaion in which Pakistan unfortunately found itself is not my province [and I suspect many of those professing an opinion on the subject are not very qualified to judge either] but what has distressed me is the speed with which everyone has turned on Nawaz Sharif. However autocratic and inefficient the man, the principles of democracy should come first. That Gen. Musharraf felt it was necessary to pay lip service (at least) to democracy on his broadcast but no Opposition leader could find it in himself to say that `yes, Nawaz was bad, but a democratic way out was preferable` is a sad reflection on Pakistani politicians, politics and maturity as a democracy. And regardless of what all of you are fooling yourself into believing, it is a fact that a military coup is not nor has ever been a good start to a demcratic experiment.

New Delhi

Save India The viewpoint expressed in this posting are dangerous, subversive, antinational and, thank God and our democracy, thoroughly permissible. It is a feature of the democracy that has been so effortlessly trashed above that it can be torn apart by people with viewpoints such as the author holds.

The fact is under martial law this freedom might - no, WOULD not be available. Nowhere has martial law solved more problems than it has caused.

Moreover, when the author, in his sadly misguided manner, babbles of the honesty of the Army as compared to those other Indian institutions that are only to easy to disparage, he overlloks the truth that it is only the fact that the army does not possess civilian power that prevents it from being the morass of corruption and inefficiency that most other wings of government appear to be.

Finally, who can tell how efficient or corrupt the Army really is? Its not as if its accounts are audited by the Comptroller-General. You shouldnt let the fact that people have died while doing what is, all sadi and done, their duty, affect your judgment in this childish manner.

India’s Failure of Imagination Just one factual point, that Im sure has been made and discussed already: the Siachen conflict, however idiotic it may be from a strategic point of view for India is NOT a violation of the Line of Control: any map- consider the UN official map at the URL http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/maps/pk/unmogip.htm

will confirm that the LoC was only demarcated uptil the point NJ98420 , more than 50 km south of Siachen. Siachen`s status was never discussed.

Just one thing more: Kashmir has always enjoyed a cultural identity as distinct from that of West Punjab as the erstwhile East Pakistan: the valley`s presence in the Indian Union would be much better for its residents PROVIDED the centralized structure of the Union were changed sufficiently FOR ALL STATES. This would allow the people of J&K to maintain their pride in their culture - as distinct from religion - which would be otherwise trampled upon by arrogant Punjabi aristocrats on the one side and uppercaste Sanskritising bureaucrats on the other. Azadi for J&K may not be a viable option politically or be in the interest of the prople of J&K but it one option that would be the best for the rest of India: we would be forced to reexamine our excessively centralized and inefficient administration and devolve power as far as possible, which could only be for the better.

India’s Failure of Imagination Among many flaws: the occupation of Siachen was not a violation of the line of control as the LoC was not drawn as far as the glacier either in 1949 or in 1971-72 . So that invalidates your point. Pakistan has undoubtedly violated the Simla Agreement now.

Conversation with Mukul Kesavan It appears that Nehru is already being taken apart anyway. And as far as I can tell the aspect of his philosophy that has served us best and we cant afford to do without is under attack from all directions. I disagree with Kesavan in his remark about the family from Faizabad unable to mention Partition, but let that pass for now. I would really say hes talking through his hat when he implies that `leaving things behind` if you were from a UP qasbah (or from a tradl Calcutta Marwari neighbourhood etc.) is necessarily undesirable. I wish that the New Wave would try and recognise the lessons of the past 400 years: namely that progress involves leaving a lot behind, frequently parts of ones heritage. And in the case of admission into the `secular decisionmaking elite` that Kesavan is so abviously talking about without mentioning, the more left behind that was unique to the qasbah or wherever, the better the decisions, not to mention the more secular.