No more…
I looked at my wife taking a walk in our colony. I saw my daughter playing in the garden. I called my son and checked with him. Thank God. He did not take the bus to Mumbai. I spoke to my parents. Thank God. They have decided to miss a wedding scheduled for Sunday. Thank God. They are all safe.
Are they? Are we safe? Even as all the news channels flash the news that operations in Mumbai are finally over, are we really safe? Has the nightmare ended? Or has it just begun?
Its been four years since I have been researching Islamic fundamentalism and the men who are so motivated that no life, neither ours, nor their own, nothing mortal, nothing alive really matters to them. The quest for jannat is all they crave for. Jannat is all they die for. Instant jannat for them. And a guarantee of the same for their immediate family. While my research is for a film that I am even more certain needs to be made, I was even more unnerved by the fact that I was almost able to predict every move of the fidayeen. I was almost accurate in my prediction of the extreme gravity of the situation when it broke out. And my fear is that the aftermath will be even more grave. I hope not. And this heartfelt piece is about the hope I feel beyond the hopelessness. The light I hope to see beyond the darkness. Provided we look for it.
Wherever I go, whoever I speak with, there is anger. Unmistakable, undisputable, uncontrollable rage surrounds me. Attack Pakistan some say. Kill the bastards some say. Many say drive the Muslims away from our country. Destroy. An eye for an eye. Sack the PM. Sack the HM. Get out Raj Thackeray. Stay away Narendra Modi. Hands off L K Advani. To hell with politicians. Angry, agitated voices echoing hurt, distress and helplessness. Yes. That is what it is. Helplessness. The citizen of democratic, modern, liberalized India. Helpless, hapless. And bitter. Bitter about the politicians. Bitter about the system. Bitter about the intertia. Bitter about the impotence. Bitter about the jingoism. Bitter about the bickering. Bitter, bitter, bitter.
In all this helplessness, in the midst of this bitterness, in the aftermath of this senseless bloodbath, I want to see hope. I want to see awakening. An India awakening from deep slumber. A rude wake-up call for change. We can no longer depend on the seedy politician, the wily statesman or the staid economist to resolve this crisis. It is only us. We, the people. We are the only vehicle for change. We are our only hope. We can and We will.
We need to wake up to the fact that our real enemy is not across the borders, it is not another country, not another government, not some random organizations, not any particular community. The challenge is not from a twenty year old organization called Al-qaeda who dare to threaten an entire vast nation – just like three militants managed to engage an entire trained force for over sixty hours. The challenge is from the enemy within. Every time there is an attack on us we point fingers at one particular community. We privately (and sometimes not so privately) direct our anger at the practitioners of a particular religion. We generalize. We victimize. We display our apathy, ignorance and intolerance. On the other hand we tolerate and ignore the militants within. The fanatics behind Ayodhya. The perpetrators of the Malegaon blasts. The wicked minds behind Godhra. The rascals that threaten to polarize Maharashtra. The villains that threaten to divide a country that was once secular. Yes. Once secular. But now subjected to severe division. A country that is a victim of narrow minds. A country that succumbs to jingoistic, quick-fix solutions. A populace that has allowed itself to accept mere spectatorship. A citizenry that does not look beyond its narrow objectives. An Indian who wants the new car, who wants the money to pay his EMIs, who wants his swanky apartment. An Indian who pays the gangster for his protection. And ‘looks after’ the cop who ‘looks after’ him. An Indian who bribes the bureaucrat to move papers. An Indian who greases the ministers palms and fills up his sinister coffers.
Wake up my friends. Stop venting anger. Start getting aware. Awaken to the truth.
The enemy is within. Recognize the enemy. Unveil the fa'§ade of the upright administrator, the staid economist, the fake nationalist, the coward pretending to protect, the evil roar of the paper tiger. Wake up. Ask for change. Look no further for the enemy. Do not get distracted by inefficient men who play the governance of blame and misdirect our anger and divert our frustrations.
Our intelligence agencies are paralyzed. Sensitive information is lost in bureaucracy and gathers dust on an illiterate, vote crazy minister’s table. Inviting the ISI chief is not going to provide our intelligence agencies with any new information. His visit is not going to light any bulb. Lets not allow ourselves to get fooled by these silly distractions. We have exemplary security agencies who are helpless prisoners themselves. They are trained to be selfless. They are trained to handle every violent attack on our country and to overcome any serious threat to the nation’s security. But they are imprisoned in the security of those who have never taken our security seriously. Their hands are tied. We need to raise our voice. We need to free our nation from inefficient bureaucrats, from inept ministers and from selfish divisive forces.
We need to change. We need to free ourselves from the false prejudices that cloud our judgement. We need to harness our educated selves, our rational selves, our logical selves for bringing about change. We need to recognize that religion is an inextricable part of our societal fabric. Encourage the madrassa like we do the gurukul. Understand that the RSS is as much a training ground for militants as the Al-qaeda camps across the border. Hindutva can be as militant as Islam. Islam can be as secular as Hinduism. As can Christianity. As can Judasim. Tolerance and understanding can be achieved if religion is practiced as a way of life and not as a vehicle of mindless division. Let the moderate, rational voice find expression irrespective of caste, creed or class. Respect, co-exist and build. Express, participate and grow.
Collective action, equal opportunity and a rational voice needs to emerge from us. Let us not seek it in loud, meaningless speech. Let us not get fooled by the booming voice of the imbeciles that we have ignorantly voted into power – not to govern us but to trample us. Let us be intolerant towards injustice, not towards faith. Let us harness the goodness in each other’s faiths to unite. Let us not succumb to the subversive forces that attack our intelligence and goodness anymore. Let us unite and say – NO MORE.
The Americans have woken up after deep slumber. Maybe a bit too late. They elected every available cowboy and made him the President of their ‘great’ democracy. It took the destruction wreaked by 9/11 to awaken them from their secure slumber. And yet they voted a gun-toting, oil-loving cowboy back to power. It took a mindless war and a severe recession to finally vote for a vehicle of change. If we have reaped the benefits of capitalism and enjoyed the fruits of liberalization let us also learn from their mistakes. Let us not allow another Iraq. Wasted pride and mindless valor will only take us towards further gloom. Bloodshed will lead to more bloodshed. Instead let us begin correcting our mistakes. Let us massage old wounds and prevent new ones. Let us be the healing hand – not the mindless mercenary. Let us pledge to have a united voice to overcome the enemy within. Let us empower ourselves to prevent any further damage to our self-esteem. Let us eliminate the enemy within so that we can be united in our fight against the external foe. United we stand. Divided we fall.
This piece is written out of fear. The views in it are expressed out of hope.
– Hansal Mehta
28/11/2008
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Intelligence agencies should be renamed to foolish agencies. There’s not a bit of intelligence in those agencies.
Excellent post Hansal. Yes as you rightly say “Stop venting anger… start becoming aware”… when will we the citizen just take to the streets?
The time has come Oz… We can. We will.
All this hype and cry for change and reform will die in a month, if not in a week. We as Indian have been taught to be tolerant and restrained and many have taken that lesson seriously. Anger, they say is the worst enemy of a human.
Lets unlearn all these. Its not time time to be tolerant or to show restraint. Its time to get angry. GET ANGRY, GET VERY ANGRY, BUT DONT REACT IMMEDIATELY. When Gandhi was thrown out of train in south africa, he didn’t enjoy it nor did he pardon those who had thrown him out. He got angry, got very angry. Such was he anger that he vowed to throw those people out of this country. That’s the kind of anger we need.
And no, we dont need to show restraint or be tolerant either. Those terrorists dont deserve an iota of these. FIND THEM and KILL THEM. Whichever religion they belong to, FIND THEM AND KILL THEM. If it results in a civil war, so be it. Heck, we already are in a war. At least our future generations will not have to live in a shadow of constant fear.
BUT, I know that nothing of these kind will happen. Everybody will forget about it sooner or later, except perhaps those who had lost their near and dear ones.
Hansal, actually we need both anger and awareness.
Anger is not in the blind anger, which says usko maaro, isko maaro, but the one which makes sure the concerned persons are accountable for their actions.
Yeah the restraint and tolerance should be towards the minorities, coz thats what the terrorists want, that our society is fractured.
But no restrain towards terrorists, no restraint towards people who pump bullets into stray dogs or shoot old people or kids. Whatever be their motivations, they are totally sick and dangerous.
Hansal
Great article. Agree with you 100%.
All this excited anger everywhere is freaking me out. All this talk of revenge will only bring us more attacks like these.
Its the same anger of americans that the Cowboy president exploited in 2004 & see where the world has ended up in another 4 years under him.
I hope we don’t do the same mistakes.
Thanks for sharing your opinion & thoughts.
Nice Post!!
LOL. what a blatant and hypocritical attempt at equating. why this fear to name the culprit, the islamic religion that fosters such intolerance? All it took was one malegaon to equate the hindu extremists with the muslim? what about the hundreds of attacks sponsored by the islamic terrorists on this country for years and the hijda governments ( yes, including the BJP) that did nothing to protect the country. True, all politicians of all hues are opportunistic bastards but why this desperation to equate hinduism with islam. Is there an innate fear that not doing so would somehow make you biased and unheard? Did you really think that any religion, even as morose and slumber-filled as hinduism would take it lying down after years and ages of assaults on it’s practitioners?
And India being secular? when were we ever truly secular. It is obvious that a minority gets a preferential treatment in this country, for whatever reasons. It’s time we accept that and stop calling ourselves secular or try to really become secular. UCC anyone?
Hansal, you as a film maker have a great potential to spread the true message of secularism. Hope someone from you ilk will do that one day and not try to pander to the notion of muslim appeasement as a definition of secularism. It is not. Refer any number of movies made about communal tensions and you will always see the muslim victim but never the Hindu victim. It may be an auteur’s romanticism to side with the underdog (minority, here) but that’s not the truth. I dearly wish for the day someone calls a muslim spade as much and with the same ease as they call the hindu one. Or you would not survive in Bollywood? LOL. irony.
I someohow could not completely agree with you point Hansal. I am thinking were is it that I have a disagreement but I am not able to point it out. I dont think these terrorist belong to any religion, they are pseudos who are brain washed to fight for a cause, linking it to religion. Pity!
And because we are in our country a majority of Hindus (I dont believe in separating people by religion, please dont get me wrong), it would always be the minority who would feel opressed. and more chances of oppression are for them. The possibility of retaliation and brainwashing of youth hence becomes easier as the relative number of cases of oppression would be more. I respect all the communities equally and I dont even believe that my faith is related to religion, and I dont think that you will find hardliners in only one religion, but still evidence would show that we need to have tighter laws for minority community foreign visitors.
I might be wrong or might be saying this based on recent events, but I think we need to learn terrorist profiles based on categories and there is nothing wrong if one of these parameters is religion. I dont see Muslims as terrorist and I dont say Hindus or Christians can be any less. But we need to delink our security issues from emotions, religion and politics.