‘Suno gaur se duniya waalon
Buri nazar na hampe daalon
Chahe jitna zor lagalo
Sabse aage honge Hindustani’
Nice. Nice message for the world (most of which can’t understand the song as the lyrics are in Hindi… Ironic, but nice try anyways.
Just one question, though- Does India really need others to put their buri nazar on us? Well, not exactly considering that we are practically fighting each other in the pretext of religion, caste, region and anything that’s “worth fighting for”. Love thy neighbour, anyone? Naah.
Hatred. Biases. Prejudice. They rule our hearts and minds, don’t they?
So how many men does it take to create a terrorist? Apparently, just two.
First one, who offends/hurts the “vulnerable good guy who’ll turn into a cold-hearted terrorist” by inflicting some atrocity on him or his people.
Second one, who indoctrinates and manipulates the hurt/offended guy (all in the pretext of showing him the right way). And voila! A terrorist is created. (Just an assumption. Some guys are just born terrorists, no?).
Terrorist. In a world of stereotypical assumptions here’s one more. When I say terrorist the 1st image that comes in most minds is a bearded, hawk-eyed guy with a bulky bag. Well, what do you expect? These guys are trying to focus on their job and not on making a style statement.
Talking of assumptions, here’s one more-Terrorism. When I say terrorism, most people automatically assume bombs exploding in public places. Convenient. Let’s shake up that image a bit.
Terrorism- (1) Use of violence for a political purpose. [Cambridge Learner’s dictionary]
(2) Use of intimidation to attain one’s goals or to advance one’s cause.
[Webster’s Dictionary]
Wait a minute. According to these definitions, shouldn’t the Godhra carnage called an act of terrorism? Shouldn’t the violence against Christians in Orissa be called an act of terrorism?
Apparently and surprisingly, no.
‘Naah, that was justifiable violence ok.’ ‘We didn’t start it. We were provoked by them, you see.’
I see. I do see.
‘We aren’t those people who’ll present the enemy the other cheek if he slaps us on one cheek. We believe in Eint ka jawab pathar. An eye for an eye. A bullet for a bullet’ (or should I say a blast for a blast).
Talking of assumptions, here’s another inconsequential one. The assumption that flashing a “Stop Terrorism” banner after a blast will actually stop it or console the victims and their family members. Yeah right. Like the terrorist who’s about to blast a city is gonna have a sudden change of heart and he’ll resign. And the world’ll be a better place to live in. Amen. Or that it’ll brighten up the day of the victims or their kin.
The most frustrating part in the aftermath of a blast is people discussing the religion of a terrorist. Not the fact that the authorities are still investigating. Not the fact that politicians start their favourite ‘blame-game’. Nope, we are all accustomed to this. But the fact that our society is discussing (actually debating) the religion of the terrorist is hard to digest. People keep saying that terrorism is restricted to a particular religion. Like there’s supposed to be an ‘ideal God-sent’ terrorist and a particular religion is supposed to have perfected the art of terrorism and now have a monopoly over it. How naïve can you be?
My point is, how does it matter what a terrorist’s religion is? If he’s guilty punish him.
Why are we Indians mentally wired like this? Why are we so hung up on our roots? Why is it that every time some one starts telling us his name we start doing mental background calculations regarding his race, religion and his origins? Nandita Das once asked why do we feel such chauvinistic pride about these details that we didn’t even choose for ourselves? Why? Why are there so many boundaries drawn in the mind? And who drew these boundaries? Maybe someday these boundaries will be erased. And we shall all live happily ever after. Hypothetical fantasies aside, we do feel that oneness sometimes don’t we? Like when India plays a cricket match. This was of course before an illustrious gentleman introduced the concept of I.P.L. There you go. One more reason to differentiate yourself. Until some politician notices that players of his state/religion/caste are being inadequately represented in the Indian cricket team. That would give all of us another cause to fight for, no?
