‘Anilji, I am not liking the feel with this Election around, and politician of certain party screaming that Muslims should not be given voting rights ….. tomorrow they will say the same about the Christians who are the next big minority in the country … where are we heading to in India …’ I said this after reading an article by T.M Krishna ‘You are Muslim, not Indian’ and connecting that with the statement made recently by a known politician ….
The writer T.M Krishna in his article says "…. They belong as much to this land as I do …. Yet when they are in the majority, even if it just a by lane suddenly I feel that my space as been invaded, I am intimidated and insecure ….. Irrational and utterly trite as this might seem my majority eyes search for a Hindu … their language sounds different and disorients me …." I guess I have similar feelings when I think of entering a ‘Temple’ or visiting a ‘Brahmin’ colleague - will they (the majority Hindus) be offended to see a meat eating Christian at their personal space. But I never felt anything like that when I walked in a Muslim (minority majority) dominated areas of Bangalore –‘Shivaji nagar’ or at Delhi’s ‘ Nizammuddin ‘ area looking for specific Ramadan time snacks or for Biriyani or Tandoori roti and chicken or just shopping around. In fact in both the places some of the people mistook me for being a muslim and greeted me with ‘Salam Valaikkum’ me instantly responding ‘Valaikkum …’ , one shopkeeper even asking me –‘Aapko koi Hijaab dikhaaon ?’
Or when I roamed around Sikh dominated areas where I was again mistaken for being a ‘Sardarni’ and ladies started talking in pure Punjabi – half of the things which I had to guess and then when I spoke back in Hindi they thought probably I am a Punjabi who cannot speak good ‘Punjabi’! And guess what in these dominant Sikh areas I saw Sikh’s didn’t feel comfortable about Hindu’s company in fact one lady told me that the previous day some Hindu miscreants had cut hair of Sikh boy causing tension between the 2 communities …. And I thought fundamentally Hindus and Sikhs are amicable (Barring Indira Gandhi episode ..) and not just that in a Sikh dominant (majority) area how could anybody dare to cut boy’s hair … and then the Lady said with Akali’s being backed by RSS , Hindus feel they can do anything in the name of Hinduism and get away with it , get away with all the ‘Goondaism’ …
Six months back we were travelling back from Bangalore to Trivandrum in train (Kochu Velli Express) our reservations done almost 2 months before the travel date (and we still could not get confirmed tickets for AC compartment). Few stops after Bangalore, by around 5 pm, from certain station lot of people got into the reserved compartment – when I say lot, it was crowd …. And most of them did not have any ticket (I guess not even general) they all stood on the paths, few pushed people on the reserved seat saying day journey there is no reservation and few even got on the upper berths and comfortably laid down … I was pissed off seeing this, when somebody tried to get on the upper berth which was my reserved berth Anil warned him saying that it is reserved berth and they are not allowed to even enter the compartment …..
Hearing this the whole crowd started against Anil, saying how dare he says that, that we are in Karnataka ‘their’ land and how can we ‘ Keralites’ tell them where they can sit or not, both me and Anil teamed up and started arguing back – telling we have booked tickets 2 months back not to listen to their stupid talk and that if they think they can sit then they should show the ticket .. it was mind boggling to see that question of rules and rights turned to regionalism – we being accused of being ‘Outsiders’ working in Bangalore and giving nothing back to Bangalore/Karnataka , and that since we were talking in English we are well to do people and we don’t understand ‘Local/poor’ peoples problems , and we are arrogant in asking them to move to ‘General Compartment’ which is meant for the daily travellers (btw we had just gone for a week vacation to blore) ….
All the while they screamed that we should talk in Kannada not in English or Hindi ! I said we are in India they should talk either in Hindi our National Language or in English the linking language in south …. Anyway after almost 1 hr of travel they all got down …. But I was hurt, feeling insecure, angry that in my own country I have to hear all this …. ‘ I don’t belong to certain state, .... being educated, having a decent job, talking in English is not acceptable and probably is a sin ,it is like being in a some elite (insensitive) class while the majority of the population is below that class ….. I refrained from blogging about it then …. But after seeing and hearing so may different ‘-isms’ in this country now I worry, where is my country heading to ….
Something has actually gone wrong with our sense of being Indian …. Regionalism, Secularism/Religion-ism, we are no more Indians but we are first Hindu/ Muslim/ Christian Sikh then we are mallu/ gujju/ kannadiga/ tamil ... but we are not Indians first ... unless it is a match against Pakistan ... Or when we are at Wagha Border trying to show our fake dramatized patriotism to Pakistani's with loud ' Jai Ho' song in the background...
'India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay." Shashi Tharoor
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