At War

My country is in a constant state of war and none of us seem aware of the fact. One terrorist attack after another, we continue to be sitting ducks. There for anyone who chooses to make religious/political statements at our expense.

Wars aren't fought only at borders. There's a war going on in the myriad aspects of our lives. Some are fighting for caste, some for region, some are martyrs for religion, while others are sacrificial lambs at the altar of politics.

Bomb blasts are becoming a monthly affair. But in a country as vast as India where indifference scales newer heights everyday, a lot of people (too many, if you ask me) earn their livelihood off of some tragedy or other while countless sit and discuss it like rabid gossip mongers. The reaction to every such tragedy is local. Rarely, if ever, does it permeate into the national public conscious. Nobody cares about the why. Or about how to stop these mindless massacres. They only wonder about the who. Pinning blame is a favourite sport in my country, second only to cricket.

So what can we do? In truth, I don't know. There is no single answer to the problems that breed the kinds of violence we witness as part of the reality of 'being Indian'.

Our history is written more in blood than ink. Every portion of our nation stands united in that one grave human flaw - division. Never mind which way across the map you draw lines, you will find fueds of old superimposing themselves on newer ones, each concerning some or the other kind of division. Every war, whether big or small, is a result of division. Of "us" versus "them"

The demolition of the Babri Masjid did something that no other issue had done. It broke the spirit of a minority. It made them rebel. It was an attack not just on a place of worship. It was a premeditated attack on the psyche of one tenth the population of the country. It was a message by Hindutva fanatics. A message that said that no religion could stand in the way of Hindutva. Not Hinduism. Hindutva. The religion created by the Thackerays and Advanis of the world. A religion that approves, no... mandates, violence.

Almost forty five years after they had made the choice to stay on in India - for love and honour, for better or worse - despite the atrocities that partition had wrought, these same people were made to feel unwelcome. Again. We forced them out of the world we inhabit. We all but pushed each terrorist into becoming one. We gave them nowhere to go. We left them no one to turn to. Each one of us is responsible. Because in staying silent, we colluded in the oppression of so many. We shoved them into a corner, and left them no alternative but to fight their way out. You treat someone like an outsider long enough and that's what they'll become. Outsiders. There are a lot of things one can bring himself to doing once he is convinced of being unwanted. Taking innocent lives is just one of them.

More than fifteen years later we are still paying for Babri Masjid. And it will not stop. Unless we find a way to undo the violence perpetrated in Ayodhya, in Gujarat, in Bombay... Or simply, find in our hearts the tolerance to believe, really believe, that we can all live together. Not as Hindus, or Muslims, or Christians, or what-have-you. But just as Indians. Just as human beings.