On Thu, 2 May 2002, Sunila Muzawar wrote:
> attitude. People like Arundhati Roy are noticed in this world. It is > important that they write with a broader mind and without the narrow and > small perspectives of the average communal mentality of most people. I would > truly like her to write about the other atrocities in India. Not in the > message about Gujarat of course. I never said that. But she could mention it > in her other writings. But time and again you see people like her and the > media ignoring some sections of our citizens because the atrocities > inflicted on them are so common and so much a part of daily life that it > does not make sensational news. I object to that. Why don't you ? So your main peeve with Arundhati Roy is the fact that she wrote an article on the crimes of Gujarat, but did not write about other incidents across the country. That once again comes to the question. Is there a qualifier that exists that requires a writer to write on the other "crimes" first before writing about Gujarat? If that is the case then I think our English teachers across the world omitted teaching us the Sunila Doctrine, which is, namely, that before writing on any issue, you *must* write on issues near and dear to Sunila, otherwise, the rest of Goanet will get another long mail from the apologists of the Hindu Right. Literary critique usually means that you criticize the writings of an author either for factual errors, incompleteness, misinterpretations, scope or generalizations. Sunila's critique goes a step further. She has has decided that criticism now also includes what you did not write about. What next? Are we going to fault Khushwant Singh for never writing about the diminishing rainfall in Cherrapunji? Or are we going to denigrate Robert Fisk for failing to ever write a word of compassion for the displaced nomads of Turkmenistan? It does seem, from the Sunila Doctrine, that the sorrow of one person in Gujarat is inconsequential because of the sufferings of millions of others. And any attempt to grieve for them, or express outrage, is an outrage in itself. I fail to understand the logic of this argument. It seems that, I cannot even mourn the death of my father unless I mourn the death of everyone else's father with the same passion and grief. As an aside, I have ignored your counter-claims of tragedy for precisely the same reason I had put mine - they serve no purpose! Tragedy is meant to be grieved, pondered upon and reflect, not used as an opportunity to submit counter claims of even more horrific tragedies. -- Tariq Siddiqui [ This Space for Rent ] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
