On Mar 30, 8:09 pm, Bobby Kunhu <[email protected]> wrote:
> Is it an implied political conspiracy where the RSS
and Al Qaeda have made a pact :P
I would even go beyond that, to add that the entire mainstream media
and the establishment both sides are hell bent on selling such sort of
cock- and- bull stories of nationalism and patriotism to people on the
respective side of the divide, though the latter show less enthusiasm
to buy.
> Sanghvi actually has nothing new to say - even the humour was drabBut it
> would be useful if Sanghvi could be asked to answer this question - why
> should "indianness" always be defined vis-a-vis pakistan. Why will the
> famous Indian tolerance never get over the percieved slight of the partition
> (and vice versa too). Is it an implied political conspiracy where the RSS
> and Al Qaeda have made a pact :P
>
> 2009/3/30 damodar prasad <[email protected]>
>
>
>
> > Argumentation with a implied humour is all interesting. Am only worried
> > about what stubborn secualarist may derive from this Sanghvian rationale.
> > One would be, "Wonder that was/*is* India". My probs is perhaps , may be,
> > I don't have any "mythified" notions of essential and glorified Indianess..
> > When I say Indianness, I mean the Rasool Pokutty remarked- Omkaram for
> > Indianness sound. (Omkara is a nice film, btw. and i liked Rasool's way of
> > expresing ideas in Brittas interveiw in kairali)
>
> > Like Vir Sanghvi's line, here is another 'secular" and of course friendly
> > wirte-up by novelist/history teacher Mukual Kesavan (dated 19/03/09)
> >http://www.telegraphindia.com/archives/archive.html
> > On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 3:13 PM, Afthab Ellath <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >> A friend and a secularist forwarded me this article
>
> >> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> >> From: Shageen.Prabhakaran
> >> Date: Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 8:43 AM
> >> Subject: Vir Sanghvi- Indians and Pakis are no longer the same people
>
> >> Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times
> >> Email Author
> >> March 07, 2009
> >> First Published: 21:47 IST(7/3/2009)
> >> Last Updated: 12:02 IST(8/3/2009)
>
> >> The same people? Surely not
>
> >> Few things annoy me as much as the claim often advanced by well-meaning
> >> but woolly- headed (and usually Punjabi) liberals to the effect that when
> >> it
> >> comes to India and Pakistan , "We’re all the same people, yaar."
>
> >> This may have been true once upon a time. Before 1947, Pakistan was part
> >> of undivided India and you could claim that Punjabis from West Punjab (what
> >> is now Pakistan ) were as Indian as, say, Tamils from Madras .
>
> >> But time has a way of moving on. And while the gap between our Punjabis
> >> (from east Punjab which is now the only Punjab left in India) and our
> >> Tamils may actually have narrowed, thanks to improved communications,
> >> shared
> >> popular culture and greater physical mobility, the gap between Indians and
> >> Pakistanis has now widened to the extent that we are no longer the same
> >> people in any significant sense.
>
> >> This was brought home to me most clearly by two major events over the last
> >> few weeks.
>
> >> The first of these was the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team on the
> >> streets of Lahore . In their defence, Pakistanis said that they were
> >> powerless to act against the terrorists because religious fanaticism was
> >> growing. Each day more misguided youngsters joined jihadi outfits and the
> >> law and order situation worsened.
>
> >> Further, they added, things had got so bad that in the tribal areas the
> >> government of Pakistan had agreed to suspend the rule of law under pressure
> >> from the Taliban and had conceded that sharia law would reign instead.
> >> Interestingly, while most civilised liberals should have been appalled by
> >> this surrender to the forces of extremism, many Pakistanis defended this
> >> concession.
>
> >> Imran Khan (Keble College, Oxford, 1973-76) even declared that sharia law
> >> would be better because justice would be dispensed more swiftly! I know
> >> this
> >> is politically incorrect but the Loin of the Punjab ’s defence of sharia
> >> law reminded me of the famous Private Eye cover when his marriage to
> >> Jemima Goldsmith was announced. The Eye carried a picture of Khan speaking
> >> to Jemima’s father. “Can I have your daughter’s hand?” Imran was supposedly
> >> asking James Goldsmith. “Why? Has she been caught shoplifting?” Goldsmith
> >> replied. So much for sharia law.
>
> >> The second contrasting event was one that took place in Los Angeles but
> >> which was perhaps celebrated more in India than in any other country in the
> >> world. Three Indians won Oscars: A.R. Rahman, Resul Pookutty and
> >> Gulzar.Their victory set off a frenzy of rejoicing. We were proud of our
> >> countrymen. We were pleased that India ’s entertainment industry and its
> >> veterans had been recognised at an international platform. And all three
> >> men
>
> >> became even bigger heroes than they already were.
>
> >> But here’s the thing: Not one of them is a Hindu.
>
> >> Can you imagine such a thing happening in Pakistan ? Can you even conceive
> >> of a situation where the whole country would celebrate the victory of three
> >> members of two religious minorities? For that matter, can you even imagine
> >> a
> >> situation where people from religious minorities would have got to the top
> >> of their fields and were,therefore, in the running for international
> >> awards?
>
> >> On the one hand, you have Pakistan imposing sharia law, doing deals with
> >> the Taliban, teaching hatred in madrasas, declaring jihad on the world and
> >> trying to kill innocent Sri Lankan cricketers. On the other, you have the
> >> triumph of Indian secularism.
>
> >> The same people?
>
> >> Surely not.
>
> >> We are defined by our nationality. They choose to define themselves by
> >> their religion.
>
> >> But it gets even more complicated. As you probably know, Rahman was born
> >> Dilip Kumar. He converted to Islam when he was 21. His religious
> >> preferences
> >> made no difference to his prospects. Even now, his music cuts across all
> >> religious boundaries. He’s as much at home with Sufi music as he is with
> >> bhajans. Nor does he have any problem with saying ‘Vande Mataram’.
>
> >> Now, think of a similar situation in Pakistan . Can you conceive of a
> >> Pakistani composer who converted to Hinduism at the age of 21 and still
> >> went
> >> on to become a national hero? Under sharia law, they’d probably have to
> >> execute him.
>
> >> Resul Pookutty’s is an even more interesting case. Until you realise that
> >> Malayalis tend to put an ‘e’ where the rest of us would put an ‘a,’ ( Ravi
> >> becomes Revi and sometimes the Gulf becomes the Gelf), you cannot work out
> >> that his name derives from Rasool, a fairly obviously Islamic name.
>
> >> But here’s the point: even when you point out to people that Pookutty is
> >> in fact a Muslim, they don’t really care. It makes no difference to them.
> >> He’s an authentic Indian hero, his religion is irrelevant.
>
> >> Can you imagine Pakistan being indifferent to a man’s religion? Can you
> >> believe that Pakistanis would not know that one of their Oscar winners came
> >> from a religious minority? And would any Pakistani have dared bridge the
> >> religious divide in the manner Resul did by referring to the primeval
> >> power of Om in his acceptance speech?
>
> >> The same people?
>
> >> Surely not.
>
> >> Most interesting of all is the case of Gulzar who many Indians believe is
> >> a Muslim. He is not. He is a Sikh. And his real name is Sampooran Singh
> >> Kalra.
>
> >> So why does he have a Muslim name?
>
> >> It’s a good story and he told it on my TV show some years ago. He was born
> >> in West Pakistan and came over the border during the bloody days of
> >> Partition. He had seen so much hatred and religious violence on both sides,
> >> he said, that he was determined never to lose himself to that kind of
> >> blind religious prejudice and fanaticism.
>
> >> Rather than blame Muslims for the violence inflicted on his community —
> >> after all, Hindus and Sikhs behaved with equal ferocity — he adopted a
> >> Muslim pen name to remind himself that his identity was beyond religion. He
> >> still writes in Urdu and considers it irrelevant whether a person is a
> >> Sikh, a Muslim or a Hindu.
>
> >> Let’s forget about political correctness and come clean: can you see such
> >> a thing happening in Pakistan ? Can you actually conceive of a famous
> >> Pakistani Muslim who adopts a Hindu or Sikh name out of choice to
> >> demonstrate the irrelevance of religion?
>
> >> My point, exactly.
>
> >> What all those misguided liberals who keep blathering on about us being
> >> the same people forget is that in the 60-odd years since Independence, our
> >> two nations have traversed very different paths.
>
> >> Pakistan was founded on the basis of Islam. It still defines itself in
> >> terms of Islam. And over the next decade as it destroys itself, it will be
> >> because of Islamic extremism.
>
> >> India was founded on the basis that religion had no role in determining
> >> citizenship or nationhood. An Indian can belong to any religion in the
> >> world
> >> and face no discrimination in his rights as a citizen.
>
> >> It is nobody’s case that India is a perfect society or that Muslims face
> >> no discrimination. But only a fool would deny that in the last six decades,
> >> we have travelled a long way towards religious equality. In the early days
> >> of
> >> independent India , a Yusuf Khan had to call himself Dilip Kumar for fear
> >> of attracting religious prejudice.
>
> >> In today’s India , a Dilip Kumar can change his name to A.R. Rahman and
> >> nobody really gives a damn either way.
>
> >> So think back to the events of the last few weeks. To the murderous attack
> >> on innocent Sri Lankan cricketers by jihadi fanatics in a society that is
> >> being buried by Islamic extremism. And to the triumphs of Indian
> >> secularism.
>
> >> Same people?
>
> >> Don’t make me laugh.
>
> --
> Bobby Kunhuhttp://community.eldis.org/myshkin/Blog/
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