shiv sastry [19/05/07 22:40 +0530]:
What I am getting at is that entities like the RSS and BJP are taking the rap
for sentiments that are more widespread than people will acknowledge. Since
Well, having abused a relative or two in quite unprintable terms when they
expressed similar sentiments when I heard them .. yes, I agree they are
widespread. Far more widespread than they should be.
At the risk of invoking Godwin, do note that Hitler's power base was the
middle class in Germany, "kinder, kirsche, kuchen" and a certain disdain
for jews, foreigners or anybody who was not "pure aryan"
It is on the shoulders of self confessed moderates who still dont quite
like people of a particular religion that the true fanatic climbs onto.
Before he stomps the moderates into the dirt along with the jews, or the
muslims or anybody else at all who doesn't share his particular brand of
fanaticism.
It is partly for reasons relating to these observations that the article hurt
me. There is a Hindu sentiment that needs to be acknowledged. Hindu sentiment
I acknowledged it quite some time back by discarding my poonal / sacred
thread. I'm coming back to religion sort of (having a wife who is
religious kind of helps) but I still dont like it when some thoughtless
idiot throws off a casual religious slur. The US is hypersensitized enough
that words like "nigger" and "kike" would be enough to make you a leper -
Don Imus learnt that the hard way. Segregation and Jim Crow carriages were
voted out of the deep south years back. Not so in India, not in the
villages, not in the cities, and certainly not in a place where the
government in power depends for its votes on playing off one caste or
religion against another.
any way accurately describe the chip on the Hindu shoulder. The policeman's
lack of action in a communal riot because of a personal grouse he has about
Keep in mind that what occured in Godhra was not a spontaneous riot, any
more than the anti sikh riots that tore Delhi apart after Indira Gandhi was
shot. They were carefully orchestrated pogroms. I spent years in Hyderabad,
including in the 80s and 90s, when communal riots were a fairly regular
occurence. Those didnt spread beyond small isolated pockets in the old
city, typical trouble spots, with "hindu" and "muslim" areas jammed close
to each other.
And having a government in power that didn't have any particular side to
take in the matter meant that the police were free to do something quite a
few of them actually relish.. wade in with lathis and beat up a whole lot
of random people who just happen to be in the area. AFTER the more
dangerous rioters have retired to the hospitals or graveyards and the fight
has died down a bit.
Not so Gujarat. Not so Maharashtra with a Shiv Sena government in power.
Picking senior police officers for political loyalty is nothing new - but
this means that if a pogrom needs to get organized for political or
religious reasons, the police is effectively a part of the pogrom, either
as a passive observer or in some cases, much more active on the "wrong"
side.
Every nefarious scheme the BJP would love to implement at the centre if it
had a simple majority instead of having to rely on a coalition gets
implemented first in Gujarat and Rajasthan, where they're solidly in power.
Textbooks, for example, just to start with.
If you have several hundred million people with a grouse it pays to be
realistic and try and suss out what is bugging them, rather than pretending
The grouse stays stable, or at least below the surface e&oe periodic
eruptions. Unless it is deliberately stirred up and kept on a boil, without
anything at all (especially legislature, executive and judiciary) to keep
it in check.
srs
