Chapter 4
There are ample examples to show what divide is in sociological terms.
Coming from up north, from the state of Himachal Pradesh, I have been
witnessing phenomenon of class, caste and communal divides at various places
wherever my quest for the daily bread has taken me.
Communalism is not a new concept for any one of us. The generation to which
we belong has heard enough about partition and post partition communal
violence. But it is only in Gujarat that I came to face and tried to analyse
the hows and whys of this machine that churns out hatred, bloodshed and
irrepairable losses.
Gujarat at present, I talk of the period between 2002 and 2005, has all the
ingredients to experiment with the limits of human sanity. There are
numerous examples, small anecdotes that I will dole out as I proceed. These
instances and anecdotes just go on to show how hate mongers, from various
communities, have gone to the level of abusing the constitution with
shameless which words simply cannot describe.
I did give that example of a HIGHWAY HANUMAN. The Hindu god already has
enough pseudonyms like Pavanputra (son of the wind), Marutinandan,
Bajrangbali – and these all are names which people remember with a sacred
reverence. Now why add something absurd!!!
There is more to it as friends told me later. During riots one also came
across media reports which talked about a Hulladiya (Rioting) Hanuman.
Several months later, on August 24, 2005 to be precise, I actually went to
Hatkeshhwar area in Amraiwadi locality of Ahmedabad where there was a temple
of Rokadiya (Cashier) Hanuman. This somehow did not surprise me much because
it simply went with the Gujarati penchant for money!!!
It was in the summer of 2004 that India took on Pakistan in a cricket match
on a Tuesday and thanks to a heavy duty performance by ace batsman Virender
Sehwag, India mauled the Pakistanis. It was an occasion enough to cheer for
cricket fans (though I myself do not like the game. I knew that it would be
the hot topic of discussion as the mention of the word Pakistan is as good
as an abuse in the nationalist Hindu circles of Gujarat and people would
take an extra cup of tea to celebrate Indian victory over their enemy.
It would have been fine if discussions centred around performances, failures
or even an extra effort to defeat the traditional rivals.
But the statement that shocked me was from an educated Hindu youth who
claimed to work for a newspaper. He came up with the point,’’ You know
Sehwag is a Hanuman bhakt (worshipper) and since the match was held on
Tuesday which is Hanuman’s day, Hanuman himself descended to help India win
over the enemy!!!’’ The connection and explanation was beyond my
comprehension and I knew there was no point in talking sense.
But it so happened that India lost to Sri Lanka, the following Sunday. I
could not help but quipping to the same fellow,’’ What happened this time ?
Did Ravana descend to defeat the Indians ?’’This was enough to send him on a
ranting and rambling exercise, which is so common amongst the fanatics. He
was quick to point that anti-nationals like me were out to defame India and
spared no effort to fan anti India sentiment
Let’s move over to another glaring example of the levels to which thinking
of even educated people can stoop once their mind is governed by the
philosophy of hate. This time again it happened to be a person whom I had
just met while covering a couple of political rallies. By the small that we
had shared I knew he supported the cause of right wing Hindutva as he kept
on quoting people and books supporting the ideology. It so happened that I
bumped into him during the course of an official assignment. As I was about
to depart I just remarked that I had to go to the nearby market in old
Ahmedabad to purchase dates as I loved having dates in winters.
‘’Do you also eat dates ? I thought only Muslims eat that fruit,’’ he asked.
I had no reply to this one.
I could just wonder since when have fruits started getting identified with
religion. Tomorrow someone just might as well say that Apple is a Christian
fruit or Orange is a Hindu fruit. Later I came to know that I was not the
only one to have had such an experience. A senior journalist with a Hindi
daily had also been confronted with similar remarks.
As if this was not enough I got to hear the logic behind dates being
classified as a fruit eaten by Muslims. A Muslim friend told me that Islam
spread from Arabian lands and since the staple diet of people in the Arabian
deserts has been milk and dates, hence dates have come to be closely
associated with Islam.
Another small observation which has huge social bearing is that Hindus in
Gujarat mostly refer to Mohammedans as Muslims or Miyas while Muslims always
refer to the Hindus as Gujaratis. Neither is sub consciously willing to
accept the other as himself. Aren’t both the citizens of the same state and
hence aren’t both Gujaratis. The divide goes more deep. Despite knowing
Gujarati language Muslims, particularly in central Gujarat, prefer not to
converse in the language which gives another point to hard line Hindus that
if Muslims can’t accept Gujarati language how can they accept Gujarat to be
their own ! There is another dimension to this point. A large number of
Muslims in this region are migrants from Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
and claim to be not comfortable with a new language.
There are ample examples to show what divide is in sociological terms.
Coming from up north, from the state of Himachal Pradesh, I have been
witnessing phenomenon of class, caste and communal divides at various places
wherever my quest for the daily bread has taken me.
Communalism is not a new concept for any one of us. The generation to which
we belong has heard enough about partition and post partition communal
violence. But it is only in Gujarat that I came to face and tried to analyse
the hows and whys of this machine that churns out hatred, bloodshed and
irrepairable losses.
Gujarat at present, I talk of the period between 2002 and 2005, has all the
ingredients to experiment with the limits of human sanity. There are
numerous examples, small anecdotes that I will dole out as I proceed. These
instances and anecdotes just go on to show how hate mongers, from various
communities, have gone to the level of abusing the constitution with
shameless which words simply cannot describe.
I did give that example of a HIGHWAY HANUMAN. The Hindu god already has
enough pseudonyms like Pavanputra (son of the wind), Marutinandan,
Bajrangbali – and these all are names which people remember with a sacred
reverence. Now why add something absurd!!!
There is more to it as friends told me later. During riots one also came
across media reports which talked about a Hulladiya (Rioting) Hanuman.
Several months later, on August 24, 2005 to be precise, I actually went to
Hatkeshhwar area in Amraiwadi locality of Ahmedabad where there was a temple
of Rokadiya (Cashier) Hanuman. This somehow did not surprise me much because
it simply went with the Gujarati penchant for money!!!
It was in the summer of 2004 that India took on Pakistan in a cricket match
on a Tuesday and thanks to a heavy duty performance by ace batsman Virender
Sehwag, India mauled the Pakistanis. It was an occasion enough to cheer for
cricket fans (though I myself do not like the game. I knew that it would be
the hot topic of discussion as the mention of the word Pakistan is as good
as an abuse in the nationalist Hindu circles of Gujarat and people would
take an extra cup of tea to celebrate Indian victory over their enemy.
It would have been fine if discussions centred around performances, failures
or even an extra effort to defeat the traditional rivals.
But the statement that shocked me was from an educated Hindu youth who
claimed to work for a newspaper. He came up with the point,’’ You know
Sehwag is a Hanuman bhakt (worshipper) and since the match was held on
Tuesday which is Hanuman’s day, Hanuman himself descended to help India win
over the enemy!!!’’ The connection and explanation was beyond my
comprehension and I knew there was no point in talking sense.
But it so happened that India lost to Sri Lanka, the following Sunday. I
could not help but quipping to the same fellow,’’ What happened this time ?
Did Ravana descend to defeat the Indians ?’’This was enough to send him on a
ranting and rambling exercise, which is so common amongst the fanatics. He
was quick to point that anti-nationals like me were out to defame India and
spared no effort to fan anti India sentiment
Let’s move over to another glaring example of the levels to which thinking
of even educated people can stoop once their mind is governed by the
philosophy of hate. This time again it happened to be a person whom I had
just met while covering a couple of political rallies. By the small that we
had shared I knew he supported the cause of right wing Hindutva as he kept
on quoting people and books supporting the ideology. It so happened that I
bumped into him during the course of an official assignment. As I was about
to depart I just remarked that I had to go to the nearby market in old
Ahmedabad to purchase dates as I loved having dates in winters.
‘’Do you also eat dates ? I thought only Muslims eat that fruit,’’ he asked.
I had no reply to this one.
I could just wonder since when have fruits started getting identified with
religion. Tomorrow someone just might as well say that Apple is a Christian
fruit or Orange is a Hindu fruit. Later I came to know that I was not the
only one to have had such an experience. A senior journalist with a Hindi
daily had also been confronted with similar remarks.
As if this was not enough I got to hear the logic behind dates being
classified as a fruit eaten by Muslims. A Muslim friend told me that Islam
spread from Arabian lands and since the staple diet of people in the Arabian
deserts has been milk and dates, hence dates have come to be closely
associated with Islam.
Another small observation which has huge social bearing is that Hindus in
Gujarat mostly refer to Mohammedans as Muslims or Miyas while Muslims always
refer to the Hindus as Gujaratis. Neither is sub consciously willing to
accept the other as himself. Aren’t both the citizens of the same state and
hence aren’t both Gujaratis. The divide goes more deep. Despite knowing
Gujarati language Muslims, particularly in central Gujarat, prefer not to
converse in the language which gives another point to hard line Hindus that
if Muslims can’t accept Gujarati language how can they accept Gujarat to be
their own ! There is another dimension to this point. A large number of
Muslims in this region are migrants from Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
and claim to be not comfortable with a new language.
It's new thing for me...
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