In the recent past, we in India have seen many terrorist attacks in the cities, which were hitherto unaffected by the terrorism. Fortunately, I was not directly affected by the terrorist attacks but I was not left untouched by the fear that gripped the whole country. The major breakthroughs and many arrests in the terror cases gave me a sigh of relief. On my part, I couldn’t help hating the terrorists involved in these cases because these tormentors, who are waging a war in the name of Islam, are enemies of humanity.
But, the events of last few days have caught me up in an imbroglio. In the Malegaon (Maharashtra, India) blast case, few Hindus have been arrested. These arrested people claim that they are waging a war against Muslims. But shockingly, I was not able to hate these Hindu terrorists as furiously as I had hated the Muslim terrorists. Now, I am feeling guilty for possessing this dangerously misplaced sympathy.
I traced back my roots to find an answer for this disgusting behavior of mine. I did my primary education from a school, which was pro-RSS (a Hindu organization). There, during cultural functions, we were not allowed to clap instead we had to shout “Shri Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram”. I never understood how the praising of Hindu god, Ram, is related to the performance of the kid on the stage. In that school, during the various speeches, there was no direct reference to Muslims but we could sense the antagonism for the Muslims. By the time, I entered into my teens I had started believing that anybody, who is Muslim, is to be hated.
The primary school’s atmosphere was not the only reason for not hating the Hindu terrorists. I think that I couldn’t hate these terrorists because I found them familiar. They were like our newspaper wala uncle, who used to give us child magazines for free and who took an oath that he would not shave his beard until a Ram (Hindu god) temple is constructed at the Ayodhya’s disputed site. Not to mention, he carries a huge beard these days. These terrorists also seemed like the saffron clad priests, who were very good orators and whose popular but bad-intentioned provoking speeches, during the 1993 Hindu-Muslim riots, made me believe that any crime against Muslims is an act of nationalism. I was just fourteen then.
This childhood conditioning had corrupted me to such an extent that I found myself on the side of the guys who perpetrated a crime against humanity. Now, I can see why Madrasas grab so much of attention. Anyway, I am no more a kid. I can’t let myself sympathizing with terrorists of any caste, creed or religion. I think there is a terrorist in me too and I trust that I will kill him soon.
But, the events of last few days have caught me up in an imbroglio. In the Malegaon (Maharashtra, India) blast case, few Hindus have been arrested. These arrested people claim that they are waging a war against Muslims. But shockingly, I was not able to hate these Hindu terrorists as furiously as I had hated the Muslim terrorists. Now, I am feeling guilty for possessing this dangerously misplaced sympathy.
I traced back my roots to find an answer for this disgusting behavior of mine. I did my primary education from a school, which was pro-RSS (a Hindu organization). There, during cultural functions, we were not allowed to clap instead we had to shout “Shri Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram”. I never understood how the praising of Hindu god, Ram, is related to the performance of the kid on the stage. In that school, during the various speeches, there was no direct reference to Muslims but we could sense the antagonism for the Muslims. By the time, I entered into my teens I had started believing that anybody, who is Muslim, is to be hated.
The primary school’s atmosphere was not the only reason for not hating the Hindu terrorists. I think that I couldn’t hate these terrorists because I found them familiar. They were like our newspaper wala uncle, who used to give us child magazines for free and who took an oath that he would not shave his beard until a Ram (Hindu god) temple is constructed at the Ayodhya’s disputed site. Not to mention, he carries a huge beard these days. These terrorists also seemed like the saffron clad priests, who were very good orators and whose popular but bad-intentioned provoking speeches, during the 1993 Hindu-Muslim riots, made me believe that any crime against Muslims is an act of nationalism. I was just fourteen then.
This childhood conditioning had corrupted me to such an extent that I found myself on the side of the guys who perpetrated a crime against humanity. Now, I can see why Madrasas grab so much of attention. Anyway, I am no more a kid. I can’t let myself sympathizing with terrorists of any caste, creed or religion. I think there is a terrorist in me too and I trust that I will kill him soon.
2 comments:
Hey...cool thoughts. But alas! they mean nothing in the present day knockout world. We as human beings have the least respect for or I must say we loathe human beings. And we have comfortably managed to draw our own guidelines for that. We can feed cakes to our pet pig but will never give a dying fella a single penny. This apathy is one day gonna kill us. Let us not seperate each other on grounds like caste, creed, status, race, relegion but unite on grounds of humanity. We call India a secular country but are we really? When people know nothing about each others beliefs how can they understand/respect each other? There is no terrorist within you but its the beliefs that are grounded in us from our childhood to hate other people and love our loved ones but no one. else. Life is to live to the fullest and let us do that.
Thats very candid Hemant. There are 2 thoughts
In my experience I think most people are not pure good or pure evil, most of us react to our circumstances. So judging others is usually a misplaced exercise.
Extreme admiration or extreme hatred is usually a result of ignorance. I had great admiration for certain societies and great hatred for a class of people. But now, since i know better, I realize there are shades of good and bad in everything.
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