Muslim India

Embedded comments on IndianMuslims.in Blog:

Sudie on June 2nd, 2008 2:33 pm :
Mr Ghulam Mohammad

We had a MK Gandhi arriving 80 Years earlier through grassroot support before someone started screaming “Change”….this frail man said “Quit India” and moved masses before there was a CNN. Of course as far as you may be concerned he was a fake Indian also, as much as the entire Indian democracy and constitution.

[You stole my words. If you recall Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had settled in South Africa, founded an ashram around his creed of non-violence. British colonialists, always looking ways and means to pacify their Indian colony, right from the days of the first Indian Mutiny, chose Gandhi as a pacifier, organised his transformation from a European dude to an Indian ‘fakeer’, managed his homecoming in a big way, by getting Mohammed Ali Jinnah, (another British choice to further orderly political affairs in restless India – Jinnah never took to the street – once a lawyer always a lawyer.) to organise a grand reception in Bombay. The rest is history. GM]


I guess being genuine as per you is a prerogative of Muslim rule - the one that we see under the Taliban and under Aurangzeb.

[Sudie should focus on the current discussion on India, its democracy and its current ethnic divide between Hindus and Muslims and the extreme alternatives of Hindu or Muslim Raj. By meandering over space and time --- citing Taliban and Aurangzeb --- he is running away from serious discussion. He has every right to ask what will be the future shape of a Muslim state, organised and run like a modern state or a repeat of the old story. But using pent up fury to overtake his common sense; he is not contributing to a very serious and productive discussion.]

Let me assure you that the very fact that people like you can make statements like this under the guise of “Freedom of Speech” is proof enough that we at least respect democracy, if not, have implemented it.

[There is no doubt India of today has a great show of ‘freedom of speech’. Muslim news and views is always papered over and thrown in waste basket. Read last week’s Indian Express interview of Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendera Modi. He is seething at the very use of the word Muslim by the IE interviewer:

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/317409.html

•While B S Yeddyurappa did acknowledge your role, he also inducted a Muslim minister into the Karnataka cabinet. Should other BJP governments follow suit?

Our party has leaders from all sections of society.

•But five BJP states don’t have Muslim representation. Should Gujarat have a minister from the Muslim community?

It is time you stopped seeing people in terms of Hindus and Muslims. Let Indians live as Indians.

[For Modi, Muslims should be acknowledged as Muslims only for killing --- so they can be wiped out from Indian soil. GM]

•How does one deal with social tensions arising out of caste-based privileges?

I come from a backward community, so I would not like to comment on this. But the pie must be expanded by inclusive growth so as to enable everyone to have their share.

•Would that include the Muslims as well?

This is a stupid question. Does developmental work differentiate between a Hindu and a Muslim?

•Does Gujarat need a healing touch after the post-Godhra riots?

The cases are in the Supreme Court and then there is a commission constituted for them. It won’t be proper for me to say anything that might affect the cases one way or the other. Also, why this obsession with this Hindu-Muslim thing? Didn’t our party take the initiative for a Muslim president?

[For one Muslim nominal ceremonial president, how many Muslim lives will become free for arrests, torture, kill? How many Muslim communities will be strangled to die in their poverty and lack of economic opportunities? Is this a fair tradeoff and who is to judge on that. A known Muslim-baiter like Modi! GM]

Another current example of ‘freedom of speech’ in India that Sudie is so proud about:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080602/world/india_media_times_gujarat_sedition_1

Times of India faces sedition charges from police

Mon Jun 2, 7:07 AM

AHMEDABAD (AFP) - The Times of India said Monday it is facing sedition charges from the police for allegedly questioning the competence of a senior officer in volatile Gujarat state.

Editor Bharat Desai and a senior reporter with the Ahmedabad edition have been charged along with a photographer for the Gujarat Samachar newspaper, the Times told AFP.

The leading English-language broadsheet was seeking legal advice after being informed of the charges, although they had “not yet got copies of the charges filed against Desai and (Prashant) Dayal,” a journalist said, asking not to be named.

Ahmedabad police declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

The charges, which include criminal conspiracy, stem from a series of investigative reports questioning the alleged links of new Ahmedabad police chief O.P. Mathur with a mafia don and his ability to guarantee security in the city.

Mathur was appointed to the job just last month in Ahmedabad, the western state’s commercial capital, which is reported to figure high on the hit-list of several Islamic rebel groups.
“As a leading responsible newspaper, it was our duty to highlight the past of the man who is the new commissioner,” Desai told NDTV news channel.

The daily wrote on its front-page Monday that “the reports essentially were a scrutiny of the track record of the top cop in view of the challenge posed by terrorists.”

Hundreds of journalists and rights activists protested Monday outside Mathur’s office, chanting slogans against attempts to “muzzle the media.”

“This is a conspiracy against freedom of the press and we want that everyone across the country speaks up against this,” said Rathin Das, a senior journalist with the rival Hindustan Times.

Rights activist Cedric Prakash said the charges were “symbolic of the fascist mindset of an administration which does not care about the constitutional rights of its citizens, especially freedom of speech and expression.”

Gujarat, ruled by Hindu nationalists, witnessed widespread rioting in 2002 when mainly Hindu mobs rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods killing at least 2,000 Muslims.

The rioting followed a fire in a train carriage that killed 59 Hindu pilgrims.]





If your perception of justice to Muslims is about Feudal lords enjoying harems, exploiting poor peasants and seeking Jehad; I guess India then will never be your country.

[This harangue is not worth responding to. Feudalism worked across religions.]

India wants to be a where hard work, perseverance pays.

[Hard work, intelligence, merit are all tools of exclusion by the previllaged classes. Welfare states have other more humane inclusive criteria to sustain a peaceful and harmonious society.]

Yes, we have our problems - a multi-cultural, poverty stricken population but we are moving in the right direction with our eyes towards the stars. Where as you seem to be focused on past g(l)ory of “Muslim” Rule revisiting India.

[About the past glory: Note this quote from Lord Macaulay’s speech in British Parliament:

"I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country ….”

Can Sudie compare India of the past with India of the present? Lord Macaulay had traveled in India, in the aftermath of Mughal rule.]

I will be interested to know what as per you is genuine secularism. Saudi Arabia, Taliban, Pakistan or Iran perhaps?? Of course the success of “fake” muslim professionals coming from middle classes (and not feudal landowners) under this “fake” democracy is not a factor worth considering.

Labels: British India, freedom of speech, Hindus, India, Lord Macaulay, Mahatama Gandhi, Mughal India, Muslims