Akshara Kumar Chittoor writes on the Mumbai Terror Attacks:
Woke up this morning and thought, ‘Please God, let it be over!’ Got out of bed and headed straight to the television: pictures and reports of what I was dreading continued to spew from it – the encounters at the Taj, the Trident and Nariman House dragged on. I sat numbly and swallowed more information hurled at me – Numbers, speeches, tears, debates, and then the worst – the empty promises of pompous and blundering politicians, while our Maharashtra Police, ATS, Army, NSG and Navy stood in the line of fire.
This attack is novel, but for all the wrong reasons. It has been carried out on an unprecedented scale and at the time of writing this, has been going on for over 39 hours. Never have we witnessed such singularity of purpose, such meticulous and cold-blooded planning, such a breach of peace, such violence and bloodshed, or such helplessness, all at once. Hour after hour, the horror of this nightmare continues while the nation watches and prays. Millions heave a collective sigh of relief every time a hostage is released; millions feel that agonizing twist of pain every time a body is found.
I’m ashamed to confess, but till the night of 26th November, I was one of those Indians who had turned immune to terrorist attacks and the casualties that they claimed. It’s no excuse, but having being born in a time when killings in Kashmir and civil wars in Africa are part of one’s daily diet, news of 67 dead in Jaipur or 2 in Bangalore had become little more than numerals that were ingested as data and relegated to the shelf as mere statistics. As it is to several others, terrorism for me didn’t have a tangible, palpable side to it, a side that could wake me up with a jolt. Like a knife used too often, it had a blunted edge whose dull blows had little effect on me as their frequency increased. Like several others, after the fresh horror of the first attacks, all guns and bombs and meaningless deaths marched quietly to one corner of my pain-numbed brain, biding their time.
After the blasts in the local trains in Mumbai that killed 187 citizens, the Indian Express did one of the best things that any media house could have done – it gave the blasts a human face. It ran a series of stories – one on each of the blast victims and their families… And all of a sudden, the pain had story, a face. It had families and dreams and aspirations. The stories they ran all had a touch of familiarity. All those victims sounded like any one of us, or our neighbours, or family. And most importantly, it made us think ‘That could have been me’.
It is a pleasant surprise and very heartening to see that this time people are unwilling to label this ‘Islamic Terror‘. Perhaps it is the Muslim victims in this attack – whether a soon-to-be-wed waiter at Cafe Leopold or an elderly couple that stayed opposite the Nariman House, were no different than those of any other religion or nationality. They all fell innocent prey to emotionless bullets. Or maybe it is because people are tired of labelling terrorism with a religion since it hasn’t solved a single problem in the past.
But this unconscious decision that we have taken as a nation will probably help this war against terrorism more than any of us realize, simply because we are taking away the most powerful weapon that our politicians have – the Politics of Distraction. The policy of Divide and Rule, and to encourage and brainwash people into concentrating on non-issues such as religious and linguistic divides allow us to be ruled by fear and to fight amongst ourselves, giving our rulers ample time and money to fatten themselves and stay in power. But this time, we are turning to them as one and asking difficult questions in one voice, holding them accountable to us a Nation, not as a Hindu majority or a Muslim or Christian minority. No longer should they be allowed to get away with pointing a finger at extremist outfits, nor with feeble promises of strict laws and lame excuses. This time, they had better to get their act together.
It is unfortunate that it requires an event of this magnitude to wake people and politicians from their slumbers. This may be only a beginning, and it may take a long time for us to shake off our prejudices and ingrained fears, to learn to trust each other and to recognize the real enemy. But hopefully, India and the world will wake up before it is too late.
3 Comments
29 November, 08 at 1:56 pm
Last night, I watched Pranoy Roy attempt to muster the requisite tone and expression of disgust on his face as his telemonitor prompted the fact that although our Leader of Opposition had promised to accompany the Prime Minister to Bombay in a show of solidarity, they eventually came separately. He lamented on how, when in this horrendous crisis, the Nation was looking for a moment of unity between the two largest political parties in Parliament, yet we, the people, didn’t get even that. His theatrics apart, Mr. Roy made one vital point : he spoke of a moment of unity. And sadly, horrifically, detestably, but yet, perhaps inevitably, our collective grief for what has happened in Bombay may last no longer than just that, a moment.
People continue to speak of the ’spirit of Mumbai’. Top entrepreneurs project that the markets will not suffer much as a consequence of the tragedy. Various authors, journalists, news anchors are saying that ‘life will resume as normal’ soon, as if such detachment and indifference in the people of Bombay are qualities to be aspired to. Then again, what else can they do? Break down and cry? Strike work for days together out of a feeling of despondency (at least it’s a reason, and certainly better than some other reasons given by political figureheads in certain parts of the country)? Ironically, this mercenary ’spirit’ of the people of Bombay is all they have to help them deal with a disaster like this. People might have come on NDTV and wherever else and claimed that they have their fingers on the ‘pulse of Mumbai’ and that the common man is saying “Enough is enough!” But they are the kinds who are accustomed to having their dinners in the Taj. They will continue to have coffee table discussions of the horrors of the tragedy, of how vulnerable our coasts are to attack, how the Gateway of India is literally a little too easily so.
Over a hundred people died in this operation. Many were Muslim, many were Hindu, some were Jewish, some not even Indian. Admittedly, no specific community seemed to have been targeted. Even so, Akshara, perhaps it may have been better to say that what happened has not been branded as ‘Islamic Terrorism’ YET. I read this morning in the Indian express (page 2) that a Marathi daily called the ‘Saamna’ (edited by guess who?) has stated in an editorial that the top members of the ATS, who were killed on Wednesday, had been kept too busy probing the Malegaon blasts to pay attention to ‘Islamic Terrorism’. In this light, the political implications of the tragedy in Mumbai, and the likely blame game to follow, may easily be projected by the denizens of this long-suffering nation.
And here is another terrible projection that I make, hoping to God that I’m wrong – This tragedy is likely to dull in our memories, just like all the others that have preceded it. In a nation of over a billion people, the deaths of a few scores of people in places frequented by the rich (except CST which is the bastion of common men) will likely be relegated to the contents of a few books and temporary political rhetoric, but unfortunately not in the active consciousness of India as a whole for very long.
29 November, 08 at 6:46 pm
I wrote this piece 2 days after the entire carnage began, which is usually the time that it takes for alland sundry to label it ‘islamic terror’. and i was honestly happy to see that no one had done that vociferously..but like you said, ‘yet’! however, i hope that adult human beings are beginning to realize that thoughts are not lessons to be rattled off by a ‘head’, packaged and fed to the public in bite-sized pieces. and i hope that the certain daily that you refer to does not sway anyone brave enough to think that second thought, to think ‘maybe it isn’t about the muslims’…!
1 December, 08 at 3:11 pm
I agree with bikram and his projection, i would say patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.