Required: A More Critical Reading of Establishment Myths

When leading Pakistan lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan who had led the movement for the restoration of the judiciary said at a recent peace conference held in New Delhi that there were at least 40,50,60 locals who had helped a handful of Pakistanis execute the Mumbai terror attack, there was quite a stir amongst the audience. Indian Muslims in particular were concerned enough for some of them to approach Ahsan later and ask him if he had evidence to substantiate what he had said. It appeared he had not and was merely re-stating what the Pakistani establishment has tried to maintain in an attempt to divert Indian attention back into the Muslim mohallas and gali’s of India.

There is need to recognize that the Indian Muslim is a direct victim of terrorism in that he has been made to pay a heavy price for the terror attacks in India. He has been arrested, interrogated, tortured at will by the police with the help and support of the ruling governments in the states and the centre. His life has been ruined as a result as he has lost his job and his livelihood because of the illegal arrests. He has been made to respond to Pakistan sponsored terrorism, as if he is responsible for the violence. He now finds it difficult to get a house even in big cities like Delhi and Mumbai, and is the first to lose his job when companies start retrenching workers. He finds new suspicion and distrust in the eyes of those around him, and is made to feel guilty for terrorism he barely understands and definitely does not support.

So when any person from Pakistan, more so who is seen as liberal and concerned, insists that Kasab and his colleagues had local support it strikes terror in the Indian Muslim’s heart and is viewed with major concern by the secular constituency of India. For it gives a handle to the governments and right wing groups here to further castigate the Muslims, and insist that they be held accountable for the violence emanating from Pakistan. The BJP and the RSS revels in this, and the Congress these days is not far behind in spreading distrust and resentment against the minorities.

It is therefore important for the peace constituency of both India and Pakistan to factor in sensitivities that allow the right wing in both countries to gain in strength. The jihadi groups in Pakistan as well as the radical right take tremendous encouragement from divisions in Indian society, and one of the aims of the terrorist groups is to isolate the Indian Muslims from the mainstream as far as possible. Communal and shortsighted governments in India are encouraged to further this process, and this makes it all the more necessary for the thinking people of both countries not to give fodder for further alienation unless there is sufficient proof and evidence.

The issue of local involvement was raised in India after the Mumbai attack. Hundreds of Muslim youth were rounded up as a direct consequence but fortunately they were all released as no evidence was found of local complicity. The Pakistan government, unfortunately and perhaps even deliberately, started insisting that the terrorists were not on their own, and had got logistical and other support from sleeper cells in Mumbai and other parts of India. This if taken to its logical conclusion would have encouraged a Andhra type response from the Maharashtra government and security forces, with Muslims not just being detained but tortured for evidence. In Hyderabad not a single policeman has been made to pay for the illegal detention and terrible torture of young Muslims detained for days and weeks for alleged involvement in terror attacks. All were finally released as no evidence substantiating the charges was found, but not before their lives were ruined with many of them still unable to pick up the pieces.

Fortunately sense prevailed, and perhaps because of state and other elections the Congress and the NCP decided to go by evidence rather than for political propaganda targeting a community. This helped matters greatly, and infused such a sense of relief that many Muslims in Maharashtra actually voted for the Congress despite deep anger and resentment. There is now an Indian consensus that Mumbai was a clear Pakistani operation and that sleeper cells were not involved, or at least till date the police has not found any evidence to substantiate this. And for once the political ruling class has decided to go by evidence instead of planting stories for the electronic and print media to sensationalise.

Pakistan, of course, has been insisting otherwise and clearly the propaganda has found an echo in civil society despite its commitment to peace. The impact of this has been adverse here, as the huge Muslim constituency in India has virtually decided to keep out of the peace process altogether. Very few Muslim journalists, academics, intelligentsia as it were are involved in the peace process with a senior historian confiding at one stage that “it is just not worth it, the Pakistanis are not particularly open to receiving Muslim inputs from here.” There is a strange disconnect that needs to be further analysed, as while Muslims do not hesitate to visit their relatives in Pakistan there is a certain distance that they are not willing to bridge.

One explanation of course is that they are scared of taking a position lest they be further branded as Pakistan sympathizers, ISI agents etc etc. And Islamabad’s insistence that they are involved in terror attacks adds to this even further. But there is more to it than just this. There is a certain disinterest born perhaps out of a realization that the Indian Muslim and the Pakistani Muslim are really pitted against each other in even their understand of partition. For the Indian Muslim who decided to stay back partition was a body blow, and even today (despite Gujarat) they believe staunchly that this should never have happened. For the Pakistani Muslim partition was the logical conclusion of his struggle and an endorsement of the two nation theory that he as staunchly believes was the only way forward. In that sense the Indian Muslim by just existing provides a striking counter to the two nation theory, and this gap in perceptions and beliefs has not been bridged as yet.

Right wing groups in both countries seek to widen the gap, with the RSS committed to reducing the Indian Muslim to a second class citizen and the jihadi groups and their mentors keen to help the process so that the two nation theory in their limited view is vindicated. The peace constituency on both sides must realise that this is politics dipped in blood and violence, and that Pakistan is a sovereign nation making one, two or three nation theories totally obsolete. It should also be obvious that peace can have but a limited impact if Indian Muslims are left out of it altogether and that all sections of society as well as all provinces and states have to be involved in taking the process forward.

Peace can and should be a uniting force where peoples’ can have their differences with the central governments on autonomy and sovereignty issues, but join hands to ensure a violence free region so that the internal problems can be addressed by governments that currently remain preoccupied with issues of conflict and strife.