When Dolly first moved into the colony of Nizamuddin West, in New Delhi, friends and family asked why. She had no real answer except West is where you see the village that has grown into the Delhi, that is.
But, they said, aren’t you afraid. It is minority-dominated. You mean Muslim, she corrected, wondering how `political’ terminology permeated into every day conversations—like Gujarat `business’ for riots. A builder acquaintance said, hurry madam, get out of there, what’ll you do if it all blows up?
What can we do if it all blows up, she thought? As a nation where can we go? There is no place to hide. We have no choice but to make it work. There lies the quest for civilization---the search for the ideal. `Or what’s heaven for?’ said poet Robert Browning.
For Buddhists it is behaviour as a man that exalts you to the status of a boddhisatva. Clearly the behaviour of nations too is the desired key. Today we urgently need to introspect how we behave as a nation if we are to be in the company of great civilizations. It’s not really about politics this imagined clash of cultures, it’s about a perceived aesthetics, the aesthetics of behaviour, the chasm caused by `we’ against `they’. Take the `Jamia Nagar Incident’, when a vicious pamphlet circulated by ABVP called Vice Chancellor Mushir ul Hasan a `Rashtriyadrohi’ and for a case to be registered against him for anti-national activities. Reason: he offered legal aid to 2 students till they were proven guilty. Have we gone insane? By this yardstick will there be any patriot left? Will the actions of a few tar an institution with suspicion and disgrace? If a community is perceived to be beleaguered what would you do? Diffuse a situation or light the proverbial matchstick to a haystack.
Conversely though, the `victimization’ by actors Parvez Hashmi and Shabana Azmi is clearly playing to the gallery. They rally against the same Mumbai that propelled them to stardom (and for her a Rajya Sabha ticket) without prejudice. Have a heart Hashmi, Bhatt, and Azmi. Surely you were not victims then, so why now? To pin every disadvantage one receives in life to merely religion is not playing ball. But with media listening to this voice of expediency for TRP’s, who can resist.
If `expediency’ is the means to success then as Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist Zen master, says as a nation we need to go into retreat, to reflect and understand our behaviour. Be it through the actions of Bajrang Dal or Indian Mujahuddeeen, we are desperately seeking `violent’ means to face the identity crises we have. Is this what we want to leave to our children? The legacy of the Gandhi-Nehru years was `azadi’. Today we ask azadi for what? Are we too desperately seeking an `India’, unable to define ourselves, taking recourse to purging ourselves as a nation?
In Nizamuddin we remember the saying: Humayun ki qabr pe chirag jalta nahin hain, (but) par Auliya ke Dargah par rohini hi roshinii. Awareness of the mind of the other is true compassion and where true compassion is, chirag bujh nahin sakte.
But, they said, aren’t you afraid. It is minority-dominated. You mean Muslim, she corrected, wondering how `political’ terminology permeated into every day conversations—like Gujarat `business’ for riots. A builder acquaintance said, hurry madam, get out of there, what’ll you do if it all blows up?
What can we do if it all blows up, she thought? As a nation where can we go? There is no place to hide. We have no choice but to make it work. There lies the quest for civilization---the search for the ideal. `Or what’s heaven for?’ said poet Robert Browning.
For Buddhists it is behaviour as a man that exalts you to the status of a boddhisatva. Clearly the behaviour of nations too is the desired key. Today we urgently need to introspect how we behave as a nation if we are to be in the company of great civilizations. It’s not really about politics this imagined clash of cultures, it’s about a perceived aesthetics, the aesthetics of behaviour, the chasm caused by `we’ against `they’. Take the `Jamia Nagar Incident’, when a vicious pamphlet circulated by ABVP called Vice Chancellor Mushir ul Hasan a `Rashtriyadrohi’ and for a case to be registered against him for anti-national activities. Reason: he offered legal aid to 2 students till they were proven guilty. Have we gone insane? By this yardstick will there be any patriot left? Will the actions of a few tar an institution with suspicion and disgrace? If a community is perceived to be beleaguered what would you do? Diffuse a situation or light the proverbial matchstick to a haystack.
Conversely though, the `victimization’ by actors Parvez Hashmi and Shabana Azmi is clearly playing to the gallery. They rally against the same Mumbai that propelled them to stardom (and for her a Rajya Sabha ticket) without prejudice. Have a heart Hashmi, Bhatt, and Azmi. Surely you were not victims then, so why now? To pin every disadvantage one receives in life to merely religion is not playing ball. But with media listening to this voice of expediency for TRP’s, who can resist.
If `expediency’ is the means to success then as Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist Zen master, says as a nation we need to go into retreat, to reflect and understand our behaviour. Be it through the actions of Bajrang Dal or Indian Mujahuddeeen, we are desperately seeking `violent’ means to face the identity crises we have. Is this what we want to leave to our children? The legacy of the Gandhi-Nehru years was `azadi’. Today we ask azadi for what? Are we too desperately seeking an `India’, unable to define ourselves, taking recourse to purging ourselves as a nation?
In Nizamuddin we remember the saying: Humayun ki qabr pe chirag jalta nahin hain, (but) par Auliya ke Dargah par rohini hi roshinii. Awareness of the mind of the other is true compassion and where true compassion is, chirag bujh nahin sakte.
