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Fires of Communalism - Sunanda Vashisht Sunanda Vashisht was born in the beautiful valley of Kashmir, India when Kashmir was known for its unparalleled natural beauty and not as a cauldron of fear and terror. She did most of her schooling in Delhi and dabbled with several professions before moving to U.S last year. she is currently pursuing higher studies here. she likes to introduce herself as an explorer because she wants to spend all her time in this world exploring unknown. Writing for her is a cathartic experience. She can't remember when she began writing first but she does know that writing has always helped her to be at peace with herself and with the world around her.

Last week has produced the sense of déjà vu in me. The newspaper reports and the television coverage seem to be a repetition of what I have witnessed twelve years ago in Kashmir and after that in Bombay in '92 riots. After every carnage, every blood bath we all sit up and tell ourselves that the violence has to be stopped. After all we are civilized citizens of civilized nation. We have other things to worry about than killing another fellow citizen because he doesn't subscribe to the same religion. After all there is nothing that cannot be discussed and nothing that cannot be solved on the discussion table. But come another provocation, or another opportunity we are out on roads ready to slit each other's throats.

About this week's violent incidents one has heard and read enough of who is to blame and who started it. The massacre of karsewaks in Godhra and the retaliation both are very unfortunate incidents and so is the comeback of Ayodhya issue on the political agenda. We seem to be back in square one where nobody is listening to anybody and where we seem to be intolerant of anything and everything.

I have always known myself to be of secular outlook. I was raised that way and the people I associated myself mostly with had the same secular outlook. Back then it was easy to call yourself secular and the definition seemed pretty simple. Now it has become more complicated and convoluted. Today when you are talking about secularism most people think of you as a coward who sits on the fence and is on neither side. Earlier it was not so. Earlier being secular meant having an all encompassing worldview where everyone fitted no matter what his or her religious ideologies are. Today one seems to be attacked for supporting secular viewpoint. I wonder what went wrong. I wonder why secularism like communism suddenly became such a bad word. The half-baked leaders of both religions who use religion as a tool to meet their ends undoubtedly did a lot of damage. The middle of the road or erstwhile secularists seem to have been effectively excluded of their usefulness. They are not covered on the TV channels because they have nothing 'chatpata' or interesting to offer. After all they are talking about the age-old maxims of peace and brotherhood which seems boring anyway.

If we look at the wider picture we will realize that the hundreds of muslims who burnt the train bogeys are as innocent as the karsewaks who were returning in the train. The real culprits are the extremist leadership of both these communities who clearly treat religion as their own personal toys that can be used for whatever reason they choose to. Every time the communal fire flares in our country it is because of these people of faith who have neither learning nor piety and cannot serve as good role models for this generation. I find Ashok Singhal's ideology as dangerous and as provocative as that of Shahi Imam's because if you see clearly they both share the same myopic view of the religion. They both would like to see people dying for religion rather than living by it while they sit in their safe and secure surroundings and deliver speeches that can easily ignite the youth.

Before we start finding faults with the other religions it is imperative that we set our houses in order. I don't know what will be the outcome of the temple issue but the hope lies in the silent majority of both these communities who should come forward and say that we need hospitals and schools more desperately than temples and mosques. It is for the silent majority, which comprises you and me to stand up and reject organizations that tell us that the only way we can prove ourselves to be a good hindus or good muslims is by dying for our faith.

I believe that I can be a good hindu by living for my faith in a way my scriptures tell me to. They tell me that killing an innocent person even in the act of retaliation is a crime and so would the scriptures tell every muslim.

Today after one week of Gujrat carnage we should hang our heads in shame because all of us are to some extent responsible for these events. We all need to protest to free our faiths from the extremist ideology and give life a chance. We all in our own small way need to infuse decency back in our religions.

With very heavy heart we at SAWF pray for the innocent victims especially children in these riots. May the good sense prevail.

Till we connect again...

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