Moderates on both sides must assert themselves

The Hindu, July 17, 2006
Moderates on both sides must assert themselves
Foqia Sadiq Khan

THE CAMERA was moving from one room to the other, from the gate to the courtyard. Walls were splashed with blood and holed by assailants' weapons. The documentary was showing the haunted house of a former Congress MP Iqbal Ehsan Jaffri where more than 200 people were brutally killed. Jaffri got out of the house to surrender and beg mercy for his co-religionists who had taken refuge in his house. Before surrendering, he called state functionaries and politicians in Gujarat and Delhi, sent frantic faxes across the country but got no support from anywhere while waiting for a cruel death. Time was up for him and his people. This was Gujarat in 2002. The skyline of Ahmedabad was filled with smoke as Muslim households, buildings, and shops were set on fire by rioting mobs.

Would the horrendous attacks on Mumbai's Western Railway mimic the Gujarat carnage? The signs so far are encouraging. The Mumbai Police Commissioner quickly made an appeal for people to stay "calm." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his address to the nation further emphasised, "Do not be provoked by rumours. Do not let anyone divide us. Our strength lies in our unity." The real test is to see whether communal hatred will be whipped once the dust from the Mahim, Bandra, Matunga, Borivili, Mira Road, Jogeshwari, and Khar railway tracks settles.

An obvious reaction to the Mumbai blasts could be a backlash against Muslims in the State of Maharashtra. It seems as if the perpetrators of the bomb blasts were not bothered about the fallout of their actions on Indian Muslims. It falls into the pattern since Muslims have been killed regularly in terrorist attacks within the Muslim countries and outside. The political end of terrorism justifies the means, no matter what. If Hindu extremist groups such as the Shiv Sena were successful in turning anger over an awful tragedy into a communal frenzy, how effective would official pronouncements be in this situation?

What are terrorists trying to achieve by killing and maiming innocent commuters in the financial hub of India? A number of conjectures are floating: a) senseless violence, b) Muslim extremist groups with Kashmir connections such as Lashkar-e-Taiba trying to destabilise the Indo-Pakistan peace process, c) the Mumbai underworld launching an assault with the help of a transnational terror network. Coordinated bomb blasts on Mumbai's railways resonate attacks on the financial hubs of New York and London. If these attacks are a one-off letting off of terrorists' frustration, they are not going to destabilise Mumbai or India. Mumbai has already bounced back; its Stock Exchange has surged, its Railway was back on wheels the very next day.

However, the Mumbai attacks could lead to a slowing down of the peace process between India and Pakistan, if not derailment. Though India has not blamed Pakistan for the violence and Pakistan has condemned the attacks unequivocally, there is a visible unease between the two governments. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri has reportedly linked Mumbai attacks with lack of progress in the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Though the link is rather obvious, it was imprudent of Mr. Kasuri to have made such a brusque proclamation while Mumbai was picking up bodies from the tracks. The Indian government has rebuffed these claims, asked Pakistan not to make Kashmir-oriented linkages and to concentrate on rooting out terrorism from its soil.

Terrorist attacks such as Mumbai expose the "clash of civilisations" myth. The clash is evident within nations rather than across so-called civilisations. In the Muslim world, there is a deeply entrenched feeling of being wronged by the world powers and injustices being done to Muslims in Kashmir, Palestine, Iraq, and other places. However, moderate and extremist Muslims sharply differ in their response to injustices. Extremists resort to violence within the Muslim countries and outside.

Moderates are largely for non-violent means to address grievances. Simplistically speaking, moderates are for "modernity" and economic development. In Pakistan they are, by and large, for improving relations between India and Pakistan. On the other side, extremist Hindus and secular Indians fiercely differ in their communal politics, among other things. Clash of ideologies within nations is spreading its tentacles.

If the Mumbai attacks were indeed carried out by pro-Kashmir Muslim extremists, they have done a great favour to Hindu extremists such as the Shiv Sena. Its leader Bal Thackeray could not have asked for a more appropriate action than an attack on Mumbai trains to reinforce the Shiv Sena's sliding popularity. Extremists from both sides are mirror images of each other and they boost the "other" side by their attacks against innocent civilians.

Notwithstanding the electoral victory of religious parties in the NWFP and Balochistan in 2002, extremists are a small minority in Pakistan. Despite having some linkages in the corridors of power, they are largely voiceless. Hence, they speak through their terror by emulating the so-called transnational jihad culture. Hindu extremists have ruled India in the recent past and are a political force to reckon with even now. Yet, they seem to be a phenomenon in decline.

In the aftermath of the Mumbai blasts, India and Pakistan need to take long term measures. Moderates on both sides of the border need to claim more space in the state institutions (including the military) and the civil society to assert themselves better. Linked to it is the necessity of greater effort in Pakistan to deal with terrorist networks. India is required to break free from its fossilised realpolitik and effectively address issues of justice such as suppression of people in Kashmir.

However, the immediate measure needed the most is to prevent a Gujarat-like backlash against Muslims in India. The Indian government, human rights groups, and the international community need to do all they can to stop massacre, if such a situation arises.

(The writer is a social science researcher in Islamabad and is interested in peace and human rights issues.)