An article in NYT says-":this is not India's 9/11." With all due respect to that particular event, nobody is in the mood for a comparative analysis. It further goes on to say that this event is homegrown and a reaction to discrimination against the islamic population in India.
We have lived in relative secular harmony for the last 500 years. I can personally say that young indians do not consider religion to be an important part of a person's identity. Events such as these however throw into disarray our shared secular beliefs and traditions of cultural tolerance.
As part of the world's largest democracy I have often argued against fundamentalism, defended the right of a minority population to have a voice larger than its collective sum and reveled in the notion of a "Mr nice guy" India. This blatant cowardly act of mass murder begs me to ask myself - "are my beliefs and values a cosmopolitan blunder?"
AS I sit at home watching horrible scenes enfold on my television screen, as commando units overrun my evening coffee destinations and monuments that have defined my city burn I feel helpless, vulnerable and horribly disenchanted.
I don't know when this situation will finally be brought under control. I don't know what will happen after, though I harbor a sneaking suspicion that this day wil be forgotten just like so many others before in a country where human life holds no value.
How many of us have sat in elegant living rooms and argued passionately about state corruption, condemned 'reactionary' measures and stylishly stated that "we love our neighbors."? Today it seems like empty rhetoric as the policemen we condemn for bribe taking die by the dozen, the army that is sent to jail to build vote banks act as human shields and our "neighbors" train 'jihadists' to spill the blood of innocents.
After this is all over we will get on with our lives. Trains will run, people will go back to work and high powered deals will be struck in the hotel by the bay. But for a generation reared on ideals of democracy, secularism and brotherhood, a generation that might be the last bastion of normalcy on an increasingly polarized globe the world might never be the same
