| War on Terror | |
| 10 Sep 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com | |
| A Decade after 9/11, Indian Jihad Still Thrives | |
By Praveen Swami |
Our culture of hate: India's key failure since 9/11 has been the inability to hold honest national conversation about communal violence, and the ways in which it is embedded in our cultures: a key cause of the persistence of the jihadist movement. Even though our national credo holds that Indian culture is exceptional in its tolerance, that very culture has often generated unimaginable violence. In the middle class liberal rendition of events, Muslims are victims of a betrayal of our syncretic values; in the Hindu nationalist account, Muslims are the villains who betrayed it. In practice, that means politics which either panders to fundamentalists or demonises Muslims. Neither narrative corresponds closely to reality. The truth, sadly, is that communalism is an organic part of the warp and weft of our cultures. Except in a few otherwise liberal Indian families, would not the children of cross-communal marriages be an object of intense disputation? Housing apartheid and job discrimination remain organic parts of the experience of everyday reality for Muslims. Even though India has embraced technological modernity, its culture is yet to secularise. -- Praveen Swami http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamWarOnTerror_1.aspx?ArticleID=5450 | ||
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