Wednesday, August 6, 2008

The Partition Factor In the Status of Indian Muslims

The Partition Factor In The Status Of Indian Muslims
The moulding of Hindu attitudes towards Muslims, and the outcome for the Muslims of India.
By Shiv Sastry

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This article is thoughtful, but it would really help to acknowledge the apparent dichotomy in the reality of Indian Muslims.

The combat record of Indian Muslims in defending India, particularly against Pakistani aggression and terrorism, is exemplary. Several Muslim Indian soldiers have won the highest awards for heroism in the defence of India. Examples are Havildar Abdul Hameed, who was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra for his sacrifice in the battle of Khemkaran in 1965, and the many who fought in the 1971 war, and those who fought most recently in the 1999 Kargil War, where the JK Rifles regiment was among the first to scale the cliffs, and took heavy losses.

In representing India in international events such as cricket, many Muslim Indians have distinguished themseves, and everything about their conduct says: "Indian!" The same can largely be said of the role models from the Indian film industry, such as the famous star Mumtaz. Any isolated counter-examples have to be considered irrelevant in the face of massive evidence that Indian Muslims are thoroughly Indian.

I think adding some acknowedlgement of this would really enhance this article. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Shiv saar,

"Sadly, lack of understanding of these complex dynamics is causing some Muslims to resort to violence"
isn't this a bit of a leap? Are you saying that the root cause of Muslim violence in India is developmental? I disagree with such an assertion, which IMHO, is not much different from the psec crowd that finds faults with Hindus for any perceived grievance of Muslims.
If you have a deeper chankian motive for making this assertion, then that is a different story.

- Abhijit

August 7, 2008 11:36 AM

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,

>>This article is thoughtful, but it would really help to acknowledge the apparent dichotomy in the reality of Indian Muslims.

Is it really? Compare the number of Muslims in the armed forces vs their proportion of the population, even anecdotally, and your assertion falls flat. The examples you quote are the usual "feel good ones" trotted out whenever contentious issues are raised. But within the community, many muslim leaders have managed to make it clear that fighting fellow muslims is a no no.

If your examples are to be quoted, then in the interests of historical accuracy, one must evaluate the role of muslims in the loss of Chamb as well.

Like it or not, the handful of Muslims in the armed forces, media and high profile fields are more the exception than the rule.

As a thumbrule, the community remains in the middle class/lower middle class rung, with most successful IMs being traders, businessmen.

Regards
Ravi