A Forgotten People

By Lubna Hussain

They flash across our screens every now and then. An old man, his weather-beaten face streaked with tears, hopelessly clutching a set of ancient iron keys in his calloused hands. A widow in a head scarf perched on top of a pile of rubble, beating her chest, mourning the loss of what was once her home. A stone-throwing youth kneeling, blindfolded, with his hands tied behind his back bashed ruthlessly and repeatedly in the head with the butt of a machine gun. A baby with blue lips swaddled in its blanket that doubles up as a shroud.

These are images of a forgotten people. Seconds of camera footage that prick our conscience momentarily. We immediately flick the channel to escape the misery from which they have no respite. Their crime? They were born Palestinian. Their punishment? Well, it really depends on who’s watching and what sort of a mood their Israeli tormentors are in.

“Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass explosions among the Arabs of the territories,” postulated Benjamin Netanyahu, the former Israeli prime minister, in 1989. But the irony of such a monstrous statement is that Israel didn’t need to rely on the diversion other global atrocities provided in order for it to conduct its own. After all, Israel is the proverbial spoilt child that the world consistently and unashamedly indulges.

Its penchant for ethnic cleansing, sponsoring state terror, practicing apartheid, bulldozing houses, and stealing Palestinian land barely merits the gentlest of admonitions. “Our darling golden child,” say its protractors, “we already kicked out those nasty Arabs from their ancestral homes, let you abuse and torture them without getting cross and even gave you billions of dollars in pocket money. Do you think you could give back a teeny-weeny bit of their most useless land?” But when that Israeli lip begins to quiver, its superpower parent benignly watches as yet another part of East Jerusalem is snatched away from its legitimate owners.

A modern-day equivalent would be to take the survivors of the Darfur genocide, relocate them to Texas, force the existing residents out of their homes, set up a few refugee camps to house them, designate the areas with oil fields to the immigrants and expect the Texans to be delighted about their newfound predicament. Those who complain are labeled agitators. Those who have the gall to fight back? Terrorists. That is how grossly absurd the whole conundrum is.

The Independent newspaper of Britain carried a disturbing report recently about the violent abuse of Arab civilians at the hands of Israeli soldiers in Hebron. A group of former conscripts calling themselves Shovrim Shtika, or “Breaking the Silence”, talked candidly about how they routinely “beat up Palestinian residents without provocation, looted homes and shops and opened fire on unarmed demonstrators.” In one account they “really beat the shit out of” a ten-year-old Palestinian boy who was then asked, “Is it here you want to die? Or there?”

They narrated incidents of “losing the human condition” in the occupied territories. When asked what that meant, a soldier clarified “to lose the human condition is to become an animal”. This is the level of dehumanization that the Palestinians have faced for 60 years. Need I say more? Or rather, can I say more?

For documenting facts can have you very conveniently labeled as being anti-Semitic, racist and insensitive. Speak up about the power of the Zionist lobby, talk about America’s role in unashamedly endorsing and funding Israel’s policy of genocide, draw attention to arbitrary executions, question why it is that a separation wall is built cordoning off 3.5 million people into a ghetto plagued by starvation, disease and death and guess what? Your career, your credibility, your friends, can all disappear overnight. That is the price you pay for exercising “freedom of speech” in the lands that proselytize to us in the Third World their lofty democratic ideals. But that doesn’t stop several Jewish writers, intellectuals, rabbis and groups like “Breaking the Silence” to “force Israeli society to address the reality which it created” where the “proper normative becomes despicable, the inconceivable becomes routine.” Even if it does put them on the SHIT (Self-Hating Israel Threatening) list.

“We don’t deal with terrorists,” Western leaders say with great aplomb. They forget to include the caveat “unless they are Israeli.” Menachem Begin, the former Israeli prime minister, headed the Irgun organization that was responsible for perpetrating the massacre of over 100 unarmed villagers, mostly elderly men, women and children in the village of Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948. Ariel Sharon, more instantly recognizable in his role as The Butcher than Israeli prime minister was responsible for the deaths of 1800 men, women and children in Lebanon in 1983. “Israel may have the right to put others on trial,” he said famously in 2001, “but no one has the right to put the Jewish people and Israel on trial.”

Perhaps this is why Israel behaves with such flagrant impunity when it comes to disrespecting every single UN resolution that has ever been passed with regards to the Palestinian right to return.

Next Sunday US President George Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are all billed to attend Israel’s ostentatious 60th birthday celebrations. Whilst world leaders sit back and watch folk dancing, the dispossessed will be commemorating their genocide, humiliation and pure unadulterated misery. Words that once upon a time used to be synonymous with being Jewish now constitute the very essence of being Palestinian. There will be no celebration. Only reminiscences of a time when in order to repatriate victims of the Holocaust and assuage the conscience of a guilt-ridden Europe, an entire people became subject to a Holocaust itself.

Pakistan: Whose child is it anyway?

The Pakistanis have got their Father of the Nation all mixed up! Long before M.A Jinnah came up with his moronic two-nation theory in 1939, the following “gentlemen” had beaten him to it.

“The Hindus are a nation in themselves…..I would want the Muslims to have the NWFP, West Punjab, Sindh and East Bengal in a clear partition of India into Hindu and Non-Hindu India”

Lala Lajpat Rai, Former Congress Leader, “Freedom Fighter” and a founding member of the Hindu Mahasabha (The Tribune: Dec 14, 1924) : Available in the National Archives, New Delhi.

” There are two nations in the main, the Hindus and the Muslims in India”

“……We Hindus are marked out as an abiding nation in ourselves…….All people born in India are not Indians, the test is whether they are willing to accept the superiority of the Hindu nation…….The Muslim Nation cant be co equal in authority to the Hindu Nation..The Hindu Nation is to be dominant and the Muslim Nation servient…..The Muslims should adopt a position of subordinate co-operation with the Hindus.”

Vinayak Damodar “Veer” Savarkar, “freedom fighter”, Hindu Mahasabha President and RSS idealogue. Speaking at the Ahmedabad Session of the Hindu Mahasabha in 1937 and in his essay, “Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?” (Pg 130-133). Also see B R Ambedkar’s excellent analysis of Savarkarism.

“Hindu Nationalism forms the bedrock of our national edifice…This is a Hindu Nation..”

M.S Golwalkar, RSS founder; in “Bunch of Thoughts” (Pg 126, 135)

“The Hindu Mahasabha was responsible to a very large extent for India’s partition”

R.C Majumdar, RSS member, Trustee of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and eminent historian in “Struggle for Freedom” (Pg 611)

The Pakistanis are better off adopting one of these guys as their Quaid-e-Azam. Jinnah pales in front of these chaps.

No Lean task this!

March 25th marked the centenary year of David Lean, one of my favourite directors. I must confess I have’nt seen most of Lean’s films and am told most of his later work, notably a Passage to India, was a “truckload of shit”, but that does’nt detract one bit from his work that I did like, The Bridge on the River Kwai. I remember seeing it many years ago. It came as a late night movie on Star Movies and I watched it long after my parents were asleep. Usually my late night TV viewing is dedicated to sleazy shows like “Hot &Wild” or “Happy Birthday” on FTV. However I remember that night was different. I could’nt catch most of the dialogues and the story sometimes went over my head (I was barely 11, okay!)…(umm..yeah I did watch FTV even then!)..but the thing that struck me most powerfully was the visuals. Man! The cinematography was gorgeous! The visuals didnt just hit you, they seemed to envelop you. The suffering of the POWs and the war appeared so near. Alec Guinness as Col. Nick was fabulous and so was William Holden. Long after the movie had ended, I lay twisting and turning, unable to get the film out of my mind. A more or less similar thing happened with Lean’s other masterpiece, Lawrence of Arabia. I have seen it about a dozen times now and am yet to be bored. There was something very arresting in Lean’s work, some sort of a “Leanism”. I am yet to figure it out though!

Bravo David!

204112

Ban the Bastards!

One often hears of illiteracy, poverty, unemployment and inequalities banded about as the greatest of curses facing mankind. However one fact that all seem to be neglecting is that all these ills can exist only in a society. Only an organised human society breeds them. If there is no society, they too wont exist. Hence you can look forward to their eradication in a century or so. But, you would ask, why is society in danger? The answer is simple: Religious Hatred and Fanaticism.

Hatred for another person is nothing new. The Romans hated the barbarians, the Jews; gentiles, Christians; non-Christians and Muslims; non-Muslims. However the disturbing trend started about half a century ago when political parties that infact thrived solely on stoking up religious and ethnic tension, started to get into governments and implementing their fanatic policies. Hitler’s Nazi Party is a prime example.

I’ll confine myself to India here. For close to 50 centuries now, Indian culture has prided itself on its openness and ability to embrace all. It is true that this openness was not extended to its some of its own people who were treated as Untouchables. However, by and large the Indian ethos has been one of tolerance. Something that is sadly under seige today. And the worst part is that the people who are responsible for this seige are today the ones who rule India.

Bharatiya Janta Party: The BJP, as it is otherwise known is probably the most successful of these fanatics. Bharat Jalao Party would be a more apt name for a party that in 28 years of its existence has already carved a trail of blood throughout India. Perhaps the most macabre dance of mass communilastion was orchestrated by its leader, LK Advani (also known as AdolfVani). From 1989-92, Advani and his cohorts started more than 80 riots throughout India that claimed more than 30,000 lives, 12,000 in Bhagalpur alone where victims of mass murder were buried in shallow cauliflower fields. It then demolished the 400 year old Babri Masjid, claiming it to be the Ram Janambhoomi Temple in the absence of any archaeological evidence. It has been exploiting Ram’s name ever since, holding shilanyases, karsevas and what not! Through the backing of NRIs (Neophyte and Renegade Indians) it enjoyed power for close to 6 years, when it oversaw a mass holocaust in Gujarat and numerous other riots throughout North and Central India. Ousted from power in 2004, it is currently in the process of creating another Ayodhya in Bhojshala and Baba Budangiri. Definitely a confirmed party of motherfuckers!

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimin: A much smaller party than its saffron counterpart, this is nevertheless, another confirmed party of S.O.Bs. It has virtually run Old Hyderabad for 40 years now. A party run in mafia fashion, it has orchestrated more than 20 riots in Hyderabad and in the process has made the Old City the most underdeveloped and decrepit part of Hyderabad. It has the dubious credit of having made peaceful Hyderabad, a communal hotspot. Having brought nothing but misery to the people, it deserves a well placed kick on the ass. The sooner its leaders are arrested and their gangland connections investigated, the better it’ll be.

Akali Dal: The Sikh counterpart of the above two moron associations, this party played a most shameful role in the Punjab of late 70s and 80s. It whipped up hatred against the indigeneous Non-Sikhs there and still openly swears by Bhindranwale and his bunch of mad dogs aka The Khalistanis. The industrious Sikhs were put to untold hardships because of these loony morons and for 20 years, development all but stopped in Punjab. Real deservers of the ugly finger.

Also earning a honourable mention in my list of bastards are:

Indian Union Muslim League: For running a party solely based on religion and swearing by the two nation formula of Savarkar and Jinnah.

Indian National Congress: For directly patronizing the Khalistani menace under Sanjay Gandhi’s directions, For massacring Sikhs is 1984, for consistently bowing to fantics of all kinds, For allowing the growth of BJP and communal politics through its inaction and covert collusion and for espousing soft Hindutva, a malaise no less than its hardcore version.

My test for a proper party is simple. If it is open solely to people of one religion (eg-IUML), if its top functionaries are from anti-India organisations that preach hatred (eg-BJP) or it has a history of whipping up caste, ethnic or religious tension (eg-Shiv Sena) then that party has no right to exist. The land of Ram, Rahim, Kabir and Vivekanand deserves better. Ban these bastards before their politics of hate tears India apart!

Go Hang.

Exams over today! Mega relief.

Umm..School life too is officially over. Wonder why I am not getting sentimental.

Managed to not screw my exams (thankfully!)…

Hindi–Excellent!

English–Marvellous.

Political Science–Sucked! Big time.

Economics–Fair.

Commerce–Good.

Hope I get a 90…or else am out on my ass.

A chitthi of my own

Pankaj Udhas, just like Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar, can never retire! He also cant get over his “endless love” to appear in his own music video! Therefore we have this Pankaj Udhas creation called “Endless Love” appearing on all music channels. A 20 something girl chased by a moronic guy who looks like a wanker and dresses like a wannabe. Monsieur Pankaj himself makes an appearance, all huffing and puffing, while mouthing some stuff he calls “ghazals”. My advice? Pankaj we all really love you! But please get a life…or atleast let us live our own!

Deuce, game…err…love??

The perennial cry-babies of Indian Tennis are at it again. Yes folks! Taking their God-knows-how-old-dushmani another step forward, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati have started a fresh round of mudslinging. The latest salvo in this direction came when Lea accused teammate Vijay Amritraj of unprofessionalism after the Davis Cup victory over Uzbekistan. A hurt Amritraj ganged up with the other teammates (with some eager leadership by Bhupati) and immediately shot off an e-mail to the Indian Tennis Federation Prez complaining about Lea’s dictatorial and harsh ways. Lea has lately made it a habit to rub people the wrong way by opening his mouth a bit too wide. When was the last we remember him and Bhupati participating in some event without bickering. And they were supposedly the poster boys of Indian Tennis! One can well imagine what impression such moronic personality clashes give to outsiders about Indian sports, which anyway arent much to write home anyway.

A nation of a billion gets one medal in the Olympics! The sole seeded tennis player is criticised for her dress, behaviour, style and what not! The Hockey federation is run by a supercop-turned-female bottompincher for a decade and a half! The I & B Minister heads the Football federation….Umm..I guess the picture is clear! Heavens help Indian sports!

The Thackerays: SOBs all.

I usually dont comment on the same brand of morons more than once but the activities of a certain variety of pure bred a**holes compels me to repeat the above mentioned surname for a second time in “Musings”.

For any Indian, nay person, worth even an iota of decency and public sense, the activities of MNS hoodlums in Bombay is enough to inspire nausea. MNS (that’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena for the uninformed)  is a relatively new party but already its litany of misdeeds is threatening to overtake its illustrious parent Shiv Sena. From beating up the Chairman of Railway Rectt. Board, Bombay to collecting extortion money from North Indian shopkeepers to beating up poor taxi drivers and autowallahs for no fault of theirs (save that they are “biharis”) MNS has indeed carved out an ugly little niche for itself and also given the original Nazi SS (that’s Shiv Sena) a run for it’s money.

Who’s this sonofabitch?: Raj Thackeray not surprisingly is the nephew of Bal Thackeray, of I-love-Hitler and Maar-kaat fame. Angry over his Nazi uncle handing over the party to his son (Hitler Jr.), our hero branched out and formed what he called MNS, supposedly to “re”build Marathi society. This gang of Mumbai’s choicest gutter goons and lumpens has periodically shut down Mumbai, engaged in streetfights, run anti-”im”morality campaigns (read: beat up poor couples) and spawned a hate filled vitriolic campaign against “Biharis”.

What does he want?: Power, obviously!

What is the Govt doing?: Shitting in its pants as usual, afraid that targeting this anti-national would lead to its vote bank erosion. In the meanwhile one also hears that Raj’s fire-breathing dragon uncle is being let off by the Govt. in the Bombay Riots case….*sigh* Looks like we are gonna have this terrorist unleashed for a long long time.

The Indian State which is only too willing to unleash POTA, TADA and MCOCA on the poor is emasculated when it comes to powerful thugs like the Thackerays.

One had also thought that humanism and then nationalism always triumphed over narrow regional, caste and religious boundaries. With jerks like the Thackerays around, one is forced to do a rethink.

The shit has hit the fan. Now go hide!

Hyderabadi Hindi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBqB9h6Aayc

Poetry, anyone?

OK! At long last, I have been bitten by the poetry bug and have decided to take the plunge. This is my first attempt, so do excuse the trash. Am starting with romance! This one’s dedicated to the one true love of my life!

In the will o wisps of the night, when even dogs cease to fight!

Hush! There’s silence all around And glorious moonlight abounds,

Two iron serpents lie. Unmoving; Cold, unyielding, unbending, refusing.

Hark! What sound doth yonder come? That shakes the country and makes man numb!

I get up unsteadily and look into the haze; Cautious, optimistic, hoping to see her face.

A brilliant light makes all aglow; The shriek and the wind makes even trees bow!

A steady rhythm and a lovely voice; Sigh! It’s beauty who can despise?

I stand fascinated as she moves past me. Her beauty and grace only I can see!

The wind ruffles my hair and my eyes flinch from the strain; I turn again, and look, there it goes, the Train!

Feedback welcome!