URBANISATION

Seema Alavi On the Muslim Ghettoisation

During a recent visit by Germany I was struck by the squalor of what constituted the "Turkish Quarters" in that country. These were enclaves of the predominantly Muslim Turkish people located in most of the sanitised "high tech" towns like Bonn, Dusseldorf and Kolon. In these Turkish ghettos the local population lives seeking out its living selling Turkish kababs, breads, trinkets and ribbons. The more affluent of them being owners of tiny corner shops or working as industrial labour.

The Turkish case exemplifies the grave social and political implications of the ghettoisation of religious and ethnic minorities. In the case of the Turks, ghettoisation is the only option given their financial inability to live in the better parts of the city. But when religious minorities, like the Muslims in India, who constitute a sizeable section of the Indian middle class, prefer to live in spatially, cordoned community ghettos then the issue needs careful examination.

The emergence of middle class Muslim ghettos in the new areas of big cities like Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Delhi is a fairly recent phenomenon. Whereas in cities like Ahmedabad and Mumbai this development is a direct result of the gruesome communal riots of the last two decades, it is difficult to trace its immediate cause’s in Delhi where middle class localities have by and large been unscathed in Hindu-Muslim conflicts. It is no doubt understandable that the killings in urban middle class localities of Mumbai and Ahmedabad created a general insecurity in the community as a whole and the middle classes in particular who closely identified with the victims. But ghettoisation of the middle class Muslims is not the solution to the fear of riots. This trend inflicts more damage than communal flare-ups. Its ramifications are detrimental to the long-term interests of the community. For such a herding together reinforces as inclusive sense of community identity based on fear and urge for retribution.

But more importantly, ghettoisation is splitting the Muslim middle class into two neat groups In Delhi the middle class Muslims increasingly prefer to stay in two community enclaves The social hierarchies between these two "Muslim areas" are very clearly demarcated.

The emergence in the last two decades of a considerably large Muslim middle class raised the hope of social reforms within the community and the eventual changes in its leadership. But a split in this class is all set to extinguish this ray of hope. Such enclaves like the Turkish Quarters in Germany run the risk of being projected as epitomising the archetypal "Muslim lifestyle" in India. Middle-class Muslim ghettoisation needs to be checked, as it reinforces the mischievous stereotype of the "backward" Muslims.                                                                                                                                                           

VHP's Protest Against Offence to Hindu

Sensibilities, Ashok Singhal's Letter to the

Indian Express, 24 January, 1997

Several write-ups in your paper (have) hurt popular Hindu sensibilities. Some of them are in such bad taste. They, mischievously using the age-old ploy of quoting an ignoramus to abuse or ridicule formidable goodness or sublimity, speak of the 'syphilis' of Lord Krishna or justify nude picturisation of goddess Saraswati (whose dress - bordered, milk-white saree, a symbol of purity, learning and divine feminine dignity - is already a settled fact in the Shaastras, e.g., in the prayer: "Yaa kundendu tushaarhaara dhavalaa, Yaa shubhra vastraanwitaa" or make criminally  erroneous interpretations of Amarnath.

The prejudice behind such write-ups is obvious, notwithstanding the cunning journalistic tactics adopted. The Hindus are second to none in upholding liberty, including journalistic and artistic, but they also know that liberty (swatantrataa) does not mean licentiousness (swechchhaachaaritaa). Nobody can have the licence to make something sublime ridiculous. Otherwise the principle of reciprocity must also be appreciated by such so-called upholders of 'absolute freedom of expression' which is, in fact, a misnomer. These write-ups include "Hinduism, incomplete and abridged" by Ramesh Menon (December 19) and "The generational voyage of traditions" by Vina Mazumdar (October 28).

Weakening Hindu society, denigrating Hindus and Hindu organisations, practices and faith on one side – and glorifying or supporting non-Hindu and anti-Hindu attitudes on the other, e.g. "The road to Gethsemane" by Girish Bhandari (December 14) "And I became a Muslim " by Tanmaya Kumar Nanda ( November 8) - has become a normal practice with sections of our media.

It looks as though there are some deliberate plans, designs and agencies at whose behest these deplorable write-ups - the authors of most of which might be convent-educated or communist columnists under the grab of Hindu names and seem to derive perverse pleasure from denouncing Hinduism and hurting Hindu sentiments - are creeping into the columns of the media. Should the columns of The Indian Express be allowed to be a playground for their poisonous pens?

We strongly feel that it is a matter to be checked up by the authorities of the institutions in the interests of the country and its culture. It is more so when anti-national and extra-territorial agencies are at work with all their designs and resources. Hindus are a tolerant lot. But this does not mean that anybody is free to take liberties with Hindu society and its sensibilities. The limits of freedom haye to be kept in mind - lest they lead to clash and chaos. Honest and scholarly discussions on matters of importance may be all right, but they are very different from hawkish, loose, tongue-in-cheek talk.