SV: SV: ICHR controversey

[Rajarshi Banerjee]

Discussing past
>Muslim atrocities is perfectly in order as long as this discussion is
>delinked
>from the modern political situation and not used as a tool to dehumanize
>Muslims in general. In India this principle hardly seems to obtain.

You are voicing some well meant concerns. I agree that there should be
checks against inciting violence and chaos.

But you seem to be implying that europe has a social conscience and well
established checks against bigotry/racism while India is just on the verge
of discovering/losing them.

As a resident of India I have seen enough evidence of balanced broad minded
thinking in India.

I have nothing against israel and its existance but would like to illustrate
a point. A whole nation was founded on the basis of ancient history by
reclaiming palestine, for the sake of essentialy a european population.
There was a vast disconnect between mordern arab palestine and its jewish
past but that and the rights of the residents was never made an issue.
Contrast this with what happened at ayodhya where there was an attempt to
reclaim an unused mosque also on historical grounds(however flimsy) which
was accompanied by was so much soul searching and regret.

I have met basques and macedonians who have been forced to give up their
language. Such policies are unthinkable in India.

There is a kind of racism in the assumption that whatever is done by
europeans or americans is moral.

You should meet some Indian muslims and ask them if they think that the
Indian govt policies are becoming progressively  fascist or anti-muslim or
whether their dignity is threatened, For eg my ex-room mate is a muslim from
India.he would think such views are silly..  Compare with the attitudes of
serb muslims.  There are muslims in the indian army who died fightning the
enemy in kasmir. Abdul kalaam is called the father of the Indian missile
program. Do any gypsies, serb muslims ever enroll in the yugoslav army.
India has a rather stable society pehaps due its long convoluted history.
Maybe europe has more unification pangs to go through compared to INdia.

I sometimes wonder how tolerant US society would be if people were
illiterate and had poverty levels like India.

regards R Banerjee.