Terrorism Is Back – Who Is Playing God This Time?

Today, I was surprised to find myself reluctant to look at the newspaper. This is a first in my life because I’m a voracious reader and literally devour anything readable that I can put my hands on. I blame this on the return of terrorism to India.

I have had my fill of the battered, dying, or dead faces staring up at me every other day from the front page of the newspaper. I cringe inside when such images are thrust upon my consciousness. I am not the leader who will rally the nation around and do a Gandhi Act. I know too well my convictions and courage, and also the thinking patterns of the people of my country, to even attempt that. And I do not have a shield to prevent me from hearing my readers cry “shame” in denouncement of my meek acceptance of the situation. But, I can club myself with them and every other soul who dares not.

Yes, terrorism is back – and with a vengeance. In the past few months, repeated bombings and killings in several key cities have rocked the core of India and what it stands for. This time, terror is not nameless or faceless, or even difficult to identify. It has simply mutated itself into a hundred-headed demon, showing itself openly and feeding off the media. It is no longer the world against Osama. This is insane, but in today’s “modern India,” it is “high-caste” against “low-caste” as well. And of course, there is the latest twist to the saga of terrorism – Hindus against Christians!

It often seems to me that we are never lacking for reasons to die or kill. Isn’t it true that if there is no natural calamity facing us with the threat of mass deaths, we invent an excuse, sometimes as flimsy as a sneeze at the wrong time, and start killing our fellow human beings in the name of God? History is written and re-written every year and stands testimony to the brutalities we repeatedly inflict on our fellowmen for the sake of so-called Religion. We never learn, do we?

Some years ago, there was the incident of 9/11. Everybody unanimously agrees that America will never allow the world to forget that date. What about the recent bombings that killed so many in India in the past few months? Are we even thinking about these mass murders? They strike again and again – and again. With America, it was just one strike, for which it is exacting retribution to this day. What of India? What exactly will it take to shake us out of our apathy? I am horrified with the realization that the bomb blasts in Delhi have merely been on the front page for just a few days, because it shows how apathetic and meekly accepting we are of what a bunch of terrorists choose to do to us. And, just how foolish are we to allow anyone to think that there is such a thing as “Hindus” against “Christians” or for that matter even “Muslims.” I have yet to encounter a Muslim or a Christian or even a Hindu who actually wants to kill his neighbors because they belong to a different religion. Who then are these people who burn the cities and kill us all in the name of your religion and mine?

Can you hear the voice drumming in your head – “What if your neighbor lifts an axe against you? How do you trust anyone? Whom can you trust?” You tell yourself that you can trust your neighbor but the voice asks “What if…” And therein lays the catalyst that turns a small isolated incident to a civil war or a world war.

Whose voice is that? Who is urging us to mistrust and kill?

I say, let us destroy that nagging voice.

I say, this is WAR – The “Third World War” prophesized centuries ago and feared by us in every age and every era. What else do you call a situation where man rises against his fellow men with the intent to kill and destroy? Have you ever given a thought to what would be the result if everyone was a “staunch believer of their God” and started killing all those who did not believe in the same? Who could survive such a war?

I am a common Indian. So, I know that the common Indian does not have the time or resources to go help those ravaged by bombs or even natural calamities – nor can he do anything else but hide in his house when a riot is raging outside. That common man quietly pays tax to the government and goes about his business of saving money for his daughter’s marriage or his son’s education, and entrusts the job of keeping his home and loved ones safe to the government. He knows that his family depends on him. He hides, not because he is afraid of dying, but because he is needed by his family and that smothers his courage. I want to know who will stop this mind-numbing cycle of terrorism and mass murders. Who will finish off this saga for good so that terrorism becomes a nightmare of the past? Which government should I place my faith in? Which Indian political party can guarantee that I will return home safe tomorrow?

I believe that as long as there are petty distinctions, there will be unrest. I say that the Indian government should abolish all distinctions between Indians based on caste and religion.

These distinctions will disappear, sooner or later. I do not see myself growing old as a Hindu hating a Muslim or Christian. Neither do I see myself wasting time in useless defense of my so-called higher caste. Indeed, had I the power to do so, I would remove all distinctions, all differences, all traces of identity except one – that of being a human. One day, this will happen. Maybe not in my lifetime, but try I will – to make it happen at least for the coming generations.

My question is, do we – the common Indians – wait for a miracle to happen, or do we dare and send a message across to all those gloating “terrorists” out there – NOW? Do we dare to stop being a Brahmin or a Kshatriya or a Hindu or Muslim or Christian?

Do we dare to create a new identity for the entire human race?

By A Geeta