Open letter to Mr.
Shahrukh Khan
By: Bandyopadhyay
Arindam
Your name is a
household phenomenon in Indian and even beyond her borders. Your fame has
put you in the Newsweek
"most powerful people list" recently. However, as you
may recall from
your recent
experience in New Jersey Airport, real life is a little
different - it does not always
follow the path
predicted by a scriptwriter or director.
Of late, we have been
reading about your opinions and statements on matters beyond the
celluloid world.
Nothing is wrong in it. You live in a free, democratic country and are entirely
entitled to your
opinion. But as a common man, also from the same soil, I think I have the right
too to raise a few
points that may not conform to your views of the real world.
I hope you will read
it out.
When recently, the
Pakistani players were not selected for the IPL, it was almost predictable that
NDTV, the
award-winning, mouthpiece of our Indian liberal media select you for your views
and
you certified that
"It (Pakistan) is a great neighbour to have. We (India and Pakistan) are
great
neighbours. They are
good neighbours."
I have a few words to
say about those statements.
One may recall your
effort to clarify the Pakistani team captain, Shoaib Malik"s apology to
the
Muslims, living all
over the world, for failing to win the final T20 match against India, likely
much to the
embarrassment of a lot of Indian Muslims, as expressed by Shamin Bano, mother
of
the man of the match,
Irfan Pathan. What was more embarrassing was your effort to try
to defend
Shoaib in a
subsequent interview, "I don"t think he meant to segregate Muslims and
Christians
and Hindus and say
this was a match between Islam and Hinduism. I don"t think that..."
I doubt whether
Shoaib talked to you personally about his thought process at that time. You did
not really have to
respond for somebody else but perhaps you could not resist the temptation to
show your brotherhood
and solidarity.
This reminds us again
of Dr Ambedkar"s observation that, "The brotherhood of Islam is not
the
universal brotherhood
of man. It is brotherhood of Muslims for Muslims only.
Partition of India
was what Pakistan wanted and got. It was painful to millions but many more
millions in present
India have been spared. Since then Pakistan has offered us only hatred. It has
imposed on us three
major wars, the Kargil insurgency, the Kashmir conflict, the series of serial
blasts, the routine
violation of border ceasefires, attacks on the Parliament House and the recent
Mumbai 26/11attack.
Did
you have these in mind when you talked about them being good neighbours?
In another interview
you had tried to explain the concept of Islamic Jihad.
"I think one needs to
understand the meaning
of jihad .. I’ve understood the essence that jihad is not about killing
other people; jihad
is about killing the badness in you."
May be you understand
jihad better and deeper than the superficial meaning of what we, the rest
of the mortal
mankind, overburdened and terrorized by the inter-religious, intra-religious
and
sectarian violence
that is plaguing the world in the name of Islam today, do. For we, the less
educated, cannot
really make a difference between Jihad and Qatl, between
Jihad by heart / soul,
Jihad by pen and
Jihad by sword or between lesser and greater jihad.
We wonder, whatever
its meaning may be, does it minimize the significance of the mindless
killings that we see
today in the name of Islam, across borders, all over the world? Does it
change the nature of
the killers whether you call them holy warriors, mujahidins, fedayeens or
plane suicide
bombers?
We agree with you
that terrorism has no religion. But hopefully you will
also agree with the
people who perceive
that most terrorist in the world today happen to believe in the scriptures of
Islam. They actually
believe that they themselves are the true Islamists.
The so called
"moderate" Islamist, perhaps does not want to contradict them or may
be does not
dare to speak out
against them. You have probably not forgotten the FIR
against you for listing
Prophet Mohammed as
one of the most unimpressive personalities in history, the threats from
which you had to skillfully
wriggle out. Others who are not so fortunate, famous or flexible are
suffering lifetime,
as Tasleema Nasreen or Salman Rushdie would testify. For blasphemy in
Islam is punishable
with death, even for a believer.
Do I have to spell
out the fate if it is a non-believer?
It is due to the
inherent intolerance and exclusivity of Islam itself despite your effort to
convince
us that there
is an Islam from Allah and very unfortunately, there is an Islam from the
Mullahs
Here is an historical
insight from writer Irfan Hussain, "The Muslim heroes who figure larger
than
life in our history books committed some dreadful crimes..all have
blood-stained hands that
the
passage of years has not cleansed. Indeed, the presence of Muslim historians on
their various
campaigns
has ensured that the memory of their deeds will live long after they were
buried...Seen
through Hindu eyes, the Muslim invasion of their homeland was an unmitigated
disaster."
So
why should the "non-believers" care to accept them? Why should the
majority of
Indians
like to welcome back such disasters again?
Since partition,
India has come a long way in progress and development to her current status and
is projected as an
economic superpower in coming decades while Pakistan is perceived as a
failed state on the
verge of disintegration.
What
does India have to gain by offering neighbourly friendship to such a hostile
and
failed
state?
India has never been
an invader and is not in conflict of any other Muslim country. None of the
wars and conflicts
with Pakistan was instigated by India. In the current geopolitical situation,
one
can argue for the
Muslim world’s grudge and anger against Israel or the west and USA but one
fail to fathom why
India should also be at the receiving end and why Indians should be the
second largest group
of people to die from terrorists attacks. Indian majorities do not have
anything to do with
the Danish cartoon or the death of Saddam Hussain; so why should they
suffer from Islamic
havoc on those occasions.
In almost all
occasions of terrorism, questions are raised about possible role of Pakistan,
its terror
bases and its
terrorist organizations, as either directly or indirectly involved. Be it state
sponsored
(as recently
admitted by President Zardari) or by non-state actors, Pakistan or
Pakistani born are
prime suspect in
terrorist activities all over the world. ISI has been accused of playing a role
in
major terrorist
attacks including 9/11 in the USA, terrorism in Kashmir, Mumbai Train
Bombings, London
Bombings, Indian Parliament Attack, Varanasi bombings, Hyderabad
bombings, Mumbai terror
attacks or the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.
Do
you believe these are marks of a good neighbour? Then what is the reason for
your
preaching
of love towards Pakistan?
Perhaps, as you said,
because it is your ancestor"s homeland, you have a soft feeling for
Pakistan
and cannot see the
difference. On the eve of accepting an honorary doctorate from a British
university, we
heard you say, "I really believe we are the same ..when you come away from
India
or Pakistan you
realize there is no Indian or Pakistani – we’re all together. We are -
culturally, as
human beings, as
friends"
Which Pakistanis are
you referring to?
The Pakistanis
belonging to the land, admonished as the epicenter of global
terrorism, not just by
India or USA but even
by its friendly allies like Iran or China.
Or is it the self-
created, Talibanic Pakistan, who still imposes Jijya on the non believers or
finds
pleasure in blowing
up girl"s schools.
Are you talking about
its President class like the current Mr. Zardari, vowed to wage a 1,000-
year war with India
or the late Mrs. Bhutto who started Jihad in Kashmiri that
lead to the exodus
of Hindu minorities
from the Muslim majority state of India, as refugees in their own country?
Are you referring to Pakistanis
loyal to the ISI and the military who train their soldiers with only
one objective, i.e.
to fight Hindu India?
If your mind is
concerned about the faceless mass of Pakistanis, does it also include the
dwindling minorities?
Or are you just
concerned about the celebrities and the social elites?
It is true SRK that
we belong to the same human species but it is hard to stretch the similarities
much further between
"us" and "them".
We from the same
original land of Bharat but we want to keep her intact, they want to break it
into thousand pieces.
Our ancestors happen
to be the same. We acknowledge and adore the heritage but they abhor and
decimate whoever is
available in an attempt to wipe out the link.
We are culturally the
same. We have created the culture over centuries what they dream to
destroy in moments.
Ours is a 10,000 year
old civilization, theirs is a 62 years old country undoing whole human
civilization.
We extend our hands
repeatedly to promote friendship and amity; they give us ISI, Lashkar,
Harkat, Kashmir,
Kargil and 26/11 in exchange.
Do you think that the
Indians nationals who died in all the above wars, the Indian soldiers who
lost their lives in
cross-border ceasefire violations or the Indian civilians who are killed by the
ISI trained Isla mic
terrorists and their affiliates, in all those serial blasts, all over the
country,
willfully sacrificed
their lives as a friendly neighbourhood gesture?
Can
you face the families of the victims of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus or the
martyrs of
the
Kargil war and try to explain to them that "They are good neighbours.
Let us love each
other."
Can
you explain why the two gunmen at Cama hospital, during the Mumbai carnage,
asked
the man who gave them water, what his religion was, and shot him dead when he
said
he was a Hindu?
If
you cannot, then perhaps you understand why the majority of India does not
consider
Pakistan
as a good neighbour to have.
Perhaps you believe
that the peaceful religious co-existence that you created in your home (and
we appreciate that)
can be extended to the large world outside. As you rightly said, we Indians
trust and do accept
everybody but what you did fail to mention was that it is the Indic tradition,
essentially coming
out of its pre-Islamic Hindu ethos.
If you think
otherwise, show us a single Islamic country where the non-believers enjoy the
same
equality as the believers.
Since partition, the Hindus left over in Pakistan and Bangladesh has
suffered terribly.
Strictly Islamic countries, like Saudi Arabia, do not allow any other religions
to
exist. Hindus working
in the Gulf countries are not allowed to practice their religion in public.
Saudi Arabia insists
that India sends only a Muslim ambassador. Hindu Muslim unity by and
large has generally
been a matter of Hindus trying to please or accommodate Muslims. One
cannot forget when
Vajpayee was extending his hand for peace Musharraf was planning the
Kargil insurgency.
Let us remind you,
your own statement "I am a Muslim in a country called India .We’ve never
been made to feel
this is a Hindu country."
Can
you find me a Hindu in Pakistan who can reciprocate that sentiment?
Some years ago,
another Mr. Khan, first name Feroze, from your fraternity was banned from
entering Pakistan for
saying, "India is secular unlike Pakistan".
That is the basic
difference of the land of "Hindu" India from the Islamic "pure
land" of Pakistan.
So
please do not ask us to love Pakistan.
Please
do not lump the people of India and Pakistan together. We Indians are proud to
preserve
our separate identity.
And
please do not insult the land that gave you your life, name and fame, by
claiming that
her
worst enemy, who wants to break her into 1000 pieces, is a great neighbour.
Otherwise it would be
sad if somebody accuses you of putting your religion ahead of your
country.
Please give it a
thought.
Regards,
Arindam
Bandyopadhyay.
Bandyopadhyay Arindam
