Your terrorist, my Indian

Are Indian Muslims second class citizens in a secular democracy?

Nasrin Sultana Delhi

July 11, 2006. Seven bomb blasts in Mumbai, more than 200 people killed. Back here in Batla House near Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi, Firoz Ahmed is scared and panic-stricken. No, he does not have any relative in Mumbai, nor does he anticipate going there in the days to come. He thinks one hundred times before leaving his wife and children at home. No, he is not scared of any blast in Delhi. He is scared because of his religious identity. He is worried because of the routine police raids that happen in his locality. He is worried because this is a collective trauma. There are several Firoz Ahmeds in Delhi and across India, secular, invisible, citizens of India, surviving in the shadow of fear, terrorised by being branded as terrorists.

Whenever there is any violence or blasts, often it is the Ahmeds, Khans, Rehmans, Siddiques, Hussains, Naqvis, Ansaris and ‘people with certain surnames’ who are cornered for police interrogation. They do not belong to any terrorist organisation, they have no history of crime, they do not have to prove their patriotic identities; yet, they are pushed to the wall because they belong to the Muslim community.

The cliché and the myth is that ‘all Muslims are terrorists’ or by and large have a tangential link with terrorism, or are hidden sympathisers. The truth is the whole community can’t be barricaded for the barbarism of a fanatic few. Hindus can’t be blamed as a whole for the fanaticism of a few Hindutva fundamentalists, and surely, American neo-cons do not represent the entire Christian population.

“Despite public protests and persuasion, Muslims are routinely being branded as terrorists,” says a businessman in Jamia Nagar, Delhi. Locals say that the first thing the Delhi police does when chasing suspicious clues linked to terrorism is visit Jamia Nagar, Batla House, Zakir Nagar, Zor Bagh, Abul Fazal or Gaffar Manzil. Why? Because Muslim population is high in these areas, and they are all clubbed together as ‘anti-national’ by the police.

Saheba Bibi, 80, resident of Batla House, says, “Koi hamein dekhne nahin aate, jab kabhi dhamaka hota hai, sirf police aati hai ghar ki talaashi lene” (Nobody comes to see us, whenever there is a blast, only the police come to meet us.)

The case worsens if a student happens to be Kashmiri. He is surely a very vulnerable person when it comes to a suspicious police. Says Junaid Akbar, “It seems it’s a crime to be from Kashmir. Everybody treats us as if we are terrorists. I am as much an Indian as any other Indian of any religion. For me, like others, religion is just a way of life.”

Ironically, the Kashmiri phobia extends to absurd limits. Saima, a Jamia Millia Islamia student in Delhi, says her parents were apprehensive when she was asked to share a room with a Kashmiri girl in the Jamia Girls’ Hostel. Her parents were unduly worried if their daughter was made to stay with a girl who might have links with terrorists. Saima resents this attitude, these kinds of allegations are baseless, nobody can be judged by her regional and religious status, she says. “What’s wrong in sharing a room with a Kashmiri?”