Given
below is the text of a letter that was initially written by a group of
individuals and sent as a rejoinder to the article written by Chetan
Bhagat titled, ‘Letter from an Indian Muslim Youth’ published in The Times of India on 30 June 2013. The letter was sent to The Times of India
The signatories include non-Muslims, because a large number of the
emails read, ‘I am not a Muslim but I am equally disgusted by Chetan
Bhagat’s letter’. Given below is the text of letter followed by more than 200 signatures:
A Letter to Mr. Chetan Bhagat from Indian Muslim Youth
3rd July 2013
Dear Mr. Bhagat,
At the very
outset, let us make it clear that we are not fans of your regressive
fiction. Therefore, we write to you not as crazy fans but as Indian
Muslim youth, who felt utterly patronized, insulted and hurt after
reading your article, ‘Letter from an Indian Muslim Youth’
. You might have not realized this, but in pretending to render “a
strong modern Indian Muslim voice’’ to the youth and the Muslim
community at large, you have ripped them of their agency. You have
reaffirmed stereotypes that many in the community have been fighting
against. Heard of the Muslim god and his flock?
Sir, one
does not need a name like Ahmed or Saeed or Mirza, or even be a Muslim
to show one’s genuine concern for the community. One just needs to see
beyond one’s own prejudice and biases. Believe us, this disgusting piece
of your writing made us more nauseous than any of your (or Madhu
Kishwar’s) love-verses to Modi. Your article is nothing but an extension
of the thought process that anything Muslim is backward and regressive.
Since you have assigned to yourself the task of bearing the moral
burden of the community, would you care to explain what a ‘Muslim cap’
is?
We agree
with you when you say political leaders make promises that go empty post
elections. And that there are Muslims who have achieved much without
any ‘’cap-wearing politician’’ helping them. But who is this leader that
you are suggesting; one who would understand ‘’the desire’’ of the
Muslim youth ‘’to come up in life’’ and ‘’inspire us to do better’’? Is
it by any chance the mass murderer, Narendra Modi?
You know
what hurts? That people pretend to care for you when they don’t. When in
fact they use you to grind their own axe. How cleverly you turn
everything that the Muslim youth face today – “being frisked with
greater attentiveness, denied renting an apartment” – into a product of
the community’s inherent backwardness, as if it bears no relation to the
increasing communalization of our polity and society.
What makes
you think that the ‘cap’ wallahs exercise a great deal of influence
within the community? Interestingly, one particular party has been
lately seeking a lot of photo-ops with precisely these kinds of
community leaders. Make no mistake Mr. Writer. They don’t.
“Because of you”, you write castigating
an imagined Muslim leadership, “people feel we vote in a herd.” Now,
isn’t that really clever, Mr. Bhagat. People feel we vote in a herd
because certain parties never tire of screaming hoarse about ‘minority
appeasement’ and ‘vote banks’, even though, any psephologist or
political scientist, or even an ordinary Muslim youth at Chai dukaan
will tell you that Muslims vote just like any other community does:
according to a mix of factors: local, national but above all, keeping in
mind who will preserve their interests best. And their interests do
tend to include the safety of life and livelihood.
We are
sorry, Mr. Bhagat, but the ‘’democratic republic’’ you talk of is not so
democratic. If it were so, Afzal Guru wouldn’t have been executed to
‘’satisfy the collective conscience of the nation’’. Muslim youth would
not have fallen prey to minority witch-hunting, and their killers not
decorated with gallantry awards. Adivasis in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and
Orissa would not have been ripped of their fundamental rights to live
with dignity. Dalit poets would not have been falsely charged under
sedition laws.
Loving one’s
nation is well and good, but being blinded by patriotism is not. Why do
Indian Muslims always have to prove their allegiance to India? Why
can’t they also be critical of their country?
The party
whose path you are treading has had Indian Muslims pass through too many
Sita-like ordeals of fire, Agni Pariksha. You may have the privilege
to turn a blind eye to the post-Babri Masjid Demolition violence, the
Gujarat pogrom, but many others don’t. How then do you think a leader
who doesn’t even have the integrity to apologize for his complicity in
the Gujarat pogrom represent Muslim youth’s aspirations for ‘’scientific
way of thinking, entrepreneurship, empowerment, progress’’ and above
all, ‘’personal freedoms’’? And just by the way, have you heard of the
word, ‘Justice’?
I have removed the signatures from the original article for the reasons of space, the article is also available at http://kafila.org/2013/07/03/a-letter-to-chetan-bhagat-from-indian-muslim-youth/
The letter of Chetan Bhagat is available at http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/The-underage-optimist/entry/letter-from-an-indian-muslim-youth
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