Sleepless in Mumbai

A lot of you may be wondering what happened at the talk I was supposed to give on the Broadcast Bill and freedom of expression. I apologise for updating you a week late.

I chose not to read from a prepared text, speaking extempore instead. I’m glad I did because the gathering wasn’t looking for oratory; it wanted to be made aware.

Let’s put aside for a moment the issue I spoke about; my views on it are clear from the earlier blog. What struck me was that maybe there is a growing fatigue — even irritation — among Muslims about secularism and bias being the only topics of debate as far as they are concerned. Maybe, just maybe, there are other things to talk about. Maybe there are other issues on the community’s mind – employment, education, per capita incomes, housing, being part of the mainstream and the debates that are so much part of it, like freedom of expression.

I know I cringe every time there is a photograph of Muslims celebrating Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi or Holi. Or of Hindus celebrating Eid. As if the media feels the need to keep giving evidence of inter-faith tolerance, as if it is afraid it doesn’t exist at all. 

If that  is the media’s fear, then let me assure it that is not the case. I am convinced the so-called divide doesn’t exist at all in the minds of an overwhelming majority of Indians. Inter-faith tolerance, in fact the celebration of our vast diversity of faiths, is a done deal, it’s cast in stone. We don’t need anybody to keep underscoring it  with cliched visuals. What we need is to move on to real issues, the kind I mentioned above.

The Jamaat-e-Hind Islami’s Maharashtra unit, which hosted the talk I gave (there were two other speakers too), is doing well to organise such events. It ensures Muslims talk about more than a sense of victimisation (justified in very many cases, but the only way the community can break out of it is to have more on its mind).

I do hope there are more such talks. And I hope the Jamaat invites me to them.