"Throw them out of the country?"

The recent blasts in Mumbai sparked a lot of debate all over the country. One aspect of it greatly talked about was the fact that this was the first time that the upper cream of society was so directly affected by the violence. And they have been quick to respond with anger against the government, for regarding issues of safety and security with less concern than should have been done. Blasts have happened before, and every time they happen, people try to move on and settle back to their lives with minimum loss of mental and emotional energy, no matter how much they lose in terms of lives and property.

Who carried out these attacks? Another Islamic fundamentalist group. They all want to drive the country crazy. They are succeeding in it too. I observed one small scale example of it, right in my vicinity, and if that is the attitude of educated, supposedly sensible people, I'm not surprised this country is facing such problems.

What happened was a friend of mine, who I have known for five years in school and now four years in college, happened to be in my room discussing the matter with me and my roommate. Her solution was to throw out all the Muslims from the country, to put it in very rude, frank and exact terms. Those were the words she used. All these attacks are being carried out by Muslims. If it comes to a decision, even Muslims living in India would rather support their community than the nation as a whole. They all want to leave anyway. Why not just throw them out? Why sacrifice the security of the nation just for one single minority community?

WHAT KIND OF A SOLUTION IS THAT? I was shocked, but since her question demanded an answer, I had to answer her there. There are enough reasons why someone would actually want to throw them out, but you just can't do that. There are plenty of reasons why you can't do that.

First of all, you can't exactly pick up every Muslim in the country and throw them out. Where will they go? You can't say put them in some Muslim country, there are plenty of those. It simply isn't practically possible to hunt down every Muslim man, woman and child in the country and ask them to leave. Imagine if the same were done to the thousands of Indians living in different countries all over the world. You can't just ask someone to pick up, leave and start a new life all over again somewhere else.

Doing something like that would also mean insulting the good that has been done to the country by Muslim people, in recent times as well as over the centuries. Some of our most beautiful buildings and arts were created and encouraged by the Muslim rulers of old. Several of the top celebrities of the country, in movies, politics, sports, science, are Muslims. Imagine asking Dr Abdul Kalam, Sania Mirza, Shah Rukh Khan or A R Rehman to leave the country, simply because they are Muslim.

Secondly, if such a step were carried out, it would inevitably be accompanied by more violence. We as a people are driven by our sentiments and emotions, and there are no lack of young frustrated people who would think nothing of picking up a dagger or gun and chasing the nearest Muslim person they know, with the threat of killing them unless they left. I told my friend, that with the idea of "throw them out of the country", she would become the next fundamentalist, picking up a knife during the next riot, to kill the first Muslim she sees. Partition of the country in 1947, though meant to be peaceful, was nevertheless accompanied by extreme violence. My generation perhaps does not realize the seriousness of it, simply because it all occurred decades before we were born, but the tale of the train arriving at its destination filled with dead bodies who were killed and then dumped on the train was not a fabrication by some sadistic mind; it was truth that was brought to reality by the collective anger of a huge population of brainwashed people.

The claim that Muslims want to ruin the country is ridiculous. If Muslims presently in India had really wanted to leave, they have all freedom to do so. Muslims do have a great sense of community, but that is enhanced because they are a minority here, and despised only for their religion. Moreover, their sense of community would indeed teach them, that to live successfully in this country means to work towards integrating it, not destroying it. And for every Muslim who has taken up arms and joined a terrorist camp, there are ten more who live peacefully with their Hindu neighbours, celebrating festivals and eating meals together.

Thirdly, throwing an entire community out of the nation is precisely the sort of step that if carried out can set a horrific precedent for the 'throwing out' of other communities as well. Violence against Christians is something that has happened recently in Orissa. Today you'll throw the Muslims out. Tomorrow you'll throw the Christians out. After that will come the turn of Sikhs and Parsis, followed by Jews. Next somebody will suggest throwing Jains and Buddhists out. Finally we'll be down to the SC/ST/OBC category. Or it may even be the general category which is thrown out, depending on who is more powerful or more numerous.

This idea of exterminating an entire community simply because they are held responsible for the troubles of the country is not happening for the first time. It was the same idea propagated by Adolf Hitler in Germany during the Second World War, the targetted community being Jews. He started out with segregation of Jews from the rest of the population, with the next step being restrictions on movement and business, followed by random deportations for "questioning", and finally ending with outright extermination in concentration camps. Anyone who wants to know any further, should read The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. This wasn't written with the idea of being published, it was the honest recording of thoughts and feelings by someone who was growing from a child into an adult during that tumultous period. Maybe then will these proponents of "throw them out of the country" understand what is really meant by human rights and humanity. Such extreme measures are not the answer to terrorism problems.