I hope the world can learn from India on how to co-exist peacefully with people of different faiths
What I see on my TV screen currently and what I read about what is happening in Israel and the Gaza Strip leave me with little hope that this mess will be resolved anytime soon and the mindless destruction of lives and homes be halted. It seems as if the world has gone back two centuries and the horrors of war are a revised version of what happened so many years ago in Europe. Apart from the explosive situation in the Arab world, there is a revival of the Khalistani rhetoric in a country that is thankfully on the other side of the world. Then, there is the constant threat of the ISI terrorists and the strange silence from China and that madman of North Korea. Sometimes, I wonder if we like war and war games more than peace and brotherhood. After watching TV serials like ‘Fauda’ and bingeing on fictional tales of the tension between Palestine and Israel, I think we look at the reality of this war-torn region as an ongoing season of that riveting story. The distance between fiction and reality is now blurred, so the current pontificating about what was not done and what can be done now becomes a meaningless academic exercise between opinionated gasbags trying to score points against each other.
I watched the faces of the young men (no women or girls, please note) as they brought terror into Israel. Holding aloft their Kalashnikovs, they were picking up people from the street, including some young girls from an ongoing music festival, shooting dead innocent bystanders and taking pride in their disgusting display of machismo. Little children, old grannies, tourists — no one was spared. What, I thought, if our own goons, who spew hatred and venom against members of another community, were to get inspired to ape these animals? Have we not seen some versions of this violence (on a smaller scale, I admit) in Manipur, Kashmir and during the Kisan rally when some hotheads drove a tractor to the Red Fort and tried to pull down the Tiranga?
My concern at what I saw on the horrifying pictures beamed by BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera was magnified because my sister and her husband had gone for a trip to Israel to meet some old friends. They were in Jerusalem as the Hamas attacks took place. It didn’t help that Israel virtually shuts down over the weekend for Sabbath when no taxi, train or flight operates. In the ensuing melee, they were unable to get out as most airlines, including Air India, had cancelled their flights to and from Tel Aviv. With rockets flying all over, one can hardly blame them for taking this precaution. Frantic messages from all of us siblings evoked a calm response from them, saying they were safe and their friends were very caring but until they were able to actually fly out to Delhi, via Dubai, I had chewed up all my nails. As for those Indians still trapped there amid the escalating retaliations from both sides, what can I say? I hope better sense prevails and some kind of peace accord can be reached.
For many of us who grew up in the aftermath of Partition and displaced families, this tension is yet another example of the bitter legacy of divided communities left by colonial imperialists. I do think we need to gratefully remember our early governments for healing those wounds with empathy and firmness. A few years ago, we had gone with some friends to Israel over Christmas and it was a memorable holiday. Those familiar with the Old Testament and the Christian holy trails will understand what it means to go to the Church of the Ascension, where Christ was buried (the grave still exists) and from where he was resurrected. A beautifully maintained cobbled path (the Via Dolorosa) leads to it, tracing the path that Christ trod, carrying his cross. The Wailing Wall is just outside these hallowed pilgrim spots and a huge plaza brings together Christians from all over the world. The Mount of Olives in the Hill of David (with the Garden of Gethsemane, where Christ meditated before he was crucified) is across the street. Nearby is the Al-Aqsa mosque (now in the eye of the storm) with its golden dome, sacred to both Arabs and Jews and bitterly contested. This is where Muslims believe Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven on his steed and which preserves a Holy Relic of Christ. Bethlehem, Nazareth and the Dead Sea at Galilee are similarly replete with their own lore.
When there is so much commonality between the Arabs and the Jews, so many common sacred places, one would imagine they would like to live in peace and brotherhood. I hope the world can learn from India on how to co-exist peacefully with people of different faiths. I look at gratitude at the wisdom of the Supreme Court in granting permission for building a temple where a mosque once stood, after years of protracted negotiations between the communities concerned. The deep emotional connections that hold communities together is something that many deracinated and secular-liberal thinkers seem to miss when addressing the issue of contested sites.
For Netanyahu vowing to wreak revenge, I want to send the wise words of Gandhiji, ‘An eye for an eye will only succeed in making everyone blind.’