Though this open letter was writen in 2010 but it still relevant in Shaharukh's case! Read it and spread it!
Open letter to Mr. Shahrukh Khan by Mr ..Arindam Bandopadhyay
Your name is a household phenomenon in Indian and even beyond her
borders. Your fame has put you in the Newsweek "most powerful people
list" recently. However, as you may recall from your recent experience
in New Jersey Airport, real life is a little different - it does not always follow the path predicted by a scriptwriter or director.
Of late, we have been reading about your opinions and statements on
matters beyond the celluloid world. Nothing is wrong in it. You live in a
free, democratic country and are entirely entitled to your opinion. But
as a common man, also from the same soil, I think I have the right too
to raise a few points that may not conform to your views of the real
world.
I hope you will read it out.
When recently, the
Pakistani players were not selected for the IPL, it was almost
predictable that NDTV, the award-winning, mouthpiece of our Indian
liberal media select you for your views and you certified that "It
(Pakistan) is a great neighbor to have. We (India and Pakistan) are
great neighbors. They are good neighbors."
I have a few words to say about those statements.
One may recall your effort to clarify the Pakistani team captain,
Shoaib Malik"s apology to the Muslims, living all over the world, for
failing to win the final T20 match against India, likely much to the
embarrassment of a lot of Indian Muslims, as expressed by Shamin Bano,
mother of the man of the match, Irfan Pathan.
What was more
embarrassing was your effort to try to defend Shoaib in a subsequent
interview, "I don"t think he meant to segregate Muslims and Christians
and Hindus and say this was a match between Islam and Hinduism. I don"t
think that..."
I doubt whether Shoaib talked to you personally
about his thought process at that time. You did not really have to
respond for somebody else but perhaps you could not resist the
temptation to show your brotherhood and solidarity.
This
reminds us again of Dr Ambedkar"s observation that, "The brotherhood of
Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is brotherhood of
Muslims for Muslims only."
Partition of India was what Pakistan
wanted and got. It was painful to millions but many more millions in
present India have been spared. Since then Pakistan has offered us only
hatred. It has imposed on us three major wars, the Kargil insurgency,
the Kashmir conflict, the series of serial blasts, the routine violation
of border ceasefires, attacks on the Parliament House and the recent
Mumbai 26/11attack.
Did you have these in mind when you talked about them being good neighbors?
In another interview you had tried to explain the concept of Islamic
Jihad. "I think one needs to understand the meaning of jihad .. I"ve
understood the essence that jihad is not about killing other people;
jihad is about killing the badness in you."
May be you
understand jihad better and deeper than the superficial meaning of what
we, the rest of the mortal mankind, overburdened and terrorized by the
inter-religious, intra-religious and sectarian violence that is plaguing
the world in the name of Islam today, do. For we, the less educated,
cannot really make a difference between Jihad and Qatl, between Jihad by
heart / soul, Jihad by pen and Jihad by sword or between lesser and
greater jihad.
We wonder, whatever its meaning may be, does it
minimize the significance of the mindless killings that we see today in
the name of Islam, across borders, all over the world? Does it change
the nature of the killers whether you call them holy warriors,
mujahidins, fedayeens or plane suicide bombers?
We agree with
you that terrorism has no religion. But hopefully you will also agree
with the people who perceive that most terrorist in the world today
happen to believe in the scriptures of Islam. They actually believe that
they themselves are the true Islamists.
The so called
"moderate" Islamist, perhaps does not want to contradict them or may be
does not dare to speak out against them. You have probably not forgotten
the FIR against you for listing Prophet Mohammed as one of the most
unimpressive personalities in history, the threats from which you had to
skillfully wriggle out. Others who are not so fortunate, famous or
flexible are suffering lifetime, as Tasleema Nasreen or Salman Rushdie
would testify. For blasphemy in Islam is punishable with death, even for
a believer.
Do I have to spell out the fate if it is a non-believer?
It is due to the inherent intolerance and exclusivity of Islam itself
despite your effort to convince us that there is an Islam from Allah and
very unfortunately, there is an Islam from the Mullahs
Here is
an historical insight from writer Irfan Hussain, "The Muslim heroes who
figure larger than life in our history books committed some dreadful
crimes..all have blood-stained hands that the passage of years has not
cleansed. Indeed, the presence of Muslim historians on their various
campaigns has ensured that the memory of their deeds will live long
after they were buried...Seen through Hindu eyes, the Muslim invasion of
their homeland was an unmitigated disaster."
So why should the
"non-believers" care to accept them? Why should the majority of Indians
like to welcome back such disasters again?
Since partition,
India has come a long way in progress and development to her current
status and is projected as an economic superpower in coming decades
while Pakistan is perceived as a failed state on the verge of
disintegration.
What does India have to gain by offering neighbourly friendship to such a hostile and failed state?
India has never been an invader and is not in conflict of any other
Muslim country. None of the wars and conflicts with Pakistan was
instigated by India. In the current geopolitical situation, one can
argue for the Muslim world"s grudge and anger against Israel or the west
and USA but one fail to fathom why India should also be at the
receiving end and why Indians should be the second largest group of
people to die from terrorists attacks. Indian majorities do not have
anything to do with the Danish cartoon or the death of Saddam Hussain;
so why should they suffer from Islamic havoc on those occasions.
In almost all occasions of terrorism, questions are raised about
possible role of Pakistan, its terror bases and its terrorist
organizations, as either directly or indirectly involved. Be it state
sponsored (as recently admitted by President Zardari) or by non-state
actors, Pakistan or Pakistani born are prime suspect in terrorist
activities all over the world. ISI has been accused of playing a role in
major terrorist attacks including 9/11 in the USA, terrorism in
Kashmir, Mumbai Train Bombings, London Bombings, Indian Parliament
Attack, Varanasi bombings, Hyderabad bombings, Mumbai terror attacks or
the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.
Do you believe these are marks of a good neighbour? Then what is the reason for your preaching of love towards Pakistan?
Perhaps, as you said, because it is your ancestor"s homeland, you have a
soft feeling for Pakistan and cannot see the difference. On the eve of
accepting an honorary doctorate from a British university, we heard you
say, "I really believe we are the same ..when you come away from India
or Pakistan you realize there is no Indian or Pakistani - we"re all
together. We are - culturally, as human beings, as friends"
Which Pakistanis are you referring to?
The Pakistanis belonging to the land, admonished as the epicenter of
global terrorism, not just by India or USA but even by its friendly
allies like Iran or China.
Or is it the self-created, Talibanic
Pakistan, who still imposes Jijya on the non believers or finds
pleasure in blowing up girl"s schools.
Are you talking about
its President class like the current Mr. Zardari, vowed to wage a
1,000-year war with India or the late Mrs. Bhutto who started Jihad in
Kashmiri that lead to the exodus of Hindu minorities from the Muslim
majority state of India, as refugees in their own country?
Are
you referring to Pakistanis loyal to the ISI and the military who train
their soldiers with only one objective, i.e. to fight Hindu India?
If your mind is concerned about the faceless mass of Pakistanis, does it also include the dwindling minorities?
Or are you just concerned about the celebrities and the social elites?
It is true SRK that we belong to the same human species but it is hard
to stretch the similarities much further between "us" and "them".
We from the same original land of Bharat but we want to keep her intact, they want to break it into thousand pieces.
Our ancestors happen to be the same. We acknowledge and adore the
heritage but they abhor and decimate whoever is available in an attempt
to wipe out the link.
We are culturally the same. We have created the culture over centuries what they dream to destroy in moments.
Ours is a 10,000 year old civilization, theirs is a 62 years old country undoing whole human civilization.
We extend our hands repeatedly to promote friendship and amity; they
give us ISI, Lashkar, Harkat, Kashmir, Kargil and 26/11 in exchange.
Do you think that the Indians nationals who died in all the above wars,
the Indian soldiers who lost their lives in cross-border ceasefire
violations or the Indian civilians who are killed by the ISI trained
Islamic terrorists and their affiliates, in all those serial blasts, all
over the country, willfully sacrificed their lives as a friendly
neighbourhood gesture?
Can you face the families of the victims
of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus or the martyrs of the Kargil war and
try to explain to them that "They are good neighbours. Let us love each
other."
Can you explain why the two gunmen at Cama hospital,
during the Mumbai carnage, asked the man who gave them water, what his
religion was, and shot him dead when he said he was a Hindu?
If you cannot, then perhaps you understand why the majority of India does not consider Pakistan as a good neighbour to have.
Perhaps you believe that the peaceful religious co-existence that you
created in your home (and we appreciate that) can be extended to the
large world outside. As you rightly said, we Indians trust and do accept
everybody but what you did fail to mention was that it is the Indic
tradition, essentially coming out of its pre-Islamic Hindu ethos.
If you think otherwise, show us a single Islamic country where the
non-believers enjoy the same equality as the believers. Since partition,
the Hindus left over in Pakistan and Bangladesh has suffered terribly.
Strictly Islamic countries, like Saudi Arabia, do not allow any other
religions to exist. Hindus working in the Gulf countries are not allowed
to practice their religion in public. Saudi Arabia insists that India
sends only a Muslim ambassador. Hindu Muslim unity by and large has
generally been a matter of Hindus trying to please or accommodate
Muslims. One cannot forget when Vajpayee was extending his hand for
peace Musharraf was planning the Kargil insurgency.
Let us
remind you, your own statement "I am a Muslim in a country called India
.We"ve never been made to feel this is a Hindu country."
Can you find me a Hindu in Pakistan who can reciprocate that sentiment?
Some years ago, another Mr. Khan, first name Feroze, from your
fraternity was banned from entering Pakistan for saying, "India is
secular unlike Pakistan".
That is the basic difference of the land of "Hindu" India from the Islamic "pure land" of Pakistan.
So please do not ask us to love Pakistan.
Please do not lump the people of India and Pakistan together. We Indians are proud to preserve our separate identity.
And please do not insult the land that gave you your life, name and
fame, by claiming that her worst enemy, who wants to break her into 1000
pieces, is a great neighbour.
Otherwise it would be sad if somebody accuses you of putting your religion ahead of your country.
Please give it a thought.
Regards,
Arindam Bandyopadhyay.
February 2010
