That political journalists are more likely to find themselves on a spiral of cynicism is a truism less acknowledged than the one attributed to ordinary citizenry. And when the journalist is a veteran correspondent with over four decades of reporting on wars, elections, riots and politics, scepticism, even disenchantment, is inevitable. However Saeed Naqvi바카라s Being the Other is not merely a picture of dark disquiet; it is a relentless documenting of failures on the part of leaders, the state and virtually all of civil society. And such is his bitterness, such is his aversion to the word 바카라secular바카라 (he prefers 바카라multiculturalism바카라) that Naqvi goes so far as to say, 바카라Partition, in a way, was the gift the Congress gave to the Hindu right, which in the fullness of time, is today바카라s Hindutva.바카라 Sparing none, not even Gandhi, he goes on to declare 바카라...even for Nehru, like all the other leaders, including the Mahatma, the secular project was negotiable바카라.
The only solace Naqvi finds is in the past, especially his childhood and youth in Awadh, which he holds up as a cradle of all that was once good and nurturing and harmonious. His 바카라remembering eyes바카라 repeatedly fall back upon scenes from the qasbah of Mustafabad, 바카라that crucible of tolerance바카라, where his ancestral home still survives among the debris of a 바카라vanished syncretic Hindu-Muslim culture바카라. A clue to Naqvi바카라s resentment lies in what he experienced at an early age: 바카라The hypocritical silence adopted in the early years of Partition began to putrefy...and turned into closet communalism.바카라
Holding the Congress, and Nehru in particular, responsible for the many sins of omission and commission that resulted in the 바카라othering바카라 of Indian Muslims, Naqvi is at pains to establish its 바카라consistent failure바카라 to read the signals leading up to the 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid and, INStead, 바카라stealing바카라 the Sangh바카라s platform by becoming steadily more saffron than the saffron party. Each such Congress attempt바카라be it Rajiv Gandhi allowing darshan at the disputed site or reversing the SC order on the Shah Bano case바카라becomes an occasion for the Parivar to raise the bar, as it were, and become more insistent. While many milestones are listed바카라the mass conversions of 588 Dalits in Meenakshipuram to Islam in 1981, Murli Manohar Joshi바카라s ekta yatra of 1991, the Bhagalpur riots of 1989 and so on바카라the mosque at Ayodhya is Naqvi바카라s wailing wall and he returns to its demolition repeatedly, as he sees it as an 바카라act of betrayal바카라.
Part memoir, part musings, Being the Other is a chronicle of Naqvi바카라s 바카라growing disillusionment with the direction in which the country is heading, filtered through (his) experiences of key events....바카라 That the filter is often clogged is another matter; the disillusionment so intense that the Naqvi known for his evocative, humanist writings바카라with cameos of communal harmony and syncretism바카라is entirely missing. The rancour, propped by articulation in some places and coloured by an inchoate rage in others, seems to work towards a self-fulfilling prophecy rather than a nuanced argument. His call for a 바카라reappraisal of reputations바카라, of a more thorough reading of the Transfer of Power documents, is, however, well made. What is not is his sweeping assertion of a 바카라disturbing sectarian uniformity바카라 in urban India.
Being the Other is a difficult book to read. Yet it needs to be read simply because, as in a sc-fi novel, it paints a worst-case scenario. It forces the reader to think: what if this unremitting darkness becomes a reality? What will happen if no one stops the forces bent upon destroying pluralism and multiculturalism? What will happen to India if it indeed becomes a Hindu rashtra with no place for other ways of thinking/living? For, if India gives in to communalism, as Naqvi rightly says, 바카라Muslims aren바카라t the only ones who will lose, every Indian will바카라.
