The "Simi Garewal" Syndrome

I was very very upset and angry after watching the "We the People" program on NDTV 24X7 on Sunday, November 30, 2008. For someone who normally just tells a couple of people, mainly family and friends, this time i actually spent time writing about it in several places on the web, asking for both Simi Garewal and Barkha Dutt's apology.

For those who did not see the episode, amongst several luminaries invited to debate, India's options post the Mumbai Siege that began on 26th November, was Simi Garewal. She is an actress from an era gone by and then had a couple of stints on television imitating Barbara Walters. prominent resident of Mumbai though she may be, the person to ask advice on security matters, i thought not. But considering the english news channels had desisted from calling in known faces from the political arena, they obviously ran out of ideas and thought we would all enjoy the views of a Arjun Rampal, Shefali Chhaya, et al. Any way coming back to the event, after the panel made sweeping suggestions about not paying taxes for a year, bombing Pakistan etc. Garewal said, "go to a floor above the sixth in any five star hotel, four seasons or any other, look out and in the slums nearby you would see many more pakistani flags than Indian. We have to show them their place." A gentleman, totally agitated, got up and yelled at her that she was the enemy not Pakistan or the terrorist for making these outrageous remarks. Garewal responded saying "but there are, go and see for yourself". Barkha Dutt had no clue whether or not such flags flew. So she went off on the tangent of saying " they have done it. the terrorists have managed to divide us here." The program went into a break and on return Dutt had managed to get the gentleman to apologize to Garewal. Passionate but nevertheless stupid. (Imam Siddique got in touch with me on facebook after i wrote praising him).

The recount is not the point of this blog. It is the feeling of despair that if Imam had not yelled right then and there, plenty of people in the world would have ended the evening thinking there are pakistani flags flying in the slums of India. they are in fact "islamic flags" found a top muslim institutions. Think of the amount of trouble this could have caused next time communal passions rise in the country.

The things that worry me most is that Simi Garewal and heaven knows how many more people looked out a window in a high rise and thought Mumbai was becoming a part of Pakistan, all these days. If she is a representative of all of them, we are talking of literate, rich, responsible, socialising with muslim colleagues (co-actors), articulate in speech and yet completely clueless. I shudder to think what the rest who depend only on word of mouth and rumours for their information think about the society and its structure.

I am not a poster girl for secularism. I have very few friends from religions and cultures other than mine whom i meet regularly. But most people who know me know that i have very few friends. I discriminate majorly about letting people into my life irrespective of religion, caste and creed. Yet I have read books and watched movies to understand basics like what is the month of Lent, Kosher Food, the difference between the two eids, significance of the 5Ks and such stuff. But such ignorance with arrogance on national television is not only unacceptable but extremely dangerous.

My next concern is how are we going to get the message to people who saw the program but did not read the debates and anguish and anger that followed it. Simi Garewal's PR machinery got into action and got NDTV to say, that she had sent in an apology (did not have the nerve to actually come on television i guess) and an interview in the Times of India saying she stood by what she said except for the flag bit, where she accepts she was wrong. Did all who saw the program, read the interview? Did some people who saw and read, think she was retracting under pressure and had actually said the truth on air? Did some people decide they don't care what is true, i now know where i can find these flags ? How will we ever clear this mess, she created?

Forget about conversions, Hindus are apparently so close minded in parts of the country that they refuse to learn about any other culture. Latika Gupta wrote a very telling piece in the Sunday magazine of the newspaper Hindu http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/11/30/stories/2008113050120400.htm about how Hindu Kids don't seem to know the basics of the Islam religion despite living in close proximity while Muslim Kids do about Hinduism. When Ramayana and Mahabharatha were of the rage in the 90s on television, media had covered enough muslim families that watched the shows with more passion and regularity than my family did.

For all the demands that Muslims and Christians in the country should acknowledge that they belong to the same culture, i think they have. they just don't want to carry it on their sleeves. A article in the magazine Manushi once mentioned that Iranians think their version of Islam is the best and the version in India is extremely diluted. Many converts find that even after several generations the Hindu class divisions don't leave them and they are discriminated against within their community itself . Terms like Brahmin Christians (the first set of people converted in Kerala by St.Thomas were apparently Brahmins and they still call themselves such) and Dalit Christians are completely unknown in most of the Christian World. there is no need for them to call themselves Hindu Christians as was suggested by some luminary from the Sangh Parivar, they are living it.

A start would be for all of us to understand what each of us, our cultures, our interpretation of our religions are and judge each other by that. For that we need to know what the cultures that exist are. Not misrepresentations of the same.