We're Men, We're Men in Robes...

We roam around Swat in high hopes.
We're men, we're men in robes.
We flog the women, sever hands of the men, that's right.
Beware if your beard's too short, and Allah forbid if your clothes are too tight.
We may look all look like off to our beds,
But watch what you say or we'll cut off your heads.
We're men, we're men in robes.
Too bad for you if you love your evening bourbon.
You will surely repent and wear a black turban,
and join us so we can together be...
Men, men in robes.

(apologies to Mel Brooks and the lyrics to "We're men, we're men in tights" from Robin Hood: Men in Tights)

Have you heard of the latest band of uhhh...not-so-merry men? You know, the ones who marched up to the Pakistani capital, indulged in some nuclear saber-rattling, then went back to their caves? They, of the fabulous floggings, the glorious keepers of the faith? Those who denounce Pakistan and its government as impure and Islamically false...and damn any *agreements* they might have signed?

Yep! The Taliban in a major push to capture hearts and minds all over Pakistan are doing the whole robbing from the rich, giving to the poor schtick. Not to mention, they are dispensing justice, even if it takes unsavoury forms, to the common people of that country.

This is undoubtedly an easy snake-oil to sell since the government of Pakistan does seem to losing control over larger and larger parts of the country. It's scary. I feel for normal, every-day Pakistanis but they need to stand up against this take-over. As a person of Indian origin, I fear for what might happen if the Pakistani government does fall. We are used to a state of armed tension with Pakistan. But not a fully Talibanized Pakistan. That is scary!

At least when the Taliban were just in Afghanistan they unleashed their horrors on just their own people. But I think they've tasted true, trans-national power now. They know the eyes of the world are on them, that they cannot hide away. More than thay. They refuse to. They are proud to be students of Islam and the keepers of its promise. I believe they are eager and ready to take on the evil, unIslamic world of kafirs and to them, India is at this point, the major heathen sitting on their doorstep. And with both countries being nuclear now, that is a terrifying prospect.

The fact that the Pakistani government (or successive governments really) has failed its people so badly that they would trade them for the Taliban is horrifying to me.

This is CNN finds that "In radio broadcasts and sermons, Taliban militants have been promoting themselves as Islamic Robin Hoods, defending Pakistan's rural poor from a ruling elite that they describe as corrupt and oppressive."

Here's another report about the Talibani Robin Hoods in The Times.

I think perhaps the Taliban themselves and indeed some others in Pakistan do see them as romantic Robin Hood-like figures. They are the outsiders, the little guys taking on large, imperialistic forces. They talk of honor, of bringing true justice, of taking out corruption, of rooting out injustice, of imbuing peopel with pride. And they are partly right, of course. But they don't talk of the other horrors waiting in their Trojan Horse, ready to be unleashed: oppression, atrocities, the curtailment of personal freedoms, and unrelenting violence.

I hope the people find a different way, a better way. If not, I fear we are all on our way to a hellish future.

Making a Deal With the Devil Part Two

Not too long ago I wrote this post about the Taliban's deal with the Pakistani government.

And, yes *SURPRISE* despite the Taliban's assurances to the contrary, they are doing what they do best. Yes, as we all know and should know, the biggest threat to any country or people is its women. I say, if we just whip and flog a few wayward women prosperity shall be ours, Inshallah.

So, I for one, totally support the flogging of the hapless 17-year old girl, flung face-down (with her hijab around her face), with a few men, including her brother holding her down. And, may Allah give strength to the tireless arms of the poor, Talib brother who flogged her repeatedly, while she cried aloud in agony.

Okay, I can't keep this up. I saw the video. I will not post a link to it because it made me sick to my stomach and made me cry. It is circulating on the Web. Yes, people, the holy Shariah law is indeed making life even more wonderful for the women of Swat.

What deal-makers and others don't get about organizations like the Taliban is this. They *don't* truly recognize the existence of political entities and states. They don't think that any rule of law apart from Shariah and the Quran is valid. So, yes, if it is expedient they will make a deal with you to placate you, to regroup, and then they will continue doing what they feel they are divinvely ordained to do. And it is okay--in fact, it's commendable--if you lie and cheat your way into creating a perfect, Utopian, Islamic society.


Oh yeah, remember the Taliban's assurance to the Pakistani government that girls schools would be re-opened? Do you mean *gasp* that they did not follow through with this? Here's an article about more than 100 girls schools being blown up. A radio station was also destroyed. Here's another article.
I mean really, who was naive enough to think that this would not happen? It was only a question of when and how it would happen.

Well, technically, they didn't close the schools did they? The problem...well...simply...disappeared. Ingenious!

Think this doesn't touch you? Think about this: the Taliban and people who endorse, support, apologize for them...are on an upswing. Read this article, which uncovers the fact that emeralds from Swat are being used by the Taliban to grow stronger.

Already, the resurgent Taliban are returning in another incarnation to the place of their birth, Afghanistan. Remember, the U.S. bombed Afghanistan and committed troops, and installed Hamid Karzai, basically a puppet-leader for the beleagured country. Well, the worm has turned. And, of course, to safeguard a country in crisis, he did what any responsible leader should do. Yep...make rape within marriage legal (you mean it wasn't already).

Of course, about a month later he is trying to scrap the law, because of Western pressure. Prime Minister Brown of Britain said his soldeirs would not die to defend a country where this was legal.

Now, everyhing is murky and there are no clear heroes and villains. There are tremendous complexities at work that I cannot even begin to comprehend or explain. More than that, the genie is out of the bottle...again. The law might be scrapped on the books, but do you think it will stop being applied? I'm sure there isn't a great and functional legal system in place there anyway. It's not like women were lining up to accuse their husbands (or anyone else for that matter) of rape. But at least if there was a law, there was a slim chance that some woman might or at least gain some internal power by knowing she could if she wanted to. Having the law scrapped due to external pressure is merely a token gesture. Will things on the ground really change?

Once a sovereign country accedes any amount of its power...nay, makes a deal with anti-national insurgents and willingly hands over a territory...the damage is already done. Why would that group fear a government that rolls over so easily? In fact, a government and a people who, at the very least sympathize with and/or support those goals? Anything less is semantics.

If my manifesto derives from God and any work I do for him is divine and unequivocally correct, there is no room for debate or negotiation, is there? I might make expedient deals, but once I am strong, I have no incentive to hold up my end of the bargain. This is what has happened in Pakistan, and perhaps also in Afghanistan.

The battle is already lost. Will we also lose the war?

Making a deal with the devil

"The agreement between Pakistan's government and the growing Taliban forces in the country's northwest region cemented a truce between the two sides and gave the insurgents dominance in the Swat region by installing a strict regimen of Islamic law amenable to the militants' authority. The pact was spearheaded by a hard-line cleric sent to the region to negotiate with the Taliban and persuade them to give up their arms."

Read the rest of this story here.

When it was first announced a few days ago, this story about the Pakistani government making a deal with the Taliban struck a chill inside me.

So scary and full of potential for unfolding disaster that I can barely blog about it. The schoolgirls in Swat whose schools were shut down and the women who are now entering a dark phase of life under the Taliban will pay for this decision taken in Islamabad. Two sides: one a resurgent and powerful Taliban that never really went away, the other an embattled government losing control of swathes of its country. And in between the millions who are trapped between these two powers. A government that cannot even hold on to its territory but hands it over to a renegade power should be ashamed of itself. Is this why the Pakistani people elected these folks?

This deal was supposedly struck for peace. Was it? Or was it to shove the lives of millions into darkness so the rest of us don't have to look at them any more? Like putting bandaid on a gangrenous limb. Ultimately this will poison the rest of the country and perhaps the world.


And once the Taliban again becomes the de-facto rulers of a place, will they be content? Will they not want to grow their influence, the cleanse the remaining parts of Pakistan? What will they do its female intellectuals and writers and poets, to its schoolgirls and its college students? Since all is Allah's domain and they are the self-appointed arbiters of religion and conduct, will they recognize geographical borders? How will this impact India in the long run?

India and Pakistan have a blow hot-blow cold relationship anyway but for a while we were at least talking. Our leaders at least made a charade of meeting, of keeping to the stated objective of peace. But the Taliban? If America is the great Satan to them, what is India? India, with its Hindu majority, its secular constitution, and its large Muslim minority....what special demonic significance does India have in their eyes?

I feel like the world has moved on from this news, shrugging it off as a South Asian oddity. But I fear this was a defining momment in history. Who would have thought that a hijacking Indian Airlines plane in Qandahar would have ultimately led to 9/11 and then on to the wars in Afghanistan and the under-false-pretences occupation of Iraq. But it did.

And, this no mere hijacked plane. This is much bigger and I fear for the world. I fear for myself. And I wonder where we are headed. I hope I am wrong. I fear I might not be.

Hey, don't look at us

There is buzz from Pakistani media and the blogosphere that the Mumbai terror attacks were (a) either Indian Muslims or (b) Hindu terrorists masquerading as Pakistani terrorists. WTF?

You know I can understand this, really understand this. I know how it must feel for sane, peace-loving people in Pakistan to acknowledge that someone from their side of the border might have had something to do with this horror. Just as I can understand the anti-Pakistan and even anti-Muslim statements calls in the middle of the unfolding horror in Mumbai. I can understand it, I can empathize with all these sentiments. That does not mean I support any of it.

Pakistanis need to realize that these are the same people who blew up their Marriott, who might have had a hand in numerous suicide attacks and Benazir Bhutto's assasination. I don't believe the Pakistani government has any control over the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence, the Pakistani secret service) or the LET (Lashkar-e-Taiba, Islamic terrorist group). And that is a problem. A huge problem. A well-funded, secret organization that helped the creation of Al Qaeda, and helps train Islamic militants, operating in an extra-governmental manner, outside the control of an elected government is a terrifying thought.

I remember listening to a BBC interview of Benazir Bhutto before she headed back to Pakistan, in which she was asked about the ISI and LET. She casually said that when she had been PM she had been happy that the ISI were focused on India and that the LET did not yet exist but implied that the ISI operated as a sort of rogue agency. She talked about her distrust of the ISI now. I remember thinking while I listened to her speak, well, if you nurture an extra-governmental organization which spreads terror eventually those chickens will come home to roost. Whether it was the ISI itself or one of the radical orgzanizations it helps, someone certainly was responsible for her assassination. Here's an article (for some reason I can't link to it, so you'll have to cut and paste in your browser: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3100052.ece

While there might have been some Indian Muslim involvement (the terrorist who had checked into the Taj had many visitors) the captured gunman has told police about the boat that sailed from Karachi, and about the names of the others who died and some whom I believe are still at large. Now the Mumbai Police is no friend of Indian Muslims. If they had any information that Indian citizens were heavily involved it would have been public knowledge and there would be a backlash already taking place. If the Hindu right-wing parties had *any* information about Indian Muslim involvement they would be all over it.

The fact is that ISI and ISI-backed groups have operated in India earlier, whether in Kashmir or elsewhere. And they operate in Pakistan as well. In that sense we have a common enemy. Some consider the ISI a shadow government and it has close links with Al Qaeda and other terror groups.Watch this video that talks about Bhutto's assasination which also points out that there seems to be no difference between an ISI training camp and an Al Qaeda training camp. Chilling!



The Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility for these attacks. No one knows much about this group. However, the email that claimed responsibility came from Russia. Upon closer analysis of the IP address and of the email itself it was found that the actual email was written in Pakistan and opened on a computer in that country. The Deccan, of course, is the plateau towards the south of India, also where Hyderabad is located. Is the name a deliberate attempt to squarely try and place the outfit as originating from the Deccan plateau. By whom? Someone who wrote the email in Pakistan and sent it out from Russia? Who could it be?

As far as Hindu fundamentalist involvement is concerned, this attack has all the hallmarks of Islamic militancy. A captured Hindu fundamentalist would also gladly point fingers at Indian Muslims, instead of Pakistan, or better yet Indian Muslims working with Pakistanis, their favorite boogeyman, the Pak-loving Indian Muslim.

The fact that we have Hindu militancy, and the Gujarat (and other) riots happened, doesn't also mean that Islamic terrorists do not operate in India. Just because we now also have home-grown Islamic militants does not mean thatwe do not also have terrorists from a country with which we've had a divisive and very bloody history.

Peace-loving Pakistanis and Indians do have a common enemy and if we really want peace and reduced terror, there needs to be cooperation between us. Getting mired in unlikely conspiracy theories can get us nowhere. The only other alternative is another war, and I don't think any of us want that.

Glimpses from Mumbai

In the high-tension drama surrounding the Taj, the Oberoi, and the Trident hotels, as well as Nariman House, we seem to have forgotten the other victims of the Mumbai attacks. The hotels and Nariman House were where the well-to died, they form the memories of the upper classes. Of course, there were brave service-people who also became victims, but these five-star hotels and Nariman House are places where people like *us* hung out. So was Cafe Leopold.

Mumbai's defiance and sadness was expressed by a young man at the Gateway of India Vigil. He held a sign that proclaimed:

Mr. Terrorist: I am alive. What more can you do?

Mr. Politician: I am alive despite you.

I am a Mumbaikar

Yes, he is a Mumbaikar and a survivor, but the crowds at Gateway are mainly the English-speaking elite. There are other Mumbaikars too, who rarely make an appearance on the national stage. Is it because they speak Marathi and Mumbai? Is it because with the sudden and violent deaths of entire families, their communities come together to bear the costs of multiple funerals, because they are too poor to have a voice? Their trauma too is equally horrifying, their ultimate predicaments perhaps worse. Let's see some of their stories.


A grieving mother (left) who lost two of her children, outside St. Georges Hospital

Remember, the first 56 people died at CST--the huge railway terminal once called (Victoria Terminus) VT. This is also the throbbing heart of Mumbai, through which its masses pass, its lower-class and poorer citizens. Then there was the car bomb at the gas station. And the standoff at Cama Hospital, the attack at Ville Parle and at the Bunder.

Ten sites were terrorized simultaneously in Mumbai, and we have all been fixated on four of them. Here are some glimpses from the other side, some victims, some survivors, some heroes:


The Aftermath of Terror at CST, Mumbai

1) Announcers at CST: The men in the booth who make announcements for the bustling station, saw the blood and heard the shots. They made emergency announcements so others could leave by alterante exits avoiding the site of the carnage. They made announcements for the trains coming in, so that thousands upon thousands of arriving passengers did not emerge onto the platforms. Remember this, most of Mumbai's 5 million commuters pass through CST. At once point, one of the gunmen looked up towards the glassed-in booth. The announcements continued. The terrorists fired up at the men. The announcers barricaded the door and two of them positioned themselves beside the door, armed with stools to knock out the terrorists if they came in. The announcements continued.

2) A 22-year old Taj employee was ordered by one of the terrorists to set fire to table-cloths. He refused. He was shot three times. He was to have left for the UK in a few days to work at a hotel there. Earlier he had saved other lives and even went back to retrieve some important files a foreign businessman had left behind when he had escaped. According to survivors, there were many such amazing young people, working at the three hotels. People, who instead of running away, made sure their guests were evacuated. Many, if not most of them died.

Among the dead at the Taj was the wife, and the 5 and 14-year old children of the General Manager. The man himself helpd with rescue and evacuation and worked with law-enforcement.

3) There were the nameless working poor who crowded blood-banks to donate, while the rich stayed away. Here is a wonderful article by hairstylist Sapna Bhavnani: http://www.mid-day.com/specials/2008/nov/301108-News-Sapna-Bhavnani-Mumbai-Terror-attacks-Colaba-Taj-Mahal-Hotel-Trident-Hotel.htm

She talks about the people clamoring to give blood, including an old man leaning on a cane and a four-foot tall man arguing with a nurse because he was turned away for being too small to donate.)

4)There was the grief-numbed man who spoke in Hindi of how six members of his family were gunned down at CST. He was the only one speaking in Hindi among the sea of English-speakers at a forum at St. Xavier's College, the home of the South Mumbai elite. There was a quiet desperation and dignity in the way he spoke as he asked what would happen to his family. Among the dead were two young children. Unable to afford multimple funerals, his equally poor neighbors and friends stepped in to help. His beard and cap and his name identify him as Muslim yet that was not something he talked about. It was unimportant. What was important was his broken heart. And I felt for him, being paraded as the one token poor man and Muslim rolled into one, unable to fully understand the conversations raging around him, as he sat on the ground, his eyes fixed downward because as he said, "meri awaz to nikal nahi rahi hai," (My voice can barely emerge from within). I tried to find the video but it's not up yet.

5)The people of Mumbai--no matter their class, their religion, or their status--have no choice but to keep on living. They have to go back to work, to school, be on the streets and get on with the business of living. They are survivors, victims, and heroes all rolled into one. They are angry and I can't blame them. Keep up the good fight Mumbaikars and never give in.

Jai Hind!

What have they done?

The Taj, Mumbai lobby, before the attacks





...and after

Amchi Mumbai

Mumbai--or Bombay as we'd known it for years--was the city I made fun of. It was the city that rikshaw drivers and domestic servants ran away to, to become film stars. It was full of brash, opininated, self-important people, of models and actresses and suited financial types. The home of people who would say things like "Bombay is the best city in India," or "Bombay is India's NYC and LA rolled into one,' or " Bombay pays most the country's taxes and we get no benefits while states like Bihar and UP and Delhi reap the benefits."

Yes, Bombay was to me self-important, self-obsessed, and yet it always was India's city of dreams. For indeed, small town girls and boys could come here and become stars, where the lingo of the tea-boys was hip, and though gritty and urban, it became transformed at night when the glittering queen's necklace lit up.

Perhaps it was a reaction to Bombayites'--now known as Mumbaikars--dislike for my state's and Bihar's refugees who streamed into the city straining its resources to their breaking point. And yet the city stretched to accomodate them. Perhaps there was some admiration, maybe even envy woven into my psyche. Perhaps that pounding pulse of Bombay, that brash uncaring attitude, that touch of rudeness and the self-obsession was something I wished for myself and for my hometown and my state.



The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, across the street from the Arabian Sea was the hotel of aspirations. It was where we dreamed of going. No matter the new and amazing other hotels in Delhi or even Mumbai, I still remember my first time, at 12 when I had dinner at the Shamiana restaurant. Sure, I pretended to be blase, but still so many years later I remember that first time. The Taj was history and glamor and wheeling dealing and exotic, all at once. It was a gracious, grand hotel and despite my teenage refusal to find anything redeeming about Bombay and its sprawl, I found my evening at the Taj enchanting.

Today as I watch the splatters of blood, the look of shock on faces, the fires at the grand old Taj and the Oberoi and Trident hotels I remember my past dislike for Mumbai.



And I see Mumbai for what it is. India's economic engine, its repositor of dreams, the place that makes us believe all is possible. Despite its problems I see beneath its brashness is impatience, beneath its jostling, bustling heart, a desire to see things happen, to *make* them happen.

It is to this chaotic, teeming city of dreams that Islamic terrorists with rucksacks laid seige. They ran through the streets, shooting people, exploded bombs at Victoria (now Chhatrapati Shivaji)Terminus. They holed up in its finest hotels, targeted foreign visitors and the predominantly Jewish Nariman House. A city that sacrificed three of its top cops, and nine other policemen to the attacks, where over a 100 have died, while hundreds more have been injured. The terrorists may or may not be Pakistani but they certainly had some support from across the border. According to NDTV's coverage intercepted calls seem to suggest this. In fact, the terrorists were supposed to say they were from Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, not Hyderabad in Pakistan. The full truth will come out some day I hope. Regardless, it is impossible to carry out these widespread attacks without local complicity and that saddens me and makes me very. very angry.

AND I AM SICK OF IT.

No matter how bad this is, and not much can be worse, Mumbai is the one city that can withstand this. Even after the simultaneous train station bombings in 2006, people went back to work the next day. Yes, Mumbai is a tough city. Its people are tough and they are resilient.

Today, I can say, with no reservations and no pity, but with admiration and support: I love Mumbai. Today, I too am a Mumbaikar. And today with all Indians, even those of us who live elsewhere, I too can declare: Amchi Mumbai, My Mumbai. Terror will not overwhelm us.

Amchi Mumbai, Our Mumbai, we are with you.

Mumbai Under Seige

Here is the link to the developing CNN story.

I am numb. And pissed off. At the same time? Is that possible. Screw the Deccan Mujahideen. Who are these people? Who are these people to storm a city by boat, hole up in luxury hotels and kill commuters at train stations. The story is still unfolding. All I can think of are the people in Mumbai who have yet again been targeted by these fucking terrorists, the terror that people must be feeling.

It's still chaos there, the death toll is rising, so is the list of the injured. I watched NDTV last night and watched the blood, the walking dead, the wounded and felt so much that I can't even write in anything more than these staccato sentences.

Damn these fuckers