First. There are still many of us who do not look at India as a land for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, etc. It was, is and will remain the land of Indians. Second, please tell your mom that your presence on Social Media, your writings, your posts and comments are what keep the hopes of many of us alive. So, please do not refrain from doing so. Lastly, a brilliant take on the bigotry that exists in the Indian cricket team and Society at Large.
But I am afraid tolerant, decent people like you are increasingly becoming fewer in number. Modi and his minions have lost every war - ranging from the ones with China, the war on unemployment, the fight against the pandemic and so on. But they have won the social media wars and have succeeded in turning India into a Hindu mirror image of Pakistan.
The Indian team is no different and reflects the very same prejudices, caste hierarchies, colour biases, religious bigotries that is present in the population. Only that under Modi, it has become more explicitly anti-Muslim. And continues to spiral down this bottomless abyss of hate.
Very well said Rana ayyub.. I am jagmeet singh bhullar from Ludhiana Punjab. I totally agree with you. Such behaviour of andhbhakts should stop. I pray to God to bless those Halfminded people.
No Muslim, not even celebrities, are safe in Modi’s India! It’s time for the world leaders, particularly those who see India as an ally against China, to speak out.
Mr Riaz Haq: These days not even Sikhs are safe. Hindutva has been exported to the Indian diaspora and we now have instances of BJP supporters threatening Sikhs in Australia due to the largely Sikh driven farmers agitations in India.
You've spoken for 90 percent of the country, Rana Ayyub. Unfortunately it's the rabid 10 percent supported by the BJP RSS nexus who are hogging the social media space.
Love all your comments here. But alas, I am afraid that you are perhaps wrong when you believe that only 10% of the country that is rabid and inspired by the saffron thugs of the RSS & the BJP. Fact is, large swaths of the country have fallen for the Hindutva line hook, line and sinker. Today, in the vast Hindi speaking BIMARU belt, even educated, middle class Hindus espouse this violent, Nazi ideology that the RSS & the BJP have propagated by deft use of social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook etc. People simply believe what they see on these sites and hatred of Muslims is what is fed to them.
Worse still, Hindutva has also been exported to the diaspora. A close Swiss friend who works as a manager for an insurance company in the UAE has had to break up fights at work and has had to warn Indians to leave their Hindutva ideologies and Islamophobia outside the workplace. At the same time, he faces pressure from local authorities to not hire Indians unless they have been vetted for their views. The odd thing is that many/some Indians hate Muslims and yet see no problems in travelling with their begging bowls to Muslim countries !
Hindutva will tear India at the seams - just as this poor Indian seam bowler has been attacked for being a Muslim. And none of his Hindu teammates came to defend him immediately - although they did so belatedly when the episode became a national embarassment.
Shami is a very important figure in Indian bowling. He played a crucial role in many Indian victories. He should be praised and supported for the next huge games. For the sake of Ram, Don't spread hatred.
But India is not the proverbial "Ram Rajya" despite the BJP building a Ram Mandir and purchasing ambulances for cows. Modi and his minions simply spread hate and hate gets you elected. As simple as that.
Ma’am, let me start by saying that even though I have not read any of your books, I keep reading your articles and greatly admire your ability and courage to call “spade a spade”, especially courage because I seldom manage to do it myself - sometimes because I am being “nice”. But mostly because even though I am a middle class atheist “Hindu” “Brahmin”, it is not easy speaking your mind in today's India. This is worse because that I understand and acknowledge that I get the privileges of being one among the so called "majority" (maybe without even desiring them) and it makes me realise how difficult it must be for folks who consider themselves a minority instead.
However, here are my disagreements with your article. Firstly, I don’t think Gautam Gambhir or Sehwag’s tweets “posted dog-whistle tweets slyly accusing Muslims of setting off firecrackers in celebration of Pakistan’s victory”. If we are to be honest about the right wing Hindu extremism in our country, then we should be honest about the disillusionment with the “idea of India” of some folks (not communities). The truth is that there were celebrations of the Pakistani victory for reasons beyond the sporting talents of that team and it is not something those folks should be criticised for but something that should lead to introspection within the political leaders of our country. (Yes - I am that naive!). At the same time, for people such as Sehwag and Gambhir, who have been part of the Indian cricket team, I am sure these celebrations must feel worse than others.
Secondly, while the nauseating trolling of Shami is absolutely deplorable, for the record, many cricketers including Sehwag have come out strongly against it. I also disagree with using the term “defend” Shami ("...defence of its own player, Shami..."), because there was nothing to defend a performance against a strong international side that a lot of experts rate as one of the favourites to win the ongoing tournament which decimated the other bowlers as well.
Finally, I really admire the Indian team taking a stand for something – even if it is a seemingly non-contextual (and thereby safe) issue to India like BLM. Because it is not non-contextual. If you remember Darren Sammy was subjected to racial abuse in IPL and so are Africans every day in India. So, there needs to be awareness at home and I am glad that sportsmen who are feted by many are taking a public stand.
I wholeheartedly agree that there are other contextual and more important issues in India that they should take a stand on given their status in millions of minds. But, rather than criticise them for "bending the knee" for BLM, I feel we should encourage it and hope that one day, they (and people like me) will courageously take a public stand against issues closer home.
Liked aspects of your post A Typical Indian - hereafter ATI in this post.
Nonetheless I am rather uncomfortable with the usual "people celebrating Pakistan winning" trope that gets bandied about and you cite here. And often it is a rumour - few Muslims in Modistan would be so foolish as to do that - unless they wish to court death. After all, even as a privileged Hindu Brahmin you are candid about lacking the courage to express your views..
In any case, let me get back to the "Indian Muslims supporting Pakistan and celebrating Pakistani cricket victories" saga.
I wonder if you have heard of the infamous Tebbit Test. Norman Tebbit, an MP in the UK Parliament lamented the fact that British citizens of Indian, Pakistani or Caribbean origins cheered for the teams of their countries of origin rather than for England. And these were people who had lived in the UK for many generations. Tebbit wondered if they were sufficiently integrated or even loyal to Britain.
So that makes me want to ask you a question:
Should immigrants of Indian origin and holding British nationality be prosecuted and persecuted for cheering India when India plays England in England? After all, Indian Muslims do get prosecuted and persecuted at the mere allegation they don't support the Indian cricket team don't they ?
Indians supporting Indian teams in foreign countries is not a political statement. However we all know that Indian muslims and esp. Kashmiri muslims supporting Pakistani team are unmistakable political statements. I know you are willfully ignorant and are hiding the tragic history of religious mobilization in the subcontinent. Both hindus and muslims participated in this mobilization and hence the consequences. I hope you remember what happened to communist supporters in the great liberal western democracies.
Since when did banana Republic Pakistan become a template for India ? Clearly, it seems to be your idea of a great country since you want India to copy Pakistan ....
Is criticism of Muslim nations a pre-requisite to criticise and condemn Hindutva inspired violence in India?
Additionally, you do not seem to have grasped my riposte to Mr Shivam above. I guess my poor English is to blame rather than your Hindutva inspired mind ...
There is no "Hindutva inspired violence in India" it is all fake stories to cover up the jihadis atrocities against non muslims in Islamic nation. India is a secular democratic country which gives one freedom to particse their religion without any discrimination. Mera bharat mahana.. Hindu muslim Sikh isai Bhai Bhai.
I won't ascribe a gender to you, so will refer to you as SF only.
I have read about the Tebbit test. Of course, I find a test absurd which postulates that one is "disloyal" if he / she supports a sportsman from another country when playing against one of his / her countrymen. If that was true, a lot of Indians would be declared "traitors" for rooting for all the international tennis players who played against Leander Paes or chess players from other countries who defeated Anand.
However, I also believe that the context is completely different here. Tebbit test was proposed to be applied to immigrants from countries that Britain never went to war with or from countries whose armed forces and deep state had an explicitly declared aim of annihilating Britain. At no point, does this mean that any of the Pakistani cricketers in the winning team or the common Pakistani folks have any connection to the deep state of the country. If I and everyone i know does not have a connection / relationship / employment with the deep state of my country, it would be extremely foolish to not assume the same for the cricketers and the majority of Pakistani population.
But at the same time, I do understand that some celebrations might be celebrating more than the sporting talents of the Pakistani team. To quote from my original comment "The truth is that there were celebrations of the Pakistani victory for reasons beyond the sporting talents of that team and it is not something those folks should be criticised for but something that should lead to introspection within the political leaders of our country."
We would be extremely naive or ignorant if we claim that there is no Indian who doesn't ascribe to the current definition of India. I say "current", because the definition of India has changed over the last centuries. Unless we start from an empathic understanding of the disillusionment of our countrymen, there would not be a way to solve it.
Although your pseudonym implies a European person, given the details in your post, I would guess that you are of Indian origin. Either ways, happy to see people can disagree respectfully in this era of rabid social media views and glad to have this conversation with you.
The Tebbit test has actually 2 versions. In the older version (ref:bit.ly/2XWoWRa) from 1990, Conservative MP Norman Tebbit claimed that South Asian & Caribbean immigrants and as well as their Britain born descendents were not sufficiently loyal as they never supported England in cricket matches. Tebbit also claimed that in addition to disloyalty, this behavior was proof of a lack of their assimilation and integration into British society. However, plenty of white migrants to Britain from New Zealand and Australia support their national teams rather than England during cricket matches and this is not considered as a flunking of the Tebbit test !
In the revised 2014 version of the infamous Tebbit test (ref:bit.ly/2ZyMbS1), Tebbit takes his preposterous idea even further and claims that persons whose parents or grandparents came from countries that fought on the side of Britain during WW 2 would be welcome as immigrants but not others. Thus, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, France etc. were welcome to Britain but not Germans. Mysteriously, Tebbit's welcome mat did not extend to people from India, Pakistan & Bangladesh - countries that sent thousands of troops to die for Britain.
Clearly, in both versions of the Tebbit test, race is the crux of the matter and race is what Tebbit rails against. Brown and black immigrants fail the test whilst white supporters are never questioned for their loyalty.
But getting back to the thrust of your insightful response to me.
In Britain, India, USA as well as in many other countries, there are surely deeper reasons as to why some - emphasis on some - migrants/minorities do not identify themselves as "belonging" to the nation they live in. But we could also reverse this thesis and phrase it as follows: In Britain, India, USA and other countries, majorities do not regard some minorities as "belonging" to the country - regardless of how loyal they are. Thus, you could be a decorated war veteran like the late Gen. Colin Powell (who was black) and yet be denied access to a restroom in the US South and subjected to racial slurs.
Likewise, in India, you could be a great cricketer like Mohammad Shami and yet have your loyalties questioned and be trolled and singled out for abuse merely because you are a Muslim. Your captain Virat Kohli does not support you; elder statesmen of cricket like Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sehwag, Kumble and their ilk will not come to your aid; the BCCi will ignore your plight. Indeed, bigots like Sehwag and Gambhir will even insinuate that Muslims celebrate Pakistan's win with firecrackers. Of course, after the huge brouhaha and the hypocrisy of Indian players taking a knee for BLM whilst not supporting a teammate became an international embarrassment, belatedly, the BCCI and other cricketers rushed to declare their support for Shami.
So please tell me ATI: in this scenario, is it even relevant to ask who cast the first stone? After all, even if you are a completely law abiding, patriotic Muslim living in India and one who does not celebrate Pakistan's cricket victories, you still run the risk of getting lynched don't you? Shami might escape with some trolling and abuse on social media. But for ordinary, often indigent Muslims like Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, Junaid Khan, Tabrez Ansari, Alimuddin Ansari the threats are real - all these gentlemen were lynched. And Alimuddin Ansari's killers were ot only let out on bail, they were even garlanded and given sweets by BJP Union Minister Jayant Sinha. Should the average Muslim - and increasingly Sikhs and Christians - trust the institutions of the Indian government? Or as the police famously told Muslims fleeing a rabid crowd in Ahmedabad in 2002 said:
"We do not have orders to protect you".
Glad to debate with you - I don't think that we are in any deep disagreement. And I promise that even if I disagree with you, I will not be disagreeable.
Thanking you very for showing the mirror to wrong doing in our country. This is only possible once you have courage and boldness which is already exist in you.
The Indian celebrities lost their stature the day they all came together against farmer's protest. #againstpropaganda. They are nothing but lapdogs of the government. The bollywood heroes lose their gall off screen. The message from government is clear. Either toe the line or we will come after you. I doubt if any celebrity will have the courage to against them. The question then is, do they feel an iota of shame selling off their people?
Just as today’s cricket game cannot be said to be a gentleman’s game anymore (given the on field abuses and assault between teams), it’s evident team India players and majority of cricket fraternity lost their sense of ‘team’ & ‘belongingness’ , being friend and above all being human. They not only lost their game they also lost their conscience.
Because we're done supporting the causes locally, protected our minorities from harassment, stopped the oppression towards the Dalits. Now we want to support a cause that is 20,000 miles apart and that is no way related to socio-economic, political context of India.
This is a kind of idiocy and sometimes called as white complexity. It is usually prevalent amoung us Desis. Whatever the West trends, right from the fashion to the movements, we're supposed to follow it to the last dot.
While the #BLM is actually a legit cause, if you're not caring about your neighbour or fellow citizens but want to stand for #BLM, you actually stand for nothing but hypocrisy and most likely suffering from gora complexity (white complexity)
First of all I'm not the supporter of bjp or rss. But I want to ask one thing. You blame Hindus in India for supporting rss. But at the time of independence at first the British muslim ashrafia supported muslim nationalist muslim leage ,they ripped our country in two parts and choked india from energy supplies and trade from west as well as east. Instead so called bimaru Hindi belt do not supported bjp. They cleansed Hindus from Pakistan and now they are mere two percent. After that they stated killing Hindus in Bangladesh in 1971 which resulted in mass migration and their percentage reduced to just 9 percent from 23 percent. Hindus do not react. Even after that within india where British indian muslim are in majority in only indian Province of Kashmir they started killing pundits and wanted to merge with military run pakistan by regecting secular country india. Hindus do not react. After that the British indian muslim majority pakistan attacked india in Kargil, plane hijak. Sansad bhawan attack 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Then Hindus reacted and voted for bjp at least 100 years after muslim asharffia supported muslim league. What would you say if I occupy Saudi arabia yesterday and build Ram temple in Mecca like israel. muslim in india as a goodwill should have given hindus back their major religious sites like temples in Kashi mathura ayodya. As a goodwill gesture. If they had given babri masjid to Hindus by their own will why would Hindus voted bjp. At end I want to say one thing that British indian muslims supported muslim league divided themselves in 3 countries. One country Pak continuously waged pseudo war on india and instead majority muslims were allowed to live peacefully after 1947 in India. Do not tried to earn the goodwill of Hindus . They want to destroy our ancient civilization. Like they did in Egypt. At last they are responsible for their plight.
First. There are still many of us who do not look at India as a land for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, etc. It was, is and will remain the land of Indians. Second, please tell your mom that your presence on Social Media, your writings, your posts and comments are what keep the hopes of many of us alive. So, please do not refrain from doing so. Lastly, a brilliant take on the bigotry that exists in the Indian cricket team and Society at Large.
Very well said Mr Sanjeev Hariharan.
But I am afraid tolerant, decent people like you are increasingly becoming fewer in number. Modi and his minions have lost every war - ranging from the ones with China, the war on unemployment, the fight against the pandemic and so on. But they have won the social media wars and have succeeded in turning India into a Hindu mirror image of Pakistan.
The Indian team is no different and reflects the very same prejudices, caste hierarchies, colour biases, religious bigotries that is present in the population. Only that under Modi, it has become more explicitly anti-Muslim. And continues to spiral down this bottomless abyss of hate.
Very well said Rana ayyub.. I am jagmeet singh bhullar from Ludhiana Punjab. I totally agree with you. Such behaviour of andhbhakts should stop. I pray to God to bless those Halfminded people.
We stand with #Shami
ਰੱਬ ਰਾਖਾ 🙏🙏
No Muslim, not even celebrities, are safe in Modi’s India! It’s time for the world leaders, particularly those who see India as an ally against China, to speak out.
Non Muslims are not safe in any Muslim country or Kashmir. Cleanup your act first before you show finger
Mr Riaz Haq: These days not even Sikhs are safe. Hindutva has been exported to the Indian diaspora and we now have instances of BJP supporters threatening Sikhs in Australia due to the largely Sikh driven farmers agitations in India.
You've spoken for 90 percent of the country, Rana Ayyub. Unfortunately it's the rabid 10 percent supported by the BJP RSS nexus who are hogging the social media space.
Mr Madhusudhan Sikri:
Love all your comments here. But alas, I am afraid that you are perhaps wrong when you believe that only 10% of the country that is rabid and inspired by the saffron thugs of the RSS & the BJP. Fact is, large swaths of the country have fallen for the Hindutva line hook, line and sinker. Today, in the vast Hindi speaking BIMARU belt, even educated, middle class Hindus espouse this violent, Nazi ideology that the RSS & the BJP have propagated by deft use of social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook etc. People simply believe what they see on these sites and hatred of Muslims is what is fed to them.
Worse still, Hindutva has also been exported to the diaspora. A close Swiss friend who works as a manager for an insurance company in the UAE has had to break up fights at work and has had to warn Indians to leave their Hindutva ideologies and Islamophobia outside the workplace. At the same time, he faces pressure from local authorities to not hire Indians unless they have been vetted for their views. The odd thing is that many/some Indians hate Muslims and yet see no problems in travelling with their begging bowls to Muslim countries !
Hindutva will tear India at the seams - just as this poor Indian seam bowler has been attacked for being a Muslim. And none of his Hindu teammates came to defend him immediately - although they did so belatedly when the episode became a national embarassment.
Incredible India indeed !
Apt! I remember clearly bieng asked by my English teacher when I was 10 or 11... That I will be supporting Pakistan...
I remember bieng confused and somehow felt shamed (I still don't know why!)...
This was in Kerala... I can't imagine growing up in the more bigoted parts of the country ...
Well said Rana..As Irfan pathan told "This crap needs to stop..yes it needs to be stopped...
Shami is a very important figure in Indian bowling. He played a crucial role in many Indian victories. He should be praised and supported for the next huge games. For the sake of Ram, Don't spread hatred.
I agree Mr M Saqlain.
But India is not the proverbial "Ram Rajya" despite the BJP building a Ram Mandir and purchasing ambulances for cows. Modi and his minions simply spread hate and hate gets you elected. As simple as that.
My sympathies for Mohammad Shami.
Ma’am, let me start by saying that even though I have not read any of your books, I keep reading your articles and greatly admire your ability and courage to call “spade a spade”, especially courage because I seldom manage to do it myself - sometimes because I am being “nice”. But mostly because even though I am a middle class atheist “Hindu” “Brahmin”, it is not easy speaking your mind in today's India. This is worse because that I understand and acknowledge that I get the privileges of being one among the so called "majority" (maybe without even desiring them) and it makes me realise how difficult it must be for folks who consider themselves a minority instead.
However, here are my disagreements with your article. Firstly, I don’t think Gautam Gambhir or Sehwag’s tweets “posted dog-whistle tweets slyly accusing Muslims of setting off firecrackers in celebration of Pakistan’s victory”. If we are to be honest about the right wing Hindu extremism in our country, then we should be honest about the disillusionment with the “idea of India” of some folks (not communities). The truth is that there were celebrations of the Pakistani victory for reasons beyond the sporting talents of that team and it is not something those folks should be criticised for but something that should lead to introspection within the political leaders of our country. (Yes - I am that naive!). At the same time, for people such as Sehwag and Gambhir, who have been part of the Indian cricket team, I am sure these celebrations must feel worse than others.
Secondly, while the nauseating trolling of Shami is absolutely deplorable, for the record, many cricketers including Sehwag have come out strongly against it. I also disagree with using the term “defend” Shami ("...defence of its own player, Shami..."), because there was nothing to defend a performance against a strong international side that a lot of experts rate as one of the favourites to win the ongoing tournament which decimated the other bowlers as well.
Finally, I really admire the Indian team taking a stand for something – even if it is a seemingly non-contextual (and thereby safe) issue to India like BLM. Because it is not non-contextual. If you remember Darren Sammy was subjected to racial abuse in IPL and so are Africans every day in India. So, there needs to be awareness at home and I am glad that sportsmen who are feted by many are taking a public stand.
I wholeheartedly agree that there are other contextual and more important issues in India that they should take a stand on given their status in millions of minds. But, rather than criticise them for "bending the knee" for BLM, I feel we should encourage it and hope that one day, they (and people like me) will courageously take a public stand against issues closer home.
Hi
It is a very good comment
I agree with all your point and inclusiveness.
Everyone(both left and right) here are doing cherry picking rather than accepting okay it happens.Or to find solutions to avoid it
A Typical Indian:
Liked aspects of your post A Typical Indian - hereafter ATI in this post.
Nonetheless I am rather uncomfortable with the usual "people celebrating Pakistan winning" trope that gets bandied about and you cite here. And often it is a rumour - few Muslims in Modistan would be so foolish as to do that - unless they wish to court death. After all, even as a privileged Hindu Brahmin you are candid about lacking the courage to express your views..
In any case, let me get back to the "Indian Muslims supporting Pakistan and celebrating Pakistani cricket victories" saga.
I wonder if you have heard of the infamous Tebbit Test. Norman Tebbit, an MP in the UK Parliament lamented the fact that British citizens of Indian, Pakistani or Caribbean origins cheered for the teams of their countries of origin rather than for England. And these were people who had lived in the UK for many generations. Tebbit wondered if they were sufficiently integrated or even loyal to Britain.
So that makes me want to ask you a question:
Should immigrants of Indian origin and holding British nationality be prosecuted and persecuted for cheering India when India plays England in England? After all, Indian Muslims do get prosecuted and persecuted at the mere allegation they don't support the Indian cricket team don't they ?
Any thoughts Mr ATI ?
Indians supporting Indian teams in foreign countries is not a political statement. However we all know that Indian muslims and esp. Kashmiri muslims supporting Pakistani team are unmistakable political statements. I know you are willfully ignorant and are hiding the tragic history of religious mobilization in the subcontinent. Both hindus and muslims participated in this mobilization and hence the consequences. I hope you remember what happened to communist supporters in the great liberal western democracies.
Mr Shivam:
Since when did banana Republic Pakistan become a template for India ? Clearly, it seems to be your idea of a great country since you want India to copy Pakistan ....
Pathetic Mr Shivam.
How come you never criticize those muslim nations ????
Is criticism of Muslim nations a pre-requisite to criticise and condemn Hindutva inspired violence in India?
Additionally, you do not seem to have grasped my riposte to Mr Shivam above. I guess my poor English is to blame rather than your Hindutva inspired mind ...
There is no "Hindutva inspired violence in India" it is all fake stories to cover up the jihadis atrocities against non muslims in Islamic nation. India is a secular democratic country which gives one freedom to particse their religion without any discrimination. Mera bharat mahana.. Hindu muslim Sikh isai Bhai Bhai.
Dear SF,
I won't ascribe a gender to you, so will refer to you as SF only.
I have read about the Tebbit test. Of course, I find a test absurd which postulates that one is "disloyal" if he / she supports a sportsman from another country when playing against one of his / her countrymen. If that was true, a lot of Indians would be declared "traitors" for rooting for all the international tennis players who played against Leander Paes or chess players from other countries who defeated Anand.
However, I also believe that the context is completely different here. Tebbit test was proposed to be applied to immigrants from countries that Britain never went to war with or from countries whose armed forces and deep state had an explicitly declared aim of annihilating Britain. At no point, does this mean that any of the Pakistani cricketers in the winning team or the common Pakistani folks have any connection to the deep state of the country. If I and everyone i know does not have a connection / relationship / employment with the deep state of my country, it would be extremely foolish to not assume the same for the cricketers and the majority of Pakistani population.
But at the same time, I do understand that some celebrations might be celebrating more than the sporting talents of the Pakistani team. To quote from my original comment "The truth is that there were celebrations of the Pakistani victory for reasons beyond the sporting talents of that team and it is not something those folks should be criticised for but something that should lead to introspection within the political leaders of our country."
We would be extremely naive or ignorant if we claim that there is no Indian who doesn't ascribe to the current definition of India. I say "current", because the definition of India has changed over the last centuries. Unless we start from an empathic understanding of the disillusionment of our countrymen, there would not be a way to solve it.
Although your pseudonym implies a European person, given the details in your post, I would guess that you are of Indian origin. Either ways, happy to see people can disagree respectfully in this era of rabid social media views and glad to have this conversation with you.
Dear ATI,
Thanks for the response - much appreciated Sir.
The Tebbit test has actually 2 versions. In the older version (ref:bit.ly/2XWoWRa) from 1990, Conservative MP Norman Tebbit claimed that South Asian & Caribbean immigrants and as well as their Britain born descendents were not sufficiently loyal as they never supported England in cricket matches. Tebbit also claimed that in addition to disloyalty, this behavior was proof of a lack of their assimilation and integration into British society. However, plenty of white migrants to Britain from New Zealand and Australia support their national teams rather than England during cricket matches and this is not considered as a flunking of the Tebbit test !
In the revised 2014 version of the infamous Tebbit test (ref:bit.ly/2ZyMbS1), Tebbit takes his preposterous idea even further and claims that persons whose parents or grandparents came from countries that fought on the side of Britain during WW 2 would be welcome as immigrants but not others. Thus, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, France etc. were welcome to Britain but not Germans. Mysteriously, Tebbit's welcome mat did not extend to people from India, Pakistan & Bangladesh - countries that sent thousands of troops to die for Britain.
Clearly, in both versions of the Tebbit test, race is the crux of the matter and race is what Tebbit rails against. Brown and black immigrants fail the test whilst white supporters are never questioned for their loyalty.
But getting back to the thrust of your insightful response to me.
In Britain, India, USA as well as in many other countries, there are surely deeper reasons as to why some - emphasis on some - migrants/minorities do not identify themselves as "belonging" to the nation they live in. But we could also reverse this thesis and phrase it as follows: In Britain, India, USA and other countries, majorities do not regard some minorities as "belonging" to the country - regardless of how loyal they are. Thus, you could be a decorated war veteran like the late Gen. Colin Powell (who was black) and yet be denied access to a restroom in the US South and subjected to racial slurs.
Likewise, in India, you could be a great cricketer like Mohammad Shami and yet have your loyalties questioned and be trolled and singled out for abuse merely because you are a Muslim. Your captain Virat Kohli does not support you; elder statesmen of cricket like Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sehwag, Kumble and their ilk will not come to your aid; the BCCi will ignore your plight. Indeed, bigots like Sehwag and Gambhir will even insinuate that Muslims celebrate Pakistan's win with firecrackers. Of course, after the huge brouhaha and the hypocrisy of Indian players taking a knee for BLM whilst not supporting a teammate became an international embarrassment, belatedly, the BCCI and other cricketers rushed to declare their support for Shami.
So please tell me ATI: in this scenario, is it even relevant to ask who cast the first stone? After all, even if you are a completely law abiding, patriotic Muslim living in India and one who does not celebrate Pakistan's cricket victories, you still run the risk of getting lynched don't you? Shami might escape with some trolling and abuse on social media. But for ordinary, often indigent Muslims like Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, Junaid Khan, Tabrez Ansari, Alimuddin Ansari the threats are real - all these gentlemen were lynched. And Alimuddin Ansari's killers were ot only let out on bail, they were even garlanded and given sweets by BJP Union Minister Jayant Sinha. Should the average Muslim - and increasingly Sikhs and Christians - trust the institutions of the Indian government? Or as the police famously told Muslims fleeing a rabid crowd in Ahmedabad in 2002 said:
"We do not have orders to protect you".
Glad to debate with you - I don't think that we are in any deep disagreement. And I promise that even if I disagree with you, I will not be disagreeable.
Merci !
Thanking you very for showing the mirror to wrong doing in our country. This is only possible once you have courage and boldness which is already exist in you.
Get a life hatemonger
Dear Rana, really appreciate your clearly written and well-informed article👍🏾👍🏾. Keep up the good work💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽.
Bulls eye!
The Indian celebrities lost their stature the day they all came together against farmer's protest. #againstpropaganda. They are nothing but lapdogs of the government. The bollywood heroes lose their gall off screen. The message from government is clear. Either toe the line or we will come after you. I doubt if any celebrity will have the courage to against them. The question then is, do they feel an iota of shame selling off their people?
Just as today’s cricket game cannot be said to be a gentleman’s game anymore (given the on field abuses and assault between teams), it’s evident team India players and majority of cricket fraternity lost their sense of ‘team’ & ‘belongingness’ , being friend and above all being human. They not only lost their game they also lost their conscience.
Because we're done supporting the causes locally, protected our minorities from harassment, stopped the oppression towards the Dalits. Now we want to support a cause that is 20,000 miles apart and that is no way related to socio-economic, political context of India.
This is a kind of idiocy and sometimes called as white complexity. It is usually prevalent amoung us Desis. Whatever the West trends, right from the fashion to the movements, we're supposed to follow it to the last dot.
While the #BLM is actually a legit cause, if you're not caring about your neighbour or fellow citizens but want to stand for #BLM, you actually stand for nothing but hypocrisy and most likely suffering from gora complexity (white complexity)
First of all I'm not the supporter of bjp or rss. But I want to ask one thing. You blame Hindus in India for supporting rss. But at the time of independence at first the British muslim ashrafia supported muslim nationalist muslim leage ,they ripped our country in two parts and choked india from energy supplies and trade from west as well as east. Instead so called bimaru Hindi belt do not supported bjp. They cleansed Hindus from Pakistan and now they are mere two percent. After that they stated killing Hindus in Bangladesh in 1971 which resulted in mass migration and their percentage reduced to just 9 percent from 23 percent. Hindus do not react. Even after that within india where British indian muslim are in majority in only indian Province of Kashmir they started killing pundits and wanted to merge with military run pakistan by regecting secular country india. Hindus do not react. After that the British indian muslim majority pakistan attacked india in Kargil, plane hijak. Sansad bhawan attack 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Then Hindus reacted and voted for bjp at least 100 years after muslim asharffia supported muslim league. What would you say if I occupy Saudi arabia yesterday and build Ram temple in Mecca like israel. muslim in india as a goodwill should have given hindus back their major religious sites like temples in Kashi mathura ayodya. As a goodwill gesture. If they had given babri masjid to Hindus by their own will why would Hindus voted bjp. At end I want to say one thing that British indian muslims supported muslim league divided themselves in 3 countries. One country Pak continuously waged pseudo war on india and instead majority muslims were allowed to live peacefully after 1947 in India. Do not tried to earn the goodwill of Hindus . They want to destroy our ancient civilization. Like they did in Egypt. At last they are responsible for their plight.