Blinding Rage
The train from Ayodhya is a train from hell.

The train from Ayodhya, it turns out, is a train from hell. All right, there is no concept of hell in either Islam or Hinduism. Or at least we have our own concepts, but not theirs. In any case, we seem to be living up to the model of hell, no matter its origins. On Feb. 26, the Sabarmati Express, carrying passengers from Ayodhya, was set on fire in Godhra, Gujarat. The police blamed Muslims for it and since then, the state of Gujarat has been engulfed in violence that has claimed some 500 lives, and counting.
The dispute is now all too familiar. The Hindus want to build a temple on the site of the mosque that was burned down in 1992. Muslims are enraged about it and the Hindus are equally determined. The carnage during the past two weeks or so has been, as the Prime Minister put it, a “kalak,” a blot on the nation. The killings are motivated by a sense of revenge and self-righteousness.
Muslims have been pulled out of their homes and beaten and burned and Hindus have been attacked both in their own homes and in face to face struggles. As if the past records of violence have not been caution enough, everyone is busy writing new chapters of bloodthirst and senseless revenge.
First, there is the VHP, which is doggedly proceeding with its plans to build the temple on the Ayodhya site. Then there is RSS, which is suffering from a disease of ambivalence. It is supportive of the cause, but secretive about its methods. The RSS wants to be the angel of mercy between VHP and BJP. That brings us to BJP. Now in power, led by a poet-diplomat, BJP leaders are appealing for calm and sending the army to restore it.
Their own legions are situated somewhere between ambivalence and guilt. They want to appear secular and yet cannot get away from the associations with fanatical causes.
Then there are Muslims. Caught between the international campaign to brand their existence as “evil,” and the necessities of establishing their own code of righteousness and revenge, they want to find their solace in the mosque and in the impossibility of building a new temple. Their choices are limited and if they had any, like their counterparts, they should leave the box to think outside of it.
And, therein lies the problem. No one can think outside the box. For those involved in riots in Gujarat and elsewhere, human life seems so cheap and so without purpose that both sides (and there are two sides in this) consider some abstraction of religion more important than simple imperatives of peace and nonviolence. And coexistence.
One would think that these people have the capacity to learn the lessons from their own disastrous past and similar bloodshed around the world. The only option here is to stop killing. What is a temple in the current real estate market? What is a temple if it cannot build temples in the hearts and minds of devotees. What kinds of religions are these that followers have to kill people to construct buildings.
Many of us have, or are looking for, their favorite corner in this current struggle. That is just as heinous a crime. Whether it is the Hindus or the Muslims, it is too easy to choose a side and then defend it, underscoring all the pretensions of life here and ignoring the contradictions. If anything, we should contribute to the peacemaking by not taking sides. Both sides have taken leave of reason.
It is hard to think different if you are inside the box. It is possible to do that if you are not caught inside it. Perhaps, we who live away from home have the wisdom to look at things differently. Otherise, as Gandhi said, an eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.

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