| It was once said half-jokingly that Pakistan wants Kashmir, preferably without the Hindu Kashmiris. It could be said with equal semi-seriousness that the proponents of Hindutva covet the territory of Pakistan, preferably without the Muslim Pakistanis. |
| The concept of Hindutva is encapsulated in the slogan coined in the 1930s by V.D. Savarkar of the Hindu Mahasabha: Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan, and envisages a 'sacred geography' of India that would (if India could) extend to natural geographic frontiers - from western Iran to the eastern Malayan peninsula, from northern Tibet to southernmost Sri Lanka. After 1947, the slogan was sharpened to: Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan, Muslim jao Pakistan. |
| As a Muslim whose ancestors may or may not have originated from the Middle East or Central Asia (as our forebears maintained), or who may or may not have been the lineal descendants of Hindu converts (as the RSS maintains), I find it difficult to recognize myself in the image the RSS has of me, and of millions of sub-continental Muslims like me. We are the unwelcome guests who refuse to leave, the exiles still camped on the quayside, the stubborn Pompeians continuing to live on the slope of a rumbling communal volcano. [EXTRACT] |
| Published in DAWN 27 May 2005, and reprinted in WHEN BUSH COMES TO SHOVE & OTHER WRITINGS (2006) |
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