Kochi's bomb and India's love

The explosions that shook Kochi yesterday morning brought a lot of messages and phone calls to me. Many of them were from friends of yesteryears, people who hadn’t contacted me for a long time. Their concern did touch me; it made me realise how much goodness there still is in our world. One such call was from Shillong, the place where I worked from 1986 to 2001. The person who called was my colleague for just one year, my first year in Shillong. His call yesterday evening struck me particularly because his concern was immensely palpable. It brought back a flood of memories – my walks with him through the narrow concrete paths of Shillong’s entrails. He knew all the shortcuts in the town and hills have plenty of time-saving shortcuts. He was my first guide in Shillong. Now, retired from government service, he is an active pastor. His concern reached out beyond me as an individual to whole communities as he discussed Kerala's demographics and the intricate relationships between communities.   

Within minutes of the explosion, messages started appearing in social media and chat platforms that it was a terrorist attack by Muslims. I asked a few persons how they came to that conclusion. "If the dead is Keechaka, then the killer is Bhima," someone reminded me of the old saying whose new version is: If it's a bomb explosion, then it's a Muslim terrorist act.

Soon I was provoked into some research. Are most terrorist acts in the world perpetrated by Muslims? Google throws up a lot of enlightening content on this.

Professor Caroline Mala Corbin of Miami School of Law has a well-researched article on this in the Fordham Law Review (Vol 86, Issue 2, 2017). The article begins with stating two "common though false narratives" in the US. One, terrorists are always (nonwhite) Muslims. Two, white people are never terrorists.

There's an Indian parallel to the above theory. Indians also think that all terrorists are Muslims. When others perpetrate heinous crimes, it is defence of Bharatiya culture, not terrorism. Like: When Palestine attacks Israel, that is terrorism. When Israel bombards apartments and hospitals, that is war.

No doubt, there is much Islamic terrorism in our world. Too much. The American Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) tells us that an overwhelming majority of terrorist incidents do occur in largely Muslim states. They also found that most of these incidents are perpetrated by a small minority of Muslims seeking power primarily in their own areas of operation and their primary victims are fellow Muslims. The Centre also tells us that vast majority of Muslims oppose terrorism. Finally, terrorism is not just about religion. It is a critical ideological force forged by many factors.

Education is one of those many factors. Most religious fundamentalists are people who could  have been better human beings with good education. Interestingly, the religious sect whose convention was disrupted by the bomb blast in Kochi yesterday is also as hidebound as many Islamic sects. Yehowa's Witnesses, as they call themselves, don't believe in the nobility of the nation. They even got the Supreme Court of India to grant their children the right not to sing the national anthem in school. The man who planted the crude bombs in the convention hall yesterday was a frustrated member of the same religious sect who had demanded some reforms earlier.

Frustration is the hotbed of terrorism. Lack of education, poor economic conditions and a host of other factors go into the making of deadly terrorists.

What India under Modi's leadership is doing to the minority communities is also another factor that will foster terrorists.

The redeeming factor in India is that not many Indians really buy what Modi is foisting on them. All my friends who called me or texted yesterday to make sure whether I was safe are Hindus or Muslims with the single exception from Shillong. Love has no religion just like hate and other human emotions. One of the calls was from Uttar Pradesh and the caller is an ardent fan of both Yogi and Modi. His concern for me was as genuine as that of the others. Love has no politics either.

Thank you, friends, for being there with your concern.