The world watched stunned as the commercial capital of India received yet another blow in 2008. But is 2009 a time for forgiving, wonders Gamal Nkrumah The past 60 years have been an era of exceptional heroism for India's 200 million Muslims. The country, after all, has more Muslims than any other save Indonesia. India even has more Muslims than Pakistan and Bangladesh. The year will go down in history as one of the great watersheds in the annals of contemporary India. The 26 November 12 simultaneous terrorist attacks in Mumbai now form something of the kernel of a new showdown between moderate and militant Muslims in contemporary India. Terrible timing, this. Indian democracy is not quite so dazzling anymore. It always was intense and had a slightly surreal edge. It had tremendous verve and charm during the heady days of the Cold War. The Mumbai attacks established India as a key ally of the West in the war against terrorism. It also demonstrated with lucid conclusiveness that Muslims and non- Muslims in India, and South Asia in its entirety, can get closer and closer, but they cannot actually ever be each other. There will always be some separation -- poignant differences in both perceptions and in political perspectives. This was a drama in which the terrorists that committed this heinous act and the media moguls who commented on it conspired together to create a new character of a democratic India that can both acknowledge and defy its intricately complicated internal differences. India's economy might well be booming, but India is not a country at peace with itself. The commentaries made droll use of the various, and invariably conflicting, cultural references of South Asia. The culprits might well be branded as Pakistanis, but what does that actually mean in terms of the India of today? It means that they are maverick Muslims, albeit single-minded enough to carve for themselves a new niche -- an independent political entity that refused to stay India-bound like the rest of Indians -- Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist and secular atheists and agnostics. Interleaved with the terrorist attacks are the rumours about the true nature of India's Muslims. They are, many non- Muslim Indians suspect, fifth columnists of some sort. The terrorists from Pakistanis are a restless lot and they have a distinguished track record in staging bombastic terrorist assaults with flair and aplomb. Big questions are pondered on the Gateway to India. A spade is being called a spade: the Muslim Indian actress-activist Shabana Azmi is no better than an infidel as far as Muslim fanatics are concerned. "The only atmosphere in which art can survive is that of freedom, liberal values and democracy," Azmi said upon hearing of the historic victory of United States President-elect Barack Obama. "I consider myself extremely privileged to have witnessed America creating history," she explained. Her views are typical of liberal-minded Muslims who survive in India's secularist setup. However, India's Muslims are well aware that democracy and secularism are no panacea for all the country's ills. In 1993, more than 250 lives were lost in a series of bomb attacks in retaliation for the demolition by fanatical Hindu mobs of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. Indians -- Muslims and non-Muslims -- are at the crossroads. Azmi, like many fellow Indian secularists, rejects the notion that there is a Heaven you can dive into as a way of escaping the Hell of Earth. Religion was always for the poor and needy. The rich and famous need no God, or so does received wisdom divine. She noted that "token gestures are made but real issues are never addressed." What is key, she claims, is cooperation with the police -- that is a loaded statement. "We need to maintain peace and harmony and cooperate with the police," she said in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks. "Terrorism should be struck down with an iron hand." Their ability to engage their adversary's imagination has been at the heart of militant Islamists' philosophy in India and throughout the world. The militant Muslims of India are on the move. Few still believe that they would do well to move on to Pakistan, for that is most certainly no Promised Land. Things move so slowly in South Asia partly because of a shortage of groundbreaking ideas. At the moment, fate steps in to block the way of reconciliation between Muslim and non- Muslim, moderate Muslim and militant Muslim. There is pathos in that. "I don't think the Muslim leadership has bothered to clear the air about what Islam actually is," Azmi told the Times of India. Perhaps people unfamiliar with the Indian political scene might not quite grasp the implications of Azmi's words. An editorial in the same paper hit the nail on the head. "Being Muslim in today's world often means carrying a special burden of suspicion and prejudice on the one hand and social, political and religious conservatism on the other." Being Muslim in India is no exception to that rule, except perhaps if the Muslim Indian in question happens to be a secularist and an internationally acclaimed actress-activist who can draw the extraordinary out of the ordinary, and does it with style. India has not quite come to grips with "the baggage of the very complex process of partition and its aftermath where a Muslim is seen as a suspect by civil society." Yes, the country is ridden with aberrations and "ideological confusion". But then, "the entire civilised, cultured, affluent and educated world is in the hands of those whom militant Muslims consider their enemies and they have nothing practical to offer as an alternative." This is strongly argued. With the emphasis on the emotional rather than the rational, Azmi struck a chord with her audience. She couldn't have put it better, though. India's moderate Muslims, whatever that means, are better off living in secularist India and are prepared to fight teeth and nail to preserve their Paradise. They are better off than most of their compatriots, anyway. They are proud of being Indian. And, they seem to mean it. But in the slums of Mumbai and other Indian megalopolises we can glimpse a world in which those fidgety Muslims of India are seeking refuge in militant Islam in droves. The drift away from news consumption in such deprived and politically disfranchised communities is palpable. The muckrakers swarm the streets of Indian shantytowns. Blabbermouths abound. The common denominator is faith in their God, Allah, and in a Day of Judgement. India's landscape is littered with zealous Muslim preachers. Based on its self- justification, they are ready to commit even more outrageous atrocities, perhaps more so than ever in 2009, as the gap between rich and poor in India grows with its phenomenal economic growth. Moral issues rarely get raised at all. So was 2008 an exceptional year for terrorism in India? The question is apt. India has seen it all before. Mumbai has been the sad setting for numerous terrorist attacks in the past. In 2003, terrorism once again claimed more than 50 lives when two car bombs were detonated. Incidentally, the 2003 car bombs went off just across the street from the Taj Mahal -- next to the monumental "Gateway of India". On 13 March 2003 bombs exploded on a train as it approached Mulund Station, Mumbai. The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling Congress Party both candidly condemned the Mumbai attacks. The Taj Mahal Palace, the Oberoi Trident, and the Orthodox Jewish-owned and run Nariman House in the heart of the Gateway to India are legendary landmarks of India. India is no stranger to communal slaughter. The BJP advocates Hindu chauvinism. The 26 November Mumbai terrorist attacks were different from other attacks in certain respects. Calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen, this previously unheard of group claimed credit. Deccan, of course, refers to the South. In the past few months, Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Bangalore (now known as Bengalooru) have suffered terrorist attacks by militant Islamists. When it comes to unappealing extravagance, India has never yet met her match -- not even as far as China is concerned. It is as much this faux pas as political peripheralisation that has enraged the marginalised militant Muslims of India. Yet, if their leaders have their way, India's Muslims would not get so maudlin in 2009.
