'Fear is the father of ghettos'

Says veteran journalist and acclaimed author MJ Akbar

Says veteran journalist and acclaimed author MJ Akbar

1) Even after 60 years of Independence, the living condition of Muslims in India is dismal. Who is to be blamed, the government or society?

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It is true that the living condition of Muslims in India isn't what it could have been. And this because of the failure of successive governments, which could not translate the Muslim vote into power for the community; they failed in empowering Muslims both socially and economically.

The civil society is to be blamed as well, but who forms the society? It is us and the leaders we elect. Indian Muslim leaders have failed to convert their electoral support into economic benefit for the people.

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2) How can the situation be improved?

Only economic empowerment can better their living condition.

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3) The image of the Indian Muslim has gone from bad to worse over the years.

There was a time when Indian Muslims were glorified in popular culture, in films. Like in Mere Mehboob, the great hit of 1960s, and its romantic image of Muslims. It reflected the common perception of that time about the community u2014 in the field of education, beauty, landed gentry and also the collapse of the landed gentry. It celebrated the survival of an extraordinarily beautiful culture despite the collapse. The same image was recreated in Guru Dutt's Chaudhvin Ka Chand.

However, today in popular culture, as in Hindi cinema, the Muslim youth is tragically synonymous with crime, with the underworld. Maybe some youngsters from the community have been drawn into the dark underbelly but that doesn't mean we can point fingers at the entire lot. We can't generalise or blame them unilaterally.

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4) Why has this happened?

Let's be honest and ask ourselves a question. Why do some youngsters, mostly from Mumbai, turn to the underworld? They are not born criminals nor do they carry a mark on their foreheads which destines them to be bad. A reason maybe because they are denied employment opportunities in the white economy. Every young man and woman wants respectable and legitimate employment opportunities. But when that doesn't happen, they turn to the black economy.

To improve the situation, we have to provide them a clean and honest job alternative.

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5) What was it like when you were growing up? Was the living condition of the community as poor? Were ghettos rampant?

This wasn't the case when I was young. If you read Blood Brothers (a book by MJ Akbar that narrates the tale of three generations of a Muslim family from a small jute mill town near Calcutta, and how they deal with Hindu-Muslim relations), you will understand what I mean. In fact, there were no ghettos for Muslims like they are today. Ghettos didn't exist till the '70s.

When I was growing up in Calcutta, there was far more harmony between Hindus and Muslims, there was genuine compatibility and coexistence. In our mohalla, there were no divisions, not even invisible ones. There were mohallas of course, some predominately Muslim, while others were dominated by Hindu families. But there was no animosity between the two communities. The situation deteriorated after the 1964 Hindu-Muslim riots in Calcutta. Communal violence has created the ghettos. Fear is the father of ghettos. As long as there is fear, we can't bring down the walls.

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