If you haven't been able to watch this documentary yet, go ahead and find a copy, download it via bittorrent or just watch it on google video. Especially if you are a Gujarati, like I am, this is incumbent upon you, to watch it with the advantage of hindsight.
I recommend this documentary, not because I agree with the film maker's objectivity or interpretation of what transpired in Gujarat in 2002. But because I feel that no matter how you interpret it, what happened was very wrong. And that watching some of it through your very own eyes will perhaps make you realize the horror of what happened.Perhaps it will make you pause and reflect on how this ghastliness came to pass. And think about what WE can do to ensure that this does not ever happen again.
Because we can not change what has happened but we can work towards eradicating the causes that led us to this shameful chapter of our history. And because, just maybe, it will make some of us shy away from the politics of hate and work towards finding other solutions to our age old problems.
And mostly because 'those who forget history are condemned to relive it'.
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2 comments:
It's great to read these words coming from someone from Gujarat. Will definitely watch the documentary, though I have strong views (and a lot of pain) about what happened and how some people on the net are actually trying to justify it. If we don't wake up, worse will follow.
Yes, an excellent post.
I still recall how riots used to affect one in Ahmedabad, & it was SO difficult to not let the feeling of hate get to you. I can only thank my parents - because if there were not sanity in your immediate family, it would be impossible for one to not get coloured by the hate campaigns going around. Impossible, absolutely impossible.
And riots is something that happened right from the Navnirman agitation days, and not just religion.
If we could blame the BJP for its religion card, it was also a reaction to the Congress' caste card - the KHAM alliance they formed (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasis, and Muslims) their vote bank.
Give them their due though, while the Congress leaders were also guilty of raking up minor riots once in a while (on some or the other grounds), they never did it in the mass-organised manner of what happened post-Godhra.
Oh, and one need not do the illegal download via torrents. The video is available here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3829364588351777769
Nice post. It is not often one hears an objective view on this topic.
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