Where is Gandhi?

With all this talk about war on Pakistan, I’m wondering if the people of Mumbai have forgotten the merits of non-violence. For me, living in urban Mumbai, it’s hard to imagine that 100 years ago in India there was bloodshed all over. Or that World War I was just some 80 years ago. Or just 20 years ago there was blood spewing out of Liberia.

It is difficult to believe how easy it is to forget.

But it is also wonderful that I’m not plagued with any form of hatred for any community – not the British who killed our forefathers and played a role in dividing our country, not the East Germans for god knows how many atrocities Hitler committed against the Jews, and certainly not the folks over in Ivory Coast, although Liberia is still in a bad state: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberia.

It’s not Mumbai that is resilient, or New York: It is humans that are. The basic philosophy of why blame others for crimes their nation or ancestors committed is correct. And let us clarify once and for all: MUSLIMS NOT EQUAL TO PAKISTANIS NOT EQUAL TO TERRORISTS.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying let Pakistan go scot-free if they (or militant groups residing therein) have indeed engineered the attack (which I believe they have – I don’t think the BJP or Raj are intelligent or ruthless or stupid enough to engineer such an attack). But before launching into an America-style war, weigh all the available options very carefully.

Being an apathetic soul largely unaware of history, the only thing I have been able to gather is that as individuals no one really likes violence, but as a group, as a herd, violence seems to be a natural instinct. So I urge the people of Mumbai and the government to please first educate yourself on the criticism that America received before launching into war. Make a list of all the available options and then one by one see what can be done causing minimum deaths.

I’m going to end here as I don’t have enough knowledge to say any more. Just that let us try and minimize the loss of life in our crusade against terror.