On February 25, 2002, a train carrying a group of Hindu pilgrims from the temple town of Ayodhya in central India pulled into the western town of Godhra shortly after dawn, where a group of local Muslims was waiting. As the engine gathered speed leaving Godhra, someone pulled the emergency brake chain and attackers stormed the passenger cars. They hurled bottles filled with gasoline, setting coaches aflame. Able-bodied men managed to escape the conflagration; 40 of the 58 deaths were of women and children charred on board.

The following days, it was the Hindus' turn. Mobs fanned out through Muslim neighborhoods in the western state of Gujarat, led by local politicians and their rabble-rousers as the Muslims had been at Godhra, according to the police, who charged four localcouncilors, of whom two were arrested. Their blood lust was fanned by exactly the kind of rumors : Muslims had abducted teenage girls, or slaughtered cows, which are worshipped by Hindus. Of course the Muslims were too busy worrying for themselves that they hadn't done these. However, these were required to rouse the local mobs. The mobs burned families in their houses, demolished mosques, raped wives and daughters. Community police insist they were powerless, but it has been obvious that they were partisan to the killings. It has come to light that the police had received orders from higher authorities (the politicians) to allow the mobs to carry out the massacres unhindered. What's even more appalling is that a lot of this was being filmed by the media.

The central government in New Delhi, led by Atal Behari Vajpayee and his staunchly pro-Hindu BJP, didn't send in the army to cool things down for 2 days. By the weekend, more than 300 people had been murdered following the Godhra ambush...most of them Moslems. As of now, 600 have been killed, 1100 injured and 82000 driven to refugee camps.

That's not all. Neighbors once living in communal harmony are now turning on one another. Pamphlets are being freely issued and distributed urging everyone to pick up arms and "cleanse Gujarat once and for all of these Muslims." All these events were encouraged openly by the politicians of Gujarat.

Not a day goes by without reports of violent clashes between heavily armed mobs. It's as if the carnal instincts of the people have been unleashed with their full fury.

India is a culturally diverse country, and with populations as large as this one, cultural friction would seem inescapable. India has had a bloody history of communal clashes from 1947, the year in which the Indian subcontinent was split into two countries: India and Pakistan.

I would like you to note that I have in no way exaggerated anything that I've mentioned here.

The events I've described above have a conspiracy behind them. However, sincesome of you do not live here, delving into it's details would be tedious and you could legitimately claim that I am simply imposing my viewpoints upon you. However, I can tell you that these riots did occur for a reason: the BJP party was performing dismally on the overall recently, and had also unveiled one of the harshest budgets the country had ever seen. The headlines had to be changed. It was plain to see. In fact, they've even refused to answer any queries placed upon them by other countries concerned about the carnage going on. The government simply brushes them aside by telling the concerned countries "not to get involved in our internal affairs."

I haven't written this essay to describe to you the events going on here. You can visit news sites for that. The reason is, I'm trying to get a point across.

You may have come across such a situation present in other countries. Take Palestine andIsrael. How about Ireland? These are the situations which have very much in common with what's going on here. If I were to pose the question, "Who's to blame for this?" I'd receive a nearly unanimous response "Politicians." You must have come across such situations in other countries, and almost always, it's the politicians instigating and encouraging such behavior. And true, politicians often bank upon and depend upon this for their own "good."

However, if you really think about it, a greater fault lies with the people themselves. How many times have you come across people who don't even have an inkling of common sense to think for themselves? The presence of a weak mind is very abundant in the general populace. People generally want freedom of speech in compensation for freedom of thought, something which they already have, but never ever use. They simply allow their weak minds to be influenced by anything that is thrown upon them. Something you'd call "getting influenced by the media." Tell them that Canada's our enemy, and the next thing you know, that's what they think. Tell them that the British are the spawns of Satan, and pretty soon, they hold an unbridled hatred for the British. These opinions simply vary as the media throws it at them. If you ask them whether they have an opinion of their own about this, they'll just recite to you whatever jingoism or propaganda the media's been blaring at them, such as "TheArabs are friggin' nuts man!" "Jeez, the Chinese just wanna get rid of us!"

This is where the politicians come in. The politicians bank in upon this inherent weakness of mind, for their own purposes, and through the media. Anyone with a mic, in fact, can come on and spew their thoughts out, and this gets gobbled up by the weak, simply because they don't do a bit of thinking. They are satisfied by accepting someone else's ideas, whatever is easiest.

I find it a shame that such a mindset exists in a majority. The events I described aboveoccurred solely because this it the mindset that exists in Gujarat, and is solely the reason that the events continue right now. All over the world, we have similar events going on (or analogous) and everywhere, you'll notice, this mindset.

The news media should take it upon themselves to do sound, proper reporting, and refrain from leaning towards the generation of revenue for themselves. However, since that would be seemingly impossible in today's world, I believe a greater moral responsibility lies upon an individual to think for themselves. It's not a daunting task, really. It's just filling your brain cells yourself instead of letting someone else do it for you.

That's about it. I hope I've gotten my point across to you. Keeping an open mind is a necessity. It's not something that can be brought about through education, it's only upto you. If we don't keep one, we'll all end upspiraling downwards into a sea of ignorance, and we'll never even realize it.

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