{"id":345276,"date":"2023-08-16T05:28:56","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T10:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=345276"},"modified":"2023-08-17T05:31:25","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T11:01:25","slug":"how-bulldozer-justice-demolishes-lives-livelihoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/how-bulldozer-justice-demolishes-lives-livelihoods\/","title":{"rendered":"How bulldozer justice demolishes lives, livelihoods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Compounding the grim situation is the fact that the Mewat region in Haryana, where homes of Meos have been bulldozed, is one of the most under-developed Muslim-populated regions in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Surcharged civil strife seems to be spreading out from Manipur to Haryana\u2019s Mewat region. Havoc and horrific onslaughts and targeted attacks on the vulnerable communities are happening. Ask the families who have been ruined, perhaps for generations to come!

I was just reading a news report published in a daily which states that within days, dozens of homes of the Meos have been demolished and destroyed and bulldozed in the Mewat region.

This entire exercise of bulldozing homes seems so very barbaric and brutal and unfair and unjust. You\u2019re not just destroying a structure but along with it also destroying lives and livelihoods. Will the affected men and women and children be able to even survive without a roof over their heads? Where can they go? Who will house them as communally surcharged frenzied atmosphere is peaking as never before! Biases and communal onslaughts have been erupting as never before.

Compounding the grim situation is the fact that the Mewat region continues to be one of the most under-developed Muslim-populated regions in the country. It seems it\u2019s been kept sans development by the successive political rulers and governments. And to add to the dismal-bleak scenario, the major source of \u00a0livelihood for the \u00a0Meos \u2014 cattle raising-grazing- supplying, has been severely \u00a0affected, with \u00a0goon brigades attacking them along the alibi of cow protection.

Meo families have been sliding down the graph, with unemployment and joblessness hitting as never before. Have you read news reports focusing on the grim socio-economic-health conditions of the Meos and of the dismal education and health facilities in the region? Do read. Then, perhaps, you\u2019d realize the gravity of the situation for the Meos. Today, their very survival is at stake. Tragedies after tragedies inflicted on them! This, when this martial race, the Meos, did not migrate to Pakistan, during the Partition phase. They had opted to stay put in their country, Hindustan, and not shift to the new country. \u00a0Also stands out the fact that the Meos of the Mewat region, fought for the country\u2019s Independence. The Meo freedom fighters were hated by the British rulers. Hated to such an extent that the entire Mewat region was kept backward on all possible spheres. And \u00a0there seems little change in this day and age \u2026many could be reciting these lines of \u00a0Ahmed \u00a0Rahi ( tucked in the \u00a0pages of \u00a0Anthems of \u00a0Resistance by Ali Husain Mir and Raza Mir- \u00a0India India\/Roli \u00a0Books):

\u201cOur lives were spent in despair; hope had begun to stir in our hearts

We thought our destiny would change, but alas, we were deceived.\u201d



******

Let\u2019s face the basic and crucial fact. \u00a0The targeted assaults and hounding of the Muslim community took off in the BJP ruled states, with the Right-Wing government coming centre stage. There\u2019s ongoing apprehension and \u00a0fear and restlessness prevailing in the Muslim community as goons and Hindutva brigades have been unleashed on them and \u00a0they seem to \u00a0be going about \u00a0uncontrolled, unleashing terror. Muslims have been voicing their concerns as biases and discriminations and prejudices have been experienced by them at the governance stage. But there seems no one out there to see their plight or even hear their woes and grievances!

In these recent years, several Right-Wing parliamentarians have used absolutely gutter-abusive language in the context of the Muslims of the country. It wouldn\u2019t be incorrect to state that it\u2019s becoming fashionable to blast Muslims and their faith. In recent years, I have heard many of the so-called Right-Wing \u2018who\u2019s who\u2019 beginning or ending their disgust with the Muslim community along the strain, \u201cThese Muslims! They can do anything! They cut and chop …bloody marrying four times, producing children all the time\u2026These dirty filthy Muslims!\u201d

Such is the level of third class propaganda. Such is the extent of the negativities spread out about the Muslims of the country. It seems a horrifying picture, far away from reality. Yet the gullible are fed on this anti-Muslim diet, as the political mafia is made to flourish on the lethal combination of hate and hatred.

Today, as steady deterioration spreads out on several fronts, affecting the masses, when I\u2019m asked \u00a0what\u2019s the difference between a \u00a0Muslim \u00a0poor \u00a0and \u00a0a \u00a0Hindu poor, my \u00a0answer is: \u00a0no difference \u00a0except that the \u00a0Muslim is \u00a0sitting amidst \u00a0insecurity and \u00a0apprehensions of the \u00a0worst kinds. Yes, the Indian Muslim is living in insecurity and fear. Mind you, not from his fellow countrymen but from the state-unleashed terror, in the form and shape of goon-brigades, political mafia, and biased machinery.

A pity that the various Ministries and Commissions have done \u00a0little \u00a0to counter these build- ups \u00a0and vicious \u00a0propaganda against the \u00a0largest minority community in the country. And if individuals react there\u2019s that expected backlash.

Today Muslims cannot openly voice their disgust or dissent for fear of the aftermath. They could be branded militants or anti- nationals; with that killed or dumped in jails. Apprehensive is the Muslim community, as fears mount of the killing of the very spirit of the minority population. Dents on the very identity of the Muslims. Gone are the days of living-on-par. \u2026In all these years I haven\u2019t felt so disillusioned as in the last few years. There is a growing sense of hopelessness, with fair play and justice just about a hazy dream.

Why is there no apparent halt to the poisonous propaganda spread about the \u00a0Muslims? Why should every single Muslim looked at as some devil at work! Not to overlook the \u00a0fact that \u00a0any terror or \u00a0criminal activity gets directly or indirectly linked to the \u00a0Muslims, more than relaying that beware of \u00a0Muslims as they are some sort \u00a0of terror striking wolves! Nobody even \u00a0bothers to question or query \u00a0– \u00a0how \u00a0could \u00a0ISIS or the \u00a0Al-Qaeda or any of the \u00a0propped up \u00a0terror outfits survive or exist without the \u00a0support of the superpowers of the world. The \u00a0tragedy is that \u00a0today nobody even bothers to question the very authenticity of \u00a0ISIS; fed that we are on a \u00a0heady dose of \u00a0outrageously biased propaganda against the \u00a0Muslims.

Do \u00a0the \u00a0political \u00a0men and the \u00a0 administrators and \u00a0planners \u00a0realize what this attitude would lead to! What happens when you push an entire community to the wall\u2026hound in every possible way!

Mind you, a Muslim\u2019s anger is not against the Hindu but against the fascist Hindutva forces. I would go to the extent to say that whatever little chance of \u00a0survival holds out for the Muslim community \u00a0is because of the liberal Hindus who refuse to be part of the \u00a0Hindutva \u00a0brigades. As they say,today it\u2019s \u00a0a clash between the sane and the destroyers of this land.

The \u00a0only \u00a0hope for \u00a0survival \u00a0seems \u00a0the cushioning provided by the Hindus and Sikhs and Christians; hundreds of our brave fellow citizens who are \u00a0speaking out, taking on all possible risks and challenges to \u00a0protect the minority communities, coming forward to protect the vulnerable, striving \u00a0against all possible odds to \u00a0see that the fabric isn\u2019t ruptured and we live on peacefully \u2026all \u00a0together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Compounding the grim situation is the fact that the Mewat region in Haryana, where homes of Meos have been bulldozed, is one of the most under-developed Muslim-populated regions in the country. Surcharged civil strife seems to be spreading out from Manipur to Haryana\u2019s Mewat region. Havoc and horrific onslaughts and targeted attacks on the vulnerable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,2205],"tags":[15999,17195],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345278,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345276\/revisions\/345278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/345277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}