{"id":351102,"date":"2024-11-18T05:51:28","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T11:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=351102"},"modified":"2024-11-18T05:52:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T11:22:08","slug":"the-dire-plight-of-indias-internally-displaced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/the-dire-plight-of-indias-internally-displaced\/","title":{"rendered":"The dire plight of India\u2019s internally displaced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hundreds of families in India are displaced, forced to flee their ancestral homes due to the unchecked power of land and political mafias, surviving like refugees in their own country.<\/strong><\/em> by Humra Quraishi<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What are we doing for our internally displaced fellow citizens? Today, in India, hundreds are displaced, with entire clans and families forced to shift from one locale to the next, as land mafia as well as political mafia hound and target vulnerable communities. They are made to run from their ancestral homes, forced to survive like refugees in their own country!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One first heard the severity of it all when hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit families had to shift base, from Srinagar towards Jammu and further beyond. Leaving back their ancestral lands and homes, coping with severe challenges in unknown locales of North India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And now in recent years, one town after another in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand has been witnessing the vulnerable targeted communities moving out, fleeing from their ancestral homes and lands, to save their lives. A major level of displacement was witnessed in Muzaffarnagar after the rioting of 2013.  Entire Muslim families and clans survived under tattered tents. All lost for them! And just months ago, Haldwani witnessed the same pattern.  Muslims fled and tried to seek shelter in other townships after suffering huge losses. And  after  last  month\u2019s  targeted attacks and assaults in district Bahraich, Muslims left their  homes, shops and business establishments behind \u2026to save  their  lives!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if one were to grasp the severity of this crisis from a broader perspective, images and videos emerging from the Middle East, hit\u2026 and hit hard. The ongoing targeted bombardments and killings in the Middle East are leaving huge imprints. The civilian population trying to move out\u2026 But where to!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major offshoot of this Israel and Allies unleashed war on the Arab lands, is the very future of the civilian population. Victims of the political wars and civil strife, hundreds and thousands of Arab children are either dead or dying. Those surviving with a nothingness to them. Haven\u2019t we all seen shots of Syrian, Palestinian, Yemeni  kids  and their  families looking all too hopelessly \u2026 many tried to  flee.  Even those managing to reach Europe are treated as aliens; tags thrown at them – suspects, intruders, beggars seeking refuge!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many children lay dead even before they could reach some sort of destination. For months, I couldn\u2019t get over the picture of the Syrian child, Aylan  Kurdi, lying dead  by the  sea shore. The  innocence of  the refugee  child, compounded  by  the pain  of hundreds of  refugees fleeing into nowhere of  sorts, brought into focus the grim reality of those trying to seek refuge\u2026 European right-wing lobbies coming in the way, sealing the fate  of  hundreds and thousands  of  Aylan  Kurdis, who ironically have  been reduced to refugee status because of the civil war  triggered off  the western expansionist  strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I could recover from Aylan Kurdi\u2019s death, what had hit were those haunting photographs of the four-year-old injured Syrian child, Omran Daqneesh. Though alive, he looked  lifeless; covered with  blood and dust,  he didn\u2019t cry in pain or shock. And  then came news of Omran\u2019s older  brother, 10-year-old Ali Daqneesh, succumbing to his  injuries. Hundreds of children and their families killed or disabled in and around Syria by  bombardments and much more  havoc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And such is the  level of  intolerance  spreading  out  in the  Western  world, that  even  refugee children  are  seen as  potential  threats. Sadist  cartoonists lampooning dead refugee  toddlers! Why  French  publications like Charlie Hebdo  mocked  the tragic  death  of  the  Syrian child  Aylan Kurdi! Wasn\u2019t that lampooning blatantly vulgar and much too insensitive! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mind you, this ongoing destruction in the Middle East is bound to affect us. In fact, this has already been leaving imprints here in our country. In terms of employment and job avenues, business and trade, travels for pilgrimages and ziarats, and interactions of academics and writers during seminars and meets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changes all too visible<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One could see and sense changes coming about here, in the country, from the 90s, when America invaded Iraq. Before  the  USA  aggression into Iraq, the  Iraqi  Embassy in India, then situated  at  New Delhi\u2019s posh Jor Bagh  locality, was \u2018alive\u2019; buzzing with  activity with over  40  Iraqi  diplomats at work. And almost double the number of the junior-rung staff. As the \u2018Mother of all Wars\u2019 peaked in the 90s, I would   visit the Iraqi embassy on several occasions to interview the then Iraqi envoy to India. I also met many Sikhs and Muslims and Hindus who gathered there in large numbers, outpouring support for Saddam Husain, \u201cfor taking on the super power of the world \u2013 America!\u201d\u2026  I saw for myself Indian families carrying huge food and ration containers and medicine cartons, pleading that those be sent to the Iraqi soldiers fighting the Americans\u2026 And contrary to the Western propaganda that Saddam  Husain was a regressive tyrant,  Iraqi  diplomats and their families, residing  in New  Delhi, seemed  far ahead of the times. The envoys and their spouses, well educated with their attires very western, most spoke fluent English. I recall the  receptions  hosted  by the  then Iraqi  envoys at  their official residence\/bungalow  on  the  Prithvi  Raj Road,  which was  gifted  by  Pandit Jawaharlal  Nehru  to the first Iraqi envoy  posted  to  India in  the 1950s\u2026Those receptions continued  till Iraq was actually Iraq! When July 17th<\/sup> heralded the  celebration of  Iraq\u2019s national day  with a series of  receptions, with Iraqi intellectuals, editors  and writers, and the  top  creamy  brass flying down here, from several  cities of  Iraq. Of course, that  before it was intruded into and ruined by  American  and Allied Forces on that alibi of \u2018looking for  weapons of  mass  destruction\u2019  but  didn\u2019t  manage to find any! Instead, they destroyed that land, its very fabric, its people, an ancient civilization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stand out memories of the cultural evenings held in the 90s, by the Arab envoys to India. I  recall the first time I heard a Dhrupad concert  was  at the  residence  of  the then envoy of  Qatar to India, Dr  Hassan Al Nimah. He was one of those suave diplomats who hosted classical musical evenings in that traditional baithak style. Also, the  envoys of  Lebanon, Iraq, Libya,  Jordan  and  Algeria  would  also   host  interactive  meets  at their residences and  embassies \u2026Today I am not too sure whether the once well-functioning Arab League office in New Delhi still functions with that level of out-reach.  After all, there\u2019s been a slow and steady phasing out of the very vibrant and spirited strength of the Middle East and the West Asian countries. Rather too obvious  that several of these  countries  are  battling on the  various fronts, devastated by  the  tactics-cum-strategies of  America and Allies, using the  age-old western  ploy  of  creating a  civil war  like situation, with that  going  right ahead to rule!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compounding the situation for us Indians, is India\u2019s apparent slant towards Israel and Allies. This pro-Israel tilt was more than obvious right from  2014, peaking in the  summer\/July  of  2017,  when  Indian  Prime Minister Narendra  Modi made his first  trip to  Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a contrast to India\u2019s stand under Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. In fact, Jawaharlal Nehru\u2019s vision and policies vis-a-vis West Asia made the Arab world tilt towards India.  He was  clear  about  his  stand on Palestine, and  with that  made the Arabs and  West Asians  strong allies of  India. Today, there\u2019s  no Nehru and  there\u2019s  little  trace of  the connect with the  Middle  East\u2026I have attended press conferences of fiery Palestinian envoys to India and the emotions they generated amongst the Indian masses. I recall that warm hug that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gave Indira Gandhi when she had hosted an elaborate reception for him in New Delhi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, that\u2019s all history as disturbing patterns are emerging of the changed world order. Where there\u2019s little concern for human life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of families in India are displaced, forced to flee their ancestral homes due to the unchecked power of land and political mafias, surviving like refugees in their own country. by Humra Quraishi What are we doing for our internally displaced fellow citizens? Today, in India, hundreds are displaced, with entire clans and families forced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[17127,18849,15686,17422],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351102"}],"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=351102"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351106,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351102\/revisions\/351106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/351104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}