Pittsburgh_Patrika_July_2015

The Pittsburgh Patrika, Vol. 20, No. 4, July, 2015
Dekho Hamara Hindustan at a Micro Level
Recently, there were sporadic news in the Indian English media on
Muslims having difficulties in getting housing in cities like Mumbai. This
news was picked up by the global media. Understandably, the Pakistani
media also picked up the story to berate India’s secular credentials. Pakistan’s
problem in dealing with divisions within Islam is far more serious
with routine murders of Shias
by its Sunni extremists.
In Pakistan, when they
वdiscuss ◌ा या यापकता the हता need ते for commu-
या मया harmony, वा परता हता ते it is not about
यानेन चेतःपरता हता ते ।
तnal
म व ि◌न यंि◌ वधापराधान ्॥ १॥
reducing tensions among Muslims
(95% of the population),
tvad
Hindus (1.5%) Tvad and Christians
(1.5%); it is about reducing the
tension between Shias (20%)
and Sunnis (75%).
In any case, when The
Hindu, a leading English
daily from Chennai, published
the story on the Muslims’ difficulty
in housing in Mumbai,
a reader’s response to the Letters-to-the-Editor
highlighted
how insidious this problem is
in India at the microlevel.
Here is a letter written by one Annadurai Jeeva from the world-famous
Vaishnava temple town Srirangam in Tamil Nadu that appeared in The
Hindu (http://tinyurl.com/Story-On-Srirangam):
“Judicial interventions and legislative actions are not enough
to eradicate the endemic discrimination in matters such as housing.
The problem is not peculiar to Mumbai.
In Srirangam [the famous Vaishnava temple-town in Tamil Nadu],
it is quite impossible for even an Iyer family [who are Smarta-
Advaita Brahmins] to find rented accommodation in an area dominated
by Iyengars [Vaishnava Brahmins], not to speak of families
belonging to the OBCs and the SCs, which only exposes the hollow
claims of India possessing a secular identity.
Other intermediate castes in the periphery are averse to the SCs,
Muslims and Christians… …”
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