ASIAN VOICE NOVEMBER 2009

Resilient India

Although it is never wise to live in the past we must never ever forget our history and the significance that the community gives to anniversaries and propitious days bears witness to this.

As I watched the pictures of the vast storm breaking in from the Arabian Sea to breach the defences of Mumbai this week I thought back to the horrifying events that took place almost a year ago.

From November 26^th. to the 29^th.2008 Mumbai, and by extension India, was under attack and the 173 people who died and the three hundred plus wounded testify to the murderous extent of the assault that was committed by deluded terrorists allied to Lashkar-e-Taiba.

This was far from the first attack on the city which is now the financial centre but which was, in the distant days of the Raj, the Gateway to India.

Bombs had been exploded in Gjatkopar, the Zaveri Bazaar, Mulund station, a BEST ‘bus and near Vile Park station.

These attacks may have had a common origin but they had the same effect.

Although people were killed and wounded the sprit of Mumbaikers was unbroken and India did not rise to the provocation.

The fact that the National Security Guards managed to capture Mohammad Ajmal Amir and deliver him for a fair trial shows that India did not respond to the attack in kind but rather showed the world how a mature democracy can act – even in the darkest hour.

Mumbai is now really an international city and even occasional visitors like me know the Taj Mahal Palace and have paused on the stairway to admire the bust of Jamsetji Tata and marvel at the fact that corporate social responsibility was invented by Indians in India and still imbues the Tata empire with its principles today.

The Leopold Café was – and is – known to younger travellers and “backpackers” from all over the world and the choice of this target shows how the terrorists sought to widen the impact of their assault. St.Xavier’s college is also well known to me and although I don’t know the Oberoi Trident and the Metro Cinema as well I have passed them and felt a personal sense of injury as I saw the devastation.

My connection was strengthened when I realised that Sir Gulam Noon was actually in the Taj Mahal hotel at the time and his dignified and sober response to the unfolding horror stands in sharp contrast to the hysterical communications emerging from those who allied themselves with the murderers.Indeed, it was a friend and constituent, Niraj Dattani, who first rang me to alert me to the unfolding terror and although he had no family in Mumbai at the time the pain that he felt was sharp and personal.

Not for the first time I realised that any primitive nihilist can destroy or damage a place of beauty and murder a people of pride and principle – but it takes a great people to build in the first place and it takes a people of even greater strength and courage to rebuild so swiftly.

India showed its collective strength and resilience in the days after November 26^th.and even as the sirens wailed, the blood flowed and the smoke poured up to the heavens India proved that she would not, and could not, be beaten by terrorism.

November 2008 may be a dark anniversary but there are grounds for real pride and while I send my sincere condolences to the friends and families of the slain and my deepest sympathy to the injured I am redoubled in my admiration for an India that rose again from the chaos to show the world why she is truly great.