If we’re asked to uphold our country to the world in a few lines, we would say that all of us, no matter which religion we belong to, live in a country where accepting each other and respecting each other’s beliefs is part of our lives.
Indeed, these lines are true. But at the same time, these lines are partly true. If you don’t want to agree with the next line, take a glance at the Islamophobia in India that has been increasing over the past few years.
I am one of the millions of Muslims who have witnessed Islamophobia in the streets, in the malls and markets, and on the metro. My university’s hostel life was too a part of this vile and toxic environment. Here, I was humiliated for nothing but just for my personal beliefs and dress code.
Let me give you two concrete incidents of
It was almost a month ago when I was traveling on the metro from Dum Dum to Mahatma Gandhi Road, Kolkata, my immediate co-passenger was a 50-year-old woman. During the journey one of my feet accidentally touched her foot, and there and then I felt sorry for it. However, instead of accepting my apology, the woman had a good look at me from my head to toes. She was visibly upset with my attire.
As usual I wore a hijab, and I have been wearing it since my childhood. My dress was inseparable from my identity. The bhadromahila, seemingly agitated and frustrated, started to yell at me, “You guys do riots everywhere. It’s all part of your daily routine. All of you are destroying our country.”
I coolly asked her, “Who is ‘we’ here? Could you you tell me, please?” By the way, the arguments and counterarguments between her and me continued for a few minutes. No one raised her voice against her; no one took a stand for me.
Fortunately, someone did raise her voice. What are you thinking? Did she take a stand for me? If you think so, let me correct you: she raised her voice not at that woman but at me. That Someone put, ” What did she say? She said, Please be silent.”
Silent? Although everyone in that compartment was silent, when I faced discrimination on that metro.
This is not the first time I have faced discrimination. When I was staying in my university’s hostel, there was a girl in my hostel room who was upset with me for nothing but for holding my beliefs and performing my daily rituals.
There was also another girl from Uttar Pradesh who kept an idol of her god on her table. She was performing puja while I was offering my daily prayers. Neither did I have any issues with her beliefs, nor did that girl have any problem with my beliefs.
However, the girl injected with multiple forms of Islamophobia had a problem with my beliefs. Although my hostel authorities and most of the girls took a stand for me, during this fight for myself.
I raised a question to them: "If someone decides what I should believe, what I should eat, and what I should wear, then what's the point of saying we're independent people? What is the difference between slaves and us?"
I think the people who call us or treat us as second-class citizens, they are really merciful! In the eyes of the Islamophobic majority we are often treated as third class or say, fourth, fifth class citizens.
Now the question is: how can we stop this discrimination? Is it the responsibility of the Muslim community only to address these issues?
I think not so.
