"All of a sudden, my name has become my liability"

As Ambar Ahmed, a close friend in India, shared this thought with me, I began to recognize the fear that the 130 million Muslims living in India experience today. Being labeled as "terrorists", "jihadis", Osama does not concern them anymore, at least not as much as the fear of being tortured and killed does.

My friend Ambar made this comment, not with direct reference to 9/11, but with reference to events in India since February 2002. Religious riots between Hindus and Muslims, which broke out in the western Indian state of Gujarat, left more than 2000 men, women and children dead, and displaced more than 98,000 people - their homes and property destroyed. An overwhelming majority of the victims were Muslims. The media reported that approximately 1,200,000 citizens, many belonging to the middle class, participated in the riots. The complicity of the state police and government also became evident as testimonies of the survivors began to be collected by human rights groups. As armed mobs looted and torched Muslim homes, businesses and mosques in Ahmedabad city (in Gujarat) in March this year, the response of the police to pleas by Muslims was, "We have no orders to save you." These developments in fact led Indian writer Arundhati Roy to state, "It must be terrifying to be a Muslim in this country (India) today." As I read her words, I thought of my friend Ambar in whose eyes I saw Roy's words become a reality.

Over the last few months, I have been trying to grapple with this reality while studying here at CTP. How do I go back to India and use the knowledge and skills learned at CTP to assist those trying to douse the fires of communal hatred and violence? How do I prepare myself to return to a context where neighbor kills neighbor without hesitation? I draw strength from the words of Martin Luther King Jr., "There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal." So, I try to use the power of the written word to assist those in India who are attempting to popularize words such as 'compassion' and 'universal responsibility' - who are risking their own lives in efforts to make democratically elected leaders accountable for the genocide they have orchestrated against the very people who voted them to political office.

In the months since 9/11, the world's attention has been focused on efforts to bring supporters of "terrorism" to justice. Simultaneously, several countries have used this global environment to intensify their own crackdowns on separatists and religious groups, and to demand immunity from criticism of their human rights record. In India, the international environment post-9/11 has been used to crackdown on Muslim separatist groups in the troubled region of Kashmir. The armed confrontation between separatist groups and the Indian government in Kashmir has taken on a new dynamic with the latter seeking to justify certain human rights violations on the grounds that the acts were carried out against those having links with the Al Qaeda network. Evidence to prove the allegation, however, has rarely been shared. Under the cover of 'fighting terrorism', the Indian State has sought to receive sanction for human rights abuses against civilians in post-9/11 Kashmir.

Developments in the world since 9/11 have contributed to a subtle, although very real, demonization of the Muslim community in India, whether Gujarat or Kashmir. Although the armed conflict in Kashmir and the religious violence in Gujarat have a different and unique set of causes and dynamics, events since 9/11 have contributed to the legitimization of violence against the Muslim community in both regions.

If there is one thing that I have always taken pride in as an Indian, it has been in the cultural and religious diversity that India represents. India is home to Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis (followers of the Zoroastrian faith), Buddhists, Jains, and numerous indigenous communities. The Anthropological Survey of India estimates that there are some 4,599 separate communities in India with as many as 325 languages and dialects. These statistics point to the incredible extent of India's pluralism. Secularism, which I see as the bedrock of Indian democracy, stands seriously questioned today. International responses to 9/11 have added to the complexity of the debate on secularism in India. As in many other parts of the world, the pressure on the 130 million Indian Muslims to "prove" their patriotism has intensified.

Human rights excesses since 9/11 in different parts of the world, particularly those in Gujarat and Kashmir in India, highlight the urgent need to speak out against hatred, bigotry and prejudice. They are a chilling reminder of the words of German anti-Nazi activist, Pastor Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me -
and by then there was no one left to speak out for me.

Manjrika Sewak is a Fulbright scholar in the MA program. She came to CTP from a position as a Program Associate at Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace in India.