Of lessons learnt and forgotten

There is a debate going on amongst my friends, and covered here.

My thoughts on the subject:

1. Gaurav, agree with you that these riots were instigated by the politicians, on both sides of the fence. But these "matchsticks" had inflammable material to work with....the dry wood, the kerosene (in terms of people swept by 6/12/1992 and the Rath Yatra). This was the first time such a thing was happening, and people could be taken for a ride much more easily. In the near future, I do not believe that a politician would be able to instigate people to commit mass murder. People know what impact it can have on their families and on their means of livelihood. Just see the reaction to the train bombings. There was no firewood or kerosene, so the matchsticks couldn't do anything. There was not even a hint of communal tension in the air at the time, regardless of the fact that it came out pretty soon that only Muslims were responsible for the blasts.

2. Naren, Mumbai people who have had a first hand experience of the riots will stay away such a thing in the future. My assumption (and I have no means to verify it) is that people in the age group of 15 to 40 are the ones most responsible for the riots. In a matter of less than a decade, there will be many many people very capable of committing these riots who would have no first hand experience of the 1993 riots.

It is much like the stock market booms and crashes. First one happened in 1992. People burnt their fingers real badly at the time. By the year 2000, there was a fresh bunch of "investors" who had no first hand experience of the havoc speculation can wreck. People lost a ton in 2000 as well. Now, we have a fresh bunch of "savvy investors", who will no doubt feel that all these crappy real estate companies, valued basis their "land banks" are great picks. They will burn their hands too, maybe soon or maybe a few years down the line when a bubble appears again.

I personally was less than 12 at the time of the riots...old enough to understand what was going on, but too young to understand first-hand the significance of it. Part of it was also due to the fact that I stayed in a total Hindu colony, and there was no cable TV at my place, so I had a very limited exposure to the riots at that time. Only thing i remember is that school was off for a long time and we had the entire empty road to play cricket on.

All in all, I am hopeful the riots wont occur in the future, primarily because its difficult to foresee a scenario where people in Mumbai getting swept off so much by communal hatred. Gujarat is a different ball game. I know quite a few people from there, and their views are extreme, to say the least.... Narendra Modi is their God who can do no wrong.... "they" need to be suppressed and shown their place....and a lot more of such trash...makes me really scared, given that elections are gonna happen soon. Mr. Modi just might have another ace up his sleeve. And its really not good news for the country.