There were the post Babri Masjid demolition riots of 1992 that spilled over to the early 2013.
Then there was Gujrat 2002.
Now we have Muzaffarnagar 2013.
All of them massive riots in which massive loss of life and property has been sustained by the minority community in India.
India has a an elephant in its drawing room.
Now what is this elephant in the drawing room?
This is a metaphor for the irony associated with the so called modern civilized method to solve problem.
People say that you should solve your problems amicably, with diplomacy, with negotiations.
Metaphorically this might lead to you accommodating an elephant in your drawing room. Every one will know about its existence but no one will be willing to talk about it.
And we in India do have an elephant in our collective drawing room. It is the elephant of communal riots. The clashes between the majority an minority communities.
And many have since conclude that these euphemistic descriptions hide more than they reveal. These riots are in reality pogroms against a hapless minority.
No one is willing to talk about them in times of peace.
Perhaps the logic is to let the sleeping lions be.
Or let the sleeping monsters be. Who can argue against that?
And in troubled times there is more reason to do so.
Who would like to be on the radar of the law enforcing agencies by talking about such things in times of crisis?
And hence the elephant in the drawing room is left ignored at all times.
No one is willing to look at the trouble in the face.
Even if the problem grows from bad to worse over the time.
And just for the record what was worse this time?
For one the riots have reached villages.
Villages were the places where the old bonds of rural love had so far been effective against the venom f communal hatred.
No more.
The spread of the so called communal violence, actually the pogroms against the minority, has been very extensive this time.
Then there was Gujrat 2002.
Now we have Muzaffarnagar 2013.
All of them massive riots in which massive loss of life and property has been sustained by the minority community in India.
India has a an elephant in its drawing room.
Now what is this elephant in the drawing room?
This is a metaphor for the irony associated with the so called modern civilized method to solve problem.
People say that you should solve your problems amicably, with diplomacy, with negotiations.
Metaphorically this might lead to you accommodating an elephant in your drawing room. Every one will know about its existence but no one will be willing to talk about it.
And we in India do have an elephant in our collective drawing room. It is the elephant of communal riots. The clashes between the majority an minority communities.
And many have since conclude that these euphemistic descriptions hide more than they reveal. These riots are in reality pogroms against a hapless minority.
No one is willing to talk about them in times of peace.
Perhaps the logic is to let the sleeping lions be.
Or let the sleeping monsters be. Who can argue against that?
And in troubled times there is more reason to do so.
Who would like to be on the radar of the law enforcing agencies by talking about such things in times of crisis?
And hence the elephant in the drawing room is left ignored at all times.
No one is willing to look at the trouble in the face.
Even if the problem grows from bad to worse over the time.
And just for the record what was worse this time?
For one the riots have reached villages.
Villages were the places where the old bonds of rural love had so far been effective against the venom f communal hatred.
No more.
The spread of the so called communal violence, actually the pogroms against the minority, has been very extensive this time.