April 26, 2019
Hotel Mumbai
“Hotel Mumbai” is a cinematic version of the mayhem inflicted on Mumbai by 10 young men allegedly from Pakistan 10 years ago, which brought India down to its knees.
The rampage started on November 26, 2008. Indians call it 11/26, as its equivalent to 9/11.
The movie itself is technically solid with a heavy Australian component. Set inside the iconic Taj Mahal Hotel, the movie is menacing and the storytelling gripping, with the plight of the hostages entrapped there harrowing.
Movie-goers seeking the “Why?” have to go elsewhere. Bereft of it, the takeaway is of a maniacal slaughter house. All of the ten assailants come across as functionally illiterate boys. All of them speak and use Punjabi profanity. It fits with the prevailing Indian narrative that roiling tensions are Punjab-specific, with the Pakistan Army portrayed as Punjab-centric. So, India’s threat perception is focalized on Pakistan’s Punjab – its granary and military sword arm. There is an underlying insinuation of Punjab being a hatchery of villainy.
Significantly, it puts into context attempts to break up Punjab under the hijab of redressing provincial grievances. The theory of Balkanization of Punjab to better streamline administrative units has been swallowed by many of Pakistan’s gullible and malleable elites without being cognizant of it being a precursor to a larger breakup, a là Yugoslavia.
It was no coincidence that the main protagonist in the movie was a Sikh, heroically shepherding the hostages, especially when juxtaposed against the Kartarpur initiative, which has rattled and unnerved the upper-caste Indian ruling elites.
April 2019 marks the centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which loosened the grip of the British Raj on undivided India. Nearby is the Golden Temple, the June 1984 storming of which under the behest of Mrs Indira Gandhi, caused much greater casualties to the Sikhs barricaded inside. October 31, 1984 was the day in Delhi when Indira was slain by her Sikh bodyguards. It precipitated a killing spree against Sikhs, initially spearheaded by incumbent Congressmen. Subsequently, many Sikhs shed their distinguishing turbans and shaved their hair.
Scarce mention is given to the killing in Bombay (Mumbai) of at least 1,100 people, most of them Muslim, in December 1992 and January 1993 by “extremist Hindu group Shiv Sena activists who led the mobs that set on unarmed Muslims, hacking or burning them to death, and firebombing Muslim homes and businesses.” Judges inquiring into the slaughter found that “Shiv Sena militants combined with sympathizers within the Bombay police orchestrated the attacks, using voters’ lists and business registers to pick out Muslim homes and businesses.” (New York Times, John Burns, April 17, 1994).
The movie depicts Mumbai police cowering and paralyzed in the face of the attackers, who only were quelled days later after special forces were dispatched from Delhi.
Because of political reasons, a holistic scrutiny of terror has not been undertaken, leading to repeated misdiagnoses. Killing of innocents can never be justified or condoned. Selected presentment and omission of material facts puts the core issue in a vacuum, therefore, leaving it untreated.
Bullets don’t discriminate. Many of the Mumbai victims were Muslim. It recalls the African saying that “when elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.”
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