Vibrant Gujarat!
I am a Gujarati. Though I have mostly stayed in Mumbai, I have spent enough time in my homestate to know it well!
I am not excessively possessive about my state. I don’t wear my ‘Gujjuness’ on my sleeves. I don’t feel the need to boast about my state or fellow Gujaratis. I am far too individualistic to believe that I would have (more or less) grown up to be me, regardless of where I was born and where and how I was brought up!
Yet, I am close to Gujarat. I like the state and I love its people. [I may have my share of complaints about my state and its people, but that is hardly the point…]
And that’s why it pains me when Gujarat is mis-represented.
In last five years, Gujarat has been in the news a lot of times and mostly for the wrong reasons. In fact, when you talk of Gujarat with an outsider, the first thing that the other fellow brings up is Godhra. And every Tom, Dick and Harry that you talk to minces no words to loathe the incident, criticize the administration and eventually term the state ‘unsafe’ in some way or the other!
Even so, almost 5 years after that unfortunate incident, whenever everyone and anyone talks about Gujarat, references to Godhra are unfailingly made. Gujarat isn’t only about Godhra, it never was and it will never be. Godhra incident was unfortunate, no doubt but equally unfortunate has been the way this incident has been discussed and unilateral conclusions have been made by people (mostly outside Gujarat). In particular, I think the English media’s handling of the entire issue was (and still is) high-handed.
I don’t want to go into various facets of the issue. I just want to say that ever since the incident happened, it has been blown out of proportion. In the wake of the incident, law and order situation was bad in Gujarat but I don’t think it was as bad as reported. I know people who have traveled from Mumbai to Gujarat just 2 days after the incident and have told me that the news channels were grossly exaggerating.
How many of us have not taken the media on its face-value on this incident?
I am not trying to defend the administration. All I am saying is that our conclusions on this incident (and on Gujarat) may be based more on perception than on fact. Have we wondered what the regional media reported? Have we talked to people who are from Gujarat or were in Gujarat when the incident happened?
To me, the way Gujarat’s image was tarnished nationally and internationally was unfair and since I come from that state, painful. And that we still continue to make references to the Godhra incident every time we talk of Gujarat is just unbearable. It’s not like scrubbing the wound, it’s like making another. If we think that the Godhra incident was so moving that we have to bring it up each time in connection to Gujarat, why didn’t we bring up Gandhi whenever we talked about Gujarat before the godhra incident?
I think the state has moved on from that unfortunate incident. It’s time everyone else does, too!
I am not excessively possessive about my state. I don’t wear my ‘Gujjuness’ on my sleeves. I don’t feel the need to boast about my state or fellow Gujaratis. I am far too individualistic to believe that I would have (more or less) grown up to be me, regardless of where I was born and where and how I was brought up!
Yet, I am close to Gujarat. I like the state and I love its people. [I may have my share of complaints about my state and its people, but that is hardly the point…]
And that’s why it pains me when Gujarat is mis-represented.
In last five years, Gujarat has been in the news a lot of times and mostly for the wrong reasons. In fact, when you talk of Gujarat with an outsider, the first thing that the other fellow brings up is Godhra. And every Tom, Dick and Harry that you talk to minces no words to loathe the incident, criticize the administration and eventually term the state ‘unsafe’ in some way or the other!
Even so, almost 5 years after that unfortunate incident, whenever everyone and anyone talks about Gujarat, references to Godhra are unfailingly made. Gujarat isn’t only about Godhra, it never was and it will never be. Godhra incident was unfortunate, no doubt but equally unfortunate has been the way this incident has been discussed and unilateral conclusions have been made by people (mostly outside Gujarat). In particular, I think the English media’s handling of the entire issue was (and still is) high-handed.
I don’t want to go into various facets of the issue. I just want to say that ever since the incident happened, it has been blown out of proportion. In the wake of the incident, law and order situation was bad in Gujarat but I don’t think it was as bad as reported. I know people who have traveled from Mumbai to Gujarat just 2 days after the incident and have told me that the news channels were grossly exaggerating.
How many of us have not taken the media on its face-value on this incident?
I am not trying to defend the administration. All I am saying is that our conclusions on this incident (and on Gujarat) may be based more on perception than on fact. Have we wondered what the regional media reported? Have we talked to people who are from Gujarat or were in Gujarat when the incident happened?
To me, the way Gujarat’s image was tarnished nationally and internationally was unfair and since I come from that state, painful. And that we still continue to make references to the Godhra incident every time we talk of Gujarat is just unbearable. It’s not like scrubbing the wound, it’s like making another. If we think that the Godhra incident was so moving that we have to bring it up each time in connection to Gujarat, why didn’t we bring up Gandhi whenever we talked about Gujarat before the godhra incident?
I think the state has moved on from that unfortunate incident. It’s time everyone else does, too!
posted by Leziblogger at 11:36 PM
2 Comments:
While i will agree that the media is biased... I dont think Gujarat has moved on.
If it had (and as u you five years on, it has) Parzania would be screened.
Whether the movie is fair, blatantly supporting Muslims and whatever else.. it is after all, a view point.. but in gujarat secularism is a joke.
And this is still a recent example. I have a couple of CDs..including Final Solution.. all of which have a blanket ban. That is not forgetting. That is anarchy. Suppressing something does not mean it has been forgotten.
That in fright people are not screening it, is an obvious statement that no body has moved on.
Ask all those displaced, who names have disappeared off voters lists adn all non Hindus who have moved out of the state.. whether they have forgotten Godhra..
The reason Gujarat has become synonymous with Godhra is because no justice ever came of it and the ppl inflicting whatever they did got away and today roam scotfree.
This is not a hindu or muslim thing. Its about rights and fairness in society.
Sorry about the long comment.
I am so happy someone left a comment on this post. Thanks, Bluespriite!
My sole intention of this post was to show my discomfort with the media's handling of the entire issue. Maybe because Gujarat is my homestate, I feel strongly about this.
You made a valid point about rights and fairness. But then, there have been states who banned 'The Da Vinci Code'. There was an uproar but the states got away with it. Do we feel as strongly about the ban of that movie as compared to the ban of 'Parzania'?(Besides, Parzania is not officially banned but that is hardly the point.)
I don't agree that in Gujarat secularism is a joke. But even if that was true, security in J&K or Assam or Bihar is a joke, Support to Vidarbha farmers in Maharashtra is a joke. There have been issues more pressing than secularism in various parts of the country and I don't see any particular state being targetted as vehemently as Gujarat.
When I said Gujarat has moved on, I meant that there has been a recovery process on various fronts and it is time that everyone starts talking about those rather than the incident! Or atleast the media which took so much interest in the incident, take an equal interest(if not more) in projecting the recovery. Was the media fair?
Deep down, I still think if the media hadn't projected the incident and the aftermath so single-sidedly, Gujarat might have watched Parzania!
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