Home thoughts during election time

Although I have been residing in the Capital for the last several years, it is difficult to forget one8217;s roots. Memory invariably takes me back to Uttar Pradesh, where I was born and raised.

Although I have been residing in the Capital for the last several years, it is difficult to forget one8217;s roots. Memory invariably takes me back to Uttar Pradesh, where I was born and raised. Those long summer stretches I spent in my mother8217;s hometown of Shahjahanpur, or those occasional visits to my father8217;s ancestral qasbah of Aonla, near Bareilly, keep coming back to me. All the more so during these election times, when the state gets to vote its next government.

Decay is the one word that comes to mind when one considers this once-cultured belt of north India. Although it was always marked by religious divides, people in an earlier era still managed to keep the bonds of community going. I still recall instances when Shahjahanpur with its big Muslim population 8212; a sizeable percentage of Muslims here traced their origins to Afghanistan from where entire clans had once migrated 8212; was often referred to as the 8216;mini-Pakistan8217; of India. I also remember those occasions when some of my parents8217; non-Muslim friends would take the trouble to drop in and wish us for Eid. But they would always take care not to eat a morsel, declining gently with excuses like, 8220;Aaj hamara vrat hai8221; we are fasting today. But everything was far more civilised, the community was not made to feel like the Other.

The fall of the Babri Masjid changed everything. Even 15 years later, the vicious propaganda unleashed during the period that led up to the demolition, has percolated through every tier of society. Recently, I was travelling by train to Shahjahanpur. A few women pulled me aside, pointed to a small group of burqa-clad women who had entered the compartment, and whispered, 8220;Behenji, come sit with us. Those Muslim women always give out a bad odour.8221; Since I happened to be wearing a sari, the presumption was that I was a Hindu.

The divide between the communities in UP today has become almost unbridgeable. In the process, Muslims find themselves even more isolated. If you were to visit Muslim families in the interior regions of the state, the sheer apathy with which the government has treated the community would come as a shock. These ghettoes have little electricity and very few sources of clean drinking water. Families here are constantly having to reckon with grave problems like the ill health of children and lack of healthcare. Most of the young men, who hang around in their thousands, are jobless and penniless.

A couple of years ago, at the peak of the monsoon season, I met up with some of my mother8217;s relatives in Shahjahanpur. It was like a journey to hell. The garbage dumps around appeared like small mountains. Flies and mosquitoes flew freely around. One felt one was entering the ultimate zone of despair. Everything was on the verge of collapse. Crumbling schools, crumbling hospitals, crumbling homes, crumbling power grids. Even the animals that wandered around seemed as if they would collapse at any moment.

It is against such a scenario of hopelessness that UP8217;s famed caste and religious riots are played out. It is hard to believe that this was once the great Avadhi belt of the north which had contributed so much to the culture and wealth of the country. Will these elections change anything? Very unlikely indeed.