By  Mowahid Hussain Shah

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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PREVIOUSLY


Election 2004: Decisive but Divisive

Muslim Youth & Kashmir in America

The Big Picture: Wealth without Vision

Oxygen to Global Unrest

Punishing the Punctual

Change without Change

Don’t Be Weak

Passionate Attachment

The Confidence of Youth

The Other Side of Democracy

Campaign of Defamation

Pakistani Women & the Legal Profession

A Pakistani Journey

Farewell to Fazal

Mukhtaran and Beyond

Revamping the OIC

7/7 & After

Nuclear Double-Standard

Return to Racism

Hollywood – The Unofficial Media

The Sole Superpower

The UN at 60

A Slow Motion World War?

Elite vs. Street

Iqbal Today

Macedonia to Multan

Defending our Own

2006 & Maulana Zafar Ali Khan

Error against Terror

The Limits of Power

Cultural Weaknesses

Aggressive at Home, Submissive Abroad

Global Storm

The Farce of Free Expression

The Changing Mood

Condi & India

Xenophobia

Looking inward

Re-Thinking

A Tale of Two Presidents

Close to Home

Flashpoint Kashmir

The Spreading Rage

Confronting Adversity

The Illusion of International Law

Other Side of Extremism

Five Years after 9/11

The Educated Ignorant

The Decline of Humor

Icons

Six Years of Insanity

The War Not Being Fought

Munir Niazi

Compliance & Defiance

Counter-Message

Miscast

The Goddess of Wealth

The Meaning of Moderation

The Tora Bora of Fear

Clash of Civility

The Early Race

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Will & Skill

Zealotry

Movie-Media and Pakistan

Hug with a Thug

Quest for Integrity

Unconquered

Vanity

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Turmoil over Turkey

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Might Does Not Make Right

Kursi First

Vision & Will

Battle of the Billionaires

Assassination Alley

Extremism and Change

Rosy Expectations

Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain

Not Winning

Beyond Baghdad: Five Years after

The Hijab of Democracy

Hate, Fear & Hope

Weapon of Words

Hide N’ Seek

Yanking in the UN

Obama’s Breakthrough

Let Lahore Be Lahore

National Mood & Sports

Flirting with Fire

Trips Abroad

Georgia on the Mind

Duel for the White House

Zia to Zardari

Palestine: Avoiding the Unavoidable 

Not Working 

In the Ring 

Obama’s America

Smiles & Dreams

Quiet Deeds of Good

Crime and Indifference

Journey of Understanding

VIP-hunting

Terror via Counter-Terrorism

Umpires or Vampires?

The Long Road

Yesterday’s Reminder

Appeasement and the Real Threat

Israel’s Washington Agenda

New Challenges

Cairo and Beyond

Re-fighting Old Battles

America ’s Super Villains

Activism in America

Style without Substance

Overcoming Barriers

Ashes to Afghanistan

The Looming Change

Fear and Possibilities

What Is Not Debated 

Hired Guns

Rampage at Fort Hood

Manmohan in Washington

The Long Duel

Green Nukes

Vision and Division

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Striving to Matter

Shame-proof

Anxiety and Opportunity

Putting Iraq in America

The Right Strategy

Looking Beyond

Rot at the Top

Strategic Folly

Daring & Caring

Over-Stepping on Turkey

Sudan : Perils of Provincialism

Old Fears, New Target

Europe ’s Stain

The US-Pakistan Enigma

The Status Quo Is Unacceptable

9 Years after 9/11

License to Steal

US Muslims at the Crossroads

Tumor of Terror

An Arab Voice

Disastrous Decisions

Double Game

Sticky Wiki

What Quaid Was Not

Money Conspiracy

Pharaohs & Pirates

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Change & Challenge  

Forty Years after 1971

Abandoning Our Own

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Osama and Obama

Tsunami of Tolerance

Representation and Presentation

Meek and Weak

Change or the Same?

No Easy Exit

Nation to Non-Nation

10 Years after 9/11

Shining India?

Big Power, Small Politics

Rule of the Gun

Proxy of the Powerful

Fight for Fairness

Republican Race

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More Provinces?

Too Much Information

Soft Separation

Soft Poison

Unemployment & Over-Population

Seize the Day

The Arab Awakening

Ben Bella

At University of Gujrat

Good People Behaving Badly

Playing Over-Smart

Do Less

Resisting the Resistible

Performance, Not PR

Home-grown Havoc

Salutation to the 65 th Year

Plague of Provincialism

USA Elections 2012

Rage

Fight or Flight

Rift and Drift

Obama II

Me and We

Small Role or Small Actors?

On Losing

Who Will Guard the Guards?

Loyal to Their Loot

Prevail or Fail

Perceptions and Reality

Toll of Occupation

Re-think, Re-examine, and Self-correct 

The Washington Tribe

Voice and Vision

Moral Slump

Wall of Illusion

Under One Banner

Bitter Harvest

Gallows and the Throne

Scent of Power

At a Standstill

Leaders and Leadership

The Deadline

Fighting Darkness

Distant Connections

Governance: The Long View

Discussion in DC

Darkness in the Mind

Killing Kennedy and Liaquat Ali

Yahya Khan Speaks on 1971

Quaid & Xmas in Washington

150 Years of FC College

Tyranny of Money

50 Years of Ali

A Dose of Truth

Little Guy, Big Impact

A Reassessment in Washington

Crimea & Kashmir

Democracy or Oligarchy?

Afghan Elites: Blaming Pakistan

Pitfalls of Intervention

Arabs in America

Never Give up

German Journey

Tyranny of Today

Manipulating Language

March & Match

Destroyers

Out of Darkness

Modi in America

Awareness or Fairness?

Mideast Maze

Easy Scapegoats

Freedom to Insult

Journey of Recovery

Mental Colonialism

Letters from a Grandfather

Power Imbalance

Discord and Division

Colloquium at Capitol Hill

Washington Lauds Gharib Nawaz

Balkan Lessons

Pivot from the Mideast

American Campus & Mideast Turmoil

Muslim Father; Two Americans

Challenging Fear

Victim Mentality

X & Ali

Fake Democracy?

Irresponsible Passivity

Erosion of Ethics

Dragon of Hate

Extreme in the Mainstream

Ugly Times

Pakistani Summer in England

Speaking Haq

At the Oval

Britain Beware

East in West

Trump Turmoil

Tiny Nation, Towering Figure

Realities: 2016

End of an Innings

Trumped

Embarrassment to America

Dishonest Media

Purana Pakistan

Media Unleashed

Mental Walls

Quarantining Qatar

Vizier or Fakir

70 Not Out

70th in Washington

England in September

White Rage

Daughter of the Quaid

Overstay

Fighting for Pakistan

Confronting the Barriers

Battleground Africa

Low Goals

Mental Pollution

Inside Europe

Washington in Disarray

Departures

Freedom’s Burden

Japan Journey

Possessed by Possessions

Fairness, Not Favors

Post-Election Vibes

Once Hate Is Unleashed

Paisa & Politics

South Sudan/South Punjab

Pakistani Progress

At American University

England in October

Out of the Shadows

Miseducation

Addiction to Failure

Adulation & Humiliation

American Vice

Choices

White to Brown

Conversation with a Statesman

Modi Musings

Kiwi Carnage

D-Day ‘75


2001

 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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