I am no stranger to cities under siege. Approximately one year ago, I was 550 miles from Mumbai, visiting Karachi, Pakistan when gun-toting madmen went on a rampage in response to Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and imposed a climate of terror and fear across the city. I am all too familiar with that feeling of being trapped in your home, unable to venture out for the sake of your life and property, and that horrific numbness when you find out that the road you drove through just a few hours ago is now the site of incredible carnage. I empathize with the citizens of Mumbai, India because when such incidents happen, they attack humanity itself.
Mumbai and Karachi are in a sense “twin cities”—they are the financial capitals of India and Pakistan, respectively. They both serve as major sea ports for their respective rival nations, and most importantly, both cities have the allure of a better life that draws immigrants from all across the country to become part of its diverse demographical canvas. The men who indiscriminately opened fire on the crowds on the evening of November 26 did not target a specific community—those who fell under the barrage of their gunfire were both rich and poor, laborers and officials, locals and foreigners, and from all different religions. It is imperative, then, that none of the communities involved respond impulsively and jump into the customary blame game.
I emphasize the calm that must be maintained because in the end, this plague is everyone’s problem. This includes India’s neighbor Pakistan which has suffered perhaps the most from a wave of religious intolerance in recent years and continues suffering. It is not a case of Muslims killing non-Muslims—rather, innocent Muslim bystanders have largely been the victims of the violent activities of these militants from Iraq to Pakistan. The media needs to firmly convey this point across the aisle because those sitting in their homes around the world will naturally be looking for someone to blame at this sad moment in history. As the 2002 Indian Gujarat Massacres show, such incidents can set spark to the explosive consequence of Hindu-Muslim communal violence. The situation must not be allowed to get to that point. This is not a religious fight, and though fomenting religious violence and creating anarchy will probably turn out to be the eventual goal of these terrorists, India needs to make sure the narrative does not end up spinning towards that endless, bloody pit.
The focus needs to be on working together to combat this hateful menace. To do this, India will have to reach out to the oft-demonized Pakistan. Sounding war drums now will only unravel all the progress the two countries have made towards peace. Of greater consequence are the implications not only for that region, but also the world, should Pakistan respond by pulling its troops out of its western border with Afghanistan and place them at its Indian border. While one terrorist siege may be over, the potential remains for a repeat of such incidents if Pakistan becomes distracted from its fight with such militants who rub the name of Islam into the dirt with their sick, inhumane attacks on innocents.
Already, student groups at Columbia are coming together to mourn the senseless attack on the people of Mumbai with a vigil planned for Wednesday night. Many people on campus have relatives in Mumbai, and it is important that we show solidarity with them by coming out to join them in such events. In a global university like Columbia, the effects of such hateful incidents are inevitably felt, and it is our responsibility as individual students and groups to denounce them when and where they occur.
In fact, it is precisely this spirit that Mumbai will have to embody if it is to recover from November 26. It is ironic that one of the targets of these hateful gunmen was the Taj Mahal hotel, the namesake of a larger, spectacular structure in Agra, India, the Taj Mahal mausoleum. Built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan many centuries ago in mourning for the death of his wife, the white marbled Taj Mahal is widely recognized as one of the greatest wonders of this world. It is also testimony to what marvelous things can come out of personal tragedies. By approaching the aftermath of these terrorist rampages calmly and wisely, Mumbai can show such militants that while they may have drawn blood, they have failed to kill the spirit of that city—that, unlike them, Mumbai remains a tolerant, humane, and peaceful society.
The author is a sophomore in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.