The Heavy Burden Of Identity

For instance, the manager at Jamaluddin Karimbuksh Delhiwala, an electrical shop, tells you how a tiny percentage of any group may be bad, but most Mumbai Muslims are patriotic. "Why don’t you count the number of Muslims who have been killed whenever there have been blasts in Mumbai? Do newspapers and magazines keep such a record?" he asks. In one of the sweet shops on Merchant Street, a young Muslim has this to say about Pakistan: "Since we are unhappy with that country, let’s break all our relationships with it. Don’t we do that when we have troublesome relatives?"

The man at the cash counter at a textile shop in Memonwada is infuriated with our line of questioning: "When will you people ever understand that Pakistani Muslims do not accept Indian Muslims! They call us kafirs. I recently heard someone called Imran Babbar speak out of somewhere in Kashmir, and he was saying that Indian Muslims have no dignity. We ignore him. You can call Indian Muslims anything, but you can’t call them gaddar."

Zubair Chali of Safari Footwear on Kambekar street is angered that his loyalty is questioned each time there is an attack on Mumbai. "Some people made a mistake in 1993. But all other Muslims here have seen what has happened to their families. Nobody helped them or supported them. There is a growing awareness in the community that we shouldn’t play into the hands of anybody. This city has given us food and shelter, how can we backstab it? The ones who get used are poor Muslims," he says.

Chali narrates the story of his relative Nadeem, who was in Dubai and had a Pakistani friend: "This friend one day asked Nadeem if he could urgently arrange Rs 10,000 for a close friend of his in Mumbai and that the money would be returned within a week. Nadeem promptly made a call and made arrangements for the money. But it later turned out that the person who collected the money was an ISI agent. The Gujarat police started chasing Nadeem. He returned to India and surrendered, but it took him four years to prove his innocence. By the time he came out of jail his family was finished. This is just one story and there are many such terrible experiences here. As a result, the local Muslim has become very cautious and alert. Why will anybody want to destroy their own lives?"

The aam Muslim would rather be allowed to live his simple life.