Igniting religious intolerance

SINGAPORE, a country that has a majority Buddhist population and where Muslims are barely half that percentage, has seen it fit to ban the Indian film Kashmir Files.

The film has a fiery potential of igniting religious intolerance in a general population of Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Jews and Hindus, who otherwise enjoy a peaceful co-existence.

The other reason offered by that government is that the film is not a documentary, but is based on “loose” facts. Actually, whether the latter reason is valid is not half as important as the consequences of viewing it and chalking up a frenzied hatred for other local religious groups that are thousands of miles from where the “events” of the film are said to have occurred.

There are sympathisers for the hardline attitude of the present Indian government throughout the world. Most of these people do not really understand the full history of events that have led India to become yet another potential saffron-coloured marigold in a bouquet of explosives that continue to garland the Earth.

The phenomenon of capturing mostly simple minds by clever forces is not specific to any race, religion or colour. Harnessing mob violence to stay in political power is an old story.

The clear lack of any form of outcry by our own Indian majority, especially among leaders, in this country, for the proven atrocities on the minorities in India is yet again more evidence of sheer ignorance of our own precarious Indian position in this country. The sympathisers for the Indian government in that country continuously point to ancient Muslim-Moghul misrule as justification for the present persecution of Muslims there.

They forget that the Indian position in this country is just as precarious, for are we not a minority here facing the same accusation as justification for victimisation?