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City Under Siege
The Daily Beast's Shashi Tharoor writes from India that the biggest threat to Mumbai isn’t bullets or bombs--but an assault on India's open democracy. PLUS, view a gallery of photos from the scene of the attacks.
There is a savage irony to the fact that the unfolding horror in Mumbai began with terrorists docking near the Gateway of India. The magnificent arch, built in 1911 to welcome the King-Emperor, has ever since stood as a symbol of the openness of the city. Crowds of foreign tourists and local yokels flock around it; merchants hawk their wares; boats bob in the waters, offering cruises out to the open sea. The teeming throngs around it daily reflect India’s diversity, with Parsi gentlemen out for their evening constitutionals, Muslim women in burqas taking in the sea air, Goan Catholic waiters enjoying a break from their duties at the stately Taj Mahal Hotel, Hindus from every corner of the country chatting in a multitude of tongues. Today, ringed by police barricades, the Gateway of India – the gateway to India, and to India’s soul – is barred, mute testimony to the latest assault on the country’s pluralist democracy.
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The terrorists who heaved their bags of weapons up the steps of the wharf to begin their assault on the Taj Hotel, like their cohorts at a dozen other locations around the city, knew exactly what they were doing. Theirs was an attack on India’s financial nerve center and commercial capital, a city emblematic of the country’s energetic thrust into the 21st century. They struck at symbols of the prosperity that was making the Indian model so attractive to the globalizing world – luxury hotels, a swish café, an apartment house favored by foreigners. The terrorists also sought to polarize Indian society by claiming to be acting to redress the grievances, real and imagined, of India’s Muslims. And by singling out Britons, Americans and Israelis for special attention, they demonstrated that their brand of Islamist fanaticism is anchored less in the absolutism of pure faith than in the geopolitics of hate.
Today, the platitudes flow like blood. Terrorism is unacceptable; the terrorists are cowards; the world stands united in unreserved condemnation of this latest atrocity. Commentators in America trip over themselves to pronounce this night and day of carnage “India’s 9/11.” But India has endured many attempted 9/11s, notably a ferocious assault on its national Parliament in December 2001 that nearly led to all-out war against the assailants’ presumed sponsors, Pakistan. This year alone, terrorist bombs have taken lives in Jaipur, in Ahmedabad, in Delhi and (in an eerie dress-rehearsal for the effectiveness of synchronicity) several different places on one searing day in the state of Assam. Jaipur is the lodestar of Indian tourism to Rajasthan; Ahmedabad is the primary city of Gujarat, the state that is a poster child for India’s development, with a local GDP growth rate of 14%; Delhi is the nation’s political capital and India’s window to the world; Assam was logistically convenient for terrorists from across a porous border. Mumbai combined all four elements of its precursors: by attacking it, the terrorists hit India’s economy, its tourism, and its internationalism, and they took advantage of the city’s openness to the world. A grand slam.
Amateur Hour at the White House
Leslie H. Gelb, a former New York Times columnist and senior government official, is author of Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy (HarperCollins 2009), a book that shows how to think about and use power in the 21st century. He is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Airports From Hell
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
India's Dangerous Response to the Meltdown
Dr. Shashi Tharoor is Chairman of Afras Ventures, a prize-winning author of ten books, and a widely-published critic, commentator and columnist (including for The Hindu, The Times of India and Newsweek). In 2007 he concluded a nearly 29-year career with the United Nations, culminating as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. For more information, please visit www.shashitharoor.com.
Why India Loves Bush
Dr. Shashi Tharoor is Chairman of Afras Ventures, a prize-winning author of ten books, and a widely-published critic, commentator and columnist (including for The Hindu, The Times of India and Newsweek). In 2007 he concluded a nearly 29-year career with the United Nations, culminating as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. For more information, please visit www.shashitharoor.com.
What a wicked thing....God, wouldn't it be nice if everyone just got along in the world, how would we deal with peace though...we are so used to death and distruction, I doubt we could function.
Just imagine a world with no guns, tanks, bullets or any other killing devises...we would be in shear heaven and harmony...I'm all for that.
I'm new to the Daily Beast and am a little annoyed reading the headline 'Seven Jewish Hostages Dead'.There have been well over one hundred killed and several hundred wounded but the headline focuses on only seven. In a similar vein, MSNBC was focused on the rabbi and his wife and several others who were found killed. Are Jewish casualties any more important then others? Certainly not. Am I missing some hidden significance?
ClayBlasdel:
I agree with you, that really annoys me as well....I wrote on another blog site blog earlier this piece:
I often wonder why Palestine does not get as much coverage when destruction and carnage happens there, and yet when it's Israel, it's front page news and all over the TV and Bush comes out and condemns it!!!
Why is it that Palestinian life seems to be less important than Israeli life and Bush never condemns attacks against Palestine!!!!
That has always bothered me, why we are so behind Israel who have their own army,planes and weapons etc and Palestine have none of that, but just basic weapons....I find that unacceptable..ali or no ali.
There seems to be this presumption in the American mind, most of whom have no idea about the pluralistic society that is India, that Indian Muslims are always in coflict with the rest of India and that India is constantly in communal turmoil. When India is attacked, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians all hurt alike. As a non-Muslim, it's incredibly irritating to me to read these comments blaming muslims in India. The issues in India are not the same as in Britain. Muslims are and have been an essential part of the fabric of Indian society; Indian culture has been shaped by Islam and Islam has been shaped by Indian culture.
This is truly a sad turn of events. Where does one begin with the tragedy that has unfolded before our eyes. What drives a decent human being into creating such havoc and destruction upon others who had no sort of connection besides being from the country that the terrorist group dislikes? It truly is a sad day, and I hope all of our hearts and prayers will be directed for all who have suffered losses. All terrorist alike are despicable, especially ones who target children. No matter what happens in the world, children are off limits because they are young and innocent. I hope the world will learn that hate and violence will not solve anything, but create more bloodshed. May God bless us all and watch over all man.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to one day live in a world where there is no violence....all this death and destruction and for what?
If we could all just get along, that sounds so simplistic I know...but how hard can it be. Greed and dominance rein supreme all over the world and I'm sure that isn't what God had intended this world to look like.
One day, that's all we can hope for, that one day we will all come together and there will be peace and harmony across the globe.
Dr Tharoor, I have to say that this is probably the finest piece you've ever written, apart from your novels - telling it like it is. I remember the first article you ever had published - Junior Statesman, 1965 or 1966?? with a pix of the Republic Day Parade on the cover? You are absolutely right - "This horror was not homegrown." I also completely agree with you that our "gateway must remain open." Read thru the casualty lists of Indians - there are Muslims among them as well - the killers did not differentiate, contrary to what is claimed. As a half Hindu and half Jew from the Bene Israeli community of Mumbai, and very proud to be a Mumbaikar - as you say, "Pluralism and coexistence is our greatest strength" - long may it stay that way.
This has been a horrific turn of events, and my heart breaks for the Indian people that have suffered so.
I don't doubt for a minute, though, Dr. Tharoor, that India will pick itself up and be fine. Full of grief, yes, but strong anyway. I've known many Indian people over the years, and they are TOUGH and BEAUTIFUL.
There will soon be pogroms in India vs. Muslims. Since 1947 Muslims and Hindus in India have been unable to live together. There must be repatriation of all Indian Muslims to Pakistan. You have this choice: the Greek-Turkish exchange of populations after WWI or the Hitler resort to genocide during WWII. Take your pick.
I think the best way to understand India and the attacks is to watch it from Indian eyes. I'd recommend watching NDTV's live (English) feed: http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/video/video_live.aspx?id=0
Yeh - the "Jewish hostages" yarn is typical of Anglo-American divide and conquer propaganda. (They) don't care about the "hindus", "jews" or the "muslims" on any level ... This has been going on for HUNDREDS of years. The only reason why all this sh*t is happening ...
All deaths sadden us, though sometimes we are touched by some deaths more than others. This is natural. However, we should also treat all forms of political violence directed against civilians as terrorism. No point being selective about this. Whether you kill civilians for the sake of establishing an Islamist state or a Hindutva state, you are still a terrorist.
Thank you.
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