Gujarat, let’s say it again, is becoming a strange place. The strange response to its brand of politics is now not only from society, but also from even civil society groups. Gujarat is perhaps the only Indian state to have the intriguing distinction of a memorial planned for riot victims — as CJP plans one in Ahmedabad’s Gulberg Society, the site of one of the most gruesome riots in 2002, where ex-MP Ehsan Jafri died. So we are to have a Gulberg Museum of Resistance. The sponsors didn’t ask anyone, didn’t ask me, for example, whether I want this. Whether as a Muslim or a Hindu, or Gujarai or Indian, whatever one’s identity is, such a memorial only brings deep discomfort.

This museum is not my culture, not my language. This is supposedly to be a museum that will be a reminder of human frailties and depravity. But will it soothe, will it heal? No, it will just help the wounds to fester. Gujarat has more than its fair share of slogans, hoardings, anniversaries and memorial functions. They are all over, in all shades and nuances. And they all bring discomfiture — they don’t help.

Bollywood secularism is not the answer to Gujarat’s political and social divides. This is missed even and especially by those who write reams on post-riot Gujarat. Six years later, there’s no escaping this narrative. I, like all of us, have layered identities. I am a journalist. I am Gujarati. I am a woman. I am a Muslim. But well-meaning groups wait for a month to pass after the Ahmedabad bombs day and start reminding me, lest I forget, that I am also to remember the riots, and the importance of being a victim. Why the presumption that this is what I want? Why the presumption that this is what anyone wants? If tragedies mean most in the personal dimension, then individuals should be allowed to deal with it.

... contd.