The jinxed city and twin blasts

My dear city has yet again been rocked. Twin blasts ripped through two very important eating joints evicting lives, charring bodies and scaring the hearts of Hyderabadis.

Neither blasts nor riots are new to the nawabi city. Ruled by the Nizams, Hyderabad, for centuries, has been the centre for music, arts, trade, revolution and more notably communal disharmony. A land that rose in arms against the atrocious zamindari system, Hyderabad is one among the only few regions of India that were partially successful in implementing land rights. What started of and subsequently came to be known as the Telangana Arms Struggle has since then frettered out making way for a bloodier 'social movement' by the name naxalism. Yet, through these turbulant times the communal camaraderie was intact.

Spurred by the Razakars - a paramilitary force under the Nizam, in the 1930s just before independence, we see the communal fabric tearing apart slowly. The atrocities heaped by the razakars under the demonic leadership of Khasim Razvi on the non-Muslims, especially the women, left permanent scars on the population of the entire region that included parts of Karnataka.

The State of Hyderabad and subsequently Andhra Pradesh, under an independent India never got out of the communal hatered. The only difference was, our politicians had replaced the razakars.

And Hyderabad continues to suffer even in the IT-led 21st century.

The blame-game is a part of any blast package. Truth 'lies' on both sides of the finger raised.What is to be observed most in the recent blasts is the deviance in the terror plot.

My knowledge of terror in Hyderabad (produced a docu on communalism in Hyderabad) tells me that this is a very rare instance of an act of terror outside the ambit of religion. Contrast this with the blasts in the Mecca Masjid a few months back. This is also a rare incident of the new city being targeted.

Having targeted establishment outside the realm of religion, are the terrorists setting a new agenda?

The recent plot is indeed a telling statement on the changed communal dimensions of the city. It is for sure a victory of the mehnati hyderabadi - cutting across religions, that the terrorist has had to target venues outside religion. The twist in the script is even the more dangerous because, the market economy can't withstand it. Even amidst communal chaos if Hyderabad grew as a hot spot for IT and other knowledge industries the simple reason was that the new city was far off from trouble. But by targetting the beautiful Lumbini park at the junction where the twin cities meet, the terrorists have moved miles ahead in their designs of destabilising India.

Hyderabad is truly a jinxed city.

just after the showers