Gouri takes issue with the media’s treatment of Shabana Azmi’s remarks about discrimination against Muslims.
If you were journalists/reporters in any real sense of the term, you would have taken this to the Building Society level, and seen how blatantly and clearly many societies simply will not give an NOC to the seller who has a Muslim buyer. This has been going on for the last 10 years at least, across class lines. I know this from personal experience. My then husband (a Muslim) and I went through 96 flats before we could buy the one we finally did. Everywhere it was: “Sorry, society is not going to give permission to sell to you.” Finally, the one we did buy, was bought on my name, I dealt with everyone concerned, and my Muslim husband was kept a dark secret, till we moved in and then decided to ‘come out’. And of course no broker or builder gave us this treatment. It was the actual people living in actual building societies who did this.
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Gouri, you are obviously blissful ignorant about history and the societal dynamics of real India. Otherwise, you would have known that all over India people have always lived mostly in clusters based on caste and religion. This phenomena is not 10 years old! Life is far older than when your limited personal experiences began.
Had you told every one that you are an SC, you would not have got a flat either. Similarly, had you known a bit more about India, you would have known that it is equally difficult for, say, Hindus to get a house in an area dominated by Muslims.
But, it is fashionable to talk about Muslim discrimination based on not even half baked knowledge. Indian Homemaker is partially right when she says that in urban India, the element of fear is also one factor.
Try the SC trick. You will learn a lot. And also go to the real India out there in the countryside and read some Indian history. Write you next book after that. And not for readers in the West.