The Pressure of Being an Indian Muslim

With all the furore over nationalism and anti-nationalism in India, recently, I observed a very curious incident.

I was participating in a quiz contest conducted by the School of Economics in the University of Hyderabad. The first round was an audio round. The questions rolled by and one of them happened to be the recital of India's national anthem.

As the anthem was playing, I joked with my teammate that because we weren't standing up, we would now be considered anti-national (although to many, being a student of University of Hyderabad could be enough to deem me as anti-national). We chuckled and I looked around.

Nobody was standing up.. but then my sights rested upon a man. The only man among all the participants, organisers and audience who was standing up for the national anthem. He also happened to be a Muslim.

This could mean two things 1) the said man in a "true Indian" ("despite" his Muslim identity, if you catch my drift..).

Or 2) This is the pressure of being an Indian Muslim. You constantly have to prove that you are not a Pakistani, or a terrorist or an anti-national. The others, the non-Muslims, the Hindus and even atheists like me can afford to remain seated during the national anthem. Nobody would accuse us of being anti-national. But if the same guy who was standing up had been seated.. and all because of his religious identity..

Another student of University of Hyderabad had recently written, "The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility." How true! (if you are wondering who wrote those words, it was Rohith Vemula, of course.)