The demolitions in Ulhasnagar have started again on Friday, Dec. 23. The law is taking its course. What is disheartening for me is the media reports. Everyone seems to be reporting about it, but very few say anything about the people who will be actually suffering.
What is painful for me to read is that Sindhis are still being referred to as `refugees'. Maharashtra CM has referred to Sindhis as refugees in a media report which is here . I also noticed the same dreaded word refugees in an signed article by Sekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Express which is here . While Mr Gupta has rightly blamed the politicians for the mess, which is in Ulhasnagar and Delhi, he has very little to say about affected people.
As I understand the word refugees means "One who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution" (source Yahoo Reference). It also means that one who has left one country for another in search of refuge. But in 1947 when most of the sindhi people left Sindh, it was was very much part of the undivided India. Thus, we can simply be called displaced people, but not refugees. I strongly deplore the word `refugees' for sindhis in media.
Please do read an excellent article on sindhis which is
here
3 comments:
hey i agree with you completely, infact when i got to know about sindhis in ulhasnagar being termed as refugees even i was completely enraged and wanted to blog against it, but again why even call sindhis displaced?? After nearly 5 decades and 3 generations of being here ... come on ! even thats unfair.
I agree with you. We cannot even be called displaced people now. We are citizens of India. What I meant to say in my post was that instead of `refugees', if the term `displaced people at time of partition of India' was used, I would have no problem with that. That is a historic fact. But even now in 2005 to be called refugees is outrightedly in bad taste and completely wrong.
You are right they should not call us refugees displaced is better word. You can point these people to look foundation stone of ulhasnagar given here. Some of the people has also referred as pakistanis. We are not pakistanis, when we were born in Sindh it was India. They don't realize that pakistan is the name of our lifetime pain which we go through everyday life. Pakistan is the settlement of life where we had been given snake on 99 block of game and demoted to block 2. Where everybody leads normal life today we had been put 3 generations backward.
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