Fanatics Abound All Around!

When Salman Rushdie was knighted earlier in the year, I wrote a piece praising his work. I got a lot of hate mail for that: mostly from self-professed Islamists who threatened violence from behind walls of anonymity provided by the internet.

I have been writing about Mumbai now and again there is a spate of hate mail filling my inbox - this time from self-professed Hindu nationalists who threaten violence from the same walls of internet anonymity.

So once again - and this time for the "Hindu" nutjobs: I didn't back down on Rushdie and I won't back down now. Save yourselves the time you spend writing stupid threats and actually go do some reading and thinking about India, its history and its politics.

Meanwhile, one point to note: fanatics are not only to be found on all ends of the spectrum, but they also show the same lack of imagination when it comes to the depth of their arguments, and the rather banal ideas of violence they threaten. Good to know that there is a meeting point for fanatics of all ilk somewhere even though its marked by an acute absence of intelligence and imagination.