From: dorai@cs.rice.edu (Dorai Sitaram)
Subject: MIT vigil on BM demolition disrupted
Organization: Rice University, Houston
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 21:49:16 GMT

The following is reprinted without permission from a local
newspaper.  The piece was accompanied by a photograph
showing Indian students carrying placards with the
statements: "Tolerance", "We condemn the destruction of the
mosque", and "We believe in a secular India".

***

Disputes cut short "silent" peace vigil

Courtesy: David Schutz, Boston Globe, Dec. 11, '92

Cambridge -- A silent vigil organized by Hindu and Muslim
students to advocate an end to religious violence in India
was cut short yesterday after arguments erupted between the
two sects.

About 50 students at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology carried signs deploring what they called
"religious persecution" in India.

Organizers hoped to keep the vigil silent so the central
message would not be diluted by conflicting interpretations
of the events in India.  But the vigil was disrupted several
times by groups of Muslim and Hindu students who tried to
voice their opinions on the raging battles in India.

At one point, a brief scuffle broke out between supporters
of the silent vigil and others who wanted an opportunity to
express their views through an open microphone.

"We don't want to duplicate the divisions in India," said
Pappudu Sriran, a freshman who helped to organize the vigil.
"This is supposed to be silent because everybody has such
differing views on the issue."

But Sriran and fellow organizers ended the vigil early
because they were afraid the arguments would lead to more
serious incidents.

The students were responding to the wave of Hindu-Muslim
violence that has swept through India this week after the
demolition of an ancient Muslim mosque by Hindu extremists
on Sunday.

Since the razing of the mosque, which outraged the Islamic
community, hundreds of people have been killed in the
fighting.

"This is a day of mourning and general protest of the
violence," said Pratyush Kumar, a graduate student at MIT.
"Our point is to show solidarity and call for unity here and
in India."

Said Sriran, "We want to make three points: that India
should become secularized, that we condemn the destruction
of the mosque and that we condemn the ensuing violence."

In a showing of solidarity, many signed a letter to the
Indian ambassador to the United States deploring the
"government's failure to protect the constitutional rights
of the religious minorities."

"We wish to register our outrage at the destruction of the
Babri Masjid by Hindu chauvinists," the letter said.  "As
Indians in the United States, we deplore the government...
for not protecting the mosque and for refusing to allow the
central government police from doing so."

But some students, especially those who are Hindu, refused
to sign the petition, saying it is not a sign of solidarity.

"All we want to do is let more people know what our ideas
are on the minority persecutions in the country, and in fact
anywhere in the world," said MIT junior Farhan Rana.




-- 

dorai@cs.rice.edu      !    It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
dorai@owlnet.rice.edu  !      it may be we shall touch the Happy Isles.
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