December 6

    Update (Dec 6): Some more remembrances:

• For my generation I think 6 Dec 1992 changed who we were in various ways. No one was apolitical any longer, we knew where we stood, and even if in school we didn't stop being friends, I now knew what my closest friends thought of 'them', of Muslims, of history, of Pakistan. I also knew where I stood on the matter, and over the years when I've thought about when and where politics became important to me, I think back to that day when we were watching aghast at our TV sets, Ma lying ill in bed, listening to the BBC, watching in horror as the kar sevaks climbed atop the mosque and brought it down, the thrill of the curfew that followed, and of course the mid term exams that were cancelled. [Antara]
• It was in the days that followed as I listened to my classmates talking about 'them' and how 'they' were cutting off the hands of Hindus and how 'they' were going to outbreed us and destroy us, lines that they were clearly parroting from what they'd heard at home, did I realise that this was not the principles that I'd been taught at home, and these were not ideas I could ever believe in. [Antara]
• ... that was the first time - keep in mind I was living in Muscat, Oman since 1989 - I was aware that I'm Hindu, and my friends are Muslims. But I suppose it wasn't as bad as it would have been in India at that point. There wasn't any real tension in the air, just some sort of a curious...how *are* you different? More importantly, *why* should you be considered different? [Shrikant]
• This day is still fresh in my mind. We had a Prime Minister who was impotent and couldn’t stop the terrorist act. I was supportive of the Congress govt. which provided a break after the disastrous V.P.Singh govt. But this incident proved that Narasimha Rao was not fit to lead our country. He not only allowed a national monument to be destroyed. he was also responsible for the rise of hindutva movement from the ashes of babri masjid. [Krish]

And, my post from last year.

Update (Dec 6): Today is Dr. Ambedkar's 49th death anniversary. Here's a link to his Annihilation of Caste. [Link via Amardeep].

Update (Dec 7):

... I remember my open-mouthed amazement. Was I really hearing what I was? Was it possible that in the late 20th Century, a couple of hundred thousand men were swarming onto a mosque and breaking it down stone by stone, and that this was being hailed as an act of national honour? My honour? [Dilip]