However, terrorism in India is by no means an exclusively Muslim practice. Terrorist violence is, sadly, endemic. In the past four years India has suffered the highest rate of civilian death by political violence after Iraq. It is at present experiencing a form of politics more akin to Italy's violent “Years of Lead” in the 1970s than Gandhi's Golden Age of Ahimsa (non-violence).
In its interiors, far-left Naxalites have waged an intermittent guerrilla war for more than 30 years; in the 1980s the Khalistan-Punjab crisis claimed 40,000 lives, and the insurgency in Kashmir another 90,000. And in the late 1980s and early 1990s Hindu nationalist extremists used terrorism as an electoral strategy - and appear to be doing so again in this election year with attacks on Indian Christians in eastern and southern India.
But despite the multi-religious and multi-ethnic origins of terrorist violence the Indian authorities have, until recently, tended to treat only Muslims as terrorists. So while Muslim “terrorists” have been subject to extraordinary laws of detention and trial in special courts, Hindu nationalist “rioters” have been tried in regular courts, or, more usually, not been punished at all.
One of the principal complaints of Indian Muslim groups is the failure to bring to trial any of the Hindu ringleaders responsible for pogroms in Bombay in 1993 and Gujarat in 2002 in which more than 4,000 Muslims died.
While the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, and international jihadist groups have undoubtedly trained and funded Indian Muslim terrorists, the chief recruiting officer is often the Indian State.
This is especially true at regional and state level where the police and judiciary are often “captured” by Hindu political interests that have used anti-terrorist laws to pursue political vendettas. The extreme poverty of many Muslims in India, whose status, according to a recent report, was below that of the “Untouchable” caste of Hindus, has increased frustration.
While “Untouchable” and other low-caste groups are actively promoted into universities and prestigious state jobs, India's 150 million Muslims, who make up 13 per cent of the population, hold only 3 per cent of state posts. They are even less well represented in the police.
There are signs that the present Congress-led coalition recognises these problems. On taking office in 2004, Dr Singh's Government abolished the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota), which, the Prime Minister argued, was propagating rather than preventing terrorism.
Another positive sign was the recent arrest of Hindu nationalist terrorist cells in Maharashtra. After the Delhi bombs in September the Government announced the creation of a central intelligence agency to monitor Islamist terror. Given the intelligence failures emerging in the wake of the Bombay catastrophe, this can only be welcomed
The immediate effect of the Bombay attacks will probably be to fuel the recovery of the Hindu nationalist BJP and its supporters, who are demanding the reimposition of the Pota laws. We can only hope that better counsel prevails and India does not lapse into a new cycle of violence and revenge.
