Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings: Terror moves south

December 30, 2005

Terror moves south

For much of India's history, I reckon that the south has rarely been touched by invasions, violence etc. either because it was too difficult to access or because the people didn't respond positively. While there're certainly chronicled instances of the freedom struggle being marshalled admirably in south India, there're very few names which come to mind: Tipu Sultan, C Rajagopalachari, Subramanya Bharathi and perhaps Sarojini Naidu, VO Chidambaram Pillai among them. I can't think of others, can you?

South India also remained largely untouched by foreign invasions, most of the marauders focussed on looting and/or capturing and settling down in north India, as exemplified by Alexander, Mahmud of Gazni and Babar. Despite the possibility of invasions via sea, I can't think of any that happened. This could very likely have been because south India's kings had extended into South-East Asia and Sri Lanka had embraced Buddhism thanks to Ashoka.

The problem of terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir (late 1980s to present) and Punjab (late 1970s to the early 1990s) also did not affect southern India. But Tamil Nadu was affected by the LTTE's presence, especially since the governments were more than happy to lend tacit support to the terrorist organization. Rajiv Gandhi's gruesome assassination in 1991 and the Coimbatore blasts in 1998 came as a real shock. After all, terrorism had always been an alien concept down south.

All that has changed now. Bangalore seems to be target #1 as far as terrorists are concerned. A few months ago, there were reports that several industrial, educational and technological establishments in the city would be targetted by terrorists. There were bomb hoaxes at various offices of Wipro, Infosys etc. After the carnage at the IISc two days ago, Bangalore went on high alert, even as the police and the administration tried their level best to blame the constellations for the mess.

Today, I saw the increased security while going for my classes at IIM-B. There was checking of every car that went in. Interestingly though, they let me go when I was on my two-wheeler. On the way back, I saw a lot of folks standing outside the software technology park at the beginning of the inner/intermediate ring road. My first thought was that there was some movie shooting on. My second thought was that it was some terrorism preparedness drill. I inquired with a chap standing on the roadside and he told me that there had been a bomb threat.

There're now fresh threats against New Year celebrations and the Chief Minister's residence. There is just one direct implication. We will continue to see threats of this nature, resulting in ever-growing paranoia, much as what Londoners would have gone through earlier this year.

Labels: bangalore, karnataka

Rambled @ 2:30 PM

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8 comment(s)

kodi kaatha kumaran was another guy who fought for freedom. also there were few more threat in South India too - Rajiv Gandhi's assasination, CBE bomb blast, anything else?

By Mahadevan (Dec 30, 2005, 5:42:00 PM)

Very true, but it sucks to know that all this is happening for real. I was in CBE when the blasts happened... and I saw the pre bomb blast economy buzz coming back only this year. Just cant afford any more anywhere...

By Govar (Dec 30, 2005, 9:03:00 PM)

South India has been one of the most peaceful regions in the world for a long time now. But it was as wild as any place until the last major war, the Last Mysore War in 1799 when the British managed to kill Tipu Sultan. Ofcourse not as wild and violent as Northern India or Punjab where everyone

But there has been a lot of violence. The PWG in AP, some train bombings by extreme tamil groups, and Naxalite violence in Kerala to name a few.

By Anonymous (Dec 31, 2005, 10:25:00 AM)

Hate to nitpick but Sarojini Naidu was Bengali.

By Rohit De (Jan 1, 2006, 7:41:00 AM)

prabhu: in my opinion, kumaran isn't/wasn't as well known as some of the others i mentioned. in addition to the rajiv gandhi assassination and the coimbatore blasts, there was the suicide by sivarasan & co. in the outskirts of bangalore when they were being cornered

sloganmurugan: true, but those acts of violence are targetted at creating a fear psychosis in the local area. blasts by terrorists like the lashkar etc. aim at creating paranoia throughout the state, region and country.

red: i don't think so. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarojini_Naidu indicates she was from hyderabad, and that has always been my understanding as well.

By Jagadish (Jan 1, 2006, 1:29:00 PM)

i hope these things never happen again. but, bangalore has always been on the hit-list, going by old 'intelligence' reports. hitec city, defence establishments, aerospace research...the technological capital.

do u think it makes sense for a country to consciously spread its various competencies, so that there is no 1 target. or does the 'cluster-effect' hinder that?

By Srini (Jan 4, 2006, 11:18:00 AM)

Srini: Coincidence that you mention it. I touch upon a similar aspect in today's post on risk diversification.

By Jagadish (Jan 4, 2006, 8:34:00 PM)

mumbaigirl: nice. my feeling is that bangalore will continue to be targetted. there're defence establishments here, technology centres and premier educational institutions. they're all symbols which terrorists don't like, because they, and the countries which send them, detest progress of any kind.

By Jagadish (Jan 4, 2006, 10:58:00 PM)

I'd prefer if you posted comments with your real name to add more credibility to your opinions. Obviously comments containing offensive and unsuitable language will be deleted. The opinions in the comments are your own views. You are welcome to provide a URL to your own blog, especially if it discusses issues you find here.

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