When the guns fell silent at the Taj, an eerie silence re–placed their staccato rhythm. A few days later, boisterous noises more familiar to the city returned when sms-summoned crowds gathered at the Gateway and around Colaba to declare that ‘enough is enough’.

Queues began to form in front of the forest of TV microphones that were there to record the vox populi. The cameras captured poignant eulogies to the brave commandos and our armed forces, as well as many stirring calls for a united country.
And then the war cries began. “There is no alternative but to launch a full scale attack on Pakistan,” shouted a college student. “We can overrun them with ease and we now need to demonstrate our power; better that we should die in battle rather than at a restaurant table; why can’t we target the training camps and annihilate them; George Bush did not hesitate before going into Afghanistan to avenge 9/11!”
George Bush – a role model? I could not believe my ears as the speeches grew more strident and unreal. It was as if all the lessons of the past eight years of dubious US diplomacy had been lost through collective amnesia. As America prepared to repudiate its follies and install a President that would be more thoughtful and collaborative, we in Mumbai were casting a halo on the misguided adventures of his predecessor!

The sheer naivete of some of these brave-hearts was astonishing. Had they simply overlooked the fact that Bush’s broadsides never targeted nations with nuclear missiles pointed back at him? Perhaps they were too young to have seen photographs of Hiroshima and the terror of remote controlled radiation. Perhaps they were just too emotional at that point to weigh the devastating consequences of a protracted war, which would in no way forestall guerilla terror attacks on our soft metropolitan underbellies.
The lesson from Iraq was that if ever a country in today’s times wishes to carry out attacks on a sovereign nation, than it should do so only with the assent and collaboration of the international community. Let us give our diplomats in Delhi the leg room to pursue a strategy of talking tough, while simultaneously providing evidence to the US of Pakistan’s hospitality to terrorist groups. The consequence of such evidence should be unrelenting pressure on Pakistan to prove its anti-terror credentials. Pakistan will be able to do this only by permitting other nations to join forces with it in an uncompromising assault on those rogue regions and terrorist camps.

Even more distressing than the war-lust at the Gateway, however, were reports carried by the media about unprovoked verbal assaults on innocent members of the minority community. This development can prove to be far more insidious in the long term than temporary and misguided jingoism.
I believe that we should take pride in the fact that these attacks did not achieve one of their principal goals, which was to incite a resurgence of communal rioting in Mumbai. We therefore need to shun those amongst us who flaunt their prejudice and play into the hands of terrorists.
Terrorism ultimately is bred by poverty and prejudice. A war that would condemn us and our neighbour to many more years of poverty is no solution.
How can this country prosper, if the target of prejudice is 150 million citizens who are made to feel they are not part of the mainstream?
That there has been a great outpouring of outrage and a demonstration of people-power is undoubtedly a positive development. Our political leadership does need to understand that their voters are demanding accountability, and that resilience does not mean chalta hai. However, if in the past, our resilience was impotent due to the absence of anger, then this time around, the anger should not come without the equally potent forces of resilience and spirit.

The spirit that Mumbai intrinsically possesses and needs to flaunt at this moment is the spirit of community. A spirit derived from its cosmopolitanism and its compassion. This is not simply a warm and fuzzy utopian aspiration; Mumbai’s survival is dependent upon enhancing the strength of its community networks.
In his recent diatribe, Narayan Rane claimed that ‘local political leaders’ had colluded with the perpetrators of the attack. His statement, though unsubstantiated, feeds upon a suspicion in many minds about the local infrastructure and support that may have been extended to the terrorists. Every campaign of terror relies on segments of the local population that are alienated and marginalised. We saw this happen in Punjab. It is only when citizens grow disaffected with the objectives of the terrorists and recognise that their interests lie elsewhere, does the tide turn against the violence.
The most effective weapon we have against terrorists is to become even more steadfast in our resolve to band together as a community and ensure that no member of the minority cowers in fear of reprisals or discrimination after an attack. We need to erect a wall interlopers cannot penetrate. Behind that wall will be a city that will eject them rapidly and forcefully even if they do manage to stray into it. When every street, every gully is filled with informers and defenders of the peace, then Mumbai may in fact be held up as a template for battling terrorism. That would be a true victory for people power.

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