Hindus, Muslims and Patriotism

I was just watching a recent Telugu movie that really got me thinking as mush for its content as for what it was missing. My thoughts are pretty unorganized right now, so this might end up being a stream of consciousness post. One thing that really stood out in the movie was how one-dimensional it was. Its single biggest message was - PAKISTAN BAD, INDIA GOOD. I use the capital letters to give you a feel of how "subtle" the movie was about the message. As is usual in these movies, there is a token "good" Muslim, who shows how patriotic he is by getting his "traitorous" little brother killed.

All the characters spout a bunch of cliches - all the Hindus talk about how betrayed they feel about the Muslims' support for Pakistan, how they were generous enough to let the Muslims stay in India and not drive them to Pakistan, and stuff - all the Muslims talk about how this land is theirs too and how they hate Pakistan too and how tired they are being demonized constantly. The Muslim side's arguments especially stuck with me. Almost every Hindu in India is a patriot until proven guilty - almost every Muslim is a suspected Pakistani supporter or a "potential" terrorist, until he proves his patriotism one way or the other by denouncing Pakistan in extremely strong words or actions. Why the double standards?

One argument I was especially impressed with was Indian Hindus' fixation with Pakistan and their suspicion of every Indian Muslim that they are collaborating with Pakistan. One character asks a Hindu police officer, if Pakistan is the Muslim country in the whole world, and if that is only place in the whole world that Muslims live in. I agree with the argument - Pakistan is but a tiny nation with not even the world's largest Muslim population in it. I was arguing these points with a certain person who will make up counter arguments to any arguments I make, just so that he can argue with me - yes, my husband - his argument was that there are definitely some ISI/terrorist supporters among Indian Muslims - there is no way to identify who is who easily - this leads to a general wariness in the Hindu minds towards all Muslims, as opposed to just fanatics. A similar thing could be said of the Muslim mindset too. They have been asked time and again to prove their patriotism to their motherland - they are suspected of awful things that they might hate as much as the next Hindu. This might lead to a pattern of defensiveness and an "us against them" attitude among the Muslims.

So, what should be done to help the situation? The more time passes without any helpful overtures from both the sides, the more wariness and suspicion builds between the communities. Previously open-minded individuals will start retreating into their respective groups for protection and security. Well, I guess that might explain the problems with the situation as it exists now. As for the solution, I honestly don't know.