'No Modi bashing': Inspired by Humans of New York, a new FB page to celebrate 'Muslims of India'

“I am a Nurse, I Help Doctors. If you get sick, come to my Hospital, I will take care of you. I will give you medicine. I will help you get well soon. I want to be a nurse like Mother Teresa” –a little girl dressed as a nurse features on the Facebook page of ‘Muslims of India’. [caption id=“attachment_2051843” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image from Facebook page[/caption] There’s a picture of 30-year old Naseema who is a ‘half-widow’ in kashmir, then there’s an elderly man who has been burying the dead at the Batla House graveyard in Delhi for decades with a score that “must be more than that of Sachin”.

Post by Muslims of India.

Inspired by ‘Humans of New York’, the popular blog that features people of New York, the two-week old Facebook page aims to feature ‘Muslims of India’–to celebrate the lives of Muslims in the country. However, the page is quite different from Humans of New York. In HNY, photographer Brandon Stanton meets people on the streets of New York, takes their photos and interviews them. In this page, you can send in your submission if you think someone should be featured on the page. “Feel free to send us pictures of Indian Muslims taken by YOU with a suitable caption. Place, Date, Time, What the subject had to say about life. There are no rules yet. If we don’ t use it, may be it didn’t strike well with us. We don’t want any political stuff as of now. Let’s keep it simple. Hope you like the idea and contribute regularly to this page,” notes their website. So, why a page for Muslims? The description of the page says, “At a time when Indian Muslims are often dehumanized and rendered as a single, threatening monolithic stereotype, we want to celebrate and document the many different people who make up the community, who cannot be bound by an simple description, and are just living their lives as best as they can.” Mazin Khan, the man behind the page told the Indian Express that the page is for emotional stories. “Our aim is to have everything on this page except politics. We want to keep politics away. This is not a page for Modi-bashing or BJP-bashing, there are enough places to do that,” he told the newspaper. Khan of Milli Gazette, a monthly focusing on Indian Muslims, started this page on 30, December, 2014. The two week old Facebook page has already attracted nearly 4,000 followers. However, ironically enough, the first photo posted on the page is of Zakia Jafri, the widow of foemer MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed during the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, with her grandson Zubin Hussain.

Post by Muslims of India.