As the Indian state of Gujarat burns in a fit of religious violence, members of the University community gathered yesterday to discuss South Asia's increasing vulnerability to ethnic intolerance. The open forum discussion, titled "The Hate Bomb: Interrogating Ethnic Violence in South Asia," featured a panel of speakers who discussed the causes and possible solutions to the conflicts caused by religious and nationalistic tensions in South Asia.

Rackham student Irfan Nooruddin said the recent violence in Gujurat is the handiwork of government-supported extremist groups within and outside of India.

"I see the cause of this as being political. We need to reject the notion of this conflict being derived from some primitive hatred. My contention is that someone had to set it off to begin with," Nooruddin said. "People were brought in from the outside and I hold (organizations like) the World Hindu Counsel responsible. As a secular democracy we try to avoid pointing fingers, but India failed as a democracy because it did not protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority," he added.

Vishnu Patel, vice president of the World Hindu Council Michigan chapter, a right-wing political organization, said the intolerance of both Islamic and Hindu groups are to blame for the violence.

"The Indian government is a secular government. The politicians in India are using religion to make people fight each other, but it's not about religion," Patel said. "Each side is equally wrong. I think Hindus and Muslims get along very well except when you violate their rights. We believe in non-violence, but if you come and hit me, be prepared. I will hit you twice," he added.

Director of the Center for South Asian Studies Ashutosh Varshney disagreed with Patel and said Hindu nationalism in the government was the most serious attack he's seen to India's existence as a nation.

"That (nationalism) completely devalues the contributions of India's minorities by marginalizing them and attacking the just place they have on the Indian public landscape. Gujarat is Gandhi's land. It is the ideology that killed Gandhi that has been ruling the state of Gujarat for the last 10 years," Varshney said.

"I cannot conceptualize Indian culture without Hindu or Muslim motifs. Virtually no part of India, including its architecture and dress habits, do not bear the stamp of a joint nature," he said.

Because most of the violence took place in areas of high segregation between Muslims and Hindus, Varshney proposed integration as a possible solution to the conflict.

"The highly localized concentration of violence occurs in certain cities that have only 6 percent of the total Indian population but half of the Muslim-Hindu deaths. This is the result of segregation in small towns leading to ghastly riots," he said.

Javed Nazir, a visiting journalism fellow, said international intervention is necessary to resolve the long-standing conflict between Muslims and Hindus in South Asia.

"My heart grieves over what happened in India and what happened in Pakistan. In Pakistan, religious places like temples, mosques and churches have become killing grounds for us," he said. "The rest of the world is building bridges but South Asia remains one of the poorest regions in the world, and the last 50 years of war in the subcontinent has impoverished us more and more. The international community has to nudge both countries to use common sense. Talk of war is senseless and self-defeating. It's about time to wake up," Nazir added.

LSA senior Olivia Ross said the analogies Nooruddin drew between India and America helped her to better understand the strife.

"As students we think these issues of conflict and diversity are so far removed from us, but this discussion really helped form a sense of connection with what's going on over there, especially for me as a non-Indian," she said.

Though students appreciated the diversity of opinions the panel presented, some were worried the audience would think Patel's views reflected that of the entire Hindu community.

Patel, who briefly stormed out of the discussion after denouncing it as "mental masturbation," repeatedly interrupted the other panel speakers and had to be restrained from making threatening and offensive remarks.

LSA senior Sumanth Padmanabh said he thought the event was informative, but did not agree with Patel's views.

"He gave a skewed perspective and make it look like all Hindus believe what he believes," Padmanabh said.