In front of his blackened juice bar, Desraj Saluja plucked two oranges from a pyramid of fruit for another customer and well-wisher. Wearing a bruise and a deep cut across his eye, Saluja was paces away from a deadly bomb blast five days ago that killed 40 people in Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar market. Among the dead was Saluja’s brother, Lal Chand, and two of his workers. The force of the explosion lifted Saluja off his feet. He came round only hours later in hospital.
But on Tuesday on Diwali, the festival of light considered the most important date in the Hindu calendar, Saluja reopened his bar, hung handpainted signs and began selling glasses of juice from a tabletop to a thin crowd of shoppers.
At this time of year, the markets and neighbourhoods of India’s capital are normally thronging with crowds, shopping for presents and visiting friends and families. There are usually raucous parties and the air is thick with the sulphurous trails of spent fireworks. Pious Hindus also mark the beginning of a new year, and today is the first day of 2062. For India Diwali is Christmas, New Year and Guy Fawkes’ night rolled into one.
But Saluja (41) will not be celebrating this year, forgoing even the lighting of an oil lamp or diya that traditionally symbolises the onset of happiness and prosperity. ”I have lost so much in such a small time. My brother, my workers, my shop. My Diwali will not happen this year,” he says as his eyes brim with tears. Sympathetic shoppers have planted wax candles on the paving slabs by his bar, unaware of Saluja’s wishes. Asked why Saluja reopened the juice bar, he replies with defiance. ”Yes we are scared but we shall not go away. It is not the Indian way. Life must continue.”
This mixture of fear and bravado has become the defining feature of New Delhi’s response to the synchronised weekend bomb blasts that killed more than 60 people. Stall holders in the city pressed for the markets to be reopened quickly and readied their wares for business. But shoppers have stayed away despite the serried ranks of armed police lining market squares.
”Business is not good. We are selling only one 10th of what we normally do. But we will not be frightened off by the terrorists,” said Ashok Sharma, who sells saris near Saluja’s juice bar.
In the posher parts of Delhi, the effect is even more dramatic. The run up to this year’s Diwali saw upmarket department stores reporting that plasma televisions and iPods as the gifts of choice. Such conspicuous displays of consumption have all but disappeared.
Gone too in the Indian capital is the confidence that things can only get better for a country which has become used to being feted for its newly acquired ostentatious wealth. In Delhi’s South Extension market logos for international brands such as Mango and McDonald’s are emblazoned over empty car parks. ”People do not want to show that they are having fun given what happened just a few days ago,” said Pawan Hingle, an engineer with the United States firm Honeywell. ”We will only have a small family gathering, nothing special. There’ll be no big expensive presents. It just feels wrong.”
Despite such sentiment and the eerie calm in many of Delhi’s neighbourhoods, newspapers and media in the city have exhorted citizens not to ”bow down to terror” and carry on as normal.
The Times of India, in a frontpage editorial entitled ”Light a lamp, keep the flame alive”, asked readers to celebrate Diwali because it shows ”Delhi’s refusal to grant evil the satisfaction of having attained its goal”. News networks also had slots for Diya Defiance, showcasing Indians who lit lamps in Delhi.
The Indian government’s thinly veiled accusation that groups based in Pakistan were behind the bombings also sent shivers through Delhi’s large Muslim minority. On Tuesday in Sarojini Nagar some of Delhi’s Hindu residents spoke of ”some Indians who had to be watched”.
”Unfortunately we are being attacked by terrorists from Pakistan and I think they would have been helped by some of our Muslims here. If you want proof that this can happen just look at the headlines,” said Krishna Bhatra, a retired civil servant, referring to the jailing of six Indian Muslims who helped a Pakistani militant attack an army camp in Delhi.
However, with the end of the holy month of Ramadan only days away, Delhi’s Muslims appeared to be following the lead of their Hindu neighbours. In the alleys of Nizamuddin West market shopkeepers closed early and the lanes around the shrine of the local Muslim pir (saint) emptied as the sun set.
”Diwali is a festival that we all celebrate,” said Aman Khan a lawyer who lives in Nizamuddin West. ”My family will be having guests for dinner. We will play cards, because Diwali is about wealth. There will be some small crackers let off. It will be low key but the great thing about Diwali is everyone can take part.” – Guardian Unlimited Â