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Rajat Mitra
Author
The Infidel Next Door
Rajat Mitra, author
It is a literary fiction based on the life of Aditya, a Hindu priest, who is an outcaste amongst his fellow priests and asked to start prayers in a temple in Kashmir. Next door to the temple exists a mosque run by Haji chacha, a fanatic. The imam of the mosque is the father of Anwar, same age as Aditya. Anwar is tortured by police and becomes a stone thrower. Javed, Anwar’s closest friend and Zeba, his sister, try to dissuade him from violence. Zeba gets drawn towards Aditya. Anwar decides to kill Aditya and fails because of Zeba and gets labeled in his community as a betrayer of his people. Zeba is forced to marry Salim to prevent dishonor. Anwar is disillusioned by the movement and leaves it. Salim becomes a terrorist and destroys the Hindu temples in the valley. Hindus runs away from Kashmir from being converted to Islam. One day Salim attacks Aditya’s temple. Aditya is grievously injured. Aditya is taken far way to safety for recuperating from his injuries. Anwar realizes he and his father are victims of falsehood and goes in search of Aditya for his conscience. Aditya tells him that he can’t be a priest anymore and needs to understand human suffering before being a priest again. Anwar says he will wait for his return and comes back home to stand as a symbol of conscience for his people.
Reviews
Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

The Infidel Next Door opens with an arranged marriage between a sick orphan girl and a shy boy; but it quickly evolves to embrace more than two lost souls finding each other; because between them there are deeply abiding secrets that keep each at arm's length even as they learn that neither can hide or keep secrets about their past.

Replete with Hindu gods, temples, and religious perspectives, and a young boy who serves as both a miracle and a reminder of life's fragility, The Infidel Next Door weaves through Indian culture and perspectives as if in a delicate dance, each step precisely described and compellingly intriguing.

 When a temple is built next to a Muslim mosque, creating forces that confront one another on many levels, the story really earns its laurels as characters so carefully crafted earlier in the tale begin to comprehend the magnitude of the changes in their world and what it means to their choices and lives: "Remember what I taught you about infidels? It is Allah’s will that your fight begins on your doorstep.” “I will cast terror in their hearts as it is commanded in the book,” Anwar said. “It is a priest and he has a son who are coming next door. They won’t be a match for you.” “I will convert him to Islam and if he doesn’t obey, I will drive them away from Kashmir.” Haji chacha looked him in the eye. In a steady low pitched voice he said, “Inshallah, you are fortunate. You no longer have to imagine an enemy. He will come right next door to you. Your struggle will be unique in the annals of jihad.” “Why chacha?”Anwar asked. “Because a warrior comes alive through knowing that his enemy is big, real and more dangerous than he thought him to be.”

 From caste systems to secrets surrounding births, defiance and difficult love relationships, and the challenges of children to either follow in or divert from the paths of tradition, The Infidel Next Door is alive with thought-provoking insights throughout, cemented by characters who struggle on many levels: "Aditya, you are like those distant mountain peaks. They look beautiful but one can’t live there. I want to remember you as someone who liberated me.” “That is not love, Zeba.” “Every woman, Aditya, falls in love with the man who teaches her to live. He then should live in her memory otherwise their relationship loses meaning.” “Zeba, this will be a living death for us.” “I know that. I have to be loyal to my husband inspite of thoughts of you that are there in every corner of my mind.” Tara came near and said to Zeba, “The light in your room has been switched on.” ... She decided not to open the curtains and look outside again and closed the light. That was her past. There comes a time in everyone’s life when they have to close the curtains of the past. “I will give myself a chance, to my marriage, to this relationship with Salim,” she said, as she switched off the lights. It was better she stayed in the darkness."

 From traditions that clash to miracles and murders, The Infidel Next Door weaves a tight story of social, spiritual and psychological changes which are tinged with disaster and discovery at every turn.

 One needn't be familiar with Indian society, Muslim or Hindu religions, or even with regional Indian social and political forces in order to appreciate this compelling story, which draws together disparate lives and cross purposes in an engrossing saga that's hard to put down and especially recommended for any Westerner who would better understand the subtler nuances of Indian society.

Peter Polatin

A Global Mental Health professional's perspective on The Infidel Next Door May 28, 2017

"The Infidel Next Door is the story of genocidal turmoil in a region of the world unfamiliar to most of us, told in intimate terms by someone who is very familiar with the contexts, both historic and cultural. But it is also a sensitive and tragic, romantic tale with overtones of Romeo and Juliet. The pervasive theme is that of religious intolerance and fundamentalism, reminiscent of more current events. Underlying this grim picture of hatred and brutality, the author offers us the hope of spirituality and healing as an ultimate resolution. It is an important book, to remind us of the need for a new domain to approach seemingly irresolvable conflicts."
Peter B. Polatin, MD, MPH
Faculty, Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, Cambridge, Ma.
Associate Prof. Global Mental Health, George Washington Univ., Washington DC
Consultant, Refugee Mental Health, international Rescue Committee, Dallas, Tx
Associate Prof, Psychology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Tx

 

Robert Rich

A must-read June 19, 2017

The Infidel Next Door is an important book. It deserves to succeed, and deserves to be widely read. However, it is not for squeamish people, because it reveals violence at its worst without excuse. The reason is the message: Hate only begets hate. Only tolerance and mutual respect can save us from horror.
I have read and enjoyed many books set within the cultures of the Indian subcontinent, including Malala’s wonderful autobiography, but none has brought the ways thinking to life for me as well as this one. I now have a gut-level understanding of how Hindus and Muslims within Indian culture see the world. It is fascinating how different common sense, the naturally expected, is from what is natural to me. From the opening paragraph, Rajat Mitra has enabled me to enter this other universe on the same planet.
In the opening chapters, the story has the feel of a parable. This impression returns in the closing chapters: an unashamed delivery of the lesson that all humans are equal and deserve respect, regardless of caste, religion, history, ethnicity. At the same time, I don’t feel preached at. It is a story, with real live people feeling emotions I just have to identify with.
In between is a thriller: the story of the attempted genocide Muslim extremists aimed at Hindus in Kashmir in the 1980s, with the Indian army eventually putting down the revolt with equal harshness.
The story is about two fine young men: a Hindu and a Muslim. This is its theme: “but both of them represent the best of what religion stands for. Through their conflict they have discovered a profound humanity in themselves.”
My writing for many years has had the theme that only love can defeat hate. This is not a specifically Christian message, as The Infidel Next Door proves: the message is the same.
You may have nightmares after reading this book, but all the same, we need to know the depths to which humans can sink to -- and the countermeasure to lift us from savagery to truly serving God.

 

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