I had a sad and startling conversation with a taxi driver the day before yesterday. I had gone to Ashoka University to give a talk, and the ride to Delhi airport is almost a couple of hours. I hadn’t seen the news in the morning, and when I saw the news on my phone, I expressed my disgust at the escalating tensions to the taxi driver: “अरे देखो कितना ख़राब हो रहा है.” At which point, he looked at me and said: “तो हम क्या करें? उन्होंने हमारे लोगों को मारा, तो क्या चुप बैठें ? अब चाहे हमारे लाख मर जाएँ, उनके ज़्यादा मारेंगे.” So I tried to explain the futility of war etc. and the problem in Kashmir at which point he says: “वो लोग तो पत्थर फेंकते हैं. मैं अगर फ़ौज में वहां होता तो बंदूक से सब को उड़ा देता.” So we went on talking for a while, and I kept trying to tell him about how matters were not so simple. He was surprisingly receptive. By the end of the journey, he started saying, “हाँ ,शायद इमरान खान भी ठीक बोल रहा है. उसको मौका देना चाहिए” and about Kashmir, " हाँ, भारत सरकार ने भी कुछ गलत किया होगा इसलिए कश्मीर के लोग नाराज़ होंगे. So, I was happy with my persuasive skills and while getting off, I told him “और लोगों से भी बातचीत करना और यह सब समझाना” at which point he replied “मैं यह सब बात नहीं कर सकता. मुझे पाकिस्तानी कहेंगे. मैं तो वैसे भी मुसलमान हूँ. अगर हिन्दू होता तो शायद कह पाता” I was absolutely dumbstruck. It turns out he had agreed with me all along, but because of his identity, he was terrified to express himself honestly. Even though I was obviously anti-war, he nevertheless felt compelled to pretend to be a bloodthirsty war-mongerer. Someone else said something similar to me yesterday. There must be something really wrong …