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March 30, 2018

India: Ghettoes of the mind - Making several mistakes at once | Mukul Kesavan

In India, the words Muslim and ghetto seem to go together. The word 'ghetto' comes from medieval Venice where it was used to describe the quarter of the city where Jews were required to live. 'Required' is the important word in this definition; Webster's second definition of the word expands upon the coerced nature of this segregated togetherness: "a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure".

Predominantly Muslim neighbourhoods in India are often ghettoes in this precise sense of the word. Muslims live in them because they can't afford rents in non-Muslim localities or because they feel unsafe elsewhere or find it near-impossible to rent or buy homes in other localities from non-Muslim house owners.
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The Telegraph, March 29, 2018