Nandy- Charms of Indian Terrorism

When I began reading Nandy's The Discrete Charms of Indian Terrorism I began to think of the similarities between the hijackings on September 11th and the Sheik hijacking on July 5th, 1984. One account said the hijackers were all young men who jumped out of their seats, put on their yellow and blue turbans and claimed they had weapons, similar to the way Flight 93 was portrayed. As I continued to read, I soon realized that these hijackings were nothing alike.

0nce the hijackers landed the plane in Lahore, there are few linkages to the 9.11
plane hijackings. Numerous accounts state that these Sheiks began to provide baby food and milk for infants and children. At night, the hijackers served the hostages, and in the morning, the flight attendants resumed their post. Some individuals described the hijackers as kind. With the announcement that the Sheiks intended to blow up the plane, their was visible dissension among the hijackers, as some did not want to inflict violence. In the end, the hijackers let the passengers go despite Prime Minister Gandhi's rejection of their demands of ransom money, a return of captured goods from the Golden Temple and the release of captives from the army action of June '94.

The fact that the hijackers were so willing to concede still puzzles me. They were willing to go to the trouble of taking over a plane with nearly 200 hostage- and then back down without harming anyone when their demands were not met. This contradicted my conventional notions of terrorism. The author uses other examples in South East Asia to also challenge the idea and definition of terrorism.