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New Compact needed between the Religious Groups away from Vote Bank Politics

Jun 14 2008 | Views 299 | Comments (23)

As a long standing, so called apologist, for the India of Nehru and Gandhi, I have no problem... Expand

As a long standing, so called apologist, for the India of Nehru and Gandhi, I have no problem in being criticized in Sulekha and other fora for being one. But this is a position that I will not, or rather, cannot change. I have been very proud of India's stand on religious amity: To me the the sign of Indian unity is the religious tolerance shown by the Hindu majority, which has accepted the maxim of Shankara in toto which states " Akashaat Pathitam Toyam, Yatha Gatchhati Saagaram, Sarva Dea Namaskaara, Keshavam Prathigatchhati" translated as:

Just as droplets of rain fall from the sky
and inexorably lead to the ocean
So do prayers to all the Gods
Reach inevitably to Keshava (the Supreme Being or the Para Brahman)

Here Keshava is used as the supreme being, this despite the fact that in the eighth century,Shankara, led a hindu revival and followed a kind of Advaitic Shaivism . He apparently referred to Keshava (Vishnu) ,a God that he normally did not pray to, as the supreme being, to basically highlight the essential unity of the Godhead. What was important was the existence of God, whatever people chose to call him or her. This has been carried over to the modern era with the oft quoted aphorism" Ram aur Rahim Ek Hain". That is why most Hindus who understand the nature of this unity, feel perfectly at home praying in a church, a synogogue or a mosque. You would have few if any in the other religionists admitting to such apostacies.

From this feeling of unity springs this remarkable tendency to allow everybody to follow their religions and have a place in the polity of the country. Thus, while Pakistan, killed off, drove out and forcibly converted the non Muslim populations, the classical definition of ethnic cleansing, India on the other hand welcomed all who were able to flee the holocaust in Pakistan. This does not mean that Indian citizens to India's shame did try and often succeeded to revenge killings of Muslims, thousands of Muslims, during partition. There have been similar pogroms in Bombay Gujarat etc. But the incontestible fact remains that non Muslims are a practically disappeared minority in Pakistan, while Muslims are the fastest growing religious group in India. In India's neighborhood, India remains incontrovertibly the most secular country ranging from Sri Lanka in the South to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the North.

There has been NO other country that had the multiplicity of religions and the opportunity for people following these religions to have a chance to have a voice and in many cases much more than a voice in decision making, on matters of statecraft. Thus you have a Christian Chief Ministers in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh.Goa etc until Abdul Kalam left the Presidency, you had the the completely unequalled,(any where else in the world) situation, where the Prime Minister was a Sikh, the actual power behind the Prime Minister, an Italian Catholic and the President, a Muslim. This happened, while 80% of India professed Hinduism. I will issue an open challenge to anyone who reads this, to show me a similar example, either in the present or in the past, anywhere else in the world. India, despite the nay sayers , is that shining City on the Hill that gives the light of secularism and the possibility of the brotherhood of man.

This kind of secularism is something to be proud about BUT is slowly getting eaten away by behaviors and actions of terrorists and extremist attitudes of some Muslims, which appears to be affecting the attitudes in the majority. Also, terrorism against Muslims exists and is manifested by outbreaks of violence against them, as has been pointed out above. I am as concerned about terrorism, as I am concerned by the changes occuring in the majority away from the centuries,no millennia of tolerance , it has exhibited.

However, there are enough voices in the majority community that condemn violence of the Hindu religious right, but liberal Muslims intellectuals and moderate Muslims in general are strangely silent on the depredation of a minority of Muslim extremists. The Hindu right is pointing to the growing extremism and terrorism amongst a small proportion of the Muslims, supported in their view, by the silence of the vast majority of Muslims, to that violence. It(the Hindu Right)says, see, they are all like that. They are NOT all like that. It is important that all people of goodwill , Hindu, Muslim,Christian Sikh etc join hands to strengthen India's unified stand against terrorism, in whatever form. There should also be a movement towards one set of laws for all the people. This was the promise made by the founding fathers of the constitution, Nehru and Patel,Ambedkar and Kamath,Azad and Kidwai, Anthony and Mathai, Amrit Kaur and Hukam Singh. All religions were involved in writing the constitution. The wonderful variegated and colorful patchwork quilt that was the objective of the fathers was firmly in mind when the document was wrought. In the same spirit, now, if the predominant majority of all religions, is unified, vote bank politics will not work , parochialism will not work and the terrorists of every ilk will be highlighted, isolated ostracized and prosecuted.

Why cannot the minority Vote Bank politics followed by One side(the Congress Coaltion) and the majority vote bank followed by the other(BJP and its allies), be exposed for what it is, which is taking advantages of people's worst fears and hates, for political purposes. Once this meeting of the mind takes place, terrorism can be battled and defeated. But, if Muslims remain isolated and sullen, they will remain suspect(unfairly perhaps, in most cases), but that is the reality staring at our faces. There are enough Hindus of goodwill, but they are divided between the minority appeasing Congress and the hindu extremist appeasing RSS and VHP et al, both for short term political gain.

Unified India will prosper, divided she will fall. The choice is with the middle path, a path for unified decency. As a secular country, India will cohere, as a religious country she will disunite.

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