HVK Archives: Of lingering prejudices and communalism
Of lingering prejudices and communalism - The Free Press Journal
M.V. Kamath
()
May 7, 1998
Title: Of lingering prejudices and communalism
Author: M.V. Kamath
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: May 7, 1998
There is, according to the well-known columnist and author,
Khushwant Singh, a "deep-rooted and widespread prejudice that
many non-Muslims harbour in their breasts against Islam and
Muslims" which he considers is a matter "of deep anguish". In a
recent column he wrote: "Every effort to disabuse the minds of
the prejudiced and exhort them to get to know more of Islam and
what it stands for, the contribution that the Muslims made to
science, literature and the art of civilized living, and above
all make friends with Muslims to discover that they are no
different from any other people, have made little difference.
Prejudices are hard to overcome and continue to get sustenance
>from stereotypical notions of Muslims..." Let us presume that
this is an accurate description of the state of our society
today. When Singh speaks about non-Muslims, one must presume that
he is referring to Hindus and not just to RSS Hindus, but to
Hindus in general. Why, one may legitimately ask, do Hindus feel
the way they do about Islam and Muslims?
Literacy is low in the country. Ask an illiterate and poor Hindu
anywhere in this land and the odds are that he has never heard of
Ghazni or Ghori Mohammad, has never heard of Aurangzeb and
probably hasn't even heard of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Then on what
are his presumed prejudices based? This is a question that
enlightened Muslims must ask themselves. In a small way Singh
himself partly answers the question. Later on in his column he
writes: "Some sections of Muslims like the Taliban go out of
their way to paint an ugly picture of the community. Others do
little to endear themselves to their non-Muslim neighbours.
Indian Muslims' desire to preserve their separate social entity
by wearing distinctive dress like skull caps and keeping their
women in burqah does not help the process of integration" either.
One can supplement these with other explanations as well. Though
Indian Muslims are progressively distancing themselves
emotionally from Pakistan, what Pakistan, as a Muslim nation
does, has a tremendous bearing on Hindu-Muslim relations in
India. When Pakistan encourages terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir and
unleashes extremists who kill Kashmiri Hindus, an unspoken
barrier in India is raised against local Muslims. When Pakistan
names three kinds of missiles after Ghori, Ghazni and Babar, yet
another wall of suspicion is raised against Muslims. When ISI
finances Muslim terrorists in Coimbatore, matters are worsened
still further. "Well" Indian Muslims might say, "we are not
responsible for what Pakistan does". And then an old dialogue
starts all over again: who supported the concept of Pakistan in
the first place? Weren they first the Muslim minority states
such as 'United Provinces' and Bihar? Who voted whole sale for
the Muslim League? Weren't they Muslims themselves? Who was
responsible for the large scale killings in Calcutta on the
"Deliverance Day" sponsored by Jinnah? Weren't they again
Muslims? And so the arguments and counter-arguments will go till
the Judgement Day, or until people come to blows.
Educated Hindus have long memories of oppressive Muslim rule in
India. Why, even P. V. Narasimha Rao mentioned such rule in his
fictitious autobiography The Insider During the Nizam's rule -
and this is within living memory of thousands of Andhraites - the
singing even of Vande Mataram was a crime in Hyderabad. So why
blame Hindus for their alleged "deep-rooted" and "widespread"
prejudice against Muslims? Do Muslims ever indulge in some honest
heart-searching to ask what went wrong in history and what could
have been their role in it?
The truth is that Muslims do not want to face up to their past.
It is easier to charge Hindus with communalism and they will win
the applause of our secularists. But then the argument will be
made: Not all Islamic rulers were evil and in any event they were
not evil all the time! Once again the argument pro and con will
go on and on. But the fact is: the prejudices continue to linger,
no matter what virtues are attributed to the Mughal emperors and
their Muslim predecessors of an earlier time. The hurt to the
Hindu psyche is so deep that while it is not discussed, it
continues to subtly poison Hindu relations with their Muslim
neighbours.
One reason why Muslims are probably - and the word 'probably'
needs to be stressed because the statement could be untrue - not
accepted because they do not relate to their fellow non-Muslim
countrymen who, incidentally, make the majority. That adds to the
sum total of Hindu resentment. Muslims look outwards, not
inwards. Contrast this with a recent report on Christians. The
Jesuits in Goa did unbelievable harm to Hindus during a certain
period of its history. And Christian missionaries did terrible
anti-Hindu propaganda in Europe and America. And yet, there is
very little prejudice against Christians, whether Catholic or
Protestant. Why? One reason is that Christians treat India as
their own home and they want to Indianise their rituals.
A report in the press (April 23) said that "major chunk of the
Catholic Church in India has raised a banner of revolt and
demanded an Asian and Indian identity for the church, indigenous
and authentic rites, equal status for women including priesthood
and an end to domination and centralization". "Church leaders"
the report continued, "who have been agitated for some time
against the domination by the Church of Rome, have come out in
the open with strong demands". Moreover, the Church leaders
wanted the leadership (presumably in Rome) to apologise openly
for whatever negative, disrespectful or disparaging attitudes
have been theirs in the past towards other religions, their
spiritual quest and their symbols and also for whatever part the
Church has had in the colonial domination of Asian countries, for
its failure to denounce domination or to dissociate itself from
it". Which Muslim organisation has the courage to say these
things? The Babri Masjid had been built as an assault on Hinduism
as a way of mocking at the religion. A wise Muslim leadership
would have cooperated in relocating the masjid out of respect for
Hindu sentiments. Instead, they stood for confrontation, aided
and abetted by so-called secularists, and the result was the
bombing of Mumbai. Was that calculated to assuage old wounds to
the Hindu psyche? Anybody who defended the destruction of the
Babri Masjid was dismissed as a communalist, if not fascist.
Muslims refuse to accept the fact that the day they Indianise
Islam, all friction between Hindus and Muslims will cease. This
Indian Muslims aggressively refuse to do. They prefer to get into
their shell, rather than be part of the larger community.
While seeming to blame Hindus, Khushwant Singh is careful to say
that "Indian Muslims are no doubt partly responsible for their
backwardness". The heavy insistence on teaching religion in
madrassahs when emphasis should be on teaching contemporary
subjects like science and economics surely is what keeps Muslims'
children educationally backward in many ways? Are Hindus
responsible for madrassahs? Should Hindus be the target of blame
for whatever is wrong with the Muslim community? If Muslims
insist on being separate, they will be treated as such. If Muslim
women insist on wearing burqahs, surely Hindus cannot be held
responsible for that? The point is made that Muslim employment in
government service and public sector enterprises is abysmally
low.
According to Dr. Rafiq Zakaria, among doctors Muslim
representation is 2.5 per cent, among engineers 2 per cent, among
IAS officers 2.86 per cent, among the IPS 2 per cent, among ITOs
3.01 percent, among Class I officers 3.3 per cent and among bank
employees 2.18 per cent. Muslim representation in private
enterprises is marginally higher than in government-controlled
organizations - 4.08 per cent. This would suggest one of two
things: either there is large-scale discrimination against
Muslims in all spheres of life, both governmental and non-
governmental or there are not enough Muslims qualifying or
applying for the jobs that are open to competition. It is hard to
believe that the government is discriminatory. It cannot possibly
be since candidates are taken into service through open
competition. If there is discrimination it should be mm in the
private sector which is almost entirely controlled by the Hindu
community. How come then, if Hindus are so vicious, that more
Muslims get employment in the private sector than in the public
or government sector?
There is another point that may be made here. There is a strong
pro-Hindu sentiment prevailing in the country today because a
good majority of Hindus is just tired of being accused of being
communal. For the Muslims in the face of this trend openly to
support the casteist Samajwadi Party or the subtly communal
Congress Party of Sharad Pawar only to thumb their noses at the
BJP is for them to isolate themselves from Hindus. If Muslims
insist on holding on to their religious identity through dress
and other outward insignia, they can't possibly expect non-
Muslims to warm up to them. The general attitude of Muslims seems
to be that they should have the right to be ommunal but for
non-Muslims (meaning Hindus) to be so, is horrendous. That theory
just does not work.
There may be a little admixture of foreign blood among Muslims;
for that matter there is no such thing as a 'pure' race in India,
unless, perhaps they are tribal. Hindus and Muslims are cut from
the same broadcloth, we largely come from the same stock and have
the same kind of genes. Intelligence-wise Muslims are no better
or worse than Hindus and vice versa; it is merely that in a
competitive world education alone pays. It is not that Muslims
are legally barred from jobs. Quite the contrary. The answer to
prosperity is not blaming the Hindus but in working side by side
with them and by giving top priority to secular education.
Muslims may then come to learn to their surprise that Hindus -
the kafirs - are not such devils after all. A little
introspection and some braver action could help Muslims more than
all the venom they are willing to heap on the BJP - and RSS.
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