Author: N.S. Rajaram
Publication: The Vijay Times
Date: June 20, 2003
Intro: In a tour of England I found
the British both worried and confused by the growth of militant Islam
in England.
Britain is undergoing a slow transformation
but is still not equipped to deal with the growing menace of Islamic terrorism
in the country. This was my impression following a two-week lecture tour
when I visited several cities in England including London, Manchester,
Birmingham, Leeds and Leicester. The main purpose of my tour, arranged
by Indian organizations and student groups, was to acquaint inform them
about the latest findings in ancient Indian history and archaeology. However,
as it was my first visit to England after the September 11 terrorist attacks,
I tried to learn as much as possible about the British reaction to the
changed world situation following the attacks. This is what I will mainly
focus on in the present article.
One of the fallouts of September
11 is that the British public is now much more aware of the difference
between the Hindus and the Muslims living in their country and also the
difference in their respective behavior patterns. Until recently, and even
now to some extent, they were clubbed together as "Asians." But thanks
to the untiring efforts of Hindu groups like the VHP, the British public
and the authorities are beginning to see the difference. But the media
still tends to use the term Asians whenever there is any untoward incident
like the riots by Pakistani migrants in Bradford and Birmingham. This could
be due to ignorance but there is also an element anti-Indian bias in the
intelligentsia, especially the media. Whether this is due to 'dhimmitude'
(timid reaction out of fear of Muslim violence) or intellectual arrogance-
I was unable to decide in the short amount of time I spent there. It could
be a combination of both.
Both are recent migrants, but there
is a striking difference in the ways in which the Hindus and the Muslims
have adopted to their new country. The Hindus, many of who are immigrants
from East Africa and their children, have blended easily into the British
system by achieving a high level of success in business, education and
the professions. The Muslims, mostly from Pakistan, have to a large extent
withdrawn from society and settled into ghetto-like communities. I saw
this repeatedly in cities like Bradford, Leeds, Birmingham, Leicester,
and even in the London suburb of Ilford. These are often referred to as
"Mini-Pakistans, and the public fears them. There have even been a few
riots. Although I have been visiting England for more than thirty years,
this is the first time that I saw fear of violence in the British public.
The people are confused, and the authorities seem to be at a loss about
how to deal with this growing menace.
To understand this state of affairs
it is necessary to have an idea of the British and their institutions as
they have evolved over the centuries. Britain is a very law abiding country,
much more so than the United States or India. Respect for the law and for
government institutions is ingrained in the British character. Even minor
traffic violations are rare. As a result, the police and the legal institutions
employ very mild methods in dealing with the public. Heavy-handed police
methods of the kind seen in India and the United States are unknown in
Britain. While the Hindus have fitted naturally into this environment,
a large segment of the Muslim community shows scant respect for the law
by engaging in organized anti-social activities. The authorities are unused
to such behavior and seem to be at a loss to deal with them.
Another British trait is an inclination
for compromise. When faced with a dispute, the British try to resolve it
through compromise and avoid confrontation. An example might help illustrate
the point. When some Hindu groups objected to the way in which Hinduism
was being portrayed in British schools, the educational authorities asked
the Hindu community to make some suggestions for improving it. After some
discussions involving mutual give and take, the VHP in Britain with the
help of some Hindu scholars came up with a teacher's guide on Hinduism
to be used in schools. Unfortunately, the Muslim community has by and large
taken a confrontational attitude rather than work within the system through
mutual give and take.
The once peaceful cities of England
now have ghettos that may soon become breeding grounds for Islamic militancy.
This is made worse by the sprouting of mosques and madrasahs, some of them
housed in former churches. All this has come as a culture shock to the
British public and institutions. Britain is a conservative society in which
change comes slowly. Its institutions have evolved over centuries, built
on a balance of trust and a deep-seated belief in the law-abiding behavior
of its people. This is now upset by the growing aggressiveness of its Muslim
population. It is hard to see the British coming up with laws like the
POTA in India or the Homeland Security Act in the United States, which,
to the British seem draconian. But given the situation and the trends,
Britain may have no option.
(Comment: The following section
detailing the picture relating to the collapse of Christianity in the West
and the unseemly behavior of Indian Christians was not published by The
Vijay Times. It appears that the Indian media is willing to entertain articles
about Islam and Muslims, it still suffers from inhibitions when dealing
with truth when it relates to Christianity.)
Another striking feature in Britain
today is the collapse of Christianity. This is part of a similar trend
in Europe, but I was not prepared for the scale and speed of the collapse
even though I have written extensively about it. The signs are everywhere:
church attendances are next to non-existent and church properties are being
sold all over Britain. The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, now a major cultural
institution in London is housed in what used to be a major church in West
Kensington. In Leicester, a large church building was sold for a mere 40,000
pounds to be later converted into a Jain Temple. It appears that the British
have no more use for Christianity.
This has led to an interesting situation:
there is wide divergence in the attitude and behavior of the British and
the Indian Christians living in England. British officials of the Church
of England have reached out to the Hindu community and to organizations
like the VHP to express joint statements of friendship and mutual goodwill
and cooperation. Lurking in the background, though unstated in public is
the common fear of Islamic militancy and strengthening the bridge between
India and Britain in the fight against terrorism. (I heard this first hand
from a British civil servant who traveled with me on the train from Birmingham
to Leeds.) But Indian Christians, many of who hold jobs in Church institutions,
still want to think that India should be treated as a British colony where
missionaries should be given a free hand! Their resulting conduct in this
regard borders at times on the preposterous.
To unravel this we need to recognize
that the Church of England is part of the British establishment with the
British monarch as its head. During the period of the British Empire, the
Church and its officials had imperial responsibilities, which mainly involved
conversion in the colonies to make them loyal subjects of the British Crown.
In fact, one of Macaulay's goals in setting up the education system was
to facilitate the conversion of Hindus to Christianity, which he felt would
make them more amenable to British rule. Britain of course is no longer
an imperial power. The Church also no longer has any imperial responsibility.
But Indian Christians, at least those working for the Church seem still
to believe that India should be treated as a colony in which missionary
activity should go on as before. There is more than religion at stake here;
a substantial number of Indian Christians are employed by the Church- both
in India and in England. In fact there are hardly any British missionaries
left. For example, the principal of the seminary for training missionaries
in Birmingham is a Kerala Christian. So while the Church of England seeks
to have cordial relations with the Hindus and India, some of its Indian
members seem still to be harboring imperial delusions. This has led to
a good deal of mistrust and unhappiness in the Indian community in Britain.
Some Hindu leaders told me that the extreme servility displayed by Indian
Christians towards their British counterparts has caused them a good deal
of embarrassment, even shame. In contrast to the aggressive if not arrogant
behavior of Christian leaders in India, in Britain their behavior is often
like that of a servant towards one's master.
This is unfortunate because the
Indian Christians in Britain could serve as a bridge of understanding and
cooperation between the two countries in their struggle against the common
enemy of terrorism. But so far, there is no indication that the Indian
Christian leaders, either in India or in Britain, recognize the magnitude
of the challenge the world faces. They seem preoccupied with their own
narrow concerns as servants of the Church, while pursuing a goal and a
vision that disappeared with the British Empire.
As far as the main purpose of my
tour was concerned, lecturing on Indian history and archaeology, it served
only to confirm the fact that Western Indology is dead. There are still
a few noisy individuals, but judged by the substance of their work they
are desperately trying to keep afloat colonial constructions like the Aryan
invasion theory. Here again I found a couple of Indians of colonial orientation
trying to challenge my interpretation of new findings like the readings
of the Harappan seals and the underwater findings off the Gujarat coast,
but they were nonentities. A few British men and women on the other hand
were fascinated by what I presented. My audiences were made up mostly of
persons of Indian origin. England and West in general has lost interest
in Indology. There are almost no Sanskrit scholars left and the few that
remain have no students. India now is the home of both research and Sanskrit
scholarship, which is how it should be. Fighting terrorism has now taken
center stage.
