Can India Avoid An Implosion!!!
Its Muslims Can Certainly Avoid Their Destruction By Ignoring Nupur Sharmas
Many houses of the Muslims who participated in the protests that turned violent following the hateful remarks against Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) by now-suspended BJP spokeswoman have been bulldozed by the Uttar Pradesh government, said a 13th of June report by the BBC. Mudassir alias Kaifi and Sahil succumbed to bullet injuries by Police in Ranchi city of Jharkand, reported OpIndia, a news portal.
Reports further say 300 people have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh and the police have also registered FIRs against more than 5000 unidentified miscreants (Muslim protestors in this most populous and very poor state of India).
Meanwhile the security of the woman whose abusive remarks led to the protests and caused heartaches to hundreds of millions Muslims across the world has been enhanced. The ruling party has temporarily removed her from her job. In a statement, it said that it was against any ideology which insults or demeans any sect or religion and did not promote such people or philosophy.
I believe the death and destruction on Muslims in the aftermath of the outrageous remarks is self inflicted. Their allegedly violent protests or the “death threats” by some fringe elements to the spokeswoman are completely against the message and ideology of peace of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)was once sitting with Abu Bakr at Kabbah. Ummi Jameel, a poetess, (modern day spokesperson of the opponents of the Prophet), recited a poem. It said: “Mohammad is a condemned person and we deny him.” But the prophet smiled and ignored the lady. The prophet’s companion was surprised at the response. On this the prophet said that the meaning of Mohammad is praiseworthy. “My name, given to me by my family, is Mohammad, while she talks of Muzammam; so all the curses apply to her and not me. Why should I bother then”? he said.
For Prophet, the insulting remark by Ummi Jameel was too frivolous to invite any reaction. But alas today his followers seem perfectly misaligned from his teachings. His sublime character shall continue to be a Marg Darshan for a sea of human beings till the end of this world. Had he been a sexual fiend (as propounded by radicalized mindsets) he would not have changed the course of the human history. Had Ummir Jameel not approached his teachings with a subjective and preconceived prejudice she would not have been relegated to trash bin of history.
The derogatory remarks by the suspended TV face of the ruling regime are not a spontaneous outburst. They show the level of radicalization among the majority community of the country.
Tracing the Hindu radicalization, Prof Daniel Gold in his thesis “From Vedic Truth to Hindu Nation” explains in detail how the Hindu far right wants to reach back to some real and some presumed past.
According to his work, Hindus in the later part of the 19th century became anxious after the reports of increasing conversions towards Islam, Sikhism and Christianity in Punjab. The phenomenon made them fear for their community’s political strength. Thus was born Arya Samaj in the province.
By 1909, prominent Punjabi leaders of the Samaj formed first politically oriented group, Punjab Provincial Hindu Sabha. This was later converted in to Sarvadeshik (Pan Hindu regional) Hind Sabha which then culminated into All India Hindu Mahasabha. The Sabha would later on become one of the best known institutions of Hindu reaction.
“Bhai Parmanenda, the president of the Sabha in 1933 was influential in guiding it towards a militant communalist direction. Sabha actively nurtured the early growth of RSS which some of its leaders saw as potential youth wing,” reads the research by Prof Gold conducted for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Perceiving that the core identity of Hindus was under threat, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the first quarter of the past century then propounded a new idea of India. He came out with a new definition of Hindu which says only those Indians can be loyal to India who are Hindu, follow Indic religions and consider Hind as their father land and holy land. This definition by Savarkar Ji in unambiguous terms excludes Indian Muslims and Christians for whom India is not a holy land and thus their loyalties are subject of doubt under this new identity of India.
It was around this time Arya Samajist preachers started a campaign of slander against other faiths including Islam. “Many of its leaders and ministers had made a name for themselves by offending other religions, including other Hindu sects” (Kumar, Girja “R. Rasul and its aftermath”. The Book on Trial: Fundamentalism and Censorship in India).
Pandit Chamupati of the Samaj wrote his book “Rangila Rasool and made a satire of the marital life of the Prophet. Chaputa was later assassinated by a Muslim Zealot.
M S Golwalkar the second head of the RSS in his ‘We or Our Nationhood defined’ (1939) presents some drastic solutions for this issue. “There are only two courses open to the foreign elements either to merge themselves in the national race and adopt its culture or to live in the country at the sweet will of the national race….. must loose their separate existence….. or may stay in the country wholly subordinate to the Hindu nation claiming nothing deserving no privileges far less any preferential treatment not even citizens rights (p 47, 48).
All these developments on the social and political arenas were capitalized by the communal Muslim League under the leadership of M A Jinnah. The result was the cataclysmic fratricide, a civil war, dismemberment of the country and creation of diabolically and perpetually antagonist States in South Asia.
There also emerged a paramilitary Khaksar movement by Allama Mashriqi in 1931. The movement used violence as a means to achieve its end – Establishment of a Muslim government in United India.
It is in this background we need to understand how a number of TV news channels have been co opted to further a radicalized brand of politics in India. These channels prefer the style sheet of Joseph Goebbels over the basic principles of journalism. They religiously eschew reporting and debating the real issues confronting India, be it China, unemployment, crimes against women, Dalits, price rise, loss of India’s soft power at the world stage. More importantly they shy away from debating the 470 $ income 600 million of Indian Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians earn a year, an income which is less than poorest of the poor in the world like Afghanistan, Niger and Malawi.
In these channels are propped up many “brash, articulate” and Western educated advocates like Nupur Sharmas. By design they are pitted against primitive and mumbling Madra Maulavis who have long ago resigned from the existing currents of life. The institutions where these Maulavis are drawn “are wheels of an institutional exclusion of Muslims from India’s public life”.
“Shouting” and “heckling” Nupurs cross all the basic human decencies in the debates in these channels and call their fellow panelists “bloody hypocrites and liars” (BBC website report of 9th May). They also lay claim “on 40,000 mosques across India”. Like all the radicals across the religious and political spectrum “they react and fight with great innovative power”.
But India requires and deserves something better provided it opts to come out of the dark tunnel it has been pushed in to. To avoid implosion it deserves a politics of inclusion and economic development. In these painful times vulnerable nationalities and sub entities in India need to remember Rahat Indori’s …
Agar khilaaf hain hone do jaan thodi hai,
Ye sab dhuwan hai koi aasman thodi hai,
Lagegi aag to aayenge ghar kayi zaddd mein,
Yaha pe sirf hamara makaan thodi hai,
Main janta hoon ki dushman bhi kam nahi lekin,
Hamaari tarah hatheli pe jaan thodi hai,
Hamaare munh se jo nikle wahi sadaqat hai,
Hamare munh mein tumhaari zubaan thodi hai,
Jo aaj sahib-e-masnad hai kal nahi honge,
Kiraaye daar hain zaati makaan thodi hai,
Sabhi ka khoon hai shamil yahan ki mitti mein,
Kisi ke baap ka HINDUSTAN thodi hai…”
Rashid Paul is Associate Editor at Kashmir Images.
He can be reached at [email protected]
