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VIEWPOINT: KAUTILYA
The
Renewal Of Indiaax
Since
712 A.D., an immovable object has been meeting an irresistible force
By Jairam Ramesh
These
are extraordinarily turbulent times for religious amity in the country,
made doubly difficult by the Sangh Parivar's cynical communalisation of
the post-September 11 situation with the help of its Muslim counterparts.
How do we regenerate the well-springs of harmony in our society?
We can turn to medieval history and salute remarkable
personalities like Shaikh Moinuddin Chishti, Amir Khusrau, Akbar, Ramanand,
Kabir and Dara Shikoh. We could go back even earlier and applaud the Arabs
and Central Asians like the great Al-Khwarizmi who were the first to make
Hindu mathematics, astronomy and medicine a world heritage. We could remember
the great historians Al-Biruni and Ibn Batuta who enhanced our understanding
of ourselves.
We could also recall the magnificent legacy
of Sufism influenced both by Buddhism and Hinduism and the Bhakti movement,
that great efflorescence of Dalit protest, on which Islam had a decisive
impact. We could re-read Eknath's unique Hindu-Turku Samvad and Shaikh
Mohammed Qadiri's unusual Yogasamgrama. We could invoke the profound traditions
of syncretism that are so visible in Indian music, painting, architecture,
poetry, language and films. Among today's figures, we could herald Bismillah
Khan and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as epitomising India at its noblest.
But there are some other unlikely candidates
for inspiration. In 1904, Allama Iqbal wrote the most stirring lines in
praise of Indian civilisation; how can any Indian be failed to be moved
by "Mazhab nahin sikhata, aapas mein bair rakhna, Hindi hain hum,
watan hai Hindustan hamara"? Today's generation in the subcontinent
would not have heard of Maulana Muhammed Ali of Rampur, a key figure in
the unprecedented Hindu-Muslim unity movement of 1919-21. He is famous
for his declaration: "I belong to two circles of equal size but which
are not concentric. One is India and the other is the Muslim world ...
We as Indian Muslims belong to these two circles and we can leave neither."
Muhammed Ali also delivered, what along with
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's 1940 Ramgarh oration, is the most memorable
Congress presidential speech. Speaking at the 1923 Kakinada session, he
proclaimed, "For more than 20 years, I have dreamed the dream of
a federation, grander, nobler and infinitely more spiritual than the United
States of America and today when many of the political Cassandras prophesise
a return to the bad old days of Hindu-Muslim dissensions, I still dream
that old dream of a United Faiths of India."
And who can forget the immortal words of Mohammed
Ali Jinnah himself while addressing Pakistan's Constituent Assembly in
August 1948: "... in the course of time, Hindus will cease to be
Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense
because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political
sense as citizens of the state."
The Hindu-Muslim encounter has been a struggle
between two "imports" into India. It has been described as a
face-off between a religiously tolerant but socially bigoted way of life
(Hinduism) and a religiously intolerant but socially egalitarian faith
(Islam). In the past 1,300 years-since Mohammed bin Qasim invaded Sindh
in 712 A.D.-Islam could not obliterate Hinduism and Hinduism could not
assimilate Islam. However, both destroyed Buddha in the land of his birth.
Islam confronted Hinduism but in that process Hinduism acquired social
identity and India got political unity.
Volumes have been written on this encounter.
Some stressed the tensions and resentments. Some others emphasised the
mutual accommodations, interactions and adaptations. A few writers like
Aziz Ahmed, Rafiq Zakaria, Rajmohan Gandhi, Robert Eaton and Andre Wink
have sought to maintain a fine and fair balance. New scholarship is also
forcing a rethink. Yohanan Friedmann, for instance, has argued that Shaykh
Ahmad Sirhindi, long considered as Aurangzeb's guru, was primarily a mystic.
However, romanticising the encounter is as inaccurate as condemning it.
Hinduism and Islam have enriched each other immensely just as they have
opposed each other bitterly. As Maulana Azad's Ramgarh speech put it,
"Both are an integral part of the indivisible unity of Indian nationality,
both are indispensable to this noble edifice of India and without both
of them this splendid structure of India is incomplete." The Deobandis
distort this reality as does Bal Thackeray.
Secularism is India's destiny. When India's
quintessence is under assault from fanatics of all hues, what is needed
is inter-faith dialogue, communication and understanding between devout
Hindus and equally devout Muslims who will see in their piety the seeds
of a United Faiths of India. If the task of reconciliation is not taken
up in right earnest, India's very existence is threatened.
(The author is with the Congress party. These
are his personal views.)
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