There is always a lot of Hindu-Muslims over the years. I think, since the advent of Islam, around 1000 years ago, two religions were always colliding with each other, despite plentiful of examples of communal harmony. When there are elections, polarisation is bound to happen. One section will vote for preferred candidate, another for other one.
I had bought Panipat, a novel written by Vishwas Patil. My main reason to buy this novel, apart from to know what really happened in 1761, is to know about Ibrahim Khan Gardi, a Maratha General, who fought against Ahmed Shah Durrani of Afghanistan, in historic third battle of Panipat. After the defeat of Marathas, he was brought in front of Durrani aka Abdali. Ibrahim Khan was given lots of offers to join Abdali’s forces, being a Muslim, he was to be given priority, good post etc, but this nationalist rejected everything and, in the end, got killed by Afghans.
I had read this story when I was in school in 7th or 8th standard, his name though forgotten, Ahmed Shah Abdali was marked in my mind. I feel, we are eulogizing wrong idols when we talk about Muslims. People talk about good deeds done by Khilji or Aurangzeb, to suit their narrative. They don’t want to remember Havildar Abdul Hamid, PVC, the brave soldier who single-handedly destroyed technologically advanced Patton tanks of Pakistan.
No one is completely bad, no one is all good. Good or bad behaviour is all about the degree. Aurangzeb was brutal, shrewd & clever ruler. What he did to his opponents, is unspeakable. Not only that, it was alleged that he killed Mirza Raja Jaisingh, who was in his service for many years and who sent Shivaji to Agra in 1666. But he had good qualities too. My father told me once that he used to sew the skull caps for his earning and did not exploited the royal treasure. There are many examples of Ravana or Kansa, which I have read.
Kauravas had goodness in them, but of a lesser degree than Pandavas. Pandavas have bad qualities too, as one knows. So, it all come to degrees. The rift between Hindu and Muslim can be lessen by just to ensure we follow proper examples. There was no need to run a campaign as it was last year by name #TalkToAMuslim. It was to support a movie Mulk. A poor tactic to market the film. Muslims are not hostile In India; they have tremendous freedom and rights than in any other country. Don’t believe me? Ask the Muhajirs of Pakistan or hear Nasiruddin Shah in Sarfarosh.
Campaigning like the above twitter trend, do more harm than good. Recently, a person said in Bank that his loan is not sanctioned as he was Muslim. I saw a Facebook memory of 2016, where I was termed as Bhakt and anti-Muslim by Muslim acquaintance. Why? Because I don’t like KKR of IPL, I don’t think SRK is a good actor, which snowballed in to my disliking Muslims as a whole and I am a danger to the society and country. Even yesterday, a Muslim commented that I was to be blamed for the number 1 rank of India in rapes, because I saw a video of Muslim girl dancing who alleged she was harassed because of being Muslim and took a stand against this so called ‘Harrassment’.
On the contrary, I have received great help from Muslims, not only in India but even when I was studying in UK. My friends were from Iran, Pakistan or British Muslim and I lived in the house of Bangladeshi Muslim, who helped me and relied on me many times. But I cannot like those, who name their port on Mohammad Bin Kasim, their missiles as Babar, Ghouri, Ghaznavi or Abdali, just because these massacred Hindus on massive scale. I hate even more those Hindus, who accept this, without murmur of objection. Liberals or seculars of today are, in my view, more rumour mongering & fake news peddler. These were the ones, who coined the term ‘Extreme-Nationalism’ or ‘Hyper-Nationalism’, both useless and baseless.
It’s all about following those people, and bringing them in the forefront, who are truly nationalists. Muslims are experts in the jobs they do, they earn an honest living and are simple. I speak of my personal experience. Hindus don’t hate Muslims; this is a fact. On the other hand, they like Muslims like Ibrahim Khan Gardi, Abdul Hamid or APJ Abdul Kalam, for instance. Instilling the fear of India becoming a ‘Hindu-Rashtra’ is idiotic as India was always a Hindu-Rashtra, it is known as Hindustan, isn’t it? If it wasn’t so, why there was a need of making a Pakistan?
Just for political points scoring or vote politics, this kind of things revolve around us. We just have to keep our priorities right, both Hindus and Muslims & continue living in harmony for betterment of society.
