Recently in New Delhi, the authorities forcibly removed thousands of people from an Islamic Center of controversial religious organisation Tablighi Jamaat. As of writing this piece hundreds of Jamaatis, many of them foreigners, who refuse to come forward and get tested for COVID 19, are being apprehended from all parts of the country. This attitude, dangerous to the society at large, is being condemned by all sections of society and some right thinking Muslims too. But there is a deafening silence from the intellectual and religious leaders of Indian Muslims. Not a word of condemnation or even advice to abide by govt rules, can be heard from the lips of ‘secular’ mediapersons, leaders and activists. This included such persons of Marxist bent. Therein lie the clear symptoms of the Muslim problem in India.
The Muslim problem in India is neither new nor unknown but for some reasons it has always been pushed under the carpet. Although the ’eminent’ historians claim that communalism in India is a modern phenomenon, the truth is that since medieval times Muslims have attacked Hindus and their temples for religious reasons. If someone says Mehmood ‘butshikan’ Gaznavi or Firoz Shah Tuglaq, or Khalji or Aurangzeb (to name just a few) were motivated only by economic reasons, he/she is plainly lying. These lies can be exposed by reading histories of their times (written by contemporary Muslim court historians) which praise their religious zeal. Hindus on the other hand remained largely oblivious to this and seldom do we hear of Muslim places of worships demolished.
Modern era and British systematizing of our history of course challenged Hindu pride and what is called Hindu communalism is just Hindu awakening and spirit of unity. In short majority Muslims were always religious zealots and as Mahabharata explains: “The cure for venom is venom itself.” This Hindu assertion seen in works of Swami Dayanand, Annie Besant, Swami Vivekananda inspired our freedom struggle. The faultlines between the two communities came to fore during later stages of freedom struggle. Jinnah, otherwise a non-observant{secular?} Muslim{ate pork and drank too}, ironically became the poster boy of fanatic Islam. The result was tragedy of Direct Action and Partition. The actual tragedy of partition was that the areas that actually voted for league and were the support base for it, remained in India. League leaders and population remained in India and expected Indian Hindus to not doubt on their patriotism. The problem could still have been resolved by sensible policies immediately after partition, but the woulds of society were allowed to fester. We have come to such a situation today that mistrust between Muslims and Hindus in India has reached such a low, that one cannot agree with other even if the subject is non-political and beneficial to both.
Reasons for Islamic problem in India:-
The reasons for this mistrust are quite well known. The mistrust emanates from the following reasons:-
- The overarching reason is aggressive minority politics since before the partition. The tradition continues unabated and we see declarations of 15 crore vs 100 crore and 15 minutes frequently.
- The glorification of Hinduphobic rulers of the past. In Pakistan, it can be seen in their naming their missiles after Gaznavi, Gauri and Abdali etc. There is no dearth of people in India, who idolize and admire these zealot Muslim Kings of the past. This basically serves the function of providing them associative pride of ruling and oppressing India for the proverbial 1000 years.(actually it is like 300 years for most places.)
- Unlike other world religions, Islam has not seen a major religious reform. It means that religious fundamentalism has never been addressed in Islam. Combined with religiously exclusivist dogma, it means death or condemnation for non-Muslims. You can see the false sense of superiority and condemnation of non-Muslims in the spitting habits (brought in light recently, but ever present.)
- There has been no solution to disputes over the thousands of occupied religious structures f Hindus by Muslims. Temples converted to mosques which have not been returned. There is a principle demand to return Mathura and Kashi (Ayodhya has been resolved.), which clearly have literary and archaeological proofs of being occupied by Muslims (and can be seen with naked eyes), and let Muslims keep other thousands of sites.
There have been many past attempts to solve this Muslim problem in India. Since before partition, Arya Samaj has tried conversion. ISKCON, although not focused on India and Muslims, also tries the same approach. In recent years, Agniveer has also done some work in the area. Clearly, it has not worked and it is not expected to convert all 25 crores of Indian Muslims. Successive governments have tried to integrate them in the mainstream social life, but due to above-mentioned reasons, the ‘Sabka Vishwas’ solution has not worked either. So, it has been deemed convenient to paper over the differences and falsely present to public and the world a face of unity.
It has led to many problems. The endemic riots, most recently seen in Delhi; internet trolling from both sides with religous jibes and ridiculous statements from leaders or attention seekers have endangered the country. The internet revolution in last 5-6 years has only worsened the matters as anyone can make an irresponsible statement online in secure anonymity. It has also given rise to agent provocateurs and foreign elements’ meddling in India. If the current trend continues, we can expect worsening conditions and a veritable clash of civilizations playing out in our country. Nobody would be the winner except the communists, who have always wanted 22 countries in Indian subcontinent.
Suggestions to tackle the above problem in India:-
I suggest a few steps to arrest and counter this trend and we need to implement some or all of these steps within the next 2-3 years:-
- A Truth and Reconciliation Commission based on model of South Africa should be established. Its mandate should be to clear up the myths of Indian history. In this, no foreigner or foreign funded person should be allowed. Indian history scholars{including those not from JNU and AMU} with Sanskrit scholars should debate, discuss and come to agreement on an authentic history of India. A previous efort under Mazumdar was a great effort. The official historical facts should be the only ones taught in all schools and colleges. The interpretations can, of course differ.
- A Hindu Genocide museum should be built, lest we forget. Research should be undertaken to uncover sites, and years of specific events and the stories propagated through movies, stories etc.
- Anyone teaching, propagating or advocating alternative wrong facts should be prosecuted under laws similar to Germany, where just raining a Nazi salute can land you in jail. Muslim despots like Aurangzeb, Gaznavi etc. were no better than Hitler and praising them should attract strict punishment.
- Foreign influences and money in religious matters in India should be strictly regulated. It has been no more apparent than today during COVID crisis. Pan Islamism is a danger to the country.
- Govt should also be more proactive on the Internet. The hatemonger Zakir Naik was preaching since years with hundreds of YouTube videos, but the govt acted very late. A viable method is to provide a single app where one can report only such hateful content. Local police can review this user generated data. Vigilant citizens of India would certainly help in this.
- Regulate religious education in India. Prescribe a course, made in consultation with eminent religious scholars, and any deviation in preaching/instruction should be punished.
- Bring UCC. It is constitutionally mandated, logical and will help in mainstreaming Muslims in a generation or two. Ignore the protests as Nehru Govt did in case of Hindu Code Laws.
These statements may look radical but most of these have precedents in European countries, which are supposed to be paragons of secularism. Unfortunately, the first six years of this govt have been rather lacklustre in terms of educational reforms, which form the backbone of making a strong nation. It is to be hoped that after the COVID crisis, one would see some real action from the govt.
