Taslima Nasreen’s article is worth
pondering, for a good change, she has appealed to common sense. Although the radicals
among Muslims and Hindus may not like this, she has brought a few unresolved issues to the fore. This note is not about Hindus or Muslims, but about dealing with the radicalized
among us.
Taslima has however senselessly stoked
the Hindu fears by using the phrase ‘divide India.’ To Muslims it means
discrimination whereas to Hindus it reaffirms the ‘Pakistan phobia’ that Modi
stokes regularly.
I have written several pieces on
reconciliation and mitigation of fears among the radicalized ones, it is time we hold a national conference on this subject in the
likes of what Nelson Mandela did in South Africa. In almost every conflict we’ve seen in India,
the following revengeful epithets have been thrown: Babar ki Aulad, Aurangzeb,
Somnath, Guru Gobind Singh etc ad-nauseam.
There are a lot of myths out there that need to be brought into open and demystify them. We (all Indians who care for an India where every Indian feels secure) cannot change the hard core men and women, but strengthen the majority who sits on the fence and earn their support with facts. It is a long term effort to build a cohesive India where no Indian has to live in apprehension or fear of the other. Indeed, that was the unstated goal of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism and all religions.
There are a lot of myths out there that need to be brought into open and demystify them. We (all Indians who care for an India where every Indian feels secure) cannot change the hard core men and women, but strengthen the majority who sits on the fence and earn their support with facts. It is a long term effort to build a cohesive India where no Indian has to live in apprehension or fear of the other. Indeed, that was the unstated goal of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism and all religions.
There is a thought worth exploring; the
base instinct in human beings always seeks a target to attack (or hate) to
dump their inexplicable anger on someone, to seek false security by creating
chaos and fear among the targets. Until
the British directed the manufactured ire of Hindus towards Muslims as a part
of divide and rule, their hate in the form of denigration was directed at the Dalits for
several centuries, now it is redirected against Dalits, Muslims and Christians. As responsible citizens, we need to
find channels to direct their anger and bring a sense of security to them.
Please remember it is not about Muslims and Hindus, it is about the radicalized
among us.
Should Muslims defend the bad deeds of
the Kings in the past who happened to be Muslims? Should Hindus take their
anger out on Muslims of independent India who have nothing to do with those
kings?
Part of the reconciliation includes summary from our historians to put a brief history of kings; Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Zoroastrian and others. Wasn’t purpose of every king to loot and annex the next door land? Plunder the wealth of the weak? Don’t we find good and bad kings among all traditions? Was it their lust for power that drove them insane rather than their religion? What has religion got to do with their greed?
Thanks our founding fathers for bringing us our government by us for us.
Part of the reconciliation includes summary from our historians to put a brief history of kings; Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Zoroastrian and others. Wasn’t purpose of every king to loot and annex the next door land? Plunder the wealth of the weak? Don’t we find good and bad kings among all traditions? Was it their lust for power that drove them insane rather than their religion? What has religion got to do with their greed?
Thanks our founding fathers for bringing us our government by us for us.
Mike Ghouse
http://MikeGhouseforIndia.blogspot.com
On Dec 15, 2017, at 10:08 AM, Mohammad Imran wrote:
Supporters of Shambhulal want to prove
that Hindus too can become extremists like Muslim extremists. Shambhulal may be
in jail, but thousands of Shambhulals are walking about free with their anger,
disgust, and hatred. How many of these people can be jailed to maintain peace?
How many Muslim people can be liberated from their daily fears and
apprehensions?
We are all Indians, South Asians — religion, caste, language, history do not constitute our identity. Our love and compassion is our identity.
We are all Indians, South Asians — religion, caste, language, history do not constitute our identity. Our love and compassion is our identity.
 |
| Courtesy : Getty Image |
Why are
Hindus trying to prove that they can become ISIS-like extremists: Taslima
Nasreen
(Representational image) Activists of Bajrang Dal during a bike
rally in Jammu, India. Photo by Nitin Kanotra/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
This is the kind of politics that
divided India once, and may divide India again, writes author Taslima Nasreen.
I have not watched how terrorists hacked to death the Bangladeshi
freethinkers Abhijit, Bijoy, Washikur, Deepan.
But I have seen how Shambhulal brutally murdered Afrazul in
Rajasthan, courtesy his nephew’s video on the internet. The murder-video was
broadcast on the internet, just like ISIS does. ISIS knows that in their
strongholds in Syria, no police will come to arrest them. Shambhulal probably
also thought that no one would punish him.
Both kindness and savageness exist inside human beings. Some
people mute the savage in them, others the kindness.
Shambhulal does not suffer from mental illness. He was cold and
composed while he hacked Afrazul to death. But what was Afrazul’s fault? He is
a poor man from a poor village in West Bengal. Many from his native village
come to Rajasthan and other states as labourers. Afrazul was almost 50 years
old, and he was not falsely enticing a Hindu-woman to marriage or converting
her.
Friends of Shambhulal have said that the he used to love a Hindu
woman but that woman had a relationship with another Muslim man. However, that
man was not Afrazul. This woman once ran away with her Muslim lover to West
Bengal and Shambhulal went after them to bring her back. Apparently, he got
beaten up by some Bengali Muslim workers there.
Many women ran off from Shambhulal’s village and married Muslim
men. Some say Shambhulal killed the first Muslim man he got his hands on and
killed him to instill fear in Muslim men who marry Hindu women to convert.
The question is: how did Shambhulal gain this ISIS-like courage?
Are there other people like him, who support his opposition to Muslims? He
assumed he wouldn’t be condemned, but praised.
When I criticised the brutal murder-video on Twitter, many people
rose up to support him. Earlier when I condemned gau rakshaks beating innocent
Muslims to death, I faced similar ire from the Hindus. They threatened me that
I must not utter a single word against Hindus while sitting in India. If I
don’t appreciate Hindu culture and traditions, then I should leave the country
at once.
Intolerance is at its peak now. I have discussed irrational Hindu
rituals and oppression of women earlier but never received such threats. For
me, humanity, equality, liberty and generosity have always been greater than
any religion. Because I have criticised one specific religion does not mean
that I like all other religions. If religious notions do not change with
time, religion will continue to be intolerant. Then people will have to discard
religion for humanity, or cleverly assimilate humanity into religion.
The more religious intolerance increases in India, the more the
non-religious people are hated and anti-women sentiments celebrated. This is
why the release of Padmavati was stopped or people who kill Muslims for eating
beef can enjoy impunity. Or why the people who murdered Kalburgi and Gauri
Lankesh cannot be traced.
I do not want to accept this changed India and I hope these
changes are temporary.
Popular television channels or newspapers treated Shambhulal’s
murder and the video like it was just another everyday murder. But it was not.
ISIS terrorists wear masks when they kill, Shambhulal did not.
The point of the video is that Muslims can be killed easily. They
can be killed because they invaded India, destroyed temples and plundered
villages, converted Hindus, took over a Hindu land and ruled over Hindus. And
now, they have commenced ‘love jihad.’ Muslim men are apparently faking love to
marry Hindu women and converting them to Islam. This is what Shambhulal wants
to stop. He will not let Hindu women marry Muslim men under any circumstance.
In opposition to ‘love jihad’, Hindus are doing their own ‘ghar
wapsi’ where Muslims should leave behind Islam and accept Hinduism as their
faith. Both ‘ghar wapsi’ and ‘love jihad’ are equally deplorable ideas and true
love between a Hindu-Muslim couple should not be denied or made the subject of
humiliation.
However, the question is: why should Afrazul pay for the mistakes
of Muslim invaders in the past?
On 6 December, 1992, after Hindu fundamentalists destroyed the
Babri Masjid, Muslim fundamentalists in Bangladesh took revenge by burning down
a Hindu temple. Why did innocent Hindus in Bangladesh pay for the crimes of the
Hindu fundamentalists in India? And those who think innocent Hindus are not
responsible for Babri Masjid demolition, do they also think that innocent
labourers like Afrazul should not have to pay for Muslim invaders? If people
consider this fair, then they believe in divisive politics. This is the kind of
politics that divided India once, and may divide India again.
Supporters of Shambhulal want to prove that Hindus too can become
extremists like Muslim extremists. Shambhulal may be in jail, but thousands of
Shambhulals are walking about free with their anger, disgust, and hatred. How
many of these people can be jailed to maintain peace? How many Muslim people
can be liberated from their daily fears and apprehensions?
We are all Indians, South Asians — religion, caste, language,
history do not constitute our identity. Our love and compassion is our
identity.
Taslima Nasreen is a celebrated author and commentator.
(Translated from Bengali by Neera Majumdar)
Other articles(Translated from Bengali by Neera Majumdar)
India's future - Modi and moving forward - https://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/indias-future-narendra-mo_b_4177079.html
The cost of Hindu Extremism - http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-costs-of-hindu-extremism.html
Is Hinduism a Violent Religion? https://www.opednews.com/articles/Is-Hinduism-a-violent-reli-by-Mike-Ghouse-Bharatiya-Janata-Party_CONVERSION_Fascist_Hinduism-150115-386.html
Source of Muslim Extremism - https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-source-of-muslim-extremism_us_57843863e4b04041a9858324
Please feel free to leave your opinion below.
Thank you
Mike Ghouse
