During my schooldays, we had a subject named Value Education. It was composed of some 8 values, and by studying them, it was expected from us to become good citizens of the country. I don't know if all my batch mates have become good citizens, but I sincerely hope they do before they die and not before the nation dies. Anyways, during the lecture, it used to be imbibed on our immature minds that India as a country has unity in diversity; in spite of the cultural and religious pluralism, we as Indians are tolerant towards each other. It used to be well accepted by all of us in those days.
But it was soon going to change. Being a resident of Mumbai,I had closely seen the ‘93 riots and the resultant bombings. The only question that had come to my mind was "What could be the reason?", "What could be the motivation?" I didn't get any answers then, but always wanted to find the answers. Six years later, the Kargil war happened, where people from all faiths under the umbrella of Indian armed forces were able to win the war. Again, I thought of the same questions. And this time I had answers. In the Indian Army, or rather any military/paramilitary force, individuals practice their religions in a collective way. The Army has a MMG (Mandir Masjid Gurudwara) at all of its stations, where all jawans pray at the same place irrespective of their faiths.
Not long after that, Godhra happened. And there are always some news about forced conversions, communal clashes and so on. We haven’t really bothered to understand the reasons and the underlying effects of communalism. The mentioning of “unity in diversity” and citation of ’93 riots has a relevance. The ’93 riots had happened between Hindus and Muslims. However, these two religions were hand in hand to drive out north Indians from Mumbai at the call of a leader. Isn’t this a situational and a contextual unity? We have always fallen to the trap of fundamentalists and opportunistic politicians. This fundamentalism exits on either sides, be it Hinduism or Islam. I personally feel that everytime a Hindu thinks of badmouthing/assaulting a Muslim, thinking of him as an enemy of the state, he should also consider the fact that, a Muslim, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, was the backbone of our missile system and the defence system overall. So how can a religion be an “enemy” of the state when a person from the same religion is a “guardian” of your state. There are examples which apply vice versa as well.
For a developing country like ours, FDI is considered to be the best means of achieving economic well being; and stability, is a key determinant for bringing in FDI. We being a state where the political situation is fragile, can’t afford to have a fragile communal harmony. The only way in which we can become guardians of this harmony is by defeating the fundamentalist ideologies rather than the religion.
There will be people who would say, “Why do you even want to care about these things?” It is because of this apathy that we see issues like Ram Janmabhoomi raise their head even after 60+ years of co-existence; and there would always be people who will disagree to what I just discussed. I can’t really answer them but, I can surely pose a question to them “Were you born into your religion by your choice?”
it would be much easier for a politician to rake up religion to win votes than to actually do something worthwhile. And unfortunately we fall into that trap
ReplyDeleteWell, that's the whole essence of the blog; and you are absolutely right when you say we all fall into that trap. But to tell you, we can play a role. Myself and some other friends of mine, had actually launched an initiative to make ppl understand what fundamentalism is, what are the effects and stuff...and u wont bliv, ppl actually started participating in it. Due to monetary reasons, the movement couldnt be sustained, ut we can always have a light word with a rather right wing mentality person and mellow him down.
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