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Strange as it may sounds, this is the two stories that we saw in this month of June. Strange because in the environment of hate that has filled India and the Western world stories like these are hard to find.
A Muslim woman who is a scholar of Sanskrit and a Hindu girl who wants to memorize Quran.
Why are we surprised? Two religions that have lived together for hundreds of years will have people who will want to learn about their neighbor’s religion. In some cases, they may even want to master it.
In early years of Islam in India, there was lot of translation of Hindu religious and literary texts in Persian, which means they must have required commands over Sanskrit to able to do a proper translation. Interestingly enough, there is less translation of Islamic texts into Sanskrit or the regional languages. In fact, even first Urdu translation of Quran came much later.
This brings me to the point that Hindus of India have not made much attempt to understand Islam. Early Muslims in India spent much time in understanding Indian culture, religion, and language. Hindus who learned Farsi or Urdu were mainly people who were looking for a job in the government of that time. I am not aware of much intellectual or literary work by Hindus to understand Islam or Muslims. Unfortunately, very few Hindus even now can claim to understand Islam.
I believe there is more understanding of Hinduism by Muslims than Hindus understanding Islam. For a peaceful co-existence awareness and respect need to be two-way street.
Work like Historical Role of Islam by M. N. Roy is few and far between. Its mostly ignorant comments like the future President of India, Pratibha Patil or deliberate misinformation by Sangh propagandists that we see on a regular basis.
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A Muslim woman being scholar of Sanskrit is nothing new. Scores of Muslims (including women) take up Sanskrit at Masters/PhD level at AMU, Aligarh (and quite likely at other institutions too), and many of them do take up advanced study of the Language to be considered as “scholars”.
Search, for e.g., for “Sanskrit” on this page:
http://amu.ac.in/studentdetails.asp?faculty=Faculty of Arts
Thank you,
you proved my point, on that link I found a number of Muslim and Hindu names studying Sanskrit but when I looked at the list of students studying Arabic I found that only Muslims are enrolled for Arabic.
Hindus need to learn Arabic and take up Islamic studies to understand Islam and Muslims.
kashif, your post reminds me of Kabir and his doha:
pothi padhi padhi jag mua
pundit bhaya na koi
dhai akhar prem ka
padhe jo pundit hoi
I made this comment on this blog on a similar issue, and I will repeat some of it here.
I guess we need to agree that Islam is after all, a foreign religion. I do not imply Muslims are foreigners or that we don’t have a shared history. But Islam as a concept is foreign, isn’t it?
If you think about it, it is more likely for Islam to imbibe Hindu concepts since the latter is native. Hinduism too, imbibed a lot from Islam but the extent of it would never be as great as the opposite trend. Think of it in terms of throwing ice cubes in water. The ice does reduce the temperature of the water, but ultimately it acquires the nature of water. Think of who imbibes more from whom here. Even from a biological stance, a minority species is likely to be influenced to a much greater extent by the majority, than the other way round. I guess we can extrapolate it to cultures too.
Sourav,
instead of adding ice to your water, please a pinch of color and see what happens.
Islam is foreign or not is not the question. Question is why Hindus are not learning about an important religion that is part of Indian scene for about a thousand years. Communal harmony can not be achieved out of ignorance. All communities need to understand each other, without that you will have ignorant behaviour and comments that will just make it worse.
Your generalization to all Hindus does not make sense. I can give you examples of Hindus who know much about Islam. I can recite the kalma – not that I’m saying that is a lot, but it is wrong to say that “Hindus are ignorant”. I could give you the example of some Muslims – look at our neighbours, for example – who mock Hindu Gods and then say “Muslims are ignorant”. Does it make sense?
If you’re talking about adding colour, then I can point out that many Hindus visit the shrines of Nizamuddin in Delhi and Chisti in Ajmer. I have heard Pandit Jasraj sing a bandish titled, “Mero Allah Meherban”. Look at the Bauls of Bengal – songs like Ram Rahim.
Your basic argument which can be summarized as “Muslims are tolerant, and Hindus are ignorant” does not hold. If anything, it is you who is drawing a distinction between Hindus and Muslims.
Sourav,
First of all, I have not said that “Hindus are ignorant.” I am not sure where you getting that from. Please read it calmly and you will understand that this is not what I am suggesting.
1. I am copying and pasting some text from my post. I hope they will make the point:
2. Hindus of India have not made much attempt to understand Islam.
3. I believe there is more understanding of Hinduism by Muslims than Hindus understanding Islam.
4. Work like Historical Role of Islam by M. N. Roy is few and far between.
So yes I am saying that in general Muslims of India know more about Hinduism than Hindus know about Muslims or Christians. Yes exceptions are everywhere there may be Hindus who know about Islam more than me and there will be Muslims who will remain ignorant about Hinduism.
Yes lot of Hindus visit many dargaahs, but that is out of respect.
I am talking about understanding of the religion. I hope we all make an attempt to understand people around us a little bit better. There is less conflict if we understand each other.
most people from all walks have little time to learn about religion. most of them have to get an education, a good admission, a job, a house and much more than to bikker about religion…
The very basis of sufi and bhakti movement in India had finished the fine line between Hinduism and Islam. Many Hindus read Quran and nowadays quote from it as well and many Muslims as well . Though agree both also don’t forget to quote the larger misinterpreted parts. However, hindus have not only understood Islam but accepted it very warmly as well. An example of Ramakrishna Paramhans who infact chose all paths to God. Many more examples. However, in current day context when terrorists justify their actions through Quran it sometimes confuses people and creates inertia to know more. Alien forces like Osama get complete support in India. Also a quest for divine should be open to lead anywhere but not merely for memorising texts.
I am quite sure if even Hindus understand Hinduism let alone muslims. I am an “agnostic”. I do not know Sanskrit or Arabic but I have read a lot of verse specific translations of both the Bhagavad Gita and the Quran mostly from Wikipedia. You could argue that the knowlege contained therein may not be correct. However, logically since everyone (including the apologists and antagonists) is allowed to edit content the final content is “most likely” to be impartial and tending to be “true”.
Knowing a language is not so quite as important as understanding a religion. From what I read, here’s what I found:
Myths cleared on Hinduism
===========
1. There is a definition of “varnas” in the Bhagavad Gita but it is neither based on one’s birth. It is based on one characteristics, behaviour and level of understanding.
2. No defined “path” to salvation – all paths will lead to it. This implies that whether you are muslim or christian or buddhist or hindu you will attain salvation if you are true to your path
Myths cleared on Islam
=============
1. The earliest historical evidence of the Quran does not date it to the time Mohammad was alive. The Sa’na manuscripts are the oldest dated to no earlier than 645 A.D. (with a 95% accuracy). Mohammad died in 632 A.D.
2. Most of the Shariah law as it exists today in its extreme form seems to derive its interpretation of Quranic injuctions and Hadith that were no earlier than the 8/9TH century A.D. The Hadiths seem to done during this time. So, any deeds or behavior of the Prophet as given in these Hadith may not be quite authentic as they were done nearly 100-200 years after the death of Mohammad. So Shariah law which seems to be based more on the Hadith than on the Quran needs to be re-interpreted in light of the present circumstances.
3. Specific verses given by critics of Islam seem to have both liberal and conservative interpretations. So, one may interpret them to make a society more liberal or more conservative. I guess most current “islamic” governments of the world seem to have the latter rather than the former in terms of their Shariah law. This had resulted in a lot of misunderstanding. If these so call “Islamic” governments could re-analyse their “islamic” laws by directly referring to the Quran instead of the Hadith and transform their societies into more liberal ones then maybe it would give an opportunity for the muslims to showcase Islam as a liberal rather than a conservative religion.
These said, I have more like a “amatuer” in trying to understand both these religions and my views could change upon further reading and understanding.
3.
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