For all Indians the resurgence of India in recent years is an occasion of pride and joy. And so it is for the 140 million minority Muslims in India. It makes Indian Muslims proud to see their country become one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world. Also, a few Muslims have achieved positions of prestige in India and there are some success stories.
However it pains Muslims to find that most Muslims continue to be marginalized and stereotyped in India and often suspect in their nationalism, not to mention their utter social, economic and educational backwardness, far in excess of the national average. An overwhelming majority of today’s Muslims are of the pro-independence generation. When someone doubts their nationalism or alleges that they may be sympathizers of Pakistan, just because they are Muslims, it causes them a lot of anguish.
In sixty years in post independence India, Muslims have continued to hear questions like, “Now that they have Pakistan, what do the Muslims want?” And then came the slogan, “If you have to live in India you have to worship Lord Rama.” Even some otherwise enlightened Hindus are heard saying that “There is a Muslim problem that will not go away.” It pains Muslims that rather than view them as descendants of great patriotic Indians of the past, such as Emperor Akbar, King Tipu Sultan, and Sufi saints like Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer, Nizamuddin Aulia of Delhi, freedom fighters like Maulana Azad and Ghaffar Khan, and the creator of ballistic missiles APJ Abdul Kalam, et al, today a significant number of Hindus prefer to link the entire 140 million strong Muslim community with the handful of tyrants of the medieval past like Ghouri, Ghaznavi, Nadir Shah etc, and the isolated instances of their suppression of Hindus.
It bothers Muslims that the close proximity of mosques and temples in countless cities of India is not interpreted as a sign of the coexistence of Muslims and Hindus over the centuries, but as that of the forcible conversion of temples into mosques by Muslim kings of the past. As the Urdu poet late BD Pandey, a former governor of Uttar Pradesh said:
“ Hazaaron saal ki yeh daastan. Aur unko yaad haiy sirf itna; Kay Alamgir (Aurangzeb) zaalim tha, hindukush tha, sitamgur tha.”
( Hindus and Muslims coexisting is a tale of a thousand years. And yet all they remember is that Alamgir (Auragzeb) was a suppressor of Hindus and a tyrant.)
Today after sixty years in independent India, despite their utter powerlessness and impoverishment, despite no government action against the culprits who massacred thousands of Muslims in Gujarat (2002), Mumbai (1993) and other cities in countless riots and who demolished many Muslim mosques and shrines, the Muslim Indians are neither willing to accept the epithet of Mohammadya Hindu, nor ready to give up their authentic home grown Indo-Islamic identity as the price for equal say in the affairs of their nation.
As erstwhile freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak said, “Freedom and equal rights is our birthright.” They also have no special love for Pakistan which is just another country for them. Today’s Indian Muslims want to be proactive in nation building and place great trust, not in the government but in the seventyfive percent secular Hindus who genuinely want to coexist in peace and dignity with them, remove their alienation from the mainstream of India and make them an active partner in the world class Indian nation of tomorrow.
The emergence of true grit secular leaders like VP Singh, Jyoti Basu, Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Arjun Singh etal on the national scene after decades of vote bank politics and the politics of political expediency gives them hope for the future. Muslims fully expect the silent majority of secular Hindus to remain silent no more but speak up and demand that the power structure take action to redress the genuine plight and deprivation of the Muslim community.
Photo: Muslim Pot Maker, Gujarat
@Kaleemji & @Milind
Here’s my take on social engineering:
You hire 10 best programmers by merit irrespective of their caste. Everyone works hard for a year & company makes profit. Take part of that profit + a part of income of employees & support[education + food + other expenses] 10 kids from slum area who have no chance of getting education. Next year you will get more business, coz your quality of work is great, that means more forex. You hire 2 more employees & support 2 more kids. When the kids grow up, they will be ready to compete with other people & have more self-confidence getting admission or job on their own merit. Now they automatically get added to the skill pool. Do you see, no one needed to document caste of any person which is impossible with reservation.
Its a win-win situation – For yourself, your company, employees, country, kids. Now everyone becomes “Equijan”!!
@Milind
Everyone has Swami Vivekanand in them – we just need to awaken it. Let’s not shrug off our responsibility & hide behind govt.
” Take part of that profit + a part of income of employees & support[education + food + other expenses] 10 kids from slum area who have no chance of getting education. ”
Niceguy,
How can you do the above? How can such a law that violates the basic freedom of people and their right to own and use what they earn as they please, be passed in the parliament in a democracy? Unless you have a Communist Govt that reduces parliament members to rubber stamp and forces them by using fascist methods to pass such a law. How can the govt implement such a law in a democratic setup unless you use brutal police force to implement this kind pf law? Reminds me of Stalinist Soviet Union.
Obviously Reservation system does not just reserve seats in colleges, it provides reservation and financial assistance starting from primary school level. So that Dalit & OBC children get help from govt to start their education at primary school level and gradually progress to college level (diploma or degree).
In a nation where jobs are so short even for educated people how can the half educated get decent jobs so that they can improve their families. Thus how can the children of depressed communities like Dalits (Bhangis, Chamars) OBCs (carpenters, masons etc)ever acquire education which is the only means to get half way decent jobs.
” Everyone has Swami Vivekanand in them – we just need to awaken it.”
Niceguy,
Very nice idealistic vision. But how very difficcult to implement.
Even in affluent, resource rich, low population, big landmass and egalitarian US, no one has ever seen anyone, other than some superwealthy people give ayay their opportunities to the deprived people. So how is that going to happen in India where 90% people are in a keen daily tussle to remove daily economic hardships, and fully one-third of people live below poverty line and somehow survive from one day to the next?
Niceguy,
“Merit” is deceptive. This aims at an equal, but not EQUITABLE opportunity.
The point is that at the entry level itself, the Bahujans are unable to make it since they just haven’t received the necessary inputs.
Preference will have to be given as a means and standard of moderation.
A lot of misunderstanding exists between hindus and muslims because there was no communication between the two communities after independence. That has changed now because of internet.
Some wounds take time to heal. So will the Hindu-Muslim wound. Important thing is we march on talking to each other and clearing each other’s misunderstanding.
Being a Hindu myself, I can say that a very few hindus look towards Indian Muslims as Pakistanis or anti-nationals. You should not bother about this fringe minority much.
@Kaleemji,
You are right we are not evil communists. But, my friend in one of your articles, you were suggesting after congress, communists are new friends of Muslims. How can evils be friends of Muslims?
Infact, forcing companies to hire 50% people based on caste & not merit – isn’t that communism. Taking away seats from 50% of the deserving candidates – is that capitalism? The money govt is going to spend is afterall coming from our pocket only, they don’t have a magic wand.
I never said it [help-one-child] will be forced on people like reservation is being forced. It will be totally voluntarily. Every person who supports one kid’s education will be given incentives like preference in promotion & raise, some tax benefit. Imagine, since we will have best of workforce, the income will be so high, that people won’t mind parting Rs.1,000 – 2,000 per month roughly $40-50. Do you think it’s lot of money? We can give them weightage according to the child’s progress. Also, the company is matching too.
Kaleemji, think of this.. We can be a light in someone’s life. A socially depressed person doesn’t need crutches of reservation, which will keep reminding him he belongs to a certain caste – he needs belief in himself that he can compete.
You never answered, how reservation can help eradicate caste system?
@Kaleemji,
” So how is that going to happen in India where 90% people are in a keen daily tussle to remove daily economic hardships, and fully one-third of people live below poverty line and somehow survive from one day to the next?”
Swami Vivekanand didn’t need lot of money to send his message. Don’t worry, I am working on it. You will see something in action very soon.
I believe every good thing starts with an idealistic vision. You are free to analyze how it can not be done or join me giving inputs how we can do it. In any case I’ll find some crazy people who share my vision.
@Milind,
Why do you underestimate “bahujans”? They are as smart as you & me. They don’t need our mercy. Let’s not belittle them.
Which inputs are missing? Please clarify.
What’s wrong with enabling everyone in our society to be ready for Equal opportunity?
Niceguy,
One of the biggest inputs they lack is acceptance.
Acceptance makes so much difference to a person’s state of wellbeing. Also, they do not have the access to similar educational facilities, due to their poverty.