Something of Myself

Politics and Religion

I saw Dev today - starring Amitabh Bachchan and Om Puri. It was a rather murky film, slightly plotless but it triggered off some thoughts about the central Hindu-Muslim issue in my mind.

I remember when the Gujarat riots happened, it got first page coverage in the British media. The pictures were largely focussing on a young, male Hindu fanatic wearing an Om bandana and carrying a talwar to slit off the next Muslim he bumps into. I saw this picture and read about the riot in a train, on my way back from London to Exeter.

I felt sick.

Dev is right to point out that the trouble lies with the politicians of our country who make this religious difference a centre point of dissecting United India. I have never seen a riot in my life and I wouldnt want to see one. However, from what I have seen in movies, read in books and newspapers, it seems that the affair is too bloody and too violent - unworthy of any kind of "just" cause that it is suppose to seek. My grandmother lost a child during the post 1947 Hindu-Muslim riots. Beads of perspiration are still visible on her eyebrows as she recalls the story today.

I feel sick whenever I hear it.

I wonder if Muslims are as devilish as they are made out to be. Of course, the whole issue gets its additional colour from the anti-Pak bashing that our country is so fond of. I am not saying that Pakistan is fault-less. To say that would be to insult the deaths of innocent people killed over the years, to say that would be to humiliate the pain that the wives of soldiers go through - the soldiers who have died defending (what we call) "India". Kargil was the only war that I have seen during my lifetime (T.V. reports etc).

Kargil has left me sick.

But here's one small anecdote: I had a Muslim friend in school. I dont remember his name. We use to play soccer together. I use to eat his tiffin everyday and he used to eat mine. We used to call him a "Moolah" and he never took it seriously. We had good fun together. I wonder if I would kill him if he was in front of me during the Gujarat riots. I doubt if he would kill me.

We, Hindus and Muslims have been living in India for centuries. We never thought of each other as separate. We were always equal, but different. Political parties like the BJP instill hatred and communalism in the masses. The mob is illiterate. The mob understands nothing but freakish violence. These bastards add fuel to fire. I think, we Hindus are to be blamed for making the Muslims feel as minorities. We make them feel insecured. Our neighbour just makes use of it and channelises this insecurity towards (what they term as) Jihad.

Jihad makes me feel sick.

The Koran doesnt call upon Muslims to slaughter Hindus. Neither does the Gita tell us to bring down a mosque and build a fucking temple on the same site. Such sentiments are ours, the Gita and the Koran are beyond these differences.

Merchant of Venice keeps coming up in my mind. Shylock's outburst at bearing the brunt of being a Jew in a Christian community: "Hath not a Jew eyes, organs, dimensions, passions? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you poison us, do we not die?" That applies to Hindus and Muslims as well. Trouble is, our society has a very fashionable liking for producing "minorities", for creating situations whereby every Shylock will demand a "pound of flesh".

I am a minority in Britain. Indians here (from my experience) hardly think of themselves as Hindus or Muslims - they consider themselves to be Indians. It suits them best. It works well to fight against racism. Therefore they use it.

Back home our fat cats like to call themselves Hindus - others like to swear by the Koran. Marx was right - religion is the opium of the masses. Trouble is that a slight overdose wrecks havoc. Opium is not a very good thing after all...


P.S. Of course we need to slander the British as well for making the first divide. They are to be blamed for it as much as Nehru or Gandhi. We are what we are because we chose to be this way - we were dumb enough to accept the division. How can you even call Gandhi the father of the nation when he was the key person behind the Nehru-Jinnah controversy? How would it have mattered if he had a Muslim PM? It wouldnt matter the masses. It would matter the Politicians. It is not very different today. We are behaving like marionettes. But for how long?