From: shabi@prometheus.UUCP (Shabi Farooq)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Some of Rajeev Gowda's actual views on Ayodhya ...
Date: 22 Jan 93 20:02:40 GMT
Organization: Consilium Inc

India- A cloud with a silver lining
It is but with renewed enthusiasm that I decided to attempt another search for meaningful articles devoid of "Intellectual Excreta", whose omnipresence in this news forum seems to question the very sanity of we Indians. Griping aside, I seem to have succeeded in my attempt and before I proceed further, hats off to
Rajeev. 

Being born to a couple who had acquired a notoriety for their passionate skepticism of religon in general, I grew up (and continue to think in a areligious manner which occassionaly borders on contempt for the same). The end result of such a upbringing has been a bitter contempt for and a shocking realization of what religon can do to people, transcending (or trouncing) all religious (sic!), intellectual and racial barriers. It is ironical to see that every religon in its demonic form and/or in its "spirit

ual" form is identical to other. 

India, in my opinion qualifies itself as a pathological case to study the effects of religious gang rape that our country has been subjected to. In modern days, the "rapists" have taken the form of RSS/BJP and JAMAT-E-ISLAM. Needless to say, I am more concerned about the RSS, not because I am a moslem, but because it is an extermist faction patronized by the zealots of a religious majority. It seems clear to me that RSS does not want to be left behind in the race to achieve "Nirvana of Fundamentalism" whic

h seems to abound the Islamic world today. 

One of the fundamental mistakes we tend to make is to implicitly assume that scores can somehow be settled by making the descendents of the supposed perpetrators (of hatred and destruction) pay for the sins of their ancestors. Our main source of light into the "unglorious past of the barbarian Moslem regime" seems to be history that we imbibed in our schools. Today, we see the same history being rewritten by the RSS to be in sync with their philosophy, and one hundred years down the line, every Moslem in m

y generation would have joined the "Club De' Massacre" to which every muslim in the past seems to belong . It was a shame to see Tippu Sultan being recreated as an Islamic monster by yet another "historian". At this point, it is worthwhile to take a closer look at history. Muhamed-Bin-Tuglak, who is dismissed by our history as being a despot, in fact turns out to be a political and a financial genius of that time. This was revealed to me after watching the play "Tuglak" which was staged by the Bangalore Li

ttle Theatre about a decade ago. My asinine history teacher in school (who was ironically a moslem) found it very amusing that leather coins could actually be used as offical currency! 

Mughals came into this country like any other conquerors but what sets them apart is the fact that they came here to stay and not to plunder. This is not to dismiss the excesses committed by them and this is exactly where my confusion sets in. Looking at the caste structure of the Hindu society, it is more than obvious that the Brahmins got a major slice from the pie of privileges. The "lower" castes had to a very big price to pay(and still continue to do so in some parts of the country) to the extent that

 they were not even allowed to pray in the same places as the Brahmins. These are excesses committed by a community FOR WHICH BRAHMINS TODAY CANNOT BE PENALIZED. Going back into the past again, conversion to Islam could have been triggred in part by imbalance of these  privileges. Yes, more often than not, religious conversions are achieved through force, material offerings or as an extreme step... through "Ethnic Cleansing". This stregthens my credo that RELIGON cannot serve its original purpose 
(assuming that it has one that is "pure"). 

RSS seems to take a stand which points an accusing finger at Moslems as being responsible for all the ills of the hindu society. It seems ironical that it is the very presence of these Moslems that brought all the castes in India under the "Hindu" umbrella. Like Rajeev pointed out, under the hypothetical situation of no-muslim-all-hindu India, (actually this seems to be bordering on reality, to my horror), who is it going to be next? Christians? Buddhists? Jains? Harijans?...the list is endless! Actually, 

we could go a step further and declare that Aryans have no right to be in India since, as our "history" says, we were originally Dravidian.

This argument and lamenting can go on endlessly. The point that I would like to make is that we have failed to realize that any community or race claiming right to a particular land is baseless beacause such claims are inherently relative. What is important is that every inhabitant of a country is metted out fair treatment. It is this lack of realization that has lead to the situation in India today. The partition of India was the biggest blunder that Indians made, both Moslems and Hindus alike. But what i

s important for an Indian Hindu to realize is that the Moslems who stayed back in India asserted their allegiance to India - the way it was. The moslems who stayed back were not responsible for the destruction of temples and their replacement with mosques. Yes, there was destruction and mayhem in the past, but such a view point cannot be used to taint every Moslem ruler who came to India and then in turn express the hatred on the present generation. This is the philosophy that RSS seems to be preaching to 

the young minds of our country. 

As an epilogue, I shall continue to hope for the best and my wife joins me in this simple endeavor. 

-Shabi Farooq & Meghamala Nugehally
           
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are soley mineand do not reflect those of my employer.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian