From: deb@soil.Princeton.EDU (Arghya Deb)
Subject: A rejoinder
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1993 03:24:05 GMT


Since I believe I am the `sober-sounding person from Princeton' Mr. Selvakumar
refers to, I will attempt to answer some of the questions he raised. I believe
these issues have been dealt with quite a few times, and I make no claims
to originality.

No nation's history is free of conflicts, and India is no exception to this.
We have been fighting each other from long before Muhammad of Ghazni 
and Muhammad of Ghor were ever heard of, and needless to say, these
brotherely bickerings have not always adhered to the highest principles
of Ahimsa.

However, having said that, one must again stress a point which
Mr. Selvakumar and gentlemen of his persuasion simply refuse to recognize.
The Hindu-Muslim divide in India is a  present and peculiarly persistent
problem. While the conflicts Mr. Selvakumar refers to were no doubt very
real in their times, the passage of time and the endless flow of events
have reduced them to long-forgotten memories. They have little effect on
our lives today. We have learned to look beyond them.

But the depredations of Babur still stoke the embers of past humiliations
for many Indians, simply because these memories have not been allowed to
die. Seven hundred years of often despotic Islamic rule is obviously past
history. But the events of fifty years back are not so easily forgotten.
Pan-Islamism and Islamic fundamentalism have dismembered our nation and
shattered millions of lives. Even today, they bare their ugly teeth in Kashmir,
where "Islamic freedom fighters" have sent a quarter million of their 
neighbours and fellow citizens scurrying for their lives, forcing them
to forsake home and hearth, tearing apart thousands of years of shared
memories.

The battle is against these twin ideas, ideas which suppress and distort
the essential humanity of men. I agree, Islamic rule is a part of Indian 
history, and we simply cannot wish it away. Our culture, to use a rather
hackneyed phrase, is syncretic, and there is little doubt that it has
been enriched in many ways by coming in touch with Middle-Eastern influence.

But our Muslim brethren have been kept apart, have been forcibly
prevented from drinking deep of the collation that is India - permanently
indoctrinated to reject parts of our culture and heritage which are not
pristinely Islamic in character. How can we be build a vibrant communal
life if a significant number of our fellow citizens are taught to
regard with aversion and contempt the culture and customs of the majority?
Will we permanently remain in this state of uneasy truce, breaking forth
once in while in wild orgies of blood-shed and strife?

The problems are old, but the solutions were thought of barely sixty years
ago. Today those ideas are coming to fruitition. While the events in Ayodhya
have dealt a temporary set-back, the RSS idea of uniting all Indians,
irrespective of religion, caste or language, by the common bonds of shared
culture and heritage is the only way out of the mess. The Congress
model of secularism has cemented vote banks, but has accentuated the
divisions in society. Today, it is time for a new beginning.
                                                      Arghya Deb
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