From: aam9n@honi1.acc.Virginia.EDU (Ali Ahmad Minai)
Subject: Protest Letter (Was Ayodhya: symptom, not malady)
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 20:18:55 GMT

In article <7897@news.duke.edu> shafqat@neuro.duke.edu (Saad Shafqat) writes:
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>While the events of Ayodhya are reprehensible in principle, we must
>all - Hindu Muslim alike - recognize it as merely a symptom and not
>the malady itself. It was a catharsis long overdue.  No contemporary 
>person is at fault, and certainly not Lal Krishan Advani nor his followers.  
>My heart goes out to those of India's citizenry who had sought to hold the
>Indian secular creed to a high standard, only to see it crash in Ayodhya.
>But I urge them and everyone else to recognize that the problem is not
>religious intolerance.  No, no, no.  The root cause of Ayodhya, the
>malady behind the symptom, is poverty, a chronic illness that breeds 
>misery, intolerance, communal strife, hate, bigotry, insecurity, 
>malice and impatience.  Do not blame the people.  Blame instead the events 
>and individuals that have led them to their poverty.  Conversely, to 
>redress, do not ask for tolerance and calm.  Ask instead for wealth and 
>affluence and peace will follow.

The doctor diagnoses correctly, but only half the disease. It is true that
poverty has a lot to do with the volatility of emotions shown in this incident,
but that is not the fundamental problem. People can be poor without being
violent and intolerant. Anyone who looks at our societies carefully can see
where the root of the violence lies: in the petty, bigoted and superficial
attitude of the opinion-makers. Poverty might provide masses of discontented
people willing to be roused, but the prime responsibility lies with those who
rouse them. We, the so-called educated, enlightened intelligentsia of our
countries, zealous in the defence of our prejudices, lacking in compassion
for others, completely convinced of the exclusive superiority of our own
pathetic ideas --- it is we who are to blame. In our countries, among our
people, we have created and cultivated a culture of distrust and hatred. We,
Muslim, Hindu and Sikh, have taught our children to despise the other. We have
seen each other as eternal enemies, forgetting that we have lived together for
centuries. We have rewarded and nourished the worst forces in our societies,
using our schools as places of indoctrination, our media as instruments of
parochialism, our places of worship as houses of hate. Why are we surprised
when our children grow up to burn each other alive? When did we teach them
otherwise? It is not just what we teach but also what we do not teach
that matters. Many among us say, "I never taught my child to hate anyone".
Perhaps they did not, but society did, and they did nothing to stop it.

Respect for others comes from the comprehension of one's fallibility. We who
think ourselves the custodians of Eternal Truth are ill-equipped to respect
the wisdom of other cultures, societies and peoples. And do not tell me of
those glorious ancestors of ours who nurtured knowledge in the Dark Ages. They
did, but they were not like us. Today, we would imprison Ibn Rushd for 
questioning God's word and flog Omar Khayyam in public for drinking wine.
We judge others (and, thus, ourselves) by appearances, and are unwilling
to put in the effort necessary to understand ideas. We have lost the habit
of thought. It is not surprising that we act thoughtlessly.

The Indian Sub-Continent has a long history, and the events of our times are
but a hiccup. In the end, the complexity of India (the India of history, not
the state of Bharat) will overwhelm us and, perhaps, teach us to live together
again. But I am convinced that if we and our children are to have a prosperous
future, we must change the tenor of our cultures. Partition has torn us apart,
but we must live with that fact and not let geographical divisions divide our
compassion. If we only understand our own, we will only love our own. And that
will kill us all. We must try to understand the other, to love the other, not
for some motive of profit but as a motive for life. As long as
Muslims live in India as outsiders, and as long as Hindus see them as invaders,
neither Hindus nor Muslims are safe. In the last hundred years, and especially
in the last fifty, we have all moved towards greater segregation rather than
more integration. We must reverse that trend or pay a terrible price. And it
is not the poor who can do that, it is the rich and the middle classes. The
war on poverty can only proceed apace if our resources are not constantly
diverted by senseless strife. Poverty might be a cause of violence, but it
is also an effect. Let us break the circle in as many places as we can and
not just one.

I do not advocate the anullment of Partition, though that might well happen
one day. Some things we must do are: 1) To create within our countries a
society that not only tolerates but encourages the circulation of different
ideas, however inimical they might be to entrenched orthodoxies; 2) To
re-educate ourselves in the history of the Sub-Continent, not in a superficial
and parochial way, but with the intention of understanding its complexity;
3) To increase contact between people --- especially young people --- from
all countries in the region; 4) To encourage participation by all communities
in the cultural life of each community. To implement these steps
would, of course, be a major task, beyond the capacity of any individual or
group. Still, one must ask oneself what he or she as an individual can do to
further the cause of understanding.

Most of you will already have seen the letter that some of us are planning to
send to the Prime Ministers of our countries and to prominent newspapers. While
we have tried to cover all the issues involved, the focus of the letter is on
the long-term inculcation of understanding between our communities. Every death
during the current violence is an irreparable loss to families and individuals,
but the most insidious effect of this carnage is the radicalization of entire
communities. Those who are dead are the victims of violence, but those who
remain alive can easily become carriers. That is what we must prevent. Let us
abort this fetus before it grows to be a demon. To all of those who claim to
have a conscience, I suggest a calm reading of the letter. Regardless of your
personal beliefs, if you feel outrage at the murder of humanity, please
consider adding your name to those who sign this letter. It is the least we
can do.

Ali Minai