From: budaraju@chewi.che.wisc.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Babri Mosque and other Hindu-Muslim conflicts - 5/10
Date: 10 Dec 92 22:40:14 -0600
Distribution: world
Organization: Univ of Wisc, Dept of Chem Engr

The following are excerpts from an interview of Asghar Ali Engineer by Sridhar
D. Damle, a free-lance reporter for India Tribune (Chicago) and co-author with
Walter K. Anderson of the book "The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism", Vistaar Publications, New Delhi,
1987.  Some extraneous or redundant material has been deleted; a few
grammatical errors have been corrected; subheads have been put in for clarity.
 
The interview took place on Dec 2, 1990, in Chicago.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. WHAT IS NATIONAL HONOR?
 
A: Is it the only way to redeem national honor? You retrieve 3
temples and redeem national honor? Do you think that in bricks
and mortar lies national honor? Or national honor lies in seeing
our country stronger, our people more prosperous? I don't
understand this kind of thing.  And what kind of medievalism we
have injected into our politics?  People coming out with
trishuls, offering cup of blood to Mr. Advani and everywhere
Bajrangbali being displayed. I mean, we want this kind of
modernisation in India? We want this kind of polity? When we say
secularism means religion is a personal affair, let us practice
it. Let us set a model for others. I mean let us say that there
is a controversy between two religious communities, there is
nothing wrong. But, we should go on having dialogue. We should go
on resolving patiently and we should go on making attempt after
attempt.  We may fail in one attempt, two attempts, three
attempts, hundred attempts, yet we should not give up hope, if we
want to maintain unity of our people, if we want to maintain
integrity of our country, if you want to see our country emerge
stronger. But we are not doing this. We are playing petty
politics.
 
When Advani took out Rath Yatra, and he said he was doing it to
redeem national honor, in a multi-religious society, can you
equate national honor with one community? And then you talk of
secularism and secular polity?  How could it be? In a
multi-religious society, national honor means honor of the people
of India, not of Muslims, not of Hindus, not of Sikhs. If every
community starts talking in those terms, where will India stand?
India will break to pieces. And, this is my conviction, that in
'47 it was divided into two pieces, remember it will be divided
into 20 pieces now. It will not stop short of that. Assam will
go, Punjab will go, Kashmir will go, Nagaland will go, where will
you stop?
 
D: Regarding law and order and standstill of the trade, that has
been the situation in Punjab last 2 years.
 
A: Yes, it is very bad.
 
D: But is that a threat to secularism according to you or not?
 
A: Of course. It is a threat to secularism. You know what has
happened in Punjab, now everything is dictated under the point of
a gun. Whether you should smoke or not, whether you should wear
turban or not, whether you should give a particular statement or
not, whether you should vote for a particular party or not,
everything is dictated at the point of a gun. Is it a normal
situation? Should we promote it or we should stop it? I blame the
Congress party for what is happening in Punjab. They did not
honestly try to resolve the problem.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- 
-Srinivas				budaraju@cae.wisc.edu