Wednessday, June 16, 2010
(PHOTO : Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi, 1944)
‘Ishvar Allah tere naam ‘ , ‘Na hindu baane ga na musalman banega’ , ‘Mashab nahi sikhata aapas mein bair karna’ . Well India has worked really hard to convey the vision of how founders wanted India to be. Subcontinent was divided on basis of religion and pakistan came into being which got further divided on basis of regionalization and bangladesh came into being.India unlike its neighbour pakistan took a secular path. Nation which was divided on basis of religion which took peak form in late 30s , had to be made a secular country which like its history of thousands of years can thrive with harmony where all religions can live peacefully.
Hindu -Muslim relationship is very complex issue. India is birth place of hinduism , jainism , buddism (though place where buddha was born in now in nepal but place where he achieved enlightment is still in India) . Sikhism too began in India but after partition birth place of guru nanak came in pakistan territory.
While these religions began in India , Zoroastrians came down to India from iran and became part of India since then.
Coming to muslims as per popular belief , Islam was brought by invaders . But this is not true. First mosque was built in kerala during times of muhammad peigambar .
Though Al Muhallab ibn Abi Suffrah attacked multan and took prisoners of wars as well as wealth along with it first muslim ruler was qasim ,Umayyad’s general. He conquered sindh on 710 CE which gave birth to myth that muslims ruled India for 1000 years.
In 725 Junayad, the Arab governor of Sind, sent his armies to destroy somnath temple. This began impact of hindu-muslim relationship as first blow.
Further Muslim conquest was met with severe resistance from rajputs later and arabs were defeated in battle of rajasthan in 738 CE.
In early 11th century Mahmud of Ghazni launched 17th expeditions on India . It is ghazni who is infamous for destruction of somnath temple. Ghazni ruled pakistan punjab and sindh as far as Indian subcontinent is concerned. Ghazni’s empire lasted for 175 years and then faded away.
Ghazni is not held in positive light by hindus chiefly because of demolition of temples and looting of wealth. He is considered more as lootera than as sultan (his title). Pakistan has missile dedicated to his name!!!!!!!!
Another infamous mulslim ruler has been ghori. Unfortunately pakistan has missile named after him too. Ghori fought with ghaznis (again a muslim ) and challenged prithvi raj chauhan , was defeated once by prithvi raj but returned to defeat prithvi raj chauhan.
This paved way to establishment of delhi sultanate . India saw many rulers getting changed till barbar entered the scene. Ironically pakistan has missile in name of babur too.Mughals had long years of rule till aurangzeb . After aurangzeb , mughals were too weak while maharasthas became strong force and later Britishers took over.
In all invasion and conquest , destruction of temples and looting them was being done or approved by many muslim invaders and rulers.
Aurangzeb was notorious of implementing sharia on non muslim country while shahjahan , jhangir and akhbar were far more liberal and inclusive.
Now coming to complex relationship between hindus and muslims. In history muslims have largely being invaders challenging locals . Some they defeated , some they made allies . Many demolished temples , many are accused of leveling taxes , forced conversions.
While spread of Islam has sufis factors of Islam , caste factor of hindus as well as taxes and use of force , none can justify demolition of temples in current times. One cannot adhere to other’s faith but one does not have right to demolish other faith worship places too.
In same way demolition of babri masjhid cannot be justified. One cannot say that some xyz ruler demolished temple 400-500 years ago and so we should demolish mashjid now.
Coming to pakistan’s peculiar habit of naming missile after invaders , well it is upto to sovereign Pakistan to understand difference between religion and invaders. I wonder whether if iran attacks Pakistan today , would they entertain them and name missiles after Iran Invaders ?
Invaders didn’t invade to expand religion. We have had Muslim saints doing that since centuries without invading and demolishing temples. We have ashoka who sent missionary to sri lanka to do that, he didnt need to attack sri lanka to spread Buddhism which is official religion of sri lanka in today’s time. Invaders benefited from their invasion .
Now coming to main point of the article. I have been extensively reading many pakistani forums , websites , Indian forums and Indian websites where citizens interact with each other.
Since India got parted into two after independence , Muslims too got divided into two nations. Pakistan became Muslim dominated country while India became secular country with hindu majority. Indian Muslims since then have time and again being suspected by some sections of having soft corner towards Pakistan.
Strangely the super stars of bollywood are khans , the main bowler of India is muslim , the most trusted person in India is muslim , while many many successful people in India are muslim but amidst these , there are section of people in India who are not ready to forget and forgive. There are sections who have frozen in days of junaids , ghoris , Ghazni and babri mashjids.
Muslims are not traitors , they are proud Indians . Their faith is different and they are not responsible for what ghazni or ghori did. They are equally worried about terrorism , they equally care for India and can give life in its defense like Havildar Abdul Hamid.
Coming to ‘hindus are cowards’ theme. This was popular in pakistan till 1965 and still is in some fanatic section among Indian muslims and people like hafiz saeeds in pakistan.
If we look at Islamic conquest only two countries have not succumbed to Islamic dominance in the world where Islamic conquest were held. If we forget about hindu epics and talk about 1300 years , battle of rajasthan , pritvi raj chauhan , hemu , rana pratap , rana sangha , rani laxmi bai , rani padimini , shivaji to modern day freedom fighters like subhash chandra bose , chandra shekar azad to Mahatma Gandhi *who influenced history of the world) were all synonyms of being brave , fighters and immense mental strength.
Humans share similar emotions universally since we all are one species .Religion may be different but in the end humans are humans and every religion , every nation , every breed has people who are brave , who are coward , who are nationalist , who are traitors , who are intelligent , who are fools , who are strong , who are weak , who are opportunist , who are altruist , who are ambitious , who are followers , who are visionary , who are self interested. Religion has nothing to do with that. All religion has all sets of people and muslims are better than hindus or hindus are better than muslims is myth.
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