This is going to be a really tough letter to write. I mean, the world has changed, dude. Most young people don't believe you exist. When in doubt, they google you, and you know what? Your PR guys need to be sacked for complete and total misrepresentation ; check out the rubbish thrown up by the search engine. Depressing stuff, man. Totally not cool.
It's about time you got smart and joined some social networking sites. Tweet away, darling. We want the real thing. Gyaan in your own words. And no special privileges for being God – 140 characters like everybody else, okay? Set up a Facebook account – don't you want to know how many ‘friends' you have on earth? Get your own interactive website and watch the fun.
Business first. Where were you when we in India needed you the most? I mean the country was holding its collective breath on September 30, waiting for ‘The Verdict' . Anything could have happened, who can restrain our hotheaded netas but your good self? But you were Missing In Action: nowhere on the scene, leading to much confusion as various groups fought over your official residence . Silly people! Every child in the world knows you prefer to live in the hearts of believers. What's the fuss over a monument? Do you really need one? Have you ever needed one?
As for the h a a l a t of those three judges, they were landed with the toughest job in the world. Imagine being asked to decide which grand abode is your personal preference – a new temple or a demolished mosque? Nobody thought of asking you. If the monument is meant to please you, surely you should have a say in the matter ? We're having an informal, friendly chat, we can always ask for an SMS poll later. Speak your mind while there is still time. The three wise men have suggested a three-month pause. Three months is enough, right? It's called a cooling off period and we're hoping those who are in such a state of agitation right now, will calm down and think this through carefully.
They'll say 500 years of thinking has already gone into this debate. So what? Let 500 years more pass. You'll agree that what's most important at this point is sanity and calm. Status quo is not such a bad option.
We human beings can be so stupid; here we are frothing at the mouth and making all sorts of claims over 2.7 acres of land. Agreed, land prices are going through the roof, but this is ridiculous. Fortunately, young people are more in tune with sensible solutions. Not for them the futile exercise of proving that this is indeed your favourite hang out. This generation is pretty smart. To them it doesn't really matter whether they party in this disco or that. So long as they have a good time.
With fundas like these in place, they are laughing at all those old fogies hyperventilating on television and telling them, "Get a life, you guys." These kids are absolutely right. But will anyone listen? No. Because it suits netas of various hues, it keeps them in business.
This is your moment, God. Get up and do your thing. Strut your stuff. Throw attitude . Tell those feuding fellows, you'll have none of it. They may ignore you completely since in any case you are incidental to this manmade controversy. There are so many worthier issues that need immediate and urgent intervention . Our bachchas need schools, colleges and toilets. Mandirs and masjids do not help their cause, but temples of learning do. Drill some sense into the chaps preparing for Round 2. Advise them to open their eyes to India's new realities; our restless youngsters are not interested in the politics of religion. They'll settle for jobs and a better life, any day. Let the netas coopt the desires and dreams of the majority – India's youth – into their agenda before launching another legal battle that could go on 18 or even 80 years. This is really too much, and as everybody was chanting that dramatic day, "We need closure."
The verdict is out. Three judges had the unenviable task of decoding the sentiments of a billion-plus people. The judgment is apolitical and bold. Who can possibly please and appease almost one-fifth of humanity? Not even you. There is talk of ‘reconciliation' but nobody is saying what exactly that means. Besides, can there be a board meeting without the chairman , which is you? Better that we put this centuries-old issue behind us as quickly as possible before a foreign hand stirs up trouble. What say? Till then, you can chill.
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Babri, we hardly knew ye |
TORONTO, CANADA |
A number of voices from within and outside the Indian Muslim community have offered opinions ranging from surrendering all claims in the name of creating goodwill to the stance that not even an inch of the site could be conceded. As these competing options battle it out it may be a good idea to probe if any lessons and generalizations can be gleaned from this entire saga.
First of all, there appears to be no such thing as a coordinated Muslim leadership on the national level. As Syed Shahabuddin of the All India Majlis-e-Mushawarat recently put it: ‘There is no such thing as a Muslim leadership.’ The problem has become acute in the light of the court decision as the masses now realise that they are now ‘leaderless.’
As such, the vacuum has allowed Hindutva forces to politicize this issue for electoral benefits. They might have been hampered in their attempts if what Muslim leadership that exists hadn’t succumbed to their machinations, allowing the issue to be further exploited nationally. There was also the parallel controversy over a Muslm woman, Shah Bano, who received, under court order, alimony prescribed by sharia rather than that prescribed by the state. Incensed Hindu groups on the right then lumped the issue with the Babri Masjid dispute.
Prof. Tahir Mahmood, in his memoirs, writes that he warned a veteran Muslim leader against accepting the existing narrative, but he was rebuked. He writes, “In my opinion the Babri mosque dispute was indeed a local issue which Muslim religious leaders later turned into a national - and Hindu politicians misusing Hinduism into an international issue.” Such wise counsel went unheeded and the community now has to bear the consequences.
There are also well meaning individuals who have called on Indian Muslims to give up their claims and pave the way for the construction of a grand temple. This course of action is tantamount to communal suicide, as this will further embolden the fascists in the country who now think that they are being rewarded for their actions.
In any case, giving up rights will not solve the issue. Now that the court has delivered its ruling, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a militant Hindu organization spearheading the construction of a new temple on the Babri Masjid site, has demanded that the Indian Muslims should give up two other sites where mosques stand on lands Hindus claim as their own, Kashi and Mathura, as well, without offering anything in return.
The best thing under these circumstances for the Muslim community will be to proceed with this case to the Supreme Court and accept the final verdict. Let there be no mass mobilization on the issue any more. But the real history of the Indian subcontinent, which is fairer to Muslims, needs to be uncovered, organized, and promoted.
Throughout the Babri Masjid saga the Muslim intelligentsia, scholars, and leaders did not adopt a pro-active approach in creating awareness about Muslim history. They remained content with the adequate research provided by scholars of repute like Romila Thapar, when further updated studies might have helped clarify things.
In direct contrast, the pro-temple movement utilized a large number of scholars to churn out tomes of their biased and grossly unscientific versions of history to support their claims. They carried this propaganda in the academia as well as in the public. As a result, we now have a situation where a significant number of people believe that Muslims were destroyers of temples and persecutors of Hindus.
This propaganda succeeded in creating the impression that this conflict is essentially about latent Hindu grievances, which have been nurtured for centuries. This half-truth and grossly inaccurate version of history neglects the fact that the Muslims have equally suffered in India since time immemorial. There is documentary evidence to show that Hindu rulers, Sikh soldiers, Parsis, and foreign colonists destroyed hundreds of mosques. Hundreds more have been destroyed, desecrated, or occupied since 1947.
Everyone associates ancient Mughal rulers such as Mahmood, Babur, and Aurangzeb with temple destruction. But no one seems to know that the Portuguese General Afonso De Albuquerque had destroyed scores of mosques in 1507. No one remembers that soldiers of the Kakatiya Dynasty indulged in destroying and desecrating mosques despite being in alliance with the dynasty of the Adil Shahis. No one remembers that in the thirteenth century the Parsis in the Cambay had instigated Hindus to demolish the minaret of a mosque and burn it to ground. No one remembers that Sikh soldiers had occupied Delhi’s Jame Masjid in the aftermath of 1857 and converted it into horse stables.
Such examples abound but Muslims took no serious interest in uncovering and publicising these instances. Doing so would have taken the winds out of the sails of the Hindutva movement’s attempts to stoke fires based on artificially constructed historical memories.
It is about time that Indian Muslims do their homework and correct the half-truth versions of history.
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