Swarn Kishore Singh
It does not need a brain of Einstein to find the issue of intolerance very finely intertwined with politics and undoubtedly it has got its roots in the paradigm shift of Indian politics which was effectuated by the election results of May 2014. So I will say it at the outset that;
Jo unka kaam hai wo ahle siyasat jaane,
Apna paigam mohabbat hai, jahaan tak pahunche.
Recently there has been a great national debate on intolerance and as far as I am concerned the biggest and only outcome of this issue is; most of the people who were not well versed with Hindi language added a new word to their vocabulary i.e. Asahi-shunnitta and learnt how to pronounce it properly as well.
While I was doing some research on this issue of intolerance on global prospective, what I came across was overwhelmingly hilarious. According to an article in an American daily “Washington Post”, India is the least tolerant country and Australia & United states are the most with Pakistan exalted to be the second most tolerant country in the world. The same article was then re-published by a lot of reputed British dailies like ‘Daily Mail’ and lot of other dailies in western dailies and Australia. This re-publication of same article in so many of international dailies forces me to reach a conclusion which is; there is something bigger attached to it than any normal people can even think of. This thing cannot be ruled out that the motives hidden behind all this fiasco could be; to defame India at international arena or to corner India internationally and hence deny India a permanent seat at United Nations. And very unfortunately their lackeys here in India are complimenting their efforts very ably. In short, the issue of intolerance is nothing but a camouflage with a lot of hidden motives which are better kept covered.
My direct answer to this Shakespearean farce of Washington Post is that; there is someone called Donald Trump who is contesting for the seat of POTUS ( President of The United States), as a republican candidate and what he is calling for is; “A complete and total ban on Muslims entering United States”. And as a tribute to the tolerance of Australians I would remind them of an article in Sydney Daily Telegraph written by Tony Abbot, former Prime Minister of Australia in which he has clearly said that “all cultures are not equal and that the West should proclaim its superiority over Islam- which has a massive problem” (sic). And in a contrasting proposition I am proud to say that we in India provide Muslims subsidy to perform their religious pilgrimage i.e. “Hajj”. So in such circumstances if United States is a country which practices tolerance of highest class then we better be intolerant.
This issue was dealt very cleverly by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in Wembley stadium when during his speech he said “My India resides in Imran Khan of Alwar”. From the podium of Wembley stadium he had said India is far too complex, far too big and far too great to be captured by television channels or newspapers headlines. The diversity in India is so vast that it would be very irresponsible to set a narrative on the basis of some stray and freak accidents. There are a lot of communities in India which are considered as minorities but have never experienced any hostilities due to their religious belief. There is no country which hasn’t got a law and order problem and India is no different. I will not go deep by arguing the atrocities done to Muslims in France by imposing fine on them on wearing burqa, by not allowing them to use loud speakers for azaan, China banning fasting in the month of Ramadhan, but what I want to clear here is that these countries are not the right ones not teach us inclusiveness and tolerance.
We are a country which is blessed by the teachings of saints and sufis like Guru Nanak Dev ji, Bulle Shah, Sant Kabir Das, Hazrat Nizam-ud-din, Khwaja Moin-ud-din Chisti, Baba Farid, Rumi and lot more. We are a country where a Muslim saint, Bulle Shah openly condemned the cruelty of a brutal Muslim ruler Aurangzeb for killing of a Sikh Guru, Guru Teg Bahadur and called the Sikh Guru “Gazi”. Can such an example of righteousness rising above religious affiliations be cited in any other civilization of the world?
But the real problem is; we only propagate what Aurangzeb did and not how Bulle Shah reacted to the cruelty. Even today miniatures of Aurangzeb are present in our society but followers of Bulle Shah are overpowering them both in number and spirit. So religious intolerance neither is nor was a problem in India; but the problem lies in the utmost belief we people have in the couplet of Maulana Iqbal which says,
“Jalaal-e-padshahi ho ki jamhoori tamasha ho,
Juda ho deen siyasat se to reh jaati h changezi” which means whether it is dictatorship or democracy, when religion is separated from politics it is reduced to brutality.
This couplet of Maulana Iqbal is taken too seriously and too literally by us Indians. We are injecting religion in every aspect be it politics, economics, foreign relations etc. Now it is high time these words of Maulana Iqbal need some substantial alterations and very altered by someone as;
“Jura jo deen siyasat se to ho jaati h changezi” i.e. when religion meets politics, then only it attains brutality.
We need to keep the religion out of the pursuit of politics. The day such a thing happens we will automatically get rid of guys like Sakshi Maharaj & Owaisi brothers and lot of others who belong to the same league. This aspect of intolerance issue got its voice in Chief Justice of India as well, who said “Intolerance is a political issue and tolerance is heritage of India”.
And then whole session of Parliament is washed out without even discussing this issue thoroughly and to the dismay of the people, the BJP leaders are countering the issue by enumerating the incidents of violence which took place in Congress regime. They are counting the violence on Sikhs in Punjab, massacre of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir to defend themselves. No substantial reply appears to come our way except a stupid exchange of innuendos.
The lynching of Mohammad Ikhlaq is by any standards highly condemnable and calls for stricter action against the miscreants, but the callousness in this regard can never be solely attributed to Union Government. As per the seventh schedule of Constitution of India, public order and police are enlisted as item 1 & 2 respectively in state list. Therefore lynching of Mohammad Ikhlaq, which was a law and order problem, was due to inaction on the part of state government. For that purpose the state government of UP is answerable to people of India and the onus is on them to bring the guilty to book. The nature of people of India can never be determined by such stray and freak incidents. We Indians are known for nourishing even our invaders, like we nourished Mughals, the British etc. then how can we harm our fellow countrymen.
We all need to understand one thing that this environment of brotherhood should be conserved and we should keep the legacy of co-existing inspite of being diverse. The terrorists who attacked Paris were just terrorists and nothing else similarly the mob which lynched Ikhlaq was just a group of miscreants with destructive minds and nothing else. We should unlearn the habit of stereo-typing and develop a broader mindset to progress and prosper. Otherwise we have an example of Egypt before us, a great civilization which fell victim to religious conservatism. And there is a very famous saying that “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.
I don’t want to approach the imaginary world of writers and film makers who orchestrated the whole award wapsi fiasco, but the debate would be incomplete if I will maintain the coward silence on this aspect. Those who can count each one of the person who participated and who did not; know very well that the ones who participated are recipients of favours from the earlier Government and those who objected this are those ones who were rejected by the earlier Government and are expected something from the present one. Hence this whole issue is nothing but a political stunt orchestrated by some forgotten artists to butter their respective political parties and hence this issue has nothing to do with killing of MM Kalburgi or Mohammad Ikhlaq. This is just another political stunt and we are the victims. There is no need to follow these people as their actions do not reflect the mood of the people of India but their personal anguish.
And finally I would like to say that we, the people of India are the most tolerant humans on the earth as we are brought up with the teachings of saints like Bulle Shah who has said;
Bulleya ashiq hoyiyon rabb da, hoai malamat lakh,
Tenon kafir kafir akhdey tu aaho aaho aakh.
(The writer is an advocate practicing in Supreme Court of India & a political and legal analyst)
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