An Indian Muslim as President, a Pakistani Sikh as Prime Minister, an Italian Catholic as leader of the ruling party, and a Pakistani Brahmin as Leader of the Opposition!!!! What more could a secular heart desire? This is the exciting, multi-colour, rainbow India that they had been trying to transform into a boring, single- colour, saffron India.
I have spent the last five and a half years apologising for India, trying to persuade friend and foe alike not to give up on India. I have been telling my fellow Indian Muslims to keep faith, my Pakistani brothers not to gloat on Hindu fanaticism to justify Muslim fundamentalism, my English friends not to take the likes of Narendra Modi as representative of Hindus and even less as representative of India. It’s been a tough five and a half years for me, even at this distance away in London. “India Shining” was casting a sinister shadow on the kindly face of Mother India. The Ram Rajya that was being promised was not the one that Mahatma Gandhi had in mind but the one that his murderers had.
Oh I know it is not the first time that mosques have been destroyed, temples demolished, houses burnt, women raped and innocent people killed in the name of religion. What was different and ominous this time was that the state machinery, instead of being used in pursuit of its constitutional duty of protecting its citizens, was allegedly used to aid and abet the vandals and the arsonists and the killers. And to add insult to injury, the state appeared to justify these obscenities by trying to explain them away as a reaction to actions, committed or perceived, recent or medieval.
I am reminded of an incident recalled by Rajmohan Gandhi in his excellent book UNDERSTANDING THE MUSLIM MIND, when way back in 1947 his father Devadas Gandhi, then Editor of Hindustan Times, said to his Muslim friend Hamid Ali Khan of Jamia Millia, with tears in his eyes ” Hamid Sahib, main sharminda hoon”( Hamid Sahib, I feel ashamed ). Devadas was referring to the killings of Muslims in Delhi ( a “reaction” some would say to the killings of Hindus in Lahore). Almost half a century later, another son of this noble family, Rajmohan’s brother Gopal Gandhi, then Director of London’s Nehru Centre, rang me up one December morning in 1992 and repeated almost identical words that his father had used to Hamid Sahib in 1947 “Yavar Sahib, main bahut sharminda hoon”. Gopal was apologising for the destruction of Babri Masjid the previous day.
Neither Devadas nor Gopal had done anything to apologise for, either to Hamid Ali Khan or to Yavar Abbas. But they felt guilty on behalf of their co-religionists, and being helpless to prevent the atrocities they were apologising to someone who would understand their shame. If only I could find someone to whom I could apologise, someone who could understand my shame at the guilt I carry on behalf of my co-religionists for the heinous deeds committed by them, not only against non-Muslims but against Muslims as well. If only I could wash away these stains from the face of Islam, a faith whose very name means “peace”.
Anyway, I am grateful for small mercies. After five and a half years of a kind of madness, when the lunatics seemed to have taken over the asylum, India is, one hopes, back on the track set for it by its founding fathers. We have been to the brink and looked over the precipice. The “Hindus” had to have their Hidutva, just as the “Muslims” had to have their Pakistan. Democracy (given to India by its constitution) has saved India from going over the precipice.
But we cannot afford to be complacent. We have to be extra vigilant. The monster of fanaticism has not been crushed. Nor does it have to be, as long as it is kept under control and not allowed to acquire political respectability. It can best be done, if I may venture to suggest, by actively promoting the values that really matter and by striving to preserve and protect our noble constitution to the best of our ability. No more, no less.
And, with all humility, I say to my fellow Muslims in India. Rid yourself of the minority syndrome. You are not a minority. You are proud citizens of India with full and equal rights under the constitution. Hold your head high and assert your rights. Where they are denied, expose that denial and invoke the constitution. Fight if necessary. But fight with courage and AHIMSA.
Gandhi has given to the seemingly weak the strong weapon of non-violence to put up an effective fight against injustice and tyranny. Martin Luther King used it and won the rights the blacks had as equal citizens under the American constitution.
The Palestinians too could do well to emulate the blacks of America. If only they would abjure violence and pursue their just cause with non-violence they would be far more effective. If every time a bulldozer appeared they would block its path and be ready to be crushed by it. How many could the Israelis crush? One? Ten? Twenty? , before the media woke up and took notice, and the conscience of the world was stirred? Remember the lone protester blocking the path of an approaching tank in Tiananmen Square? Conversely, how many Palestinians have lost their lives by putting up a violent struggle against an overwhelmingly superior violence? They seem to have the courage to be ready to blow themselves up. But it doesn’t seem to be getting them any nearer their goal. On the contrary, they are losing more ground. Why not use the same courage and die a real martyr’s death facing, fearlessly and un-armed, an obscenely armed bully. Far far fewer lives will be lost this way and ultimately, sooner rather than later, the Palestinians will win, for the right is on their side.
Non-violence is a truly disarming weapon in the hands of the weak in their just struggle against the strong. In fact it is the only weapon. But it needs real courage to wield. The legacy of Mahatma Gandhi is especially relevant today.
Jai Hind.
-Yavar Abbas
Date: 8th June, 2004