When the left-supported government took over the reins of power in May 2004, the first item on agenda was to ?detoxify and desaffronize? the textbooks prepared during the preceding years! A hurriedly appointed committee of experts came up with a command performance and declared that national unity was in great danger because of the textbooks that used terms like ?holy river Saraswati? or ?mother earth?. Use of mother and holy was not found secular, it was blatantly communal! The offending books were summarily thrown into dustbins, replaced by the ones prepared by the ?secular? historians over three decades ago! History of education shall record the top priority accorded to ?desaffronisation? and ?detoxification? in what followed after that. One can see a direct link between 15 per cent Eleventh Plan budgetary allocation on communal basis to the manner in which the leftists supported central government destroyed the educational endeavors initiated by academic institutions prior to its coming to power. Certain factual corrections were made into history books.
An attempt was made to present an objective and unbiased history of India instead of the factually incorrect and leftists-ideology dominated history that was in vogue for over thirty years. The arrogance with which it has been brought back has been noted and its imperatives realised by the parents and teachers alike during the intervening period.
Blatantly disruptive initiatives of the last four years shall, when scrutinised in contemporary history shall reveal the communal agenda of those who pretend to be together in politics only to combat what they put before people as ?communal elements.? It is now crystal clear to one and all that the central government has only one agenda: minorities (read Muslims). If the self-proclaimed secular parties had sincerely done anything positive to enhance the levels of Muslims, their condition would not have been far inferior in ? secular governments run by comrades for three decades in West Bengal than in ?Modi'scommunal Gujrat?! It is one of the revelations of the much-hyped Sachar Committee Report!
When the Prime Minister, in his at the National Development Council Meet in Delhi, comes forth with the brilliant idea that Muslims have ?first right to resources?, the entire nation stands askance: if this is not communalism, what else could it be? Subsequent clarifications apart, the intentions are no more a secret. The XI th Plan document bares it all once again: 15 per cent resource reservations shall be on communal lines, no matter whether the term used is minorities or Muslims! Prior to this there was so much else that focused exclusively on Muslims: Sachar Committee report, proposals for job reservations on the basis of religions, equal opportunities commission, national commission for minority educational institutions, minority status to Aligarh Muslim University, identification of districts with 20 per cent and more Muslim population, opening of thousands of Urdu medium schools, grants for Madarsas to celebrate national festivals, proposal to set up national Madarsa board and one can go on counting. As if all this was not sufficient enough to sow the seeds of communal divide, the creation of a ministry for minority affairs divides Indians into two sharply marked segments- Hindus and the rest! Concerned Muslims do ask:?is this ministry really functional or is it just another of the promises that have been made to them for over five decades in the name of ?combating communalism??
Assurances and promises that every one knows shall not be fulfilled are a part of present day practical politics but when it crosses all limits, the nation must wake up and take note. The significant positive outcome of the religious divide created by the communalists under the fa?ade of being the only ?saviours of the secularism? is: People have seen through the games secularists and leftists play in the name of secularism. Further, the Muslim community has also realised that they get nothing extra except the apprehensions against them in other communities and accusations of being the ?blue-eyed -boys? of the secularists! For the present conglomerate of political parties running the central government, the only community, which deserves no extra care for its poor, deficient and deprived is the majority community! Every one else must be taken care of. Perceive a typical situation in a village school in UP, consisting of 100 children, all the generous provisions shall flow to the 25 Muslim children and the rest shall be left out to fend for themselves! What a disastrous impact it would create on the social and religious fabric amongst those who suffer poverty and deprivations together in their daily vocations to let the two ends meet some how? It is indeed shocking that those who have totally detached themselves from the basic responsibility enjoined upon the government in a multireligious society – to achieve social cohesion and religious harmony, are governing India. It may take decades together to put the things back in the right frame after the present government is removed by the people next year or by their outside supporter-the comrades- in the present year itself.
Samuel P. Huntington presents the outcomes of an enlightening enquiry on ?What it means to be American? in his by now well known volume entitled ?Who are We?, He finally infers that the core values of the American settler society were essentially defined 200 years ago by the White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) settlers. Everyone who comes from anywhere and settles down in US is sucked into the WASP values. United States is certainly not a theocratic state. If some one dares to state that the Indian values emerged in the Vedic period and these have evolved with time incorporating external influences whenever found useful, he/she would be immediately declared an outcaste, a Hindu fundamentalist and in more clear terms, someone from the saffron brigade! Are our young persons told in the classrooms that the concept of acceptance of otherness and practice of equal respect for all faiths, cultures and languages are outcome of the philosophies developed by the saints, scholars and religious preachers much before the Abrahmic religions entered India? The fundamental unity of India would have been unconceivable but for the values enunciated by the Vedas, by Gautama Buddha, Bhagwan Mahavira at least 2500 years ago, if not before that. Abrahmic religions were welcomed in India by ?Hindus? with open arms, provided all the necessary help and supported to establish their own places of worship and maintain unhindered continuity of cultures and tradition. Today, the secular fundamentalists project only the majority community as ?communal? and hold only this community totally responsible for all the backwardness of every other community (read Muslims). The common man now understands this disastrous attempt to decimate the culture of ?every human soul is divine and hence to be given the due respect?, which has been nurtured for ages only by the Indian civilization.
Nothing can be farther from truth. Historians, academics and scholars from abroad who attempted an understanding of India, its culture and heritage, without the burden of ideological compulsions, have paid great tributes to the culture of acceptance and universality of human bondage. Dr. Radhakrishnan, to whom secularism in Indian context meant ?equal respect for all religions?, quotes in his book ?Eastern Religions and Western Thought? the impressions of Abdul Razak on what he saw in the State of Calicut: ?The people (of Calicut) are infidels; consequently, I consider myself in an enemies country, as the Mohammadans consider everyone who has not received the Koran. Yet, I admit that I meet with perfect toleration, and even favour; we have two mosques and are allowed to pray in public.? Abdul Razak was an Envoy from the Court of Persia to Indian States about the middle of fifteenth century. The continuity of India'sadherence to the path of concord through the long historical journey stands testified without any shadow of ambivalence. The rock addicts of Emperor Asoka of third century B.C. are still the living legends of the practice of ?equal respect for all religions and faiths?. This is what Mahatma Gandhi pleaded throughout his life: ?Sarva Dharma Samabhav? – equal regard for all religions. The concept stands totally ignored in thought action and deeds of the present set of secularists who refuse to appreciate the intent behind the use of the term ?Panthnirpekshata? and not ?Dharamnirpekshata? in the amended preamble of the Constitution of India, which included the term secular for the first time in 1976 under the 42nd Amendment.
Needless to say, the alien invaders trampled upon the finest of the thoughts, traditions and practices evolved in India at various stages of history for their vested interests. Many of them looted and devastated India. They also attempted religious conversions by the sword and also by other coercive means. Their objective mainly was to subjugate India, delink it from its culture and heritage and denounce both these priceless possessions of the Indians. The inhuman exploitation and plundering of physical and cultural assets by invaders in colonial context can be understood as it has been a global phenomenon. Under the Islamic conquest, religious discrimination was practiced at its worst. All possible harassment and humiliation was inflicted on Hindus to ?break their will power? and force them to convert to Islam. Even cruelties beyond human imagination could not even partially disturb the inner strength of Guru Tegh Bahadur, Banda Bahadur and legions of others who preferred martyrdom to the forced religious conversion. Having passed through all these harrowing periods of history, Indian ethos of acceptance has never rejected any human being, any sect or community. India extends equal regards to all religions irrespective of past instances of religious persecutions. The positive influences were received and accepted with open arms. The Sufi tradition and its influence and acceptance are only one of the several examples. That is the strength, which makes the entire world admire the resilience of India and, above all, its spiritualistic approach to life
Revert to the present. Democracy implies people'sparticipation in governance and it ensures equity, equality and nondiscrimination to all of its citizens, irrespective of every conceivable diversity. The Constituent assembly discussions clearly reveal the thinking of the leaders of India who had dedicated their lives in the freedom struggle. They had discussed various aspects of religion-based reservations and summarily rejected them. Even Pundit Nehru had warned that reservations and protections could lead to a loss of fifteen annas as against a gain of one anna to those for whose welfare these may be prescribed. The self-proclaimed inheritors of their legacy consistently humiliate the majority community, hoping to score some brownie points with the minority community. When Ram-Setu affidavit is filed, the conscience of the nation is hurt and a mere withdrawal of the same is just not sufficient enough to assuage it. Those without any political preferences but with definite commitment to the welfare of all Indians are aghast at the manner in which the majority population of India is being hurt in their faith and belief. When Jamia Millia Islamia confers an honorary doctorate on Maqbool Fida Hussain, it is certainly an act that is intended to provoke and create avoidable ill will amongst the Indians on the basis of their religious faiths. The Taslima Nasreen episode has cleared any possible doubt about the ?hidden agenda? of the secular-fundamentalists of India. Their silence speaks volumes on their hypocrisy in regard to secularism itself.
Politicians will always be there in democracies, some destined to make a mark in striving for the welfare of the masses, others for their own selfish interests. Nations suffer when short-sighted and self-centered individuals come together with vested interests and usurp power for certain short periods. India is passing through such a phase. The present government, surviving on day-to-day basis at the mercy of the communists, appears working under the illusion that communalizing Indian political scenario with attempts to placate Muslims could help it return to power. The damage being done shall certainly have to be corrected in near future by Indians who firmly believe in what Rabindranath Tagore had said, ?India is destined to be the teacher of all lands?. Sri Aurobindo had predicted that India would be ?the moral leader of the world?. What made them and other luminaries to make such predictions with such an astounding faith? For the answer, let one recall the words of C. Rajagopalachari: ?If there is any honesty in India today, any hospitality, any chastity, any philanthropy, any tenderness to dumb creatures, any aversion to evil, any love to do good, it is due to whatever remains of the old faith and old culture.? The point could be made as to how much one could depend upon the ?old faith and old culture?? This is best answered by the brilliant exposition of India'sinclusive culture by Kulapati K.M. Munshi: ?Indian culture is a living force. It absorbs alien elements when necessary but transmutes them into new pattern of homogeneous richness It is therefore, a tremendous force of power and beauty which made us what we are in the world today; and will make us what we want to be in the world of tomorrow. Its vitality has been shaping attitudes, disciplines and approaches to life to suit new conditions, age after age- as vigorously in the past as in the present.?
The great Indian tradition of religious tolerance perfected to acceptance is under attack for petty sort-term political gains. Those indulging in the machinations do not realize the enormity of the damage they are inflicting on their own future generations. Vedic religion coexisted with so many different ideas and practices that often were at total variance with its own tenets. Not only Jainism, Buddhism were treated as genuine, even atheists called Ajivikas who did not believe in Karma were allowed to be part of the society on equal basis. Those who had total disregard for spiritual pursuits and had total faith only in materialistic approach to life, the Charvaks, were not discarded. There is no evidence of such a level of acceptance of dissent and diversity of ideas. This strength of Indian culture shall pave the way for a resurgent India that will wipe out the aberrations presently being inflicted on it by transitory forces. India'sknown coterie of leftists-secularists does not realize the inner strength of the people of India irrespective of all possible diversities. It is this acceptance of the diversity that contributes to the vigour and vitality of India.
(The writer is a respected academician and former director of NCERT.)
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