Your article makes me feel that you need to go back to the basics. Perhaps travel in various parts of the country, and ('travel' by reading/interaction) to find out how different cultures and traditions all have truth, and are to be revered. Ahmedabad would be a good start.
Firstly, no one till date knows what really happened at Godhra. How come you are jumping to conclusions? I have met members of many fact-finding teams who went there within a week. They all say that no eye witness at the station or in the town wanted to talk about it. They seemed to be afraid to talk - probably since it is a police case.
Secondly, the Muslim leadership (all names you mention) condemned the Godhra attack roundly as beastly inhumanity, the same day, the next day, and the following day. These condemnations may have been published ... but the media not publishing it is not their fault!
Thirdly, I did not see any news channel or political party that did not condemn Godhra attack.
Fourthly, violence like that of Godhra or Jammu and Kashmir, and Gujarat riots, must be contained. It is the responsibility of the Central and State Governments. It is indeed a tragedy that our Governments wear bangles, or incite even more violence instead of containing it.
Fifthly, if the Muslim community commits violence, it must expect violence of a greater magnitude in return being weaker politically, for the result of violence is only more violence. Tragically enough, same goes for the Hindu community. I for one dont want my country to become a graveyard - and I want to respond with a quest for effective governance to control mob violence.
Sixthly, if you visit the places where the riots are taking place, you will see how far the government can control riots if it has the will to do so. Notice how Laloo has not allowed riots in a state like Bihar (because it suits him politically), nor have major riots taken place in West Bengal (the Government there takes active steps to both build a lively cultural climate, and amity between communities to live together in peace.
Next, the irresponsible statements of the Muslim leaders that you have quoted are nowhere accepted as secular by any media. The statements are pernicious and such people should be arrested and subjected to psychological counselling to open up their hearts to peace.
Next, you say Vajpayee hung his head in shame because dead were Muslims. But this is not true. The reason he felt shame is that the Government actively committed this pogrom, as you will find evidence of when you visit Ahmedabad.
Also, you should read the historical original texts as I have done to find out about the Babari Masjid dispute. Such disputes have emerged out of hatred and fear between two communities. If you visit Ayodhya and see the hundreds of sites claimed as the authentic birth place of Sri Rama, you will see what I mean.
Finally, about Uniform Civil Code: by accepting cultural diversity where it does not hurt the interests of other communities living alongside, we can create a climate for cultural progress. This will happen quickly as soon as Muslim women are educated. Currently very few schools are opened in Muslim areas due to communal feelings of Government officials (who prefer to see Muslims remain in slums and create problems like Shah Bano's). If you visit homes of poorer Muslims and talk to them, you will see they all want access to the normal education - preferable to madarsas.
I wish you could see that protest against Uniform Civil Code is nowhere anti-Hindu. All over the world multiculturalism is celebrated, though it need not appear in the same form everywhere. However, personally, I prefer uniform civil code ...but I see far greater problems in our judiciary that has completely failed us. No matter what the law may be, the richer, stronger guy wins!
Having a great deal of love for your creativity, I have taken the time to write to you. Love for the country inspires you to write your article, and I appreciate that with all my heart.
However, certain very violent forces are gathering strength in the country, and you have bought into their arguments without going into the facts as deeply as you should, nor tried to think and analyse fairness of each point you make, for yourself. Instead of accepting or rejecting even my arguments, I would like you to do a deeper research, for which I fear you dont have much time. But if you did, it would be a valuable service to the country.
The media does not report everything as it is, as you well know, and it is upto us to choose which side we want to believe, and we often do so without realizing our pre-conceived biases ... we should not believe either side, and if we care enough, to go on the ground and find out the truth so that violence and hatred (no matter what religion, blood and tears have the same colours, and hatred strengthened by fear is as poisonous in each) can be effectively challenged. I dont want India to turn into another violence-ravaged economy.
To me your personal effort to distinguish truth from falsehood is far more important than concepts of secularism.
Yours truly, Johara.
TheWiseOne comments : This in in response to Johara Shaheen's comments. I think one of the valid points made in Sunny Singh's editorial is the hypocrisy exhibited by the caboodle in India that loudly advertizes its 'secular' credentials. I submit that their secularism is a sham, that their goal is not so much the pursuit of truth as much as the desire to wield any handy stick with which to beat Hindus and Hinduism. For instance, Hindus are held up to higher standards of proof for the Muslim atrocity in Godhra but the Hindu atrocities that followed the incident are fair game to malign the whole Hindu 'parivar.' That the Babri Masjid was built on the ruins of a destroyed Hindu temple is a hard pill to swallow for the 'secular' brigade despite the evidence available. The 'secular' brigade demands rigourous proof of Ram's existence. No such demands are made of the Muslim claim that the Prophet received his revelation from God or of the Christian claim that Jesus is the son of God. As always, Hindus are held up to higher standards of proof than anyone else.
I also take exception to Ms Shaheen's collating the Godhra violence with that in Jammu & Kashmir. The latter is a prime example of Islamic thuggery, of ethnic cleansing of thousands of Kashmiri pandits. I notice that the 'secular' fellows haven't shed many tears over the pandit's plight compared to the oceans shed over the recent Ahmedabad riots. The J&K violence perpetrated by Islamic terrorists is with a view that religion - Islam - is sufficient grounds for secession from the Indian Union. Somehow, this doesn't seem to shock our self-anointed 'secular' brigade.
The-Wise-One
Arun Gupta comments : What one believes the purpose of government to be varies by ideology - e.g., the role the government should play in the economy is a major area of dispute.
What no one disagrees with is that the government must provide for the security of its citizens, and in this the governments of India are miserable failures.
PM Vajpayee and government should be hanging its head in shame, not just for Ahmedabad and Godhra, but for J&K and elsewhere. Indians are being killed with no effective action by the government.
Trying to cosy up to Pakistan, to my mind, is conniving at the deaths of Indians, just as much as what happened in Ahmedabad.
Which brings me to a criticism of this forum - I do not believe in "South Asia" - it is as much as fake as the undivided India proved to be in 1947.
-Arun Gupta
Bhardwaj comments : P Sec are islamist pinko ...Right on Sunny Singh its time we called spade as Spade
Secularist also support them. Shaheen from ? also supports them. Islam provocative. Muslims are provocative. Mecca Koran is provocative. Mecca Muhameed is provocative. Invader muslims are provocative. Every action & saying of muslim are provocative. Mushlims never had shame and invaded other countries. It is Ok to invade muslim countries. It is OK to demolish muslim mosques as they did to others. If demolishing of idol worshiping temples in invaded land is not a crime for muslims then demolishing of mosques in that lands are not a crime or anti-islam. Mecca Alha is a provocative and he should be sent back to Mecca.
Muslim invaders want complete surrender to them. This muslim conflict with India is 1000 years old. Muslims want to rule others.
KIlji muslim invader of India. I am a Mecca Koran reader and wanted to rape Padmini. I burnt the towns and went Chittor fort, killed more than 50000 Hindu scums, then burned the town with women & children, entered the palace to rape Padmini the housewife by killing all women & children. I could not raper and destroyed her Hindu temple. Me muslim Kilji like to rape. What muslim wants muslims gets it. This is muslim invading culture.
From the Sawf Editorial Team: We always appreciate intelligent and thoughtful remarks. We welcome diverse points of view and like to see them passionately and provocatively argued. To that end, we exercise a minimum of editorial intervention. However, we also want, at the same time, to uphold standards of civil discourse and hence disallow slanging and shouting matches in our fora. There are many other sites where one may vent spleen if one so desires. Please bear these guidelines in mind when you post next. Thank you for your consideration.
The P.M. of a country must be suffering from senile dementia to blame its citizens for happenings in Malaysia (which btw is the most diverse model country 100 times more peacefull than India where 20% of population isIndian mostly South indian who have only good things to say about Malaysia ,compared to India )
Have not Nepal been violent with 160 ppl. killed massacred in braoad daylight just two days ago ,And it is the only Hindu state in the world making Hindu 100% violent incapable of peaceful governing a HINDU state .Dont forget the Royal Massacre too. Muslims live as minority in Singapore with other ethnic group how does the Singapore can goven & Hindu Vajpayee cant??? .
That is because Hndu were beaten to pulp by superior chinese in 62 WAR ,for they are BETTER than HNDU .Admit hindu are impotent weakling good for nothing
"Vajpayee in a public rally on Friday suggested Muslims were to blame for violence in parts of India."Hindus stay in millions but never hurt others' religious feelings. But wherever Muslims are, they do not want to stay peacefully," Vajpayee had said."It is happening in Indonesia, Malaysia, everywhere. They (Muslims) stay by threatening and frightening others," he said, .....IS THIS A SANE TALK OR FROM THE INTERCOM OF AN-INSANE ASSYLUM WHERE SUCH BUDDHA BELONGS cranky old man...elect Ameican Like young healthy mind candidate atleast not senile demented!
Joy comments : Ms. Singh, This is indeed the appropriate time to raise such questions! Nearly 2000 Muslims butchered in Gujarat (along with the 60 Hindus killed in Godhra, on whom you linger), and now is just the right moment to open up the victim-blaming can. Bravo!!! I salute you and others such as you, the great Hindu sons and daughters of mother India, who cannot look beyond the identity they've been socialised in. Well done. And when the VHP and RSS are finished with their ethnic cleansing project, I'm sure you and others such as you will be appointed their intellectual mentors. BTW, I am a Hindu woman. Not that it matters, but I just wanted to assert that there are Hindus who think otherwise, who are not swayed by all the vitriol that floats about.
Anuchopra comments : totaaly agree with sunny. a voice of sense in all the nonsense around
Ashish Ranjan comments : Who has justified the attack in Godhra???? And the "famous" journalist has come to this conclusion so easily.
Blame Nehru, because he tried to protect minority?? Hey, minorities need to be protected. This is true everywhere in this world. Thats why we have different kind of reservation for Minority in most countries(including USA). Plesae spare Nehru atleast...Doubting his secularism would be the most devious thing to do.
By citing the example of Shahbano case(which by the way was a blunder), communal minds have a weapon. They just want to equate everything to Shahbano case and uniform civil code.
One should know that all religious communities in India (including Hindus) are governed by uniform civic code in some matter or the other.
The bottom line is though time and again political parties have played with "psuedo secularism" to gain political mileage, their action cannot justify the threat minority have from Parties like BJP. RSS was here spreading hatred even before independence. Don't say that the rise of RSS is a outcome of "pseudo secularism"............... Rise is because of the fact that religion has been used as a tool to instigate masses for ages. people are religiously intolerant. be it Islam or Hinduism.
Your article echoes the views of most of us who are by now sick and tired of the talk of secularism by politicians. Secularism, as you have rightly pointed out, has come to mean appeasing and pleasing the minority to obtain their votes. And not surprisingly the political groups representing the minorities have often taken undue advantages of this. This type of pseudo-secularism has only set up a vicious circle and has caused deeper and deeper divisions between the majority and the minority.
Now the question is what can be done to end this vicious circle and replace it by a virtuous circle ? I think the possible solutions are - sincere attempts and efforts must be made to organize a proper reconciliation between hindus and muslims. Reconciliation process will help both groups acknowledge the misdeeds of the past and help to move on in a constructive way rather than harboring hatred of the past misdeeds and getting stuck in the past. It is also important to understand that unfortunately politicians rarely ever truly represent the thinking and views of the people. However the people are left to face the consequences of the deeds of the politicians. Therefore a reconciliation process that is set up by bringing together non-political (religious and spiritual) groups could become an important and effective force in effecting positive change and pressurizing the political forces to achieve their aims related to religious issues.
- finding a way of keeping religious issues away from politics and giving people the direct authority (without involving politcians as the agents and middlepersons) to make decisions about them. Currently the decision-making on religious issues rests in the hands of the politicians who merely exploit the issue for power brokering purpose.
Any religion by its nature at its core cannot be proven to be based upon sound logic. That means when we introduce another word "secularism" is ones ability to tolerate all kinds of logical and illogical ideas. Ultimately each individual is driven by economic and social needs.
The goal of a get-rid of-muslim movement is "a more for us" movement. It lacks style and it also lacks sound judgement. The bottom line "Is that possible to achieve that utopia?" . If not, then abandon such foolish idealogy now!
Hindustan is a place where Hindus live. Nobody says that other Indians cannot live there and nobody says that Hindus have a right to Hindustan (because the first 5 letters are the same) anymore than non-hindus. Neither is it written that India should be inhabited by Hindu patriots who will constantly invoke an absurd idea that muslims are unpatriotic based upon "cheering sampling in cricket matches or their resistance to Mosque demolitions". I wish all Hindu patriots would reside or leave for Nepal (I am sure they are unwanted there) a declared Hindu state and sing Shiva Hymns and climb the Himalayas.
If we can become peaceful and let these turmoils subside within our hearts then we can sing, listen to music play cricket, pursue agriculture enjoy the nature and life. Or, we can be overcome by hate and revenge and .... and each individual loses their personal peace, spend our time discussing religion(alogic), discuss which came first the chicken or the dog. Burn each other, throw bombs, ...
Eventhough Kali-ma got rid of the asuras she forgot that eventhough she was a goddess her path to destruction was incorrect(signified by her protruding tongue) when she steps on Shiva. Eradicating evil (if that is the goal ) is in itself evil. In order for good to exist there must be bad.
I find sensible people talking about each others religion and various reasons to grab from each other. Utimately the purest and innocent of ideas contain vested interests. If we stopped doing these burnings and anarchy and suffered silently then at least we do so with dignity.
All Hindi weddings, events of joy and Hindu funerals, events of sorrow are laced with the beauty of Bismillah Khan's shehnai. An instrument on whose notes the soul rides to heaven. Rashid Khan's ardent singing to Krishna. I wonder Krishna will listen to a BJP or VHP supporter or all these muslim singers, artistes who are the essense of India. Stand in queue! Guess who comes first for Krishna ?
If you can't sing don’t but don’t shout. However just like I wrote before in order to know who is singing some of us should shout then we know the difference. It is difficult when everybody shouts then the very definition of singing changes or we forget what singing is.
Aslam comments : yeh karwan koi rok nahi sakta tum nahi to tumahara ladka musalman banega.
