To my "secular" friend...

I know it is politically incorrect to bring up so called political debates in front of you because you are least interested in all this crap – as you might like to put it. But unfortunately, I couldn’t help but bring forth this issue. Maybe my birth into a family which had an opinion on each and every thing is to be blamed. I must confess that before I started to pronounce ‘daddy’ I was expected to have an opinion on ‘Islamic Terrorism’. Most radicals I’ve met were either reasonably rational or ‘opinion-less’ before graduating to extremism. But for me it was quite opposite. I was more extreme in my views on politics and society when I was 12. It could sound funny but my ‘aim of life’ used to be to kill at-least one muslim. Since then as I got introduced to different people and their points of view, and later as I travelled and read and analyzed more and more, I kind of became more rational, reasonable and logical. And it was when I broadly figured out how the world operates. And it was also when I figured out that neither morality nor logic nor can power alone govern human behavior. Human behavior – as an individual and as a group is guided by host of genetic, environmental, instinctive, biological and social factors. And believe me, it is mind boggling. It sometimes even forces me to go back from the theory of evolution to the theories of intelligent design and intelligent transplant. But that’s altogether a different subject.
At this juncture, I’d like to share some of my experiences and thoughts with you. And I will not ask you why you call yourself secular because I know that you don’t know a shit about secularism. You merely say this word because everybody else does. I also know that what you actually want to convey is that you are tolerant, peaceful and treat other religions with same respect and warmth as your own. You know that people of faith are right in their paths of seeking solace in God. You know that all spiritual paths eventually lead to God. And you don’t reject a person merely because his way of worship is different than yours. What you actually want to convey is that you believe in equality and compassion of all human beings. And you’re absolutely right. Absolutely! But have you ever thought who taught you all this? How come your vision is so broad? How come you are so aware and so enlightened? Have you ever thought? Tell me honestly. If not then let me throw some light. It is by virtue of you being an Indian, born into this civilization, born into one of the Indian families with such values, born into this magnificent tradition, born on this spectacular land that you are so tolerant, so content, so clear and so true in your thoughts. In simple words, you were born enlightened.
Let me tell you that you have a recorded history of at least 10,000 years behind you. Your ancestors developed these values of tolerance and compassion much before the first European started to eat the cooked food. You knew that trees have life before you were taught this officially. When people tell you that wild animals must not be killed and rivers must be preserved you are not surprised because this is no new information for you. It’s a way of life for you. It’s a way of life for you to look after your parents, touch feet of elders, treat your sister as an equal, marry only once and respect your spouse, take care of your children throughout your life. It’s a way of life for you to pay respect to the forces of nature and to personify the good things into gods and goddesses and in-turn aspire to imbibe those good things in yourself. It’s a way of life for you to be aware that you are more than a biological body. You are a manifestation of all those good qualities which you call God. It’s a way of life for you to be aware that you have an opportunity to make yourself a better human being in this life so that you could be born as a refined being in your next birth and you hope to achieve the perfect bliss after you have risen to that level that you don’t need to take any more births. It’s a way of life for you. That is how you are Indian or Hindu. Did you know that Hindu means Indian? Do you know that before Persians told us that they call us Hindus – or people of Indus – people living on the other side of river Indus, we never even used the term. We called ourselves Aryas or Bharateeyas. We didn’t have religions because everybody had the same way of life. Yes we had different sects – Vaishnavas, Shaakts, Shaivas and others but we always had some underlying unity and sense of being one people. It was foreigners who coined the term Hinduism or Indian-ness and this how they described our collective values.
Practically, it was only after Muslims invaded our country and settled in large numbers that the concept of ‘us’ and ‘them’ emerged. All other invaders preceding Muslims either left with our riches or settled and lost their identity in our great Indian Diaspora thereby becoming an inseparable part of us. But with Muslims, it was different. They were not just random tribals. They were a force with clear political and social agenda guided by the Caliphate of Arabia. I must objectively state that I’d not be exaggerating if I say that the Muslim invaders killed at-least 20% of the Indian population mercilessly and forced another 30% to convert to Islam in due course. Yes, it is true that we Indians, in absence of single political entity and in over-abundance our liberal values, lost out to the Muslims who ruled large parts of our country for many centuries. But still we struggled and managed to preserve our culture and traditions unlike other preys of Muslim aggression like Persia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Turkey, Spain, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan to name a few who lost all of their identities to Islam.
Well, British colonizers succeeded Muslim rulers in our country and rest is well known to you because it is taught extensively in our text books. And eventually after nearly a millennium of foreign rule we finally liberated ourselves in the year 1947. And then we gave ourselves a really good constitution that clearly reflected our values as a civilization. But as it turned out, Muslims living in India wanted a separate country for themselves. And it came as a surprise and shock to us. Maybe we had started to expect a certain behavior from them. We wanted them to think like us – act like us – be like us. Tolerant and compassionate. I understand that this is quite natural. It is difficult not to expect good things from others. But others might have limitations. Others might not have the legacy of thousands of years of evolved civilization. Others might be still primitive in their views. It is sometimes hard to understand the limitations of others. Why an African kid takes double the time solving the same math problem as compared to his Indian classmate can explain the power of developed intellectual faculties by virtue of being a part of a glorious past.
That the Muslims of India and elsewhere are still guided by a single book and a single prophet is a fact. That they have a distinct identity which is superior to the identity they inherit as citizens of a particular country and which they want to protect at any cost is a fact. That the moderate voices amongst them turn out to be either too timid or too few is a fact. That they would require another 500 years to realize the tenets of mutual respect, tolerance and harmony, too, is a fact sadly. The time when a common Muslim man would dare say that all paths lead to God and there is no harm in having diversity of cultures and faiths, the time when a Muslim living in India would dare say that he is proud to be a successor of our glorious tradition of several thousand years is still far away. Just like you, I too, wish that the realization may come to them sooner than we expect but my problem is what do I do now? Today? This year? In the next 50 years? Can I let somebody else’s ignorance ruin my freedom, my rights, my security, my culture, future of my children and sovereignty of my country? Okay, I might have a moral responsibility to enlighten others who are intellectually deprived but at what cost? Should I keep fooling myself that no more Pakistans will be carved out again? Different identity would require different country again. It is just a matter of numbers. Suppose, Muslims outnumber Indians in this country, what value system will prevail? Obviously the value system of the majority community. Would I want my future generations to slave again for Muslims? My answer is - no. No. How can I let that happen? Why shouldn’t the better value system prevail? Can I afford to lose my glorious tradition to some stupid, barbaric and primitive ideology? My answer is – no.
I want you to know this fact – India is liberal, democratic and tolerant only because we are in majority – we Indians – we Hindus, as we are known today. We are the messengers and torch bearers of superior cultural values. If we lose our political and demographic ground to Muslims, these values will go down with us. Is this what you want? I hope not.
And yes, about you proclaiming yourself “secular”, let me tell you that prior to 1st April 1977, India was not a “secular” republic. The word “secular” was inserted in the Preamble of the Constitution of India vide 42nd amendment during Emergency imposed by Mrs Indira Gandhi. This act was done undemocratically and illegally, as everyone knows, and today the bloody word has become so fashionable among our shameless political class that anyone who opposes the injustice of extending extra constitutional privileges to the Muslims like reservations in jobs and education, pensions, grants and Haj subsidies is quickly termed as non-secular. So, unless you plan to contest elections next year and hope to seduce the Muslim vote bank, please refrain from using the dirty “s” word. It will serve nothing except making you prone to being used and being fooled. India is NOT secular and neither should it be. Our motto is Satyameva Jayate and not Allah-o-akbar. Our song is Vande mataram and not Bismillah-o-rahman-ar-rahim, our symbol is Dharma-chakra and not ‘crescent with a star’, our armies still refrain from recruiting muslims for good and our national language is Hindi not Urdu. We are fighting Islamic terrorism everyday. Secular is nothing. It’s a farce. Beware.
Good Luck.
~<100420101438>