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The General
and the Kafir
R.N. Prasher
The whole world seems to be caught in this trap. When confronted with a
modern-day problem, they open an ancient book for the answers. Whether
you venerate a cross, a star, an idol or a cube of stone, whether you
turn to the east or the west for turning towards him who is said to be
everywhere, you cannot escape the irrationality of faith. There is only
one outcome of this irrationality. It has divided mankind into them and
us. Each one of us has his holy icons, which are considered superior to
those of others. Each one of us swears by some ancient text that is held
to be immutable, far beyond the stretched arm of the inquisitive,
rational man. Each one of us has designated a piece of geography, a
structure, a tree, which is holier than the rest of the creation of that
God sitting somewhere, though no one knows where. That God seems to be
enjoying the conflicts; at least the preceptors would like the rest of
us to believe that.
So you open the ancient book and it tells
you that the crusades are good, jihad is good, dharma-yuddha is good. It
is good because it strengthens us and it weakens them. They are children
of a lesser God, all these wars in the name of religion are to be fought
to weaken the lesser Gods of others.
Yes, the lesser Gods must be weakened and
then destroyed. Each faith claims not that it is a true
faith, but that it is the only true faith. Each claims
that those who do not flock to that faith would fry in hell. Each calls
the adherents of the other faiths infidels, kafirs, mlechchhas. The
words do not merely signify unbelievers. They signify hatred. They call
for a resolve to annihilate those of a different belief, by winning them
over, if possible. By sword, if that is not possible. But they must be
annihilated. The superior Gods have no mercy for the lesser Gods and
their children.
The twentieth century, in its middle
years, saw the emergence of an ethos where these words, infidels,
kafirs, mlechchhas and others of that kind, were dropped out of polite
speech. There were religious bigots who could mouth these but a class
emerged which considered it below their dignity to stoop to the use of
these words. Dictionaries mentioned these as offensive, as pejorative.
All religious and racial slurs seemed to be sliding into oblivion, at
least from the public pronouncements of public figures. What they said
in private was never expected to be polite in any case.
So, you could expect renegades like Osama
bin Laden to use these words in their harangues. You could not expect
the Head of a State to use these in his public utterances. It all
changed two months ago. General Musharraf came on the TV, ostensibly to
tell his neighbour to lay-off. Everyone noticed that, commented on that.
But all those who commented on that speech, missed one important word of
the sermon of the General, who that day donned the garb of a pious, holy
man quoting ancient texts for finding a solution to his current
problems. A dozen times, he used the word kafir. He did not lay stress
on it, he did not emphasise it. He was not apologetic that the context
demanded its use, he did not look for an alternative. Kafirs are Kafirs
and if some find it offensive to hear it, it is their problem. The
General became pedestrian for a day, he descended on the street in the
hope that those who are shouting in the streets against him will join
him if he made this concession.
Imagine all the leaders of the world’s
nations addressing their citizens and quoting some ancient text to call
all those who subscribe to a different faith by these offensive words,
infidels, kafirs, mlechchhas. It is not possible for unbelief to be a
one-way street. Either two persons are equally unbelievers for each
other or neither is. If one is going to fry in other’s hell for not
subscribing to his faith, the same fate is assured for the other. It
lies only in a bigot's mouth to say that only he maintains a hell with a
constant supply of boiling oil and that of the other either did not
exist or it has closed shop. As long as there are these demagogues, no
hell can possibly go out of business.
That is the whole problem about religion.
It takes you away from God, which could not be bound in holy symbols,
venerated structures, sacred rivers and purifying wells. It could not be
even bound with time. Did the primordial amoeba have a God? If not, who
created him, who gave him the will to multiply and then to mutate. If
these were just forces of nature, then, let that be God. But that would
put the priests and preceptors out of business. It is for them that we
believe in forms and places, in rituals and in unbelievers. They are the
intermediaries between our heart and us. They tell us that it is God who
taught us to fight each other, that every God and his messenger brought
only one message, destroy those who do not subscribe to his book, his
words. That there is merit in such destruction, that the world will be
peaceful only when there is no plurality of faith left in it. That
peaceful co-existence of faiths is cowardice. That the heaven,
apparently providing for much higher comforts than the scary hell is
reserved for those who partake, with full zeal, in this destruction. As
if to make it more tempting, all faiths stock their heavens with
damsels, hooris, apsaras. Since, these may not be very tempting for the
female part of the population, that half of humanity is supposed to stay
out of decision-making in such serious matters.
Dear reader, you must be wondering if I am
talking of an imaginary world. Yes, I wish it were so. I wish grown-ups
in this world carried at least as much sense in their heads as children.
I wish the leaders led us to a path that led to heaven here and now
without waiting for the hereafter. Even if that heaven did not have
hooris and apsaras.
But wishing is idle, the truth is before
us. Every day, the world’s grown-ups slide lower in their enlightenment.
The apertures become smaller, the lenses are turned in a fixed
direction. God made each of us in a different mould. We seem to be bent
upon challenging Him on that score. Since we cannot reduce the
diversity, we tend to shut out the plurality. Only the children, happy
in their ignorance of the ancient words, can roam around free, dreaming
of a borderless humanity. Learned grown-ups and leaders have to move
with a sense of purpose, in a fixed direction. The direction shown by
some ancient men in some ancient books.
Is there an alternative that can give us
some hope. Let me stand a cliché on its head. Let the scriptures be
quoted only by the devils, the satans, the rakhshasas. The angels can do
without them. People like Osama bin Laden have made their decision.
General, choose your side!
[R. N. Prashar is an Indian Administrative Service
Officer, presently posted as Commissioner and Secretary, Transport
Department, and Member, Sales Tax Tribunal, Haryana, India.] |
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