Two Wrongs Do Not Make a Right

Two Wrongs Do Not Make a Right - Part II
Vinod Kumar

This month we at the other common theme – Muslims of today are not responsible for the crime of their ancestors! I am willing to agree with it but before I do so let us look at it little more closely.

There is no denying the fact that the Muslim invaders plundered the country, massacred the people of India, demolished Hindu, Jain and Buddhist temples, and converted people to Islam at point of sword or through economic coercion. This is all well, proudly and with glee documented by Muslim historians themselves. If the Muslims of today are not responsible for these depredations, they also can not be the beneficiaries of the property built from the ruins and plunders of these temples and the labor of the people they enslaved. If one claims oneself to be heir to the invaders’ legacy, he has to accept both, the assets and the liabilities. One can not just choose the assets and ignore the liabilities. If they are not willing to own up to the demolition of temples, they can not claim the ownership of the masjids built by those invaders. You can not eat your cake and have it too.

It is sad that the Muslims of India are not willing to accept the responsibility for anything. They are not only not willing to accept the responsibility for the depredations of the country during Islamic rule, they are also not willing to accept the responsibility for the partition of the country for which they voted overwhelmingly because it promised them a “land of Islam”. They are not willing to accept the responsibility for their own pathetic condition by refusing to educate their children in secular schools instead of madrasas and listening to the mullahs rather to their own intellect. Not only they are not willing to accept their responsibility for their own acts they can not even tolerate others’ talking about it. Such a political climate has been created that well-meaning people are even afraid to talk about it.

The Muslims of India claim to believe in secularism after having voted overwhelmingly for Islamic Pakistan. But even today when in one breath they claim their total devotion to secularism and freedom of religion, they do nothing to force Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia to allow the freedom of religion which they so arduously and vehemently demand in India. If the Muslims of India are really committed to the concept of secularism and freedom of religion, they should boycott the pilgrimage to Haj as long as Saudi Arabia does not subscribe to the principle of secularism and freedom of religion and open their country to temples and churches and synagogues and gurudwaras. It is realized and understood that Saudi Arabia is a sovereign state with full freedom to make laws they deem right but the Muslims of India have the prerogative not to support what they do not subscribe to. The second largest Muslim population in the world can make a very strong statement of their commitment to secularism and freedom of religion and challenge the very foundations of hatred and bigotry in the world. They can show that their commitment to secularism and freedom of religion is not cosmetic – they are really committed to it. It will be good not only for themselves but also for the world at large. They will thus become the true champions of secularism. I am not asking them not to believe in Haj but only not to subscribe to the bigotry of the country they go to perform the Haj in.

In the same context I fail to understand why the Muslims of India committed to secularism and freedom of religion as they are – and I do not doubt their commitment – would honor the memory of and the masjids built by the bigots like Babar and Aurangzeb. The Muslims of India should have come forward in 1947 and done something about these masjids built on the sites of Hindu temples or from their ruins or by the bigots like Babar and Aurangzeb – to name just two. This would have gone a long way in proving their secular credentials – albeit the Islamic history and their wholesale support to partition of India.

In concluding, yes, I agree ‘two wrongs do not make a right’ but an action to correct a previous ‘wrong’ is not a ‘wrong’; it is a ‘right’. Babri masjid and Rama temple are only peripheral issues. India needs much more than that. It needs complete reappraisal of its history and its past without any bias. You can not build a mighty edifice on broken foundations much less the future of a nation on the neglect of the realities of its past. It needs complete overhaul of mental make up. India needs a real commitment to secularism – real secularism -- from every segment of its population not just lip service. This commitment has to come from the heart, not from the feet. India does not need ‘secularism’ for the sake of political expediency. Above all, it needs the courage to accept the responsibility for one’s own and one’s ancestors’ actions and not just demand rights -- there can be no rights without responsibilities – and especially so in a democracy.