HVK Archives: From Ram to Trinidadeshwar
From Ram to Trinidadeshwar - The Indian Express
Amulya Ganguli
()
8 August 1996
Title : From Ram to Trinidadeshwar
Author : Amulya Ganguli
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : August 8, 1996
A recent report in the Organiser, the sangh parivar's
mouthpiece, referred to the efforts being made by the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad towards the "awakening of Hindus"
in the Caribbean. It referred to the setting up of a
holy teerth named Gangadhara on a river in Trinidad.
This feat was accomplished with the observance of a
poojan, the launching of 2,000 lighted lamps on the river
and an offering of 2,000 yellow flowers. Not only that,
a deity called Trinidadeshwar was also installed.
No cavil need be raised about this new addition to the
pantheon of Hindu gods and goddesses. After all,
virtually every village in India has its own deity. If
Trinidad has been blessed, therefore, with its own idol,
it is nothing unusual. The establishment of a holy
teerth, however, is somewhat more controversial. Some
may wonder whether a teerth, or a centre of pilgrimage,
can be set up overnight. It is usually a matter of
tradition, with a certain location acquiring an aura and
a reputation for sanctity over centuries, either because
of the presence of a temple or an association with a holy
man. But time is of the essence and attempts at short
cuts not only seem out of place, but can call into
question the very purpose of such an exercise.
Such misgivings are likely to be confirmed if the dubious
record of the sponsor of such an instant "holy teerth"
and of a new deity - the Vishwa Hindu Parishad - is
considered. Given the manner in which this new member of
the sangh parivar, along with its even more belligerent
partner, the Bajrang Dal, has aggravated communal
tension in India, its forays into distant lands on the
pretext of setting up new deities is bound to cause
considerable uneasiness. Instead of spreading the
message of love and brotherhood, such enterprises may
achieve exactly the opposite by creating fissures among
the Indian Hindus and Muslims living abroad.
An organisation which can convert the gentle,
compassionate figure of Ram, the Imam-e-Hind, as lqbal
called him, the revered deity whose name accompanies a
man on his last journey, into a warrior inspiring a
political battle against a section of Indian citizens, is
unlikely to let Trinidadeshwar be only a source of
benediction. For a start. the VHP, given its divisive
philosophy, will target only the Hindus to the exclusion
of Indians of other religions, thereby creating a rift
between them. Unfortunately, the VHP may also find its
objective of dividing Indians abroad on communal lines
easier to attain by exploiting their anxiety of losing
touch with their cultural and religious roots.
It is clearly the failure of the genuine cultural and
religious organisations in this respect which has enabled
the sangh parivar outfits to usurp their role. At a
recent camp organised by the American counterpart of the
RSS, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, the director of the
American Institute of Vedic Studies in Sante Fe, New
Mexico, David Frawley, who is also known as Vamadeva
Shastri, resorted to typical parivar rhetoric when,
speaking about the Babri masjid demolition, he said, "I
can't say that it was the best thing to have done, but it
is a historical fact that thousands of Hindu temples had
been destroyed by Muslims all over the Indian
subcontinent through the centuries. So what is wrong if
the Hindus want to reclaim one of them now ?"
What is wrong is the year. 1996 is not 1526. When the
Muslims demolished temples four, or more, centuries ago,
it was a cruel, unenlightened age when victors made
drinking goblets out of their defeated enemy's skulls.
After Babur's ally, Shah Ismail, founder of the Safavid
dynasty in Persia, defeated Babur's enemy, Shaibani Khan,
the latter's body was dismembered and sent to different
parts of the Persian empire to be displayed and his
skull, set in gold, was used as a drinking cup by the
Shah. It was a time when "victory towers" were made with
the heads of slain soldiers and also of "rebbells and
theeves", according to an English traveller who wrote in
1630 how the heads were "mortered and plaistered in,
leaveinge out but their verie face".
Clearly, the norms were different and that is what is
wrong with replicating, in today's world with its
electric lights and mobile phones, the gory events of the
past, although those bent on pursuing the politics of
revenge and ushering in a "Hindu century", as the VHP
wants to do, are unlikely to agree, especially when a
possible majority in the Lok Sabha for a Hindu-friendly
party acts as a motivating force.
It may be legally impossible to stop organisations such
as these to create ill will among Indians abroad. After
all, it is a free world, and if white supremacists can
burn down black churches in the US, Hindu revivalists can
also threaten to demolish mosques in India. But the
danger cannot be ignored. This is all the more so
because the VHP's rhetoric echoes Jinnah's speeches on
his two-nation theory.
For instance, Jinnah said, "The Hindus and Muslims belong
to two different religious philosophies.... They neither
intermarry, nor interdine together and indeed they belong
to two different civilisations which are based mainly on
conflicting ideas and conceptions. ... It is quite clear
that Hindus and Mussalmans derive their inspiration from
different sources of history. They have different epics,
their heroes are different ... Very often the hero of one
is a foe of the other."
The same pernicious thesis is articulated by the VHP's
fire-breathing Sadhvi Rithambara, only her version is
cruder than Jinnah's. "How can unity ever come about ?"
she asks. "..... The Hindu writes from left to right, the
Muslim from right to left. The Hindu prays to the rising
sun, the Muslim faces the setting sun when praying. If
the Hindu eats with the right hand, the Muslim with the
left. If the Hindu calls India 'Mother', she becomes a
witch for the Muslim. The Hindu worships the cow, the
Muslim attains paradise by eating beef ... Whatever the
Hindu does, it is the Muslim's religion to do its
opposite. 1 said, 'If you want to do everything contrary
to the Hindu, then the Hindu eats with his mouth; you
should do the opposite in this matter too!'''
In India, the advance of the ultra-rightist forces
appears to have been checked. The BJP's voting
percentage has remained static at 20 between 1991 and
1996, rising to 23.9 per cent with the help of its allies
like the saffron socialist and the Haryana prohibitionist
who may not always remain with it. Indeed, the BJP's
post-election search for partners has so far yielded
nothing more substantial than the support of Nina Pillai.
During the parliamentary debate at the end of its 13 days
in power, the party realised, that it had to contend with
the distrust of not only the liberals among Hindus but
also the regional powers wary of its dietary and' other
fads.
The Indian diaspora probably reflects similar cross-
sections of opinion, but the distance from India and lack
of awareness of trends at home can make them particularly
vulnerable to the VHP's divisive message. A battle won
by liberals at home should not be lost abroad.
Title : Indian Muslims need in-house reforms
Author : Zafar Jung
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : August 8, 1996
Article 44 of the Constitution directs the State to
secure to all citizens a Uniform Civil Code. The debate
of the Constituent Assembly in this regard does not seem
to signify values to be incorporated in such a code. On
the contrary, on providing safety to various minority
personal laws, K. M. Munshi, Alladi Krishnaswami Aiyar
and B. R. Ambedkar assured the Muslim members of the
Constituent Assembly that such a code, when enacted,
,would not be imposed on all citizens.
The Muslim Personal Law is presently engaging the
attention of the community itself as well as of others in
the country. In general various suggestions have been
mooted to bring about reforms in the existing personal
law. This has provided another opportunity to the sangh
parivar and its allies to open yet another battle front
against the besieged community. While the sangh
parivar's communalism constitutes the cause of its very
existence, secular parties like the CPI(M) too cannot be
absolved of the charge that they allowed the communal
forces to misuse the issue for political ends.
The argument that common civil code will bring justice to
Muslims women had led many secular Hindus to believe that
Muslims are opposed to national unity and that it is only
the Muslim Personal Law which carries the burden of
inequalities. The reality is that personal laws of all
communities are laden with inequalities. A discernible
communal bias exists not only in some of the provision of
the Hindu law but even in the supposedly secular Special
Marriage Act.
The enactment of a common code is not merely an academic
issue but a practical problem whose solution, and the way
the solution is found, are sure to have far-reaching
repercussions. Given the size of the country, and its
social, cultural and economic diversity, it is not easy
to implement the provision of a uniform civil code. The
gravity of the matter demands that we steer clear of
narrow-mindedness and rule out the possibility of such a
case for the time being and concentrate our energy on
reforms within the existing personal laws.
The Muslims too should realise the demands and the
realities of contemporary society and should not preclude
either procedural modification or reinterpretation or
rewriting in the contemporary legal idiom in the light of
new social demands, to meet new social injunctions,
without tampering with the core or the substance. They
have to go along with right-minded people of the majority
community if they want to secure a just solution. It is
necessary for the Muslims to set their house in order.
An all-out effort is to be made to argue the case of the
community, in case of an attempt by the Government, to
draft a common code in order to persuade the sceptics to
see reason in what we believe to be the Islamic position
on issues as inheritance, divorce (read triple talaq) and
polygamy. This is not to deny or belittle the need of
political efforts. It is time for the Ulema to deliberate
on the cultural and social perspective and on the recent
changes in personal laws brought about by some West Asian
countries and Pakistan. They should evaluate the scope of
reform in the Muslim Personal Law in the country.
It will be welcome if the able Ulema of the All India
Muslim Personal Law Board solicit views from other Muslim
intellectuals and scholars to frame a code. The
requirement is an in-depth study of the present-day needs
and also an integrating force in the Muslims community
for ushering in a new social order. As to how this
principle should be applied in the fast-changing society
of our times is the big question to answer. One way of
codifying the Muslim Personal Law is to compile mandates
concerning the Sharia affairs. These could be in the form
of clauses, with explanations. This code can in due
course replace the "Mohamedan Law" formulated by aliens.
At present codification and reforms of all family laws,
with a view to make them internally uniform and foolproof
against possible misuse, is the only pragmatic solution.
Any attempt to enact a uniform civil code by the sangh
parivar does not augur with the views of Guru Golwalkar,
who in reply to a question of necessity of such a code
said: "I don't think Uniform Civil Code is necessary for
promoting the feeling of nationalism."
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