Author: Tarun Vijay
Publication: The Times of India
Date: November 28, 2007
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/The_Right_View/Intolerant_Malaysia_tolerant_faith/articleshow/2577230.cms
When Hindus gathered courage and protested
in an unprecedented solidarity on November 26 in Kuala Lumpur, they were crushed
brutally by the Malay police using chemicals in the water cannons. None of
those who had put up a united front against a cartoon created in Denmark felt
anything bad or condemnable in the injustices meted out to the Hindus in an
Islamic country. When it's a question of Hindus getting unfair treatment in
a Muslim majority region, the 'civil, sophisticated and articulate' Muslim
intellectuals take refuge in the statement that it's a matter concerning a
foreign country. But when it's a question regarding a cartoon or a fatwa for
beheading a writer, they say -we are a global Ummah, anything happening anywhere
to Muslims is our common concern! All big lies and a bigger hypocrisy traded
in the name of a religion.
This year Diwali was not celebrated openly
by Malaysian Hindus in protest against the demolition of one of their most
revered shrines, the hundred-year-old Maha Mariamman temple in Padang Jawa.
In the last fifteen years, hundreds of Hindu temples have been demolished
and the number of forcible conversions and unfair treatment on religious grounds
has been constantly increasing. The tragic case of Revathi was just a recent
one.
Moorthy Maniam was a Malaysian Hindu hero.
After he died, a group of Muslims claimed he'd made a deathbed conversion.
Despite his widow's protests, the Sharia courts declared that he should be
buried as a Muslim. "They used Moorthy to show that in this country,
Islam is supreme", complained his lawyer.
In the 1980s, Malaysia's Sharia courts were
given equal power to the civil courts, creating two parallel legal systems.
But while the Sharia courts are constantly trying to extend their authority,
secular courts are reluctant to challenge them.
Malaysia which tries to woo Indian tourists
with an aggressive media campaign claiming-it's a 'truly Asian' destination,
has become a hotbed of Islamic intolerance and barbarities on non-Muslims.
It has sixty per cent Malay Muslim population with Chinese, mostly Buddhists,
comprising twenty-five per cent. Malays of Indian origin constitute about
eight per cent and Tamil Hindus are ninety per cent amongst the Indian origin
population. There is a fair number of Indian Muslims too.
Indian Malays were taken there by the British
as plantation workers in the late nineteenth century and have now become an
inseparable part of Malay life. In fact, from the second century to the 14th
century, Malay Peninsula has seen Hindu kingdoms and a way of life beautifully
expressed in arts, culture, language and Shaivite values. Sanskrit's influence
over their language is visible all over, yet the Malay Muslims choose to express
their affinity with the Arabs and deny their ancestral heritage.
Politically, Indian-origin Malays follow the
Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), established in 1946 as an instrument of independence
from the British rule. Malaysia, freed in 1957, remained a practising pluralistic
society till Islamic fundamentalism grew in the last two decades bringing
Arab money and intolerance with it. Now it has parallel Islamic courts, functioning
along with the civil ones, which are obviously more influential.
Malay Hindus have their leader in Datuk Seri
Samy Vellu, president of the MIC and a minister in the14-party coalition government
who mustered courage to protest against temple demolitions by declaring a
'private' Diwali this year. However, instead of being supported by the country's
Muslim intelligentsia, he was booed, and in a rally addressed by Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, people demanded his ouster from the cabinet as a 'trouble
maker'.
Hindus seems to be losing hope on all fronts
and are making last-ditch efforts to attract attention by any which way to
their sorry state of affairs. An umbrella organisation of thirty Hindu NGOs
has been formed under the banner of Hindu Rights Action Force or HINDRAF that
had called for the successful demonstration on November 26. Earlier a court
had banned the rally - but HINDRAF workers - gathered in an unprecedented
number - twenty thousand by a modest count -defied the ban and had their voice
heard throughout the world. A nation, which has seen centuries of Hindu influence
nurturing its socio-cultural milieu, suddenly turned against her own people
when Arab-Islamic influence grew, resulting in the dispossession of minority
rights. It has tried now to completely eradicate its Hindu history being taught
in the schools, including the descriptions regarding ancient Ganga Negara
(2nd to 11th century), Langka Asuka(2nd to 14th century) and Sri Vijaya empire(3rd
to 14th century) in different parts of the earlier greater Malay Peninsula.
It's a reflection of India's secular government
that the Malay Hindus of Indian origin chose to knock at the British doors,
strangely petitioning the British government, Malaysia's former colonial ruler,
to pay two million dollars each to every Indian-origin Malay as compensation
for 'putting them in a situation of darkness and exploitation' which was a
result of bringing their ancestors as indentured labourers a century before.
They are discriminated on religious grounds and economic opportunities are
not available to them.
"Over the years Indians have been marginalised
in this country and we now want the same rights as enjoyed by other communities,"
M. Kulasegaran, opposition lawmaker with the Democratic Action Party (DAP),
told the media. "This gathering is unprecedented, this is a community
that can no longer tolerate discrimination." said HINDRAF leader P. Uthayakumar.
The demonstrators had gathered at Batu Caves Hindu temple and many of them
carried posters of Mahatma Gandhi. But, sadly, there was no murmur amongst
the Indian authorities in Delhi or in their High Commission in Kuala Lumpur
about it.
Indian secularism prevents South Block to
go vocal on injustices meted out to Indian-origin people if they happen to
be Hindus. Only Muslim sensibilities are deemed fit to be entertained by Indian
envoys abroad. This message further emboldens the jihadi intolerant rulers
to take Hindus in their country for granted as a forlorn people for whom none
would bother. Malay Chinese are given a voice by Singapore's influential leaders
of Chinese origin like Lee Kuan Yew and Christians get full support from the
US, UK and other European governments. Only Hindus, who have no other country
on this earth but India to look upon for any moral support, are left abandoned.
Sometimes I feel amazed to see that how highly
educated people who shine in politics and academics can be so ruthless towards
their own fellow citizens as to deny them basic human rights. Like a place
of worship and a choice to adhere to a faith of choice. Why have the societal
ruptures been so visibly strong in countries where Islamists form majority?
We have enough such examples from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Malaysian
incidents that have a common thread - wherever the Muslims are in majority
the rights and freedom of the non-Muslims are severely curtailed.
Take for example Kashmir. It's the only state
in India which is a Muslim majority and see what happened there. Hundreds
of temples were razed, Hindus were forced to flee, their women were raped,
children were killed and houses forcibly occupied. The Muslims in Kashmir
have been enjoying a special status under Constitution's Article 370, hardly
any central law is enforced there, the number of income-tax payers is among
the lowest and unlike other poor states, J&K gets 90 per cent central
financial assistance as grants and only 10 per cent as loans. Still there
are complaints that a 'Hindu central government discriminates'. The other
minority, Buddhists mostly located in Ladakh , too, are harshly treated and
discriminated against by the mainly Sunni Muslim governance in Srinagar. The
Buddhist Association, Leh, has been submitting memorandums to the central
government about how Buddhist youths are denied jobs and a fair chance to
join the Kashmir Administrative service and professional colleges in spite
of clearing the entrance exams. The number of Buddhist minorities is fast
decreasing causing concern amongst their leaders. Even their dead are not
allowed to be buried in Muslim-majority Kargil area and monasteries have been
denied to be built.
If that can happen in a Hindu majority India's
Muslim majority state, one can imagine the position of Hindus in a Muslim
majority country like Pakistan. A report of the United Nations Committee on
the International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
(CERD Committee) says, 'The Constitution of Pakistan segregates its citizens
on the basis of religion; and provides preferential treatment to the Muslims.
While Article 2 of the Constitution declares Islam as "the State religion
of Pakistan" and the Holy Quran and Sunnah to be "the supreme law
and source of guidance for legislation to be administered through laws enacted
by the Parliament and Provincial Assemblies, and for policy-making by the
Government", under Article 41(2) only a Muslim can become President.
Further, Article 260 of the Constitution differentiates "Muslim"
and "Non-Muslim" thereby facilitating and encouraging discrimination
on the basis of religion.
The Constitution is so glued to providing
preferential treatment to the majority Muslims that even a Hindu judge has
to take the oath of office in the name of "Allah". On 24 March 2007,
Justice Rana Bhagwandas, a Hindu, while being sworn in as Acting Chief Justice
of Pakistan, being the senior most judge after the suspension of Chief Justice
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had to take oath with a Quranic prayer - "May
Allah Almighty help and guide me, (A'meen)".
The Hindus and Hinduism have been maligned
and hatred against them is propagated in the text books approved by the National
Curriculum Wing of the Federal Ministry of Education. Among others, Hindus
have been stated as "enemy of Islam" in the textbooks of Class V.
I hate to look disillusioned and always try
to see something positive and hopeful for my columns but to avoid the smoke
around your neck is as calumnious as to see bad where everything is otherwise
resplendent with nobility. Last week I met an important Malaysian foreign
dignitary over lunch at Taj Chambers, when during the course of our discussion
about Asians, I mentioned the plight of Malaysian Hindus. He simply rubbished
all that had appeared in the international newspapers and channels saying
'small matters are presented hundred times larger than the real quantum of
gravity'. 'We are a very tolerant society'. Really?
The author is the editor of Panchjanya, a
Hindi weekly brought out by the RSS. The views expressed are his personal.
