Wisdom seldom prevails in an atmosphere of criminal frenzy
By Dr Javed Jamil
The concept of “Original Sin” originated in Genesis, the Semitic scripture that blamed Eve for the “fall of Man from Garden”. It took several thousands years for this concept to be rectified when Quran blamed both (Adam and Eve) for their mistake. The forces of Hindutva have mastered the art of blaming Muslim community as the original sinner. For all their crimes of hatred and violence, they always declare Muslims as the original sinners. This game has become too obvious in their recent history. When Advani embarked upon Ayodhya rath, which ultimately led to the demolition of Babri mosque, the Hindu ideologues were quick to blame Rajiv Gandhi’s enactment Of Muslim Women Act (in wake of Shah Bano Case) as the reason why Hindus felt embittered. And their propaganda machinery is so strong that nobody would listen to the argument that the maintenance issue was purely an internal matter of Muslims and had nothing to do whatsoever with Hindus or any other community. Rajiv Gandhi had acted only in response to the demand of the overwhelming majority of Muslims – both clerics and intellectuals, and was based on the simple premise that any financial dealings between a husband and wife can continue only till they are husband and wife.
When some Hindus were killed in Godhra, again without even a preliminary investigation the blame was put on Muslims, and this became the justified cause for the communal elements to enact the most heinous pogrom of the Independent India. They would again not listen to any sensible argument that if at all some Muslims were responsible for Godhra, these individuals would have been booked and punished accordingly.
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The same story has been repeated at Muzaffar Nagar. Again Muslims are being blamed as the original sinners. The harassing of a Hindu girl by a Muslim boy became a justified reason for going on the rampage against the Muslim community. Dozens were killed and tens of thousands have been made homeless in their own district.
In India, like in most countries of the world, hundreds of thousands of cases of crimes occur every year. There are cases where both culprits and victims of murders or assaults are Hindus. There are cases where both are Muslims. There are also a number of cases where the culprit happens to be a Hindu and the victim a Muslim. Similarly there are cases where the culprits are Muslims and the victims Hindus. Will these individual cases of crimes become fertile grounds for retribution against a whole community? When both the culprit and the victim happen to be Hindus, there is hardly any problem,. But if the culprit happens to be a Muslim, the Hindutva organizations do not waste a minute in using the incident to hilt to further their communal agenda.
This is indeed a sorry state of affairs. We as Indians will have to learn that crimes are more often than not committed by individuals with personal motives. There is no point in using these cases as ground of further violence. The protagonists of violence must remember that in almost all such cases, the ultimate death toll even on their side is much greater than the original number of casualties, even if the other side suffers more. If Godhra killed 60 Hindus, the Gujarat riots killed more than 200 Hindus even if they had the satisfaction of killing more than 1500 Muslims. Similarly, if 2 Hindus were killed in the Muzaffar Nagar riots in the beginning, some more Hindus might have been killed even if the number of Muslim casualties was much larger.
If we act with wisdom, all these killings and destruction can be avoided, and the perpetrators may be duly punished by the court of law to the satisfaction of all. But wisdom seldom prevails in an atmosphere of criminal frenzy.
[Dr Javed Jamilis India based thinker and writer with over a dozen books including his latest, “Muslims Most Civilised, Yet Not Enough” and “Muslim Vision of Secular India: Destination & Road-map”. Other works include “The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism”, “The Essence of the Divine Verses”, “The Killer Sex”, “Islam means Peace” and “Rediscovering the Universe”. He can be contacted at doctorforu123@yahoo.com or 91-8130340339]
By Dr Javed Jamil
The concept of “Original Sin” originated in Genesis, the Semitic scripture that blamed Eve for the “fall of Man from Garden”. It took several thousands years for this concept to be rectified when Quran blamed both (Adam and Eve) for their mistake. The forces of Hindutva have mastered the art of blaming Muslim community as the original sinner. For all their crimes of hatred and violence, they always declare Muslims as the original sinners. This game has become too obvious in their recent history. When Advani embarked upon Ayodhya rath, which ultimately led to the demolition of Babri mosque, the Hindu ideologues were quick to blame Rajiv Gandhi’s enactment Of Muslim Women Act (in wake of Shah Bano Case) as the reason why Hindus felt embittered. And their propaganda machinery is so strong that nobody would listen to the argument that the maintenance issue was purely an internal matter of Muslims and had nothing to do whatsoever with Hindus or any other community. Rajiv Gandhi had acted only in response to the demand of the overwhelming majority of Muslims – both clerics and intellectuals, and was based on the simple premise that any financial dealings between a husband and wife can continue only till they are husband and wife.
When some Hindus were killed in Godhra, again without even a preliminary investigation the blame was put on Muslims, and this became the justified cause for the communal elements to enact the most heinous pogrom of the Independent India. They would again not listen to any sensible argument that if at all some Muslims were responsible for Godhra, these individuals would have been booked and punished accordingly.
In India, like in most countries of the world, hundreds of thousands of cases of crimes occur every year. There are cases where both culprits and victims of murders or assaults are Hindus. There are cases where both are Muslims. There are also a number of cases where the culprit happens to be a Hindu and the victim a Muslim. Similarly there are cases where the culprits are Muslims and the victims Hindus. Will these individual cases of crimes become fertile grounds for retribution against a whole community? When both the culprit and the victim happen to be Hindus, there is hardly any problem,. But if the culprit happens to be a Muslim, the Hindutva organizations do not waste a minute in using the incident to hilt to further their communal agenda.
This is indeed a sorry state of affairs. We as Indians will have to learn that crimes are more often than not committed by individuals with personal motives. There is no point in using these cases as ground of further violence. The protagonists of violence must remember that in almost all such cases, the ultimate death toll even on their side is much greater than the original number of casualties, even if the other side suffers more. If Godhra killed 60 Hindus, the Gujarat riots killed more than 200 Hindus even if they had the satisfaction of killing more than 1500 Muslims. Similarly, if 2 Hindus were killed in the Muzaffar Nagar riots in the beginning, some more Hindus might have been killed even if the number of Muslim casualties was much larger.
If we act with wisdom, all these killings and destruction can be avoided, and the perpetrators may be duly punished by the court of law to the satisfaction of all. But wisdom seldom prevails in an atmosphere of criminal frenzy.
[Dr Javed Jamilis India based thinker and writer with over a dozen books including his latest, “Muslims Most Civilised, Yet Not Enough” and “Muslim Vision of Secular India: Destination & Road-map”. Other works include “The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism”, “The Essence of the Divine Verses”, “The Killer Sex”, “Islam means Peace” and “Rediscovering the Universe”. He can be contacted at doctorforu123@yahoo.com or 91-8130340339]