I came across this article on ThePrint the other day.
At least some body accepts that Pakistan treats its Hindu population as inferior. Because when Modi’s BJP plans CAA on the basis of religion to create a ray of hope for the Hindus living in Pakistan, the very same thePrint will call BJP “a party polarizing the nation on religious lines for political benefits“.
Quite interestingly the article states that it is Indian Hindus that are making sure that Muslims in India never forget that they are the unwanted progeny of invaders. However, in reality is it really the Hindus who are not letting Muslims forget that they are the unwanted progeny of invaders who despoiled a pristine land and robbed it of its glories or is it other way around?
Babar was a Mughal invader, Babri Mosque signifies an invasion. The Muslims who wanted to keep associating themselves with Babar fought hard for Babri Mosque’s existence; others fought against it. The whole quarrel is/was because they wanted to keep themselves be called progenies of those invaders including Babar. If that wasn’t the case, they would have welcomed the ideas of getting rid of all the symbols of invasion — name changes; Aurangzeb Road, Babar Road and so on and so forth. The harsh truth is that in reality it is a section of Indian society including some Muslims that do not want Hindus to forget that Indian Muslims are progenies of invaders; the invaders who once ruled the Hindus.
The problem with Indians including Hindus is not that Muhammad Ghori, Ghazni, Babar etc. were Muslim, the problem is they were invaders. This is not rocket science to understand, but some simply don’t want to understand that. The appeasement politics that prevailed in India for over seven decades made it even more complex and difficult. To fix this is not a responsibility of Hindus but the onus is on Scholars and highly educated practicing Muslims like Prof. Hoodbhoy himself.
Having said all this, as a concerned citizen of India, I do wonder if we are actually turning out to be exactly like Pakistan in the last ten years of Modi rule? Because if that’s the case, we won’t have any moral rights to point fingers at Pakistan for whatever it does.
Also read: Ram Mandir, Bhoomi Poojan, Secularism and the Darkest day; all explained here
But then I realize, 1992 did not happen in last ten years, nothing of that sort happened in the last ten years. The Hindu-Muslim riots have reduced considerably. We just witnessed a grand ceremony — a ceremony as grand as it could get for the “pran prathistha” and not even a single stone was hurled in UP. Law and order was at its very best. The governments prior to Modi government always found excuses for their failures. The same religions, the same castes, the same people and still no or near zero violence.
Even in the last ten years of fascist–hindu nationalist–Modi rule, Hindus patiently waited for Supreme Court’s decision to start building the temple. Just imagine Muslims in Pakistan seeking court permission to build a mosque.
Prof. Hoodbhoy in his article quotes Nehru on Somnath temple:
Why did the government of India not rebuild Somnath Temple of state’s expense?
Especially when the government makes not just millions but billions (around INR 70,000 Crores) every year by controlling/managing temples. The government earns from donations/charities in roughly 400,000 temples but not in a single mosque or a church. Why? Even in the last ten years, where according to some the country is becoming more like Pakistan, Hindus have been circling around the court of law to get the rules amended.
Ram Mandir is built entirely on donation money, the government of India did not fund it. The Hindu-Nationalist-Modi government invested in the infrastructure around the temple (Airport/railway station/roads etc.) that will be used by everyone irrespective of the religion, but did not invest anything in the temple.
On the other hand we still have the Wakf board that exists solely on donations and charities made by the community, was already the third largest land holder in the country after Indian Defence and Indian Railways, can generate a minimum return of 10 per cent that’s about INR 12,000 crores per annum and an average return of 20 per cent per annum. Even in the last ten years of Fascist-Hindu-Nationalist-Modi rule Wakf Board continues to exist like it did before 2014.
Also read: Socioeconomic paradox of Indian Muslim Community and the people responsible for it
Prof. Hoodbhoy’s in this article is actually trying to vindicate the founder of Pakistan of his two nation theory — “You know Jinnah knew that Hindus will build Ram Mandir in 2024 so he said in 1930s that Muslims and Hindus can’t live together and Muslims would need a separate nation“. It sounds like whatever Hindus do in India at point in time maybe 100 years after, somebody would say “see Jinnah knew it“
For some reason, it is expected that Hindus should suppress their own feelings, emotions and rights. Another excerpt from the article indicates that the rules for Hindus are different from the rest of the world. Why?
For the sake of the argument just change the last line to why does Allah need mosques? or why does Christ need churches and cathedrals? Why is Mecca and Medina significant? Why is Jerusalem important? Now it looks like everyone need them and only Hindus are being pointed fingers at if they need something.
Quite interestingly, we now know that Muslims can’t live with Jews as well (Israel); Jinnah forgot to say that!
The problem today is not that Modi or BJP converted the “pran prathistha” into a grand ceremony; the cities were glowing even at night, people irrespective of the castes, lit diyas and candles at home, the sound of fire crackers echoed in the country- January 22 felt like Diwali. The problem is that Pakistan as well as a section in India did not expect that the entire nation will join Modi and BJP in celebrating this.
The irony is that PM Modi was actually the one person asking people not to turn up in Ayodhya on Jan 22, I can’t imagine what would have happened if he wouldn’t have done so.
People and organizations like the Print couldn’t find words of their own to downplay Ram Mandir’s consecration ceremony so had to literally find words from a Pakistani newspaper. Professor Hoodbhoy is an Islamabad-based physicist and author and his article was originally published in Dawn. To be fair, The Print was honest and added the following as disclaimer, however the link they inserted does not point to the original article(honest mistake? huh!):
Turns out that ThePrint is not the only one rehashing content from Dawn, there are many others including theWire.in and the Times of India. Now when people will call these news portal furthering Pakistan’s agenda they will say “if anybody criticizes the government today he/she is called anti-national or Pakistan’s agent“
Jay Shri Ram!!
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