Yoga being branded and fought over as a Hindu discipline, one that is against the edicts of Islam, on one hand befuddles me and on the other exposes a very fundamental discord in our country — the Hindu-Muslim divide. It is a divide that has existed since the 1940s if you are to believe eminent jurist H.M. Seervai, who in his book, Partition of India: Legend and Reality, said “that Gandhi introduced religion into politics to secure a hold on predominantly Hindu masses…” The question is, have political parties, since Independence, cut India into Hindu and Muslim and come to power on the rivers of blood that poured forth from her belly with each thrust?
A few days back, on the issue of Pakistan playing cricket against India, I had said on television that the Hindu-Muslim divide is still prevalent as it was prevalent pre-Independence and if we want to put things right with Pakistan we must address this discord. Cricket can be used as a tool to start the healing process. If India does not want to sort out issues with Pakistan, playing cricket alone will be nothing but a futile money-making exercise. One of the panelists on television that day would not let me explain what I meant by the Hindu-Muslim divide and in hindsight I believe that, like him, there are many politicians who truly do not want anyone to speak out on these issues for fear that it may expose those who have utilised this communal divide to conquer democracy in India.
In order to comprehend why we find it difficult to unite, be secular, we must first understand the conflict with Pakistan and the Kashmiris. Pakistan is a failed state. With indiscriminate and barbaric killings becoming common practice, with complete power being the sole preserver of lives, many Pakistanis have lost their morality, religion and identity in a quest to attain such power. And in the process, if they can kill each other with contemptuous ease, killing us Indians cannot be difficult. While no one truly understands why Pakistan is fighting us, Kashmir on the other hand remains a serious bone of contention in the Hindu-Muslim context. Indian politicians, especially those who want to reinforce the divide, blame the Kashmiri Muslims for throwing out the Hindu Pandit. They do so without reviewing history and making an effort to understand that it could have been the act of a blinded society seeking retribution.
British historian Alex Von Tunzelmann writes in her book, Indian Summer: The Secret History of The End of An Empire, that Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir ordered his Army to throw out the Muslims living in his state. Muslims were butchered and when these fleeing refugees got to Pakistan, Pathans from across the border swore jihad and attacked in retaliation. The Maharaja lost most of his state before the Indian Army moved in and established order. Consequently the plebiscite given to the people of Kashmir never materialised. Over time, many of the Kashmiris who had lost their loved ones and believing that they had also lost their freedom backed by a Pakistan seeking retribution for India’s part in freeing Bangladesh, in retaliation drove out the Pandits from Kashmir. Were they right in doing so? Absolutely not! Was Maharaja Hari Singh right in doing what he did? Absolutely not! Two wrongs never make a right but it does make it pertinent for us to introspect hard to find a solution to Kashmir. For as long as the Indo-Pakistan wound is kept open and Kashmir remains a weeping lesion, our brave soldiers will be killed for no fault of theirs and we will continue to fall prey to divisive vote-bank politics breeding hatred. Worse still, in order to brainwash the Indian populace, the Hindustani Muslim will be painted with the same brush as the barbaric Pakistani Muslim in order to maintain the Hindu-Muslim divide in India. If India unites her people across all religions, we will be a force stronger than China and many a developing nation and the issue of Pakistan and Kashmir will fall by the wayside.
The other question that needs to be asked today is whether the minority Muslim of India is frightened of losing out to a fundamental majority Hindu party that has been voted to power on the very basis of the communal divide? Is he frightened of being marginalised? Are we Muslims, as a result, out of such fear alone, fighting to put down anything that is perceived to be pro-Hindu and thus anti-Islam? Has this continuous process of fragmenting India along non-secular lines by the politicians resulted in us losing our true Indian identity? Did we ever have such an identity if one is to believe Seervai?
Earlier, when India had its rulers, their subjects would come to them for advice and be certain of proper secular guidance in consonance with larger good. Under democratic India, once the Raja and the Nawab ceased to be, the confused Indian ran to the local priest for direction. While earlier this priest was kept under strict check by the monarchy, in democratic India he became the voice, an inseparable extension of the politician himself. The first thing he put aside were the “scriptures”.
Today we Indians, for whatever reason, have stopped trying to understand our holy books. We read them but most of us do not understand them. This has, over time, resulted in the focus shifting from practising the peaceful spirit of our scriptures and taken on the tempo of the fiery and politically-motivated priests and politicians. I do not know of other religions but, as a consequence, the understanding of Islam has suffered in India and the Hindustani Muslim has suffered along with it.
I, as a Muslim, before every prayer say my “Niyat” (intention) where I state with clarity that I am praying in the name of Allah. I am proud to be part of one of the most progressive Muslim peoples in the world — the Hindustani Muslim. And I believe that my “niyat” helps me differentiate between my prayer and the act of going up and down a few times as part of a science called Yoga.
If my fellow Muslim is unable to do so, it is not his fault! It is because India has failed secularism and in the process failed her frightened and confused Muslims.
It’s time our politicians establish secularism in our democracy, both in action and in spirit and unite Independent India as one, for the very first time, ever.
The writer is a former international cricketer, writer, novelist, conservationist who runs camps and safaris in Africa
