Sunday, January 13, 2008

Right'ing the Wrong

All the countries, religions and traditions have witness many wrongdoing in the past. Indians or more specifically Hindus have been no exception. Hinduism has never been until now been a religion of war. There has been no army that fought for Hinduism. It has always been a very flexible religion; with many gods and no restrictions. It has evolved on faith and not on teachings of some man. Because of no one fighting for Hindus it has not been able to spread itself like other religions. Also because of that and because of division in between people of different regions, India was not able to stand up against any sort of invasion be it of Muslims or of the British. Muslim rulers on the other hand were fighting for their religion and they conquered territories to create more land for Muslims. They forced people to convert or killed them. They looted temples and destroyed all religious places. Akbar and few others were a exception but most employed ruthless means against non Muslims. Therefore much wrong has been done against Hindus in the past.
But the question is can two wrongs make right? Since Independence we have lived in democracy which aims to provide a secular set of laws for peaceful living. It ensure or tries to ensure that no further wrong is done against any community. But there is no law which provides or can provide course of action to heal the wrongs the past without hurting the sentiments of the other community in the present. It was in the past where this cycle was followed: Hindus came and attacked mosques, Muslims came and attacked temples. The latter part was more prominent in India because of their stronger might. But the point is how to end this cycle. Somewhere we have to start living like civilized people forgetting other for their past. This was expected to start from Independence where we supposedly entered an era where laws were written down rationally and to ensure end of such violence. Because if laws don't end such a cycle then we can hope for no peace in long run. The attack on Babri Maszid kept this cycle alive.
Second was the Godhra riots. Its conceded the some elements of Muslim community initiated the act by killing the sadhus travelling in the train. But do you punish the entire community for an act committed by some members of their community of which they most probably weren't even aware of and which most didnt support. Many murders are committed throughout India in which mostly the criminals are Hindus ( not because they are bad but because they are more in number). So should entire Hindu community be punished for their crime. If i kill some Muslim or of any other religion should you and other Hindus get punished for this? Just because you too are a Hindu. We cant correct what happened earlier (unless of course the criminal is caught) but we can ensure that no further wrong is done.
And my next question is that many people supported Babri demolition saying that Muslims did many wrongdoings in the past, but most out of them if given a chance would gladly settle in England not even thinking for a moment that India was most wronged by British. Should India declare war on UK just because there previous governments committed lots and lots of crime?
The answer is obvious.

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