Syed Mustafa Ahmad
India is a secular country. It means that it doesn’t have a state religion. Moreover, it doesn’t support any religion. It is neutral in case of religions. In the Indian Constitution, Articles 25-28 provide Right to Freedom of Religion. The articles encompass many things in it that clearly speak of the progress of any country. Freedom of conscience, free profession, care for minorities, no religious instruction in government schools, etc,. are sufficient to make it clear that this type of state is bound to progress. It is because there is nothing in the articles that go against the smooth functioning of affairs of any country. But when it comes to reality, the story is something different. We are evident to the incidents where the charming slogans of secularism were consciously trampled upon by the so-called custodians of the Constitution. In this article, I would like to make it clear by few examples where secularism fails. The first example of this is the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. If there was secularism after the Partition, why the Kashmiris were and are not allowed to decide their future. Jammu and Kashmir, being the Muslim majority State, was treacherously acceded to India. Yes, it was before the formation of the Constitution of India. But when the Indian Constitution came into effect on 26th January, 1950, why this issue was not solved forever. It is true that up to 1339 CE, there was the majority of the Hindus in Kashmir. But that is now bygone past. It will be like the situation that prevailed up to 1857 CE, when the last Mughal Emperor was exiled to Burma. In both the cases, the present situation is taken into account. In case of Jammu and Kashmir, historically, it must be the part of Pakistan. But the present situation demands that the common people should be consulted. Their choices matter the most. Forcefully, a country can’t take its citizens on the path of secularism. So, the issue of Jammu and Kashmir clearly is the issue of religious taste. Pakistan is an Islamic State. It goes against the beliefs of the Indian state. If Jammu and Kashmir becomes the part of Pakistan, it certainly will wear the gown of Islamic rules and regulations. This situation is unacceptable to India. It is where secularism loses its value and succumbs to the fanaticism. The second instance is the Ram-Mandir dispute. In 1996, it was desecrated by the goons in the presence of the Government of India. Where was secularism at that time? Clearly, it was the legal property of the Muslims but the pseudo secularists took undue advantage of the majority of the population and broke the Masjid, constructed by Babur, the first Mughal emperor. This was the opposite of secularism. It should not have happened. Here, secularism loses its grip.
This diverse land should not become the target of the goons and hooligans, who have no concern for humanity. Let us pledge that we shall make this nation outstanding. The contributions of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Maulana Azad, Allama Iqbal, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Mangal Pandey, Guru Ganak, Kabir, Mirza Ghalib, Mir Taqqi Mir, Nida Fazili, Altaf Hussain Haali, Shubli No’mani, Ahmad Raza Khan, Ashraf Ali Thani, etc ., can’t be ignored. They did their best to make this nation. But today, what is happening?
The third instance is the recent incident in Delhi. It all started when the process of CAA-NRC-NPR began. The whole process means to communalize the atmosphere and make this diverse land, a Hindu Rashtra. If every country has its centre of assembling like the Muslims have Makkah, the Christians and the Jews have Jerusalem, in the same vein, the Hindus should also have a place for this very purpose. CAA-NRC-NPR means to provide platform for the Hindus to achieve what they had been wanting since 1925. The whole process will throw the Muslims out of India and make them noncitizens. People from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh will be sent back because they are Muslims. They can’t be tolerated by the majority of the Indians. It is totally against the diversity of India. India has absorbed thousands of communities in it. The foreigners were welcomed. They contributed their best in making this land spectacular. However, there are some infiltrators here. They are nuisance to the country. But it doesn’t mean that we are going to deport everyone from here through a well-planned diplomacy. It is our bad luck that any toward incident, happening here and there, the needle of suspicion moves towards the Muslims. On an international level, 9/11 incident, which was the handiwork of the Zionists, blotted the picture of the Muslims everywhere. In this backdrop, the Muslims are terrorists. They become the soft target of every incident. In India, the situation is no different. In this atmosphere, the Muslims should be sent back or at least to be thrown in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. So, it makes the things crystal clear that India has embarked on the path of religious fanaticism. The fourth example of this is the distortion of history. Now, it is deliberated upon that History of India should be rewritten according to a particular mindset. The contribution of the foreigners should be erased. Their names should be deleted. The cowards should be crowned and the brave should be humiliated. The winners should be losers and vice versa. This mindset prevails because the Muslims defeated the most powerful Hindu rulers. Prithviraj Chauhan, Jaipal, Shivaji, et., were either defeated by the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate or the rulers of the Mughal empire. They can’t tolerate it. They feel jealous. They want to eradicate the signs of the foreigners from this land. They hate their Culture, religion and most importantly their presence. So, it makes clear that secularism has lost its way somewhere down the line. There are many more examples to depict that India is no longer a secular state. Instead, it has gown of irreligion. Allama Iqbal called Ram “the leader of the Hind”. But that Hind is decaying day by day due to the narrow-minded approach of some miscreants. They have to be found and taught a lesson. This diverse land should not become the target of the goons and hooligans, who have no concern for humanity. Let us pledge that we shall make this nation outstanding. The contributions of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Maulana Azad, Allama Iqbal, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Mangal Pandey, Guru Ganak, Kabir, Mirza Ghalib, Mir Taqqi Mir, Nida Fazili, Altaf Hussain Haali, Shubli No’mani, Ahmad Raza Khan, Ashraf Ali Thani, etc ., can’t be ignored. They did their best to make this nation. But today, what is happening?
( The author is a freelance and writes regularly for “Kashmir Horizon”. Views are his own, [email protected])