tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894962697680014980.post8724321349552940865..comments2024-03-27T00:58:59.012-07:00Comments on Raisina Series: The Communal ConundrumKrishan Partap Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06018863863122160462noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894962697680014980.post-82496428733431974552014-03-16T10:02:13.395-07:002014-03-16T10:02:13.395-07:00This is such a brilliantly written post.This is such a brilliantly written post.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10751151662528049454noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3894962697680014980.post-58715552954360513332013-05-28T01:57:04.927-07:002013-05-28T01:57:04.927-07:00The poorer Muslims are, the easier it is for parti...The poorer Muslims are, the easier it is for parties like the SP/RJD/CONGRESS to bank their votes. Well read Muslims, the intellectuals and public figures rarely challenge such regressive politics. It is a pity intellectual, creative Muslims – in business, films and the arts – don’t speak up for real secularism. Their silence can be mistaken for complicity. Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to re-examine the cases of jailed Muslims charge-sheeted for terrorism is the latest example of how “secular” parties communalise society for narrow political ends.<br />The principal culprit: politicians who wrap their communal, divisive policies in the name of secularism. They promise Muslims job quotas and other sops but keep them buried in poverty. They always show them the wrong agenda and harm the cause of Muslims while projecting as their protectors. The result: a community's alienation from the mainstream and a sense of victimhood. <br />Islam in India is almost as old as Islam itself. The British replaced the decaying Mughal Empire and created new cleavages between India’s communities. Given this history, it is not difficult for chep political and religious leaders to whip up communal sentiment, where none would normally exist, to serve their narrow electoral ends. <br />Indian politicians have done a painful wrong to the cause of Muslims by treating them as votes rather than a minority needing education and empowerment. Liberal Muslims and Hindus must in one voice condemn political parties which preach secularism but practice communalism. They are the real threats to a plural, peaceful and prosperous India. <br />Hinduism is the world’s most evolved and tolerant religion. It is so open-ended that it is vulnerable to both internal and external abuse. But men of peace are sometimes taken for granted by those who mistake tolerance for weakness. And so it has been with Hinduism. Its civilizational character – tolerance, generosity and uncritical acceptance of other faiths – has allowed political parties to sell their brand of secularism to enough liberal Hindus and paranoid Muslims to win elections.<br />However, this trend is rapidly changing as Muslims gain education and lose their false sense of paranoia. Reality meanwhile will dawn on all liberals that they have been dealt a counterfeit hand by secular poseurs.<br /><br />This can’t continue forever. Those who believe in being Indian first, and everything else second, must take the lead to compress the time period in which modern secularism replaces the fraudulent, toxic variety we have today. So …….Shwetank's WebBloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10418338452609211416noreply@blogger.com