Opinion - Leader Page Articles   

Take on this intellectual challenge

India has all the potential to become a modern industrial giant. We have a large number of eminent scientists, engineers and technicians; we have immense raw material reserves; and we have a huge population that can serve as a market. Thus we have all the resources required to become a modern industrial giant. Why then have we not become one? This is a vital question for all intellectuals to ponder upon.

The main reason for this is that there have been powerful divisive forces at work since the days of British rule. They have sown the seeds of discord among our people and made them fight with one another on the basis of religion, caste, language, and other factors. The effects of the divide-and-rule policy deployed by the British rulers after the Revolt of 1857 have been at work even after Independence. This is the major cause for our extremely slow process of industrialisation.

The year 1857 marks a historical and critical point in India’s history. The uprising shook British rule in India. Hindus and Muslims joined together to fight against the British. After suppressing this ‘mutiny,’ the British rulers decided that the only way to control and rule India was by applying the policy of divide-and-rule. All the communal riots began after 1857. There is abundant proof that these were, in a subtle way, engineered by the British administrators.

It is true that the Muslim invaders who initially invaded India destroyed many Hindu temples. However, the descendants of these invaders who settled down in India and became local rulers in various parts of the country gave many grants to build Hindu temples and participated in Hindu festivals for example, Holi and Diwali. Since the vast majority of the population was Hindu, breaking temples would only have invited revolt and turmoil, which no ruler wants. Hence in their own interest, the Muslim rulers gave grants to build Hindu temples, and fostered communal amity.

Our history was written by the British, who wanted Hindus and Muslims to fight with each other. Hence this history mentions only the destruction of Hindu temples by Muslim invaders.

The other part of the story, the story of grants by local Muslim rulers in India to build Hindu temples and their celebrating Hindu festivals, has been deliberately suppressed and omitted from our history books. A totally one-sided version has thus been presented to us in order to incite communal hatred.

There are hundreds and thousands of instances of land grants by Muslim rulers to build Hindu temples, but these are hardly ever mentioned. It is time our history was corrected and our children taught that Hindus and Muslims were living peacefully and on good terms with each other for centuries before the British came to India, and particularly before the 1857 ‘mutiny.’

It is these divisive forces that ultimately led to the Partition of India in 1947. They have once again become active in recent times.

The Constitution of India has played a major role in keeping our country united. It was a testimony to the greatness of our leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru that when religious passions were inflamed at the time of Partition, and when Pakistan declared itself an Islamic state, they created a secular Constitution providing for freedom of speech, equality, liberty, religion, and so on. When passions are inflamed, it is difficult to keep a cool head. There must have been tremendous pressure on our political leaders in 1947 to declare India a Hindu state since Pakistan had declared itself a Muslim state. It is a tribute to our great leaders of that time that they kept a cool head and insisted that India would not be a Hindu state, but that it would be a secular state. It is for this reason that we made some progress since 1947 (although a lot more remains to be done), while our neighbouring country is in deep distress.

The Kalidas-Ghalib Academy for Mutual Understanding has been formed by some patriotic intellectuals of our country — with the aim of promoting India’s composite culture and opposing divisive forces.

The importance of the cultural struggle, that is, the struggle in the field of ideas, cannot be underestimated. For instance, great thinkers like Rousseau and Voltaire had a major role in the creation of modern Europe. Similarly, our intellectuals must now play such a major role. They must promote India’s rich and composite culture and combat the divisive forces that are trying to weaken and break up the country.

The words ‘Kalidas’ and ‘Ghalib’ in the expression ‘Kalidas-Ghalib Academy’ are only metaphors. They represent the entire composite culture of India, including the cultures that have developed in different parts of the country.

Today, a large section of even our educated classes has little idea about our composite culture and those who created it. For instance, how many people have heard of Amir Khusro? He made a significant contribution to developing the composite culture of India, and was a veritable Michelangelo of India. But few people know about his works.

Many Muslims wrote Hindi poetry of a high order — for example, Raskhan, Rahim, Jayasi — and had a good knowledge of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and similar works. The Sufis played a great role in promoting communal harmony and developing a composite culture in India. Kabir is regarded as both a Hindu and a Muslim. The great nationalist Tamil poet Subramania Bharati (1882-1921) contributed significantly to the freedom struggle in South India. Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyaya and Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali and Premchand and Rahul Sanskritayan in Hindi are names to reckon with.

Some 90 per cent of Muslims in India and Pakistan go to dargahs of Sufi saints, which is anathema to the Wahabis and a small section of Muslims who regard it as idolatry. This is because of the Hindu influence on Islam. A large number of Hindus also visit dargahs. Thus we see that a cultural synthesis emerged in India before the coming of the British, and was embodied also in Urdu literature, which is almost entirely secular.

No country can progress by overlooking its own cultural heritage. Culture is the base from which all intellectual activities develop. Without understanding this base, how can we expand upon it and progress? We should no doubt also create a new culture suited to modern needs but we should not totally reject our old culture. We should only reject that part of our old culture which is hindering our progress, for example, superstitions, casteism, communalism, and regionalism.

The members of the Kalidas-Ghalib Academy are genuinely patriotic people who wish India to rise as a world power. They do not seek votes nor are they interested in vote-bank politics, which has been India’s bane. All Indians who genuinely love their country are invited to join this nationalistic intellectual organisation. The members of this organisation must have the spirit, and function like humble servants of the nation with no personal interest in mind. They may not see the rise of India as a great nation in their lifetime, but they will have the satisfaction of having contributed to that end.

Those who wish to know more about the Kalidas-Ghalib Academy may contact Naushad Ali, its working president, at naushadalisyed@gmail.com or on +91-98602-46834 or +91-98731-97828.

(Justice Markandey Katju is a Judge of the Supreme Court of India. The first part of this article was published on November 24, 2008.)

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

For better health
Learning from the EU
Take on this intellectual challenge
Children in the crosshairs
Guantánamo Bay: at last, justice — of a sort
Killers call the shots in ‘justice’ system
From home and away, advice for a first lady
Corrections and clarifications
J&K elections
Meaningful
Fighting terror
On Jamia Millia
Wanted, alternative

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu