Being the Largest Religious Minority in India – The good, the Bad and the Ugly

As a religious minority, Muslims of India enjoy quite an unparalleled liberty when compared with the state of minorities in other countries. In India Muslims can build their place of worship without any special permission. They can have prayer calls or  Azan 5 times a day on the loudspeaker no matter how much inconvenience it causes to others. Muslims can perform prayers on the main thoroughfares near mosques on Fridays and on their festivals stopping and diverting the entire road traffic. They can have religious gatherings without any restriction on the crowd. They get Haj subsidies. They have provision for a special law called the Muslim Personal Law. But these benefits do not help Muslims uplift their lives. There is one vital thing Muslims do not have here, and that is, safety and security of their lives. Communal tension or any untoward incident in any part of the country is enough to make Muslims fear for their safety. It is not only the life, but the brutal and inhuman manner in which they are targeted in the name of religion is feared the most. In any communal violence, mass murderers go house to house and door to door killing, looting, raping in front of the eyes of the other family members. Of course, the violence does not occur every now and then, but the fear is persistent. This fear is reduced up to a greater extent if one lives in the pockets of the major Muslim-majority neighborhoods. This has made the ghettoization and the exclusion of the Muslim community a grim reality in India.   
             
In my opinion, Muslims do not need any of the benefits as mentioned earlier.  The most pressing need of the Muslims or for anyone for that matter is to feel safe. As per the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Muslims are still stuck with their second level of need, i. e. “Safety” after the first one “Physiological (food and shelter)”. And as the theory goes, unless this ‘Safety’ need is addressed, the needs lower down the hierarchy doesn’t mean much for them.

Some organisations create fear in the minds of majority community that if the Muslim’s percentage increases beyond a certain point in India, they will create more problems. People make a mistake of looking only at the Arabs when they want to know about Muslims. Muslims are approximately 94% in Senegal which is a secular state. The first president of Senegal was a Christian, it may appear unbelievable to us in this region, but it is a fact. If you are anxious about the population growth of the Muslims, look for the reasons for that growth.  The primary one is, their miserable socio-economic and educational status.

Like all religions, Muslims too are not a single, homogeneous group with similar thoughts and beliefs. There are progressive and modern Muslims, and of course, there is a tiny proportion of fundamentalist and hardliners. Unfortunately the act of these hardliners and radicalized are more spectacular, grabs more headlines, which make them appear to be holding a sizable chunk of the population, but it is not true. The communal riots do not affect those who live with large Muslim populations. Those who get affected are the liberal ones who live in a mixed neighborhood, relatively better-off in terms of socio-economic and educational parameters. They want themselves and their children to become a part of the mainstream. But unfortunately, after every communal riot, hundreds and thousands of such progressive Muslims shift their homes to the Muslim-dominated ghettos. These riots in a way help the fundamentalist kind of Muslims increase their strength and influence. The strategy of the government and the nationalists should be to bring Muslim population from exclusion to the mainstream consistently, but in fact, the communal riots in one place or the other, perpetually push those who are already in mainstream, towards the margin and exclusion. And that is not good for the nation.

We understand the plight of Kashmiri Pandits. We know how it feels to be a Hindu or any minority for that matter in Malaysia, in Pakistan, in Bangladesh and other middle eastern countries. We have to come out of this mindless hate towards another human being just because the other person follows a different faith.  This act must be despised, hated and removed from the planet earth.  Religionism should be no lesser crime than Racism. It also brings a very bad name to the country. A bill in the Parliament must be passed to ensure communal violence is treated in such a way that it never happens ever again. In this age, hardly anywhere mass murders happen by the rioting mobs on the basis of religion, not even in those countries where there is no religious freedom. Allowing the communal violence to continue for days and weeks only shows the inability of the government to govern. Nothing can be more criminal or anti-national than damaging the brand India in the eyes of the other countries. The ruling dispensation can never shrug off the responsibility for the violence that occurred during their tenure. The authorities must not only stop the violence as soon as it happens, but they must proactively take measures to prevent it from happening in the first place.  

I am not discussing the social, economic and educational condition of Muslims as reported in Sachar commission where Muslims are far behind SCs and STs on many parameters. Though, this glaring fact refutes the idea of Muslim appeasement, generally put forward by few political parties. I am not asking for reservation for Muslims. I am talking about more basic and fundamental here. It is “right to life”, where ever one chooses to live.

Who benefits from the communal riots? Politically, the communal riots have helped certain political parties, as the votes get polarized after each communal disturbance. Other than politicians, I can’t think of anyone who gets benefited by the communal riots. And India becomes the biggest loser in all this communal politics. I do not have any doubt in my mind, had our house been in order, no one could have denied India’s leadership position in the world by now. We cannot progress, keeping the Muslim population living in fear for their lives in ghettos in helplessness, in poverty, in negativity as a victim of one communal violence or the other. We already have a huge population of Dalits and so-called backwards castes, this along with Muslims if not taken along in the progress and development, the real progress of the whole of India will be hard to achieve.

Muslims of India love their country. They don’t want to go anywhere, and of course not to Pakistan. Muslims of Indian subcontinent historically had been inspired by the teachings of the Islam brought by saints such as Khwaja Moinuddin Chishtee and the like. These saints were popular and loved by the followers of all religions. It is only 1970 onward, as a result of large revenue from oil exports, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia began to spend billions of dollars throughout the world to promote the movement of Islam favored in their country. We can see a testimony as it happened in Afghanistan and the product of which is Taliban. India is still out of the grips of those elements. The government has an option to bring the Muslims back to the mainstream or exclude them from all the development and make them easy prey for the vultures of fundamentalists and extremists.  It is not about Hindus and Muslims. Liberal Hindus and Muslims are on one side against extremist Hindus and Muslims. The priority of the government should be to bring back the trust in the minds of every Indian including minorities that “I have all the rights here, I feel safe here, and therefore, I will work towards the betterment of India”.

When Ganesh can Buy a Smartphone, he Can Very Well Pay for the Data

I have not seen a more manipulative advertisement than what is coming from Facebook on FREE BASIC for the past few days. The one which came today is outrageous. The headline days: “SUPPORT GANESH  -  SUPPORT DIGITAL EQALITY”, with a photo of a family apparently from a humble background.

It’s not just a lie, it is evil.

When Ganesh can buy a net compatible smart phone, he can very well pay about Rs.20/- or as needed, for internet data for the benefit of his entire family of 4. He doesn’t need a support for saving that Rs.20/- and in return getting content that is controlled by a commercial enterprise like Facebook. And let’s talk about EQALITY as mentioned in the advertisement. What Ganesh will get, will not be EQUAL to what the rest of the people will get. For example: others will get Google as search engine where 90% of the people go to find content. Ganesh will have to go to Bing where less than 4% of the people go. Is this Equality? All those like Ganesh, would like to fly in the open sky not making rounds in a well.

And how this Free Basic will demolish the entrepreneurship and level playing field, can be seen by just one example. To gain market share you don’t need to be providing the best products, services and rise to the top through your sheer intelligence, hard work and professionalism. Even if you are so-so in all the other things, but you are able to cut a deal with Facebook to get included in the Free Basic, your market share will shoot up overnight. Now, as an entrepreneur, among other things, I will also have to think how to please Facebook and conform to its guidelines so that my content finds a place on Facebook’s server to be streamed to the larger audience.        

Let us ask a question. Do those people who can’t afford Rs.20/- for data, need the sites like Wikipedia, BBC News, Bing Search, Dictionary.com? Just think, who is the target of Free Basic? It is of course not those who are below the poverty line. The target is people like you and me or the middle class who may feel lazy in renewing the data plan or forget to recharge and those who may like to keep it as an emergency. If my 12 year old son pesters me for a mobile, I may buy one and give him a connection with Free Basic.

And the last point.  I am yet not able to comprehend the advertisement budget of Facebook for pushing this down the throat of all of us. Being in the ad business and having a clear idea about the rates of major print publications, I can imagine the cost of two full page ads coming almost all over India for the past few days.  Any modest calculation will amount to a figure excess of Rs.200 Crores spent so far. Is Facebook spending this kind of money to take India forward or make a billion people connected so that they can get jobs and health care and education? Is this money coming from MZ’s foundation as part of some social responsibility? Make no mistake. It is business and a very profitable business.   

I don’t think our government will give the control of the minds of about a billion people to a commercial enterprise. Those in marketing will understand the value of gaining mind share very well. That directly result in gaining market share. I know there are hundreds of the benefits of having Free Basic. But no sensible person in the world will hand over the evil in its bare form. It has to be camouflaged in goodness.

I am already feeling helpless. There are petitions signed to support free basic. On one side there is a giant organization with unlimited ad budget and on the other hand, there are individuals, activists with no budgets. And people like me, writing this article at the cost of my own productive office time.  Is there a comparison? Still, thanks for the maturity of our people. We all protested internet.org last year when it was introduced. The same thing repackaged into Free Basic, got the support of only 3.2 million people as per the ad, from a billion users, which is too less despite their huge ad campaign. I am sure, our government will let the internet remain FREE from any control by any person or organization.   

Dear Mark, stop looking at India as a poor country. We are not South Africa or Latin America or other countries in the South and South East Asia, where you had been successful with this. India’s telecom revolution was far more successful than many of the developed countries. Similarly, we can take care of the internet as well. We have other priorities now than making more and more people getting addicted to crazy games and doing as you want them to do. Those who need internet will get it. It is not expensive here. Still, we have lots of internet kiosk in villages and small towns where people go and do what they need to do. Try out this Free Basic in at least one of the developed countries first then come to us. Till then leave our people to fly high and our businesses to compete in the free market environment. Thank you.

Filter the Hate Content, Loose Talk and Rumors

A useful and very effective tip for filtering the hate content, loose talk and rumors from spreading and damaging the society and relationships.

In ancient India, One day a person met the great Chanakya, and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

"Hold on a minute," Chanakya replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?" 

"That's right," Chanakya continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. 

Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."

"All right," said Chanakya. "So you don't know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Chankaya continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true.

You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left, the filter of Usefulness.

Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Chankaya, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"

Use this triple filter each time you hear rumors, hate content, loose talk etc. about any of your near and dear ones. 

Tolerance Tussle Reaches New Heights in India

Most of the people in India seem to be in one camp or the other. Everyone from one camp is blaming the government as if they themselves have done everything they could as a responsible citizen. And on the other hand, the government and its supporters are attacking everyone who even remotely appears critical of the government. The statement coming from the Home Minister Mr. Rajnath Singh, who requested all those who are raising the concern of intolerance to come forward and suggest how to solve the current problem of intolerance, is commendable. I fail to understand why the statement of the Home Minister had not been given the same space in the media as much Mr. Jaitley’s comment of ‘manufactured rebellion by intellectuals…’, had received. Have we stopped finding conciliatory approach attractive than confrontational approach, due to which media are showing only what we actually want to see? Are we right to put the entire blame on the government?   

Just criticizing the current government will not help but the problem solving approach would. Writer's meet on the 1st. Nov. in New Delhi could have been more on constructive lines than just being used as a platform to criticize the government. Statements like, "there is no intellectual difference between ISIS and RSS", would not solve problems, it will widen the valley of division. RSS choosing the current timing to raise concerns of population policy to curb the growth of particular minorities can't be made at a worse time. The statement by the home minister should be responded positively by all those who want the current environment of intolerance, as perceived, to change. 

People like scientist, historians, industrialist, artists, authors and other creative people who are raising the concern of intolerance, should not fall in the trap of any political party who are ready to exploit the situation to their benefit. These intellectuals should get into the dialogue and discussion with the government to improve the situation. Our government needs the collective intelligence of the entire nation.

If India develops, the benefit goes to all, even to those who had not voted for this government. If you do not like the present government then wait till 2019 and vote them out. But it is not wise to stop this government from performing. The current government has the popular mandate till 2019. No one can take it away from them. The objective should not be to embarrass the government or India, but to address and solve the issues through dialog and discussion. I understand, there are many who are not ready to talk, but there are few who are ready to talk. Both sides need to find those who can discuss the issues and solve the problems. We are still a poor and a developing nation. We cannot afford a non functioning government.

Dozens of new schemes and plans for development had been initiated by the new government. And various reform bills are pending before the parliament. And there is no doubt in my mind that the government is sincere in its effort. It will be a disservice to the nation if anyone obstructs and creates impediments on the way of progress.

If we go back to the pages of history, it is painful to note how a few terribly minor incidents of intolerance went on to create an atmosphere of mistrust which had been exploited by the communal forces that led to the partition, resulting in thousands of deaths, large-scale suffering and the starting point of a potentially never-ending state of animosity between two neighboring nations. The entire subcontinent has been left behind in terms of development. Hope we learn from the history and understand the background of our current status and act as appropriate so that the wrongs of the past are corrected to the extent possible. Divisive politics had hurt India then and it will hurt India now. Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it, fits very well here.

Dividing the Population on Communal lines will take the Country Backwards

The party ruling the center is attempting to divide Bihar on communal lines in their election rhetoric in the final phases of election. A similar thing was done by communal politicians at the time of India's freedom. Read 'Indian Wins freedom' to know events that lead to the partition of India. Dividing the population on communal lines will take the country backwards. Painful to see history is repeating itself. The results are not difficult to predict for India as a whole, if the divisive politics continues. Why can’t the election be fought on the basis of development on the lines of education, healthcare, poverty eradication, roads, electricity, clean drinking water, industry and investment in the state etc. Everyone gets benefitted by these works. Those resorting to divide people on communal lines, prove that they do not have anything to offer on making the state progress and prosper. The voters must reject all those who are fanning the religious passion, no matter which community such leaders come from. 

Let us stop getting manipulated by shrewd leaders and start writing our own destiny by electing the able leaders among ourselves.

Divisive Politics had Hurt India Then and it will Hurt India Now

Just finished reading 'India Wins Freedom' by Abul Kalam Azad. Totally convinced, that the partition of the Indian sub-continent was wrong. It was very painful to see how a few terribly minor incidents went on to turn the tables in favor of Muslim League, and in favor of partition resulting in thousands of deaths, large-scale suffering and the starting point of a potentially never-ending state of animosity between two neighboring nations. The entire sub-continent has been left behind in terms of development. A free united India with provincial autonomy to the extent desired by the respective states as suggested by Cabinet Mission would have been put India on path of a highly progressive and modern nation. Hope we learn from the history and understand the background of our current status and act as appropriate so that the wrongs of the past is corrected to the extent possible. Divisive politics had hurt India then and it will hurt India now. Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it, fits very well here.

Why do we Love to Hate?

Though the humans have inherent desire to be loved, it is very surprising that most of us love only those who preach hate. We have seen people becoming leaders of the masses overnight just by giving a couple of hate speeches. Though there are huge number of people who are fighting for humanity, love and compassion, across cast, creed, religion and nationalities, but hardly we notice those people. The recent example would be our own Kailash Satyarthi, the Nobel laureate from India. Hardly anyone knew him until the time Nobel committee awarded him the Nobel peace prize.

Here in India we have a shortcut route to become VVIP. Just deliver some controversial and hateful content, media will come calling to your doorstep, and invite you to their studios. They will give you a slot at the prime time to deliver your message to the entire population helping you gain huge number of followers, and you also stand a chance of getting a ticket for the next election since you are considered a winnable candidate. I would not like to name anyone in specific because it is across political parties.

Media houses too figured out that hate and sensationalization sells, they find no options but to do more of it to remain at the top. War of words in the TV studios, in panel discussion happens on a daily basis. It just creates animosity and hate among the people participating and those watching it. Such arguments put everyone on defensive and hardly any one is ready to take constructive criticism positively, therefore it helps none. Our entire print and electronic media celebrates and publicizes hate content as if that is the biggest news.

As long as this love to hate mindset does not change, we will remain divided. We will not be able to leverage the collective power of one nation. Since the hate mechanism works very well for our politicians to keep their flocks together, the initiative has to come from us the common people who make leaders. Another major problem that exists in our society is stereotyping. Is it fair that just because someone believes in a certain faith, citizen of a particular nation, speaks certain language, you form an opinion about that person even before knowing or meeting that person? Can we take a call of not listening to ALL those who preach hate on the basis of cast, creed, nationality, language, religion, etc.

I am proud of all those of Muslims who speak against the terrorism perpetrated in the name of Islam, be it in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Kashmir or anywhere in the world and I am also proud of all those of Jews who speak against the injustices done by Israel on Palestinian people. I am proud of India and the contribution of those from the majority community due to which large number of people following different faiths live here in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. I am proud of those Muslims who respect all other faiths the way they want others to respect their faith. I am proud of those Muslims of Kashmir advocating for the rights of Kashmiri Pandits for their return to the valley and help them settle there.

When we look at the highest level, it all boils down to two things. Pro-Justice and Against-Justice. And, whether who we are, and who they are, influences our decision on the side we take, or not that matters. Can I say that, illiterates of today are not only those who can't read or write but also those who are biased and racist? How long do we require to eliminate this kind of illiteracy from the surface of the earth?

Khalid A Khan