We all get our share of Whatsapp forwards, which most of us faithfully forward to our entire contact list promptly. Here is one that I received last week:
Are you a Secularist? Please answer these thoughts provoking & rational questions for yourself.
1. There are nearly 52 Muslim countries. Show one Muslim country which provides Haj subsidy.
2. Show one Muslim country where non-muslims are extended the special rights that Muslims are accorded in India?
3. Show one country where the 85% majority craves for the indulgence of the 15% minority.
4. Show one Muslim country, which has/had a Non-Muslim as its President or Prime Minister.
5. Show one Mullah or Maulvi who has declared a fatwa against terrorists or Antinational politicians & Self-proclaimed ReligiousLeaders
6. Hindu-majority Maharashtra, Bihar, Kerala, Pondicherry, etc. have in the past elected Muslims as CMs. Can you ever imagine a Hindu becoming the CM of Muslim majority J&K?
7. In 1947, when India was partitioned, the Hindu population in Pakistan was about 24%. Today it is not even 1%. In 1947, the Hindu population in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was 30%. Today it is about 7%. Probably even less.
8. What happened to the missing Hindus? Do Hindus have human rights?
9. In contrast, in India, Muslim population has gone up from 10.4% in 1951 to more than 14% today whereas Hindu population has come down from 87.2% in 1951 to less than 85% in 1991. In the context of question no 7&8, Do you still think that Hindus are fundamentalists?
10. In India today Hindus are close to 85%. If Hindus are intolerant, how come Masjids and Madrasas are thriving? How come Muslims are offering Namaz on the road? How come Muslims are proclaiming 5 times a day on high decibel loud speakers that there is no God except Allah?
11. If Muslims & Christians are minorities in Maharashtra, UP, Bihar etc., why are Hindus not minorities in J&K, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya etc? Why are Hindus denied minority rights in these states?
12. When Christian and Muslim schools can teach Bible and Quran. Why Hindus cannot teach Gita or Ramayan in our schools?
13. Do you admit that Hindus do have problems that need to be recognized? Or do you think that those who call themselves Hindus are themselves the problem?
And finally
14. Abdul Rehman Antulay former CM of Maharashtra was made a trustee of the famous Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Prabhadevi, Mumbai. Can a Hindu- even Mulayam or Laloo ever become a trustee of a Masjid or Madrasa or the Wakf Board?
Hinduism is not a religion, it is a way of life since 8000 BC
Please Share if you are Care for your beloved country for peaceful and joyful co-existence. Jai Hind
Well, clearly, the author of this forward, and then all those who unthinkingly keep pressing the forward button think the questions raised are profound and so irrefutable that they must resonate with anybody who reads them. How the core message of this forward, which in truth only flames the embers of fire already pervading the atmosphere in the country will lead the readers to a peaceful and joyful co-existence is beyond me.
While prima facie it is tragic that one should have to invest ones time engaging in a debate on the Whatsapp forward, I do so, if only to show that there are sane answers possible to such questions.
First and foremost, let it be said that non-secular Islamic countries hardly present us a benchmark or a model of governance which is worthy enough as an ideal for us in India, or for the rest of the world to follow! One would think our greater objective should be to become more progressive by inclusion rather than more regressive by exclusion. We belong to a democratic tradition of governance and a glorious tradition of tolerance, which most Islamic nations simply do not have.
On the other hand, even the Christian-dominated Western democracies are fairly secular, where non-Christians and of non-mainstream individuals do hold important positions:
The Mayors of London, Oxford (and probably quite a few other cities in UK) are Muslims; a Sikh is the defence minister in Trudeaus cabinet in Canada; the present PM of Ireland Leo Varadkar is the son of an Indian immigrant (a Maharashtrian) and by his own avowal, a gay! The French PM Macron is 39, married to a 64 year old woman! Peru once elected for its President a person of Japanese origin (Alberto Fujimori). India itself has a glorious tradition of having had Muslim presidents. Even among smaller nations, Fiji where only 30% of the population is Hindu, or Trinidad and Tobago, where only 18% population is Hindu, the PMs have been Hindu. Of course this is an off-the-cuff list and far from being exhaustive.
To me, these examples celebrate a degree of inclusiveness in the more developed democracies world-over and worthy of emulation to be stood up as examples; and not the model represented by most Islamic countries.
At the same time, let us not forget that the Islamic states like the Emirates, the House of Saudis, and a host of Gulf nations, and Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Egypt or even Libya (the last two unfortunately and severely decapitated in recent times) have used their oil wealth far more effectively for the service of their people by providing clean, healthy and functioning environment with modern infrastructure. I seriously wonder even if India had been an oil-rich nation, whether our self-serving politicians would have done a fraction of that over the last seven decades post-Independence. Personally, I would rather borrow from these virtues of the Islamic nations than brood upon their defects and give up what is already glorious in our own tradition.
It is hardly widely known that what usually passes for the Haj subsidy, is essentially just discounted airfare on AI and Saudia flights, which is a sort of bulk discount on inflated prices. Politicians usually do a wink-wink at it because it helps them garner Muslim votes! In any case a lot of Muslim leaders baulk at the so-called Haj subsidy and prefer an open and transparent global tender, so as to make Haj feasible for many more people.
Further, it is hardly widely known that what usually passes for the Haj subsidy, is essentially just discounted airfare on AI and Saudia flights, which is a sort of bulk discount on inflated prices. Politicians usually do a wink-wink at it because it helps them garner Muslim votes! In any case a lot of Muslim leaders baulk at the so-called Haj subsidy and prefer an open and transparent global tender, so as to make Haj feasible for many more people.
The mystery of the missing-Hindu population in Pakistan and Bangladesh is no different from the argument forwarded by some of our demagogues who fear that if the Hindu population does not proliferate fast enough, while the Muslim population does, the day is not far when Muslims will overtake the Hindu population. Is this true? Let us see how far is this day.
Consider this: The total Indian population in 1951 was about 36 crore and currently (2017) about 130 crore. The population-share of Hindus in 1951 was 84% and those of Muslims 10%, while currently, these percentages are about 80% and 14.5% respectively. In other words, the Hindu population grew from about 30 crore to 104 crore from 1951 to 2017 (about 3.5 times), while the Muslim population grew from 3.6 crore to 10.4 crore 18.20 crore (about 5 times). What this means is that the larger Hindu population has grown at about 1.82% every year, while the Muslim growth rate has been 2.45% year on year. Happily, according to the 2011 survey, the population growth rates are now much lower, at about 1.6% for Hindus and 2% for Muslims. Do the elementary math with the annual growth rates and you will find that at the current rate of growth, it would take about 1000 years for the Muslim population to overtake the Hindu population!
The truth is the Muslim population in India has increased and that in Bangladesh diminished also because of the porous borders. If all this is accounted for, the lower Hindu population in Pakistan and Bangladesh does not imply any genocide of Hindus or mass-scale conversions in either Pakistan or Bangladesh. It is good old and simple statistics. But then no one said statistics cannot be misused!
It is to the credit of the enormous population of Hindus that they have co-existed for centuries with a diverse set of people and are so inclusive, unlike many of the Islamic countries. We should be celebrating our inclusiveness rather than rue the exclusiveness of Islamic countries.
Arguing for Hindus to be declared a minority in the tiny J&K or North-Eastern states is absurd, especially as these states already feel threatened with Pakistan making mischief on the one end and China at the other, even as these states want to protect their identity, whether racial, ethnic or cultural. Such thinking is not what made Hinduism a way of life since 8000 B.C., as the Patriot in the Whatsapp forward avows. Nor is flaming the embers of hatred the way to greater peace and joy.
The Article First Appeared In TOI
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