Judgement Day

Babur was a invader and no one should deny it. He constructed a Mosque at Ayodhya either by demolishing a standing temple or on the ruins of an ancient temple in 1528 or so. Muslim kings of medieval period had a history of demolishing temples, churches or converting them to Mosques, Temple of Mount, Kashi Vishwanath, Hagia Sophia etc. This list is never ending. Now the point is whether we use this modern century to settle scores of the past or to reconcile and make a better world where no one can destroy any temple, church, mosque etc. Historical injustices take the strength of civilization to endure. The monuments erected by invaders are symbols of defeats and will remain our symbols of defeats irrespective of the religious allegiance of the invaders and the monuments destroyed by invaders will remain symbols of broken pride.

Now the point is we live in a Secular Democratic Republic of India and if we call ourselves Indians and enjoy the immense freedom it gives then we should also abide by the law of the land and its constitution. Another thing is if we accept historical injustices meted out to dalits by the upper castes since time immemorial and can easily accept the concept of affirmative action (by making special provision for them) then why do not accept the injustices done by those invaders. Alexander, Seleucus, Babur, Ghori or Gazni can never be heroes for Indians irrespective of the faith practiced by them so we should not define heroes/villains by their faiths. Iran still considers Saudi Arab as its enemy because of the deeds done by Saudi Arabia in 7th century AD although they share the same religion although different sects. The gory side of Pakistan is that Pakistan considers Ghori and Gazni as its national heroes and thats very shameful. The same invaders first pillaged and plundered Pakistan before setting their feet in India. I don't believe the theory that  the entire population of Pakistan is descendants from those invaders. It simply can not be true. The population of Pakistan is more than the population of all those invading countries combined together. 

If i convert to Islam, will i stop considering Prithviraj Chauhan as a hero of India since he fought against a Muslim invaders? I will definitely not. Can Latin America forgive the Spain for all the crimes committed by Spain during colonial time because Latin American has become Christian? I bet not. These are inconvenient facts but we need to accept them and move forward with out heads high. Do not let them say "India by definition is a myth".
We should accept the judgment of High Court and we all should keep our held high. Its better not to have any monuments associated with invaders in this country. Amen.

Kosovo or Kashmir

Last month International Court of Justice endorsed the unilateral declaration made in 2008 by the tiny Republic of Kosovo. For Serbia, Kosovo has always been the cradle of her civilization. Serbs still celebrate the epic battle fought in Kosovo against the invading army of the Islamic Turks in 1389. Prince Lazar died fighting and Kosovo and rest of balkan peninsula was open for Islamicization. Although Serbs were able to reconquer Kosovo in 1912 but they had to return the favor in 1998 because of the delusions of grandeur by Slobodan Milosevic. Demographically speaking Kosovo contains more than 90% Albanian Muslims and only 4-6% Serbian Christians, but the demography was quite different in 1912 when Serbs made more than 25% of the Kosovo's population. The mass exodus of Serbs because of the hostile attitude of Islamic Albanians (fueled by the neighboring country of Albania) in Kosovo and high birth rate of Albanian Muslims changed drastically the demographic nature of Kosovo. Kosovo became a tinderbox of Balkan and Milosevic used it "beautifully" to destroy the Beautiful Federation created by Joseph Tito. Lots of Albanian Muslims were massacred in the bloody wars of 1990's. In the end Serbia lost everything and Milosevic had to defend himself in the International Court of Justice for "his crimes against humanity".

The case of Kosovo is strikingly parallel to the case of Kashmir and India has to tread very carefully. If we want to save the federation of India then we must not in any case allow anyone to settle scores of history in 2010 India, but the people should also acknowledge the treatment meted out to Hindus post 1192 AD including the destruction of temples else we will never be able to reconcile. Change of religion should never mean change of nationality or loyalty. Amen.

Law of Universalism

I hate to be politically correct and i believe its a sin against truthfulness to be a politically correct individual. Almost a decade has passed since 9/11, i have become an Engineer, India has become  "an exciting story", Iraq has become a country without a nation, Afghanistan has not moved a bit, Pakistan has committed almost every possible sin, World has become more unsafe and we as a nation has become more intolerant and deeply unsecular.

                                                  Sometimes its very difficult to understand (atleast for me) why people can even think of burning a book respected by millions of people world wide and throughout ages and on the top of that why people burn flags of countries inhabited by millions of people. I have seen protests on TV, people burning flags of US in thousands when provocated by nobody Jones. There is something deeply wrong some where. I have read somewhere long back and now i am a firm believer of that "Hate hurts, harmony works" but by burning national and religious symbols we can only perpetuate the so called "Clash of Civilizations" since the days of First Crusade. One should apply the same laws to others that one can apply to one self and if people feel proud in burning flags of other countries then they should be ready for its repercussions as we all are made up of same  ingredients.

When people desecrate religious place of some community then they should feel that their religious places have also been desecrated and it happens all the time. How many Hindu temples we know in Pakistan? There were innumerable temples some centuries back. People should think why minorities suffer in Islamic countries. Why non Muslims don't have a right to build a temple, synagogue or a Church in Saudi Arabia but the same Saudi Arabia can finance building of many many Mosques in other countries? This does not look correct to me logically. Why minorities in Pakistan as well as in Bangladesh have been shrinking in numbers since 1947 and why they are increasing in India, USA, UK and other European countries? Something is wrong some where. Here i am not saying that India treats its minorities in 100% correct way but it treats them well compare to almost all other Asian countries and even better than France. Its difficult to understand why countries like Maldives and Malaysia define citizenship on the basis of religion. No one even wants to discuss these things. I want to know why. US was damn wrong when it attacked Iraq and Afghanistan and killed thousands of innocents but those people were also wrong who did 9/11 or who killed Daniel Pearl or who did 26/11 and the list goes on. Eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, it was true in the beginning and its true even now. Why we didn't protest when Muslims were massacred in Gujarat after Godhra train burning? Why we protest when someone make cartoons or some make fun of our religion and why we don't protest when some uses our religion to fulfill his/her ulterior motives. We don't need to protest again some nobody burning holybook or holy symbol but its our right and responsibility to protest if some one is using our religion to complete his/her evil designs. The same rule applies to Media as well. Our media does not leave any chance to castigate Modi or BJP and it goes full throttle if any bad thing happens to minority community in Gujarat and else where but the same media is conspicuosly silent on the Deganga (a place not too far from Kolkata) riots. Many temples have been desecrated in last few days and scores of Hindus have fled for this place. Situation was so grave that Army was called few days back but our media is damn slient. Thats not good for we as a nation and we as Indians. As President Obama says that "Any radical act accelerates the recruiting process of other radical groups", so we should remain careful.

And i end my post by famous Urdu lines:

Uski woh jaane uske pass wafa thi ki na thi, Tum faraz apni taraf se toh nibhate jaate

Happy Eid and Ganesh Chaturthi to all fellow Indians and others.  I will be back :).