Blaming Islam for acts of Mughal emperors is preposterous

12 December, 2012

Kalinga war is the bloodiest battle fought in the history of Indian sub-continent and according to some historians, about 200, 000 people died in a single day during the war. The battle was started by Emperor Ashoka who was a Hindu then. Does that mean we should blame Hinduism for the deaths on such a massive scale, or the emperor who just like his counterparts wanted to spread his kingdom far and wide?

IT IS REALLY unbelievable and disturbing to see so-called educated people in India exhibiting such type of mentality and thinking. The way they think sounds like abusing the word 'thinking'. I am not passing judgements here just on the basis of some assumptions. But I was shocked and felt this after going through the comments posted on a news article, 'Rahul Gandhi sharpens attack on Modi, calls him a 'marketeer' posted on the website of a reputed newspaper.

When I write this I am not talking about people living in faraway villages and small towns who don't have access to this so-called wisdom and elite culture of this civilised society. After going through such stupid and rabid comments from our educated young generation, I felt 100 per cent sure that the people of villages and small towns are more civilized and knowledgeable than their counterparts in big cities. Though they don’t have access to Internet and other media but they know how to behave with other people. At the end of the article, I have provided the link to that particular news story published by Hindustan Times.

I don’t know about others but as far as I am concerned, I am proud to have friends from different regions, religions and castes. My simple point is if you don't know anything about a subject, why write about it? I felt disgusted, to say the least after reading comments posted about my religion, Islam. These people are ignorant about Islam and still they would write and discuss the subject. How is it justified?

They are just writing and discussing about Islam without knowing anything about it. No religion in this world is bad. Just like any other religion, the followers of Islam may be good or bad but it doesn’t mean that religion per se is bad. Those particular followers are real culprits for all the non-sense which they are spreading in the society.

I am challenging all these people who are spreading rumors about Islam to take part in a discussion in an open forum rather than bragging their knowledge in media without knowing a single word about it. Most of them justify step-motherly treatment to Muslims on the grounds that Muslim emperors mistreated Hindus. Also these people allege that the wrong-doings committed by these emperors were driven by their religion. Sounds bizzare!

I am completely against such theories and it should come to an end now. We should think rationally about all these things. All the kings and emperors don’t really have a sense of religion; they used to follow their own religion and that was to rule and spread their kingdoms without thinking much about the religion.

Take a look at today's politicians. Cutting across party lines, they are openly using the religion to divide us. If one is supporting Hindu community he is branded communal, whereas one who is supporting Muslim community is so-called secular. In my opinion, your theory should be to accomadate all the sections of society irrespective of religion, caste or creed.

How many of us know the name of historical battle in which maximum number of innocent people died? It was Kalinga. What was the religion of Ashoka the great who started this war? He was a Hindu before Kalinga battle and later converted to Buddhism. I need definite answers for all those who want to portray Islam as a religion of non-tolerance. Tell me was it Hinduism or Ashoka that led to death of innocent people?

I would also like to tell these people to read again about the Assam riots. How many Muslims were killed during the riots and who was responsible for all this. It is a fact that riots were started by Bodos - again Hindus (not Hinduism) and you should know that Muslims are still languising in relief camps as Bodos aren't letting them to return to their destroyed homes.

Does Hinduism teach its followers to kill non-Hindus? Certainly not. In fact, no religion asks its followers to kill innocents. Since I am a Muslim I must inform you that in Holy Quran it is clearly mentioned that killing an innocent is tantamount to killing entire humanity. And it teaches us to respect all other religions.

The basic fact is that all religions teach us to unite with God and that is the ultimate thing. Same things are true about Islam too. It is one of the beautiful religions of the world and we have to accept this fact. I can cite hundreds of such examples of oppression by followers of one religion on others but it doesn’t mean that particular religion is bad. It is we human beings who are really bad. We are never ready to accept the truth.

I think the people who commented in such way know nothing about the country and other things. They even don’t know about Hindu philosophy. They know Hinduism of Narendra Modi and other such leaders which have nothing to do with the philosophy of Hindu religion which is in fact great.

Here people are talking of 'Godhra after Godhra' in terms of physics; law of action and reaction to be exact. It is really unbelievable that people can even think like zealots. No sane person in this world will support what happened in Sabarmati train at Godhra junction. Hang all those who are guilty of such acts; I am a Muslim and openly asking such actions against the culprits of Godhra. And also the people who organised riots against Muslims post Godhra.

But the theory of physics cannot be applied everywhere. Killing innocent people of any religion is really bad and should be stopped. If this is generation next of the countyy then I am really sorry to say that our future is really going to be very dark - not only for Muslims but for all the citizens of this diverse country.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Specials/Coverage/Gujarat-Assembly-Elections-2012/Chunk-HT-UI-GujaratAssemblyElections2012-TopStories/Rahul-Gandhi-sharpens-attack-on-Modi--calls-him--a-marketeer/SP-Article10-971263.aspx

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COMMENTS (2)

Guest

Imran

Mr Srivastava, why do you think Muslims should be apologetic for what some Mughal emperor, who happened to have a Muslim name did to Hindus or for that matter to his subjects? First thing you should understand is that all those rulers were monarchs and not democratically-ruled leaders that people would question them. Whatever they did, it was their decision, not their Muslim subjects. And what history are you talking about? How many Indians know about 1948 Hyderabad massacre in which around 2 lakh Muslims were butchered to death? How many Indians are apologetic about Narendra Modi or BJP for that matter for orchestrating post Godhra riots in Gujarat? They have in fact crowned him as their king and people who dare to speak against him are dubbed as Congis and anti-development. When you Hindus can't be apologetic about a politician who massacred Muslims in a democratically elected govt. why do you expect Muslims should apologise for what some emperor did. People like you make me a pessimist about the bright future of this country once again.

0 Replies

Amit Srivastava

Dear Haider This is not question of whether Indian Moslems should be blamed for atrocities of medieval rulers or not. They certainly should not be. But this is a question of their present mentality. Many among them have nostalgia about past and many are not at all apologetic about those atrocities. True that Moslems have been discriminated post-independence and it is wrong but Moslems are no simple people either. Since they had arrived it was their rule in bigger India and British never harmed Moslems' interests. It so happened that Hindus outdid Moslems in relative race during British rule. Moslems require support from government and recognition from majority about their sincerity. There should not be any doubt about it. But statistics count and in modern world, data-keeping should have highest priority. Histories can not be rewritten nor mutated and wished Moguls can ever revive. Therefore, while prejudices against Moslems should end the fact can not be denied that Moguls and other rulers brutalized Hindus because of their hatred for idol-worshippers and what they call heathens. A nation can build its future if it understands its history well. This is not case of further discriminating Moslems but properly writing history.

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