By Madras Courier | Published on April 19, 2022
What is happening right now in India is a matter of great concern. Deliberate manufacturing of hate is bad politics. It’s bad for the economy. It threatens the internal security & stability of the country.
As long as you are an active member of Facebook, it is likely that you will see APJ Abdul Kalam’s quotes frequently. Some of the famous quotes cited include “If you fail, never give up because FAIL means “First Attempt In Learning” and “All of us do not have equal talent. But, all of us have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.” Perhaps the most popular one would be “I am not handsome but I can give my hand to someone who needs help…Because beauty is required in the heart, not in face…”
Where would the Indian Facebook pages be if it weren’t for these quotes? But apart from the quotes, APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India, is known for his contributions to missile technology. Can you imagine such a thing happening in today’s India? Far from being entrusted with the responsibility of developing India’s nuclear missiles, he would have been branded as a “Jihadi” who would sell India’s nuclear secrets to Pakistan and other parts of the world as part of a larger “Islamic conspiracy” to take over the world.
Facebook users may share Abdul Kalam’s inspirational quotes. However, in today’s India, his legacy and contribution, particularly to India’s nuclear defence capabilities, are overshadowed. Unfortunately, the narrative that India’s Muslims are troublemaking stone pelters and budding Jihadists has taken root.
In reality, in the so-called “New India,” Muslims are in grave danger. They are accused of being “traitors” who ought to be shot. Do you remember the slogan “Desh ke gaddaron ko, Goli Maaro Saalon ko” which propelled several small time politicians into popularity? One junior minister, who took to the streets shouting these slogans, got promoted to the rank of a cabinet Minister in the government.
Muslims are being harassed on a daily basis. They are not allowed to display their identity in public, not allowed to do business and not allowed to peacefully worship in their areas. They are constantly being hounded and provoked. They–even small children and differently abled people–are being called Jihadis. Their homes and shops are being vandalised and destroyed. Certainly, the Muslims of this country do not seem to have the “equal opportunity” APJ Abdul Kalam often talked about.
Had Abdul Kalam been a young boy in “New India,” his identity alone would have prevented him from getting an education. He would have struggled to find a job or a home. In today’s scenario, would we have been able to encourage the “Missile Man of India” who enhanced our military capabilities?
APJ Abdul Kalam is not the only Indian Muslim who contributed enormously to India’s progress. Over the decades, Millions of Indian Muslims, from all walks of life –from arts, education and entertainment to computing and pharmacueticals–worked hard to make the country what it is today.
Take, for instance, the person who inspired Abdul Kalam’s name–Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad.
The Maulana worked hard as a poet, journalist and writer. Unlike Savarkar, who begged the British for Mercy, the Maulana took part in the Freedom Movement. An honourable member of the Indian National Congress (INC), he was the first Education Minister of India. A staunch opponent of partition, Azad worked hard to protect people suffering from its aftermath. Later, he founded the Jamia Milia in Delhi, which gave birth to the Jamia Milia Islamia University in Aligarh. Today, it is one of the best universities in the country.
Azad believed that there would, one day, be an India where the Hindus and Muslims would co-exist in harmony. Though the country moved far from the violence and bloodshed of the 1940s, the “New India,” led by radical Hindu extremist politicians, is unfortunately being pulled back into the dark ages. New India, sadly, is polarised and ugly.
The likes of Maulana Abdul Kalam would not be able to start an institution or become education minister today. A case in point: only a small percentage–a mere 4.3 per cent of India’s parliamentarians– are Muslims, as opposed to the 7.3 per cent that existed back in 1977.
Speaking at the Delhi Muslim Convention in 1947, Maulana Abdul Kalam said: “take the pledge that this country is ours, that we belong to it and that fundamental decisions of its destiny will remain incomplete till we participate in them. There is no place for either cowardice or frenzy.” Today, Indian Muslims are forced to cower in fear in the very country that he told them they belong to.
When India was newly created, a Pakistani scholar IH Qureshi said that Indian Muslims would not exist over the next century. “What the Muslim community got out of independence and partition was a sense of insecurity, frustration and uncertainty…in a hundred years, perhaps in a shorter time, the Muslim people may cease to exist in India.” In the “New India,” more than the reality Azad imagined, the reality Qureshi imagined seems to be gaining traction. Given the prediction of Muslim genocide in the country, would it be possible that there won’t be any Muslims celebrating India’s 100th Independence Day?
Maung Zarni, a researcher at Genocide Documentation Centre in Cambodia said: “I believe that India is not only on the brink but is already in the process of an unfolding genocide…The killers portray vulnerable populations as a security threat to their religion. When this dehumanisation begins, the country is already deep in the genocidal process even though the killings may not have started.”
What is happening right now in India is a matter of great concern. Deliberate manufacturing of hatred is bad politics. It’s bad for the economy. It threatens the internal security and stability of the country. Such provocation is unnecessary.
Be it in Science or Arts, Muslims (and, indeed, people from all faiths, regardless of their religious beliefs) have contributed to the country in many ways. The contributions Muslims have made to this country, in a plethora of fields, ought to be celebrated.
AzimPremji, the founder of Wipro, for instance, has contributed enormously to the country. He has created jobs and contributed enormously to the economy. He took over Wipro, a cooking oil company owned by his family, and built it as as a global software behemoth. Today Wipro is one of the leading software companies in the world. He has created jobs for millions of Indians. Furthermore, he has shared a significant part of his wealth for philanthropic causes.
If Azim Premji was shunned, hounded and harassed for being a Muslim–as an average Muslim is harassed today–would he have been able to create the wealth and the jobs in this country? Would he have felt the affinity he felt as an Indian citizen?
Many ordinary Muslim families have entrepreneurs in their homes. Restricting them will inevitably restrict the nation’s progress.
But we live in a different India today. India’s democracy has been hijacked by “mass murderers,” who masquerade as the nation’s “chowkidars.” Aided by fake news and algorithms coded by global media giants, they deliberately manufacture hate, dehumanise and vilify an entire community for political gains. They have no qualms in provoking people on the basis of religion.
These political entrepreneurs, “merchants of death,” while seeking power and glory for themselves, are trying to negate and destroy the contributions of millions of people who choose to follow a different faith. The contributions of millions of Muslims come to a nought when the government, run by Hindu fanatics, arrives at a Muslim area with a bulldozer. These attacks on Indian Muslims would, in the long run, only kill the minds that could have taken the country to greater heights
