Patna: “Dirty politics has played key role in spreading hatred among the communities who have been living together in the country for centuries. Though all the religions teach peace, harmony and brotherhood, politicians used the religious sentiments to spread communalism for their own benefits, and British government was founder of that mischief” said eminent scholar, writer and social activist Prof. Ram Puniyani.
He was delivering a lecture on “Religious tolerance for inter-community harmony” organized by the Bihar chapter of The Temple of Understanding (An Inter-Faith Global Association) here at Government Urdu Library in Patna on 13thMarch 2011.
Prof Ram Puniyani is speaking while (R-L) Ajmal Farid, Editor,Urdu daily Qaumi Tanzeem and Sachitanand Sinha,President of Temple of Understanding on the stage
Prof Puniyani said that today’s politics means to gain benefits for some selected people by sidelining the majority of the people while religion means to think about all the members of the society. Though there is contrast between the two things, politicians with the help of some people of the society mixed them up.
He stressed the fact that with exception of few mischief mongers majority of the Indians whether Muslims or Hindus or any other community are peace-loving otherwise country would have been destroyed so far.
British Govt. is founder of communal hatred
These politicians adopted the theory of British government ‘divide and rule’ to serve their own purposes. It is true that world’s biggest movements for freedom succeed in India by the virtue of united struggle of all the Indians irrespective of their religions, castes and creeds. But it is also a fact that after Muslims and Hindus fought together against British Government in 1857giving sleepless nights to them, the English played various tricks to divide the Indians on the lines of religions and castes.
The Babarnama, which was originally written in Persian language, was translated by a British lady. In the book where Babri Masjid was mentioned she put a footnote saying that perhaps there Ram was born. It was the foundation stone of Babri Masjid-Ram temple dispute which continues till today. None has proof that it was birthplace of Ram, said Prof Ram Puniyani.
The Britons propagated among Hindus that Mahmood Ghaznawi attacked Somnath Mandir for religious purpose and thus humiliated the Hindu religion. While the same British misled Muslims that the Mahmood Ghaznawi was the real ideal and hero for them as he strived against idol-worship.
L-R: Ajmal Farid,Editor Urdu daily Qaumi Tanzim, Prof.Ram Puniyani and I.C. Kumar, Member of Temple of Understanding
In an attempt to twist the factual history, British Government propagated that Islam was spread in India by force. While the fact is that people attracted towards Islam because of its principle of social justice. People of lower castes were not allowed to entre mandirs and they were denied of any status in the society. On the contrary, at dargahs and mazars everyone was allowed be they Muslims or non-Muslims. This gave chance to lower castes Hindus to interact with Sufi saints and learn about Islam.
Neither Muslim nor Hindu emperors fought for religion
No emperors fought for their religions but their fights were totally for power (iqtidar) or wealth. For instance, Mahmood Ghaznawi attacked on Somnath Mandir for wealth because if he wanted to humiliate idols or spread Islam why he did not do that by attacking thousands of mandirs in his way from Ghaznah to India and why he demolished a mosque in Multan after the local ruler stopped him to enter the city. More importantly, 30% of Mahmood’s troops were Hindus and out of total 12 commanders 5 were Hindus.
Babar that is a hateful name today among Hindus came to India on the call of a Hindu ruler Rana Sanga who sought help from him in the war against a Muslim emperor Ibrahim Lodhi.
Aurangzeb who is known as anti-Hindus emperor attacked Shivaji when he received helping call from Hindu businessmen of Surat who were looted time and again by Shivaji’s troops. It is also notable that 34% of Aurangzeb’s troops were Hindus.
Similarly, the fight between Akbar and Rana Pratap Singh was for power. Because neither Akbar nor Rana Pratap Singh came to battleground but Hakim Khan came as chief commander of Rana Pratap Singh and Man Singh along with Shahzada Saleem came as the chief commander of Akbar.
These historical facts are enough to prove that Muslim and Hindu emperors and rulers fought but not for religions otherwise their troops never consisted of people of other religions. But British Govt. omitted the factual history from the minds of people and gave them communal and religious colours.
Hindu rulers too demolished mandirs
It might be true that some Muslim rulers demolished some mandirs but it was not for the religious purpose as the history tells that Hindu rulers too demolished mandirs after overcoming other rulers. Muslims came to India in 6th century while many incidents took place before that in which Hindu rulers demolished mandirs of other rulers, Prof Puniyani said.
Audience
Challenges and steps ahead
After tireless efforts and sacrifice our country got freedom but before leaving the country British sowed the seed of communalism and hatred that is creating problems for us today and we have paid much price for that.
“We need to come together to fight against those who are damaging communal harmony and spreading poison of hatred among the communities. We need to read and understand the real and true history and spread the same among the people specially youths who are the future of the country. We need to show the unity to defeat the communal forces as we did for the freedom struggle,” Prof Puniyani urged while ending his lecture.
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