Mushirul Hasan wrote Legacy of a Divided Nation: India’s Muslims Since Independence in the aftermath of the devastating destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya by the Indian government, on the grounds that it covered an earlier Jain temple. This removal of a sacred site important to Muslims as both a religious place and a historical treasure dedicated to the Emperor Babur sparked riots that eventually involved 150,000 people and killed more than 100. This was yet another low point in Hindu-Muslim relations, part of a pattern of fractured identity politics encouraged by India’s colonial rulers, then exploded in the murderous chaos after partition in 1947, in a string of riots in the 1960s which eclipsed local police and military ability to control them and for Hasan’s purposes, climaxing in the orgy of violence around loss of the mosque.
However, rather than seeing this pessimistically, Hasan analyzed the larger sweep of India’s history, and looked beyond the sectarian politicians to find a core of moderate Muslims who chose to stay in India rather than move to Pakistan, and who, while they might be very religious, see the maintenance of India as an egalitarian, socialist, secular state to be the best guarantee of freedom to practice their faith. This paper examines the reasons Hasan truly believes that this crucial population can support a less violent, more secular India, and ways in which policies based on those ideas have play out since 1993, especially in the wake of 9/11, the long intervention of the US in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the 2008 Mumbai Hotel attacks by Muslim extremists tied to Pakistan.
Deeper Indian history is important to understanding how recent the horrific animosity has be...
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...seethed with resentment at someone else’s good fortune.
It is a lot easier to stereotype Muslims (and Hindus) in India rather than approach them as fully rounded individuals with identities beyond their religions. The Muslim community has deep and complex roots in India, and their reactions have been shaped by powerful outside manipulation as well as their own intense feelings about their place in 21st century Indian society. There is hope, perhaps more than in 1993, that as the government thinks more inclusively and more secularly, that good economic times will continue to foster tolerance and well-being. All of the studies and projects recommend that there be more data collected, that people be encouraged to see one another as human beings, and that politicians avoid making cheap shots for short-term gains, but those are good policies for any one, any time.
...ng religion and foreign to the people of India, yet there is a defied truth that Islam’s spread peacefully throughout India with the alliances formed between the Indian people, the Turks, and the Mongols. The encounters that the ancient Indian people had to endure with the Turks, Mongols, and Islam have had the most memorable impact and impression on Indian culture and other societies throughout the east. Ancient Indian history is often overlooked within our society, but perhaps there should be a second look at how the Indian people have became who they are today, what attributes that have given society, and what pandemonium they have overcame as a civilization to stay in existence and stand against the test of time.
In conclusion, the testimony of Maya Rani on the Partition of India provides a good overview of the fateful events leading to that disastrous decision made by the British, and the fatal suffering of innocent civilians that has passively caught between the crossfire of communal hatred. The importance of her oral testimony to history from a gendered, female, child, and caste perspective is severely underrated as the actions of a nation through her eyes (and other oral histories) are paramount to understanding the emotions, reasoning and social human logic behind the events that unfolded on the ground as more than just facts, dates and statistics on a piece of paper.
Perry, A. (2003, August 5). Hindu Muslim conflict- India's Great Divide By Alex Perry. Hindu Muslim conflict- India's Great Divide By Alex Perry. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-perry050803.htm
The Islamic revival trend of the late 20th century forged the intellection that the ‘resurrected’ Muslim nations were akin to Islamic states. The region considered to make up the Muslim world indisputably comprises nations that maintain majority Muslim populations. The extent to which these nations may be labeled Islamic, however, is dubious. As the omnipresent uniformity ascribed to Muslim nations has intensified with heightened media attention, the variance among systems of governance in these countries has continued to be overlooked. The Islamic presence in these countries, in fact, ranges vastly, from Islamic social groups that strive to revive social morality and eradicate Western culture to established political systems that endeavor to enforce Islamic law.
‘Raam ke Naam’ is a documentary film made by Anand Patwardhan in the year 1991, a year before the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The film follows the journey of L.K Advani’s Rath Yatra, which led to the destruction of the 16th century mosque. The stage of the film is set at the destruction of a mosque in Ayodhya to build a temple in its place claiming it to be Ram’s birthplace, Ramjanamabhumi. However, along with the main issue, the film traces seeds of communalism, politicization of religion and classism. The film is not opinion based but reflects what people were saying at that time. It interviews several people ranging from fanatic members of procession to temple priests, local junta and even Govt officials. The film takes an interesting view in today’s time because in gives documentary evidence of how communal feelings and attitudes began to take shape as a result of right wing Hindu politics. It is also noteworthy that the title hints us of man’s actions ‘in the name of god’ but his actions not
Ismail, Salwa. 2004. Being Muslim: Islam, Islamism and Identity Politics. Government and Opposition, 6, 614-631.
The article " Do Ahmadis deserve to live in Pakistan?” was published in the Friday News on September 6, 2012. In this article, Hamdani highlights the problems Ahmadis face as a minority group in the Muslim majority country like Pakistan by giving plenty of examples. He also explains how with the passage of time the problems for Ahmadis have increased. He also tries to explain the importance of the Ahmadi sect in Pakistan by hinting that they had played a vital role in its creation. Hamdani also highlights that Ahmadis are still working for the prosperity of the country but the people and Government of Pakistan do not give them any significant importance and ignore their praiseworthy work b...
The novel shows how secularism is one of the most abused words in Indian politics. It has become pseudo-secularism. Pseudo means false. It results into appeasement of some particular opinion or group for immediate social and political gains. It results into the grievances of Hindus towards their government in India and enhancement of their animosity towards their fellow beings. Having been brainwashed by the rhetoric of the “heroic heritage” of the past and the “pathetic situation” of the present, the “Hindu” youth are made to feel intensely the need for shunning “impotence” and “weakness”. The novel clearly depicts that sufferings of Hindus and fears of Muslims in the novel is the result of politics being played out by politicians to meet their own selfish
The relations between Muslim and Hindus were growing worst, It was clear from the fact that the Muslim and the Hindus could not live together.
During the Cold War, many regional conflicts occurred and were noted as the significant battles which later led to decolonization. One of the regional conflicts were India and Pakistan fighting for their independence. In 1947, India was released under Great Britain’s control and gained its independence. However, the country was divided between Muslims and Hindus, which share different religions. Muslims wanted church and state to become unified while Hindus wanted a separation of these two establishments. Since these two ethnic groups disagreed, it was difficult to create a new government. Therefore, India was divided into two nations: India for the Hindus and Pakistan for the Muslims. Hindus and Muslims were racing to the border in order to get to their nation state which led to killing 500,000 people due to rioting. Although, Mohandas Gandhi, an Indian National Congressman, wanted to obtain peace between these two religions. Pakistan refused the H...
Nonetheless, the tensions between India and Pakistan have certainly played a significant role in the development and often negative portrayal of this particular character. After the shock that came from the unforgettable and perhaps unresolved events of the September 11th, 2001, the culture of the mainstream media was shifted and centered on an “us against them” mentality. Not only did this draw negative international attention to the Muslim male, it also escalated the pace at which anti-Islamic/Muslim male films would be produced in Bollywood.
Born in 1915 and lived in Lahore, Punjab Singh had first-hand experience with the events that followed the partition of India, which should have been “the joyful culmination of decades of anti-British struggle [and instead] became a shameful debacle as Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs turned on each other in a fury of religious bigotry” (Brians 47-8). Though he was fortunate
In late 1947, the newly created states of India and Pakistan went to war over the valley of Kashmir. A United Nations brokered ceasefire divided the state into Indian and Pakistani controlled territories, and resolved that a referendum would be held in which the people of Kashmir would be able to choose to join either country. The referendum has not been held to this day. India granted its portion of Kashmir a special status within its constitution, allowing for a great degree of self-autonomy. However, successive Kashmiri governments have been dissolved by the government of India, and elections have only been held in the presence of its armed forces. In 1965, Pakistan and India waged a second indecisive war over Kashmir. In the 1980s, resistance within Kashmir itself against the Indian government took on a violent nature, with guerilla attacks against Indian army bases. India responded with heavy army clampdowns, and since then the situation has only escalated and get worse. It is estimated that well over 34,000 people have died within the valley, and the relations between the two countries have become increasingly acrimonious. India blames Pakistan for the militant uprising, claiming Islamabad is supporting cross border terrorism. Pakistan responds that it merely provides diplomatic and moral support arguing, furthermore, that India’s history of human rights abuses in the valley is to blame. With both countries now in possession of nuclear arms; the recent war in KARGIL and the increasing number of civilian deaths, refugees, and other human rights issues within Kashmir, the conflict seems to be taking on a more serious nature. In this paper I will discuss the Kashmir conflict in some depth, examining the problem in...
Power struggles amongst the two groups are ever present and each group thinks the other is out to get them. Hindus comprise the majority of the population of India at eighty percent while Muslims are a minority, making up only fourteen percent, which is a problem in itself. The feeling of being dominated by the majority comes from being a part of the minority. To complicate things even more is the controversy that surrounds Ayodhya, a holy place in Gujarat claimed by both groups. The Babri Masjid, a Muslim temple in Ayodhya was burned to the ground by Hindu extremists in 1992 and caused a wave of violence that resulted in the loss of over two thousand lives. These Hindu extremists believe the temple rests on the birthplace of Ram, one of the Hinduism’s most revered deities. They want a temple built on the site to commemorate Ram’s birth. Muslims in turn want the Babri Masjid rebuilt in the same spot. Neither side wants to give in and are currently fighting on.
Ricardo Pollack is distinguished as a director because of the documentary, Partition: The Day India Burned (2007). The documentary itself discusses the detrimental consequences of the withdrawal of Britain's reign from India in 1947, which led to the forced relocation of men, women, and even children across newly defined border lines, along with violence, rape, and murder. The film makes it argument through dramatized reconstructions and witness testimonies, which offer personal insight into the horrors of the partition and conjure up feelings of sympathy and remorse. The film intends to make an educated public more aware of how an ethnically diverse nation was tragically divided and its effects on civilian lives. This is a secondary source with primary sources because it is based on witness testimonies and an actual historical event, but offers its own evaluation on the issue through dramatized reconstructions of the event. This source is quite useful and relevant to my project because it offers more than just the historical facts pertaining to the event. It offers a more narrow perspective of the broader, general history; thus broadening the scope of my research.