Discrimination and Tolerance

Muslim chanted “Ram Nam Satya Hai”, as they cremated their Hindu neighbour in a Jaipur slum — under strict lockdown last week. The man — a cancer victim lived in a Muslim dominated area populated by menial workers and scrap dealers — one of the many that have mushroomed as the city’s wealth multiplied over the last two decades.

This news appeared in an obscure corner of a newspaper — befitting the smallness and the insignificance of the dead. The front page carried a different item though- Ahmedabad hospital segregating corona patients on the basis of their religion. Muslims were being housed in a separate ward — a hospital administrator had complained. A news that was subsequently found to be false.

I receive several WhatsApp and FaceBook messages a day. Many of them are clearly communal — demonising the Muslims, blaming them for antinational activities, deliberately spreading the Corona virus and calling for their expulsion. I ignore them.

For those of us who read newspapers and watch television, we are driven to think that Muslims are being hacked to death in India and their existence itself is under threat. The Pakistan Prime Minister described the situation of Muslims yesterday as reminiscent of “ Jews under Nazi Germany”. Royal families in the UAE have also expressed such fears.

Yet, the lived experience of Muslims in India is nowhere close to the narrative that New York Times in US or the Indian Express in India portrays.

Admittedly, there is discrimination — not just against Muslims but also against the Dalits and the Tribals and… the Non Vegetarians.

This is how India is. There are thousand of castes — each discriminating against the other. Tamil language speakers lynching the Hindi speakers. Native Hindus from Assam threatening to expel not just the Marwari Jains but also Hindus who ended up in Bangladesh for no fault of theirs. Shia Muslims declaring the Tabligis — vermin and terrorists on television broadcasts. The Khoja and the Memons and other upper caste Muslims refusing to marry their daughters into the Julaha ( Weaver caste) and the Julaha in turn rejecting to eat from the hands of the Chamar and the Raiger Muslims.

Is discrimination wrong? Unequivocally Yes. But to say that only Hindus discriminate would be equally wrong.

Is it not true that far more Muslims get lynched in Pakistan and more Muslims stoned to death in Saudi Arabia — both Islamic states — every year than in India?

In fact, if there is a holy fight — a jihad — a worthy cause — it should be against the idea of discrimination itself. Both Hindus and Muslims should first strive to eliminate these differences within before fighting to eliminate them outside.

The Western world and the English media in India will never understand its pluralism — its ability to accommodate while it discriminates, conciliation as it conflicts and the unification as divisions emerge.

Remember, the only truth is your own lived experience. Trust yourself. Beware of the vested interest. ..the politics… the distorted news.