By Dr. Javed Jamil
If Hindutva Brigade had been preaching religious values enshrined in Hindu Dharma, there was nothing bad about it. If they had been fighting for the rights of Hindus, even then it would not have created much of havoc. The problem with them is that their definition of Hindutva, in practice if not in theory, is based on their severest aversion to Muslims and everything that is or can be made to look linked to them. They are less interested in introducing the Hindu vision to the constitution and more in demolishing Muslim Personal Laws. (In recent years, adultery and homosexuality have been decriminalized despite their Government and they did not do anything to stop this despite their being against the position of almost all the religions.) They are not too much fond of building temples; they are more concerned about demolishing mosques. They love singing Vande Mataram not because of its inherent beauty but because it irks Muslims who find hard to worship the land instead of the Creator of the land. Even if they do not read their scriptures with any regularity, they would want to impose it on Muslim students through introduction in educational syllabi. Their love of cow, turning an animal into a holy entity, has grown over the centuries because this provides them ammunition to hit Muslims. They are not concerned about their students wearing saffron shawls but are more interested in going against the Hijab, which is their first line of defence against molestation, prescribed as obligatory in their religion. They are not so much in love of reciting Hanuman Chalisa but use it for stopping the sound of Azan reaching Muslims.
Azan and Hanuman Chalisa: Comparison
They ignore the fact that Azan involves only about 15 sentences and less than 50 words with gaps in between sentences, is recited by a single person without any loud music involved and lasts only for 3-5 minutes. Hanuman Chalisa is much longer, with 40 stanzas/verses and around 600 words, and is recited collectively with a much louder voice with hardly any gaps in between and often with a lot of music accompanying it. It is much longer often involving more than 100 recitations. There is a big difference between the “Sound Pollution” caused by Azan and that caused by Hanuman Chalisa. Moreover, Azan is necessary because it announces to the people living in the areas (just five times a day, with combined duration of around 10-20 minutes) surrounding the mosques that the time of prayer is near so that they can offer prayers at the right time. The truth is that they are not campaigning for bringing comforts to their fellow religionists; they are more interested in teasing and harassing the Muslim populace.
Muslims do not stop them from wearing saffron shawls but they would do it only to attack and campaign against Hijab. Similarly, Muslims have no objection to their reciting Hanuman Chalisa in their areas. But they are not as much in love with Chalisa as they hate Azan. I am a great proponent of coming together of all religions, and I have recurrently argued that Indian Muslims and Hindus must come together against the immorality propagated by the current world for commercial aims. Westernism or New World Order, based on the negation of religious morality and propagation of commercial morality, is a threat to every religion and the whole mankind. The fight today is not between religions but between religion and irreligion. Hindus and Muslims think alike in most matters be its family values, moral values, or social values. We all hate alcohol, gambling, sex outside marriage, and nakedness. We all are believers in God though our methods can be different. I will repeat here that Islam is not a religion started by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Islam means submission to God, called Allah in Arabic and Parmeshwar in Hindi/Sanskrit and Jehovah in Hebrew. Quran asks us to believe in the truthfulness of all the previous scriptures and messengers. Of God
Religious morality Vs religious identity
Religion is a binding, not a disintegrating force. The condition is that religious morality rather than religious identity should be the driving vehicle. It is the religious identity that combines with economic and political fundamentalism to engender communalism. Religious morality breeds tolerance, love and brotherhood; communalism breeds hatred, disunity, and destruction. Religion brings peace; communalism brings chaos. Religious people embrace everyone irrespective of their faith; communal people distance others.
We can only hope that sanity will soon return and India’s Democratic and Secular values will again start reigning supreme.
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