Tensions have been escalating in Sambhal since November 19, when a court-mandated survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid began following claims that a Harihar temple had once stood on the site.
Dec 1, 2024 03:00 IST First published on: Dec 1, 2024 at 03:00 IST
Have both Hindus and Muslims gone completely mad in our beloved Bharat? I ask the question seriously. The reason why I ask is because it must be madness that becomes manifest when people who turn up to throw stones in defence of a mosque or to make hate speeches are so blinded by religiosity that they do not notice the bigger problems that surround them every day. All it needs is to watch carefully the visuals that appear on your TV screens every time there is a new fight over a mosque, or a temple and you will see what I mean about bigger problems.
For some days now I have watched the violent clashes over the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal and the aftermath. Instead of gazing at the white mosque that looms over shabby bazaars and slums, I have been more interested in what lies below this mosque with so grandiose a name. And I have been horrified by the slimy drains that line dilapidated alleys, the decrepit stairways that rise from hovel-like shops and the general sense of decay that hangs over everything. Images from the destruction of Gaza came to mind and not for the first time it shamed me to see that living conditions that usually come because of war exist in India in normal, ordinary peaceful times. Small towns in India are filthy, ugly and grim everywhere but if there was a competition, the fine state of Uttar Pradesh would win effortlessly.
This is what makes it so puzzling that Hindus and Muslims should be fighting about mosques and temples when they should be fighting for basic civic rights. I have personally not been to Sambhal but I have been to many small towns in Uttar Pradesh over the years and not come across one that showed the smallest signs of municipal governance. In these towns if there is one, clean and relatively attractive structure it is always a mosque or a temple that shine like beacons in the wasteland from which they rise.
Instead of fighting for the right to better living standards, Hindus and Muslims spend their time killing each other while trying to establish that beneath some mosque there may once have been a Hindu temple. Why do we not just agree that when Muslim invaders rampaged through India, they flattened thousands of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples? Why not just accept this ugly truth? Why do we need to continue blaming every Indian Muslim today for what his co-religionists did hundreds of years ago? Muslims are not innocent victims either. They rally in support of a Waqf Board that has been notoriously corrupt and criminally territorial for far too long. But when you have a Hindutva government trying to restrict the Waqf’s powers there are inevitably suspicions that this is just one more attempt to humiliate Muslims in general.
As I write these words a certain trepidation comes over me because I remember that there is some Hindutva outfit called the Hindu Sena that is now trying to convert Ajmer Sharif into a Shiv temple. This is one of India’s most revered dargahs (shrines) at which both Muslims and Hindus have worshipped for at least seven centuries so if there was a temple here once, does it really matter now? Do courts need to accept petitions that demand a survey of these Islamic places of worship when they come from lunatic fringe outfits like the Hindu Sena? Please remember that the man who heads this Hindu army is the same one who organised a ‘havan’ for Donald Trump’s victory in the 2020 election. A mad thing to do. Right?
In all this madness, if there has been heard one sane voice it came, ironically, from the head of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat, who warned when a survey was being conducted in the Gyanvapi mosque that it was wrong to go about searching for a Shivling in every other mosque. Nobody listened to him but if he is backed up with other sane voices from religious and political leaders, it is possible that this tide of madness will be stopped. This is necessary because it really is time for both Hindus and Muslims to start demanding much more important things like municipal governance.
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In towns like Sambhal people live without such basic amenities as running water and electricity. They live in homes that rise out of rotting garbage and when the rains come, their children play on mud floors that soak up sewage that pours in with the rainwater. These are towns in which temples, schools and hospitals often appear as if they have been built on layers and layers of garbage. The air stinks so much it is hard to breathe. And clouds of flies and mosquitoes block the light and settle on the faces of small babies. Could it be because people are forced to live in such horrendous conditions that the only way they find to release their rage is by joining religious processions that nearly always end in violence.
As someone who has traveled in much poorer countries than India, I often say in this column, that there is almost no country in the world in which I have seen living conditions more abysmal than in India. They will improve only when ordinary citizens discover that they need basic, civic governance more than places of worship.
