[ This is Essay # 26 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]

In search of Ramrajya [Continued from here - First part, Second part]

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V Ramaswamy

(7)

A tolerant society must be built through large-scale, effective public action by citizens and civic organizations. This must build upon past and existing initiatives. A peace / conflict-resolution orientation needs to be infused into to the building of communal amity in India. Large numbers of people across the country must work to inculcate harmony in the new generation. A vital part of this has to be action-education, of children, students and youth, to be able citizens of a democratic and pluralist society.

Education in post-independent India has failed in this task. Negative and bigoted socialization has continued to distort minds and hearts. Education and curriculum emerge as key requirements. Teachers and trainers assume a profound role.

Notwithstanding good intention and enthusiasm for positive change, especially among youth, direction is lacking. Critical social awareness, strategic thinking and action in the public domain – are weak, and are not normal outcomes of the social process. Voluntary action and social movement have decayed considerably over the last decade. A generational change is taking place in society, with weak bridges between the old and new. A ‘culture’ and practice, of aware, strategic social action has to be renewed.

A beginning has to be made, towards catalyzing a wider people’s movement. We have to frontally address the Hindu-Muslim conflict and define the vital and imperative work of peace-building in India. This would catalyze initiatives towards peace, and thus help to generate a people’s movement that begins to transform the situation. ‘Civil society’- in the sense of non-state formations for the public weal - must be built. And a key issues in a civic agenda is harmony.

Harmonious relations between Hindus and Muslims in India are closely linked to realizing enduring peace in south Asia. And peace in the subcontinent, could be a vital force for peace in Middle East as well as in the world at large.

Intolerance also resides outside the reach of the state - within individuals, in families, in community groups. Intolerance results from negative socialization, but also stems from an un-well psyche. It is vital to create means for closer communication and mutual understanding between Hindus and Muslims from all walks of life. But it is also vital to effectively and creatively address the underlying psycho-social factors of bigotry, for instance as a vital part of the education of children to live as citizens of a pluralist, democratic society.

(8)

The great thinker and poet Mohammad Iqbal wrote the song “Sarey jahaan sey achha Hindustan hamara” (Better than the whole world, our India). But he is also considered to be one of the founding fathers of Pakistan, which was born as a separate homeland for India’s Muslims. Iqbal wrote “Shikwa aur Jawaab-e-Shikwa” (Complaint to God, and God’s answer), about the miserable plight of Muslims. After I started working in Priya Manna Basti, and began to understand the power of Urdu poetry, I wrote a song “PM Basti ke ham sab sachhey mussalmaan hain” (We are all true Muslims of PM Basti). I wrote my own “Gratitude, and God’s Acceptance”, to express my feelings for the blessing of India’s plural heritage. I wrote my version of Faiz’s “Yahaan sey sheher ko dekho“, celebrating the love and harmony I found working with the women and children in Priya Manna Basti. And I also wrote my version of “City of Light”, celebrating the transcendence of conflict.

In 1946, leading up to the Direct Action Day, of 16 August, the slogan “haath mein bidi muh mein paan, ladkey lengey Pakistan” (bidi in hand, paan in mouth, we shall fight and take Pakistan) had spread like wildfire in Calcutta. In 1997, in my song Hariyali, I wrote:

Hari aur Ali galey miley jab,
mulkh mey aayi Hariyaali tab
Barsey baadal, dharti shyaamal,
Hari aur Ali jab pakdengey hal

In my translation:

When Hari and Ali embrace
The nation is blessed with verdant grace
Rain showers, earth blooms now
When Hari and Ali together plough

The song continues:

Liye haath mein lathi muh mein Ram
Lana hai woh paak sthaan
Sangh hai saathi hoga hi kaam
Layengey woh paak sthaan

In translation:

Staff in hand, the Lord’s name we sing
This sacred land must we bring
Companions are with us, the work shall be done
This sacred land must be won.

The sacred land being the land of harmony, where Hindu and Muslim children walk and grow together.

Thanks to my association with people like Dr MKA Siddiqui, I have learnt that this is what jihad (in Islam) means: unremitting struggle for personal virtue in the face of the blinding and crippling circumstances of life; and unremitting struggle for justice for the oppressed.

A conscientious human being, and an activist with the disposition of working with and for the victims of injustice – is a jihadi; one who struggles for justice is a mujahid, and the term to describe the activism of such people would literally translate to Harkat-ul Mujahideen.

Out of his kindly and affectionate disposition, Dr Siddiqui had once told me that I was a true jihadi. No compliment could ever be sweeter and richer for me.

[Ends]

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V Ramaswamy is a Calcutta-based business executive, social planner, grassroots organiser, teacher and writer. Address for correspondence: hpp@vsnl.com.