FRIDAY, 26 JULY 2013
Tamil Pride
'Tamil Pride' - I have been trying to understand what this could be, but have got little understanding.
Instead of giving the world a chance to judge yourself and tell you what are your praise-worthy virtues and what are not; you take charge and cry out – 'we are the greatest', 'our language is the best' , 'our language is the oldest', 'we are beyond any judgement for improvement' ….. this is certainly not a brave and courageous behaviour. God has not created any human being beyond the scope or space for any further improvement. How-so-over talented a human being may be, he or she is not so talented that he/she goes on and on praising himself/herself. No human being has been created so much gifted by God that he can overlook the virtue of modesty. Those who cry out - we are the greatest, our language is the oldest and best... etc have hidden feeling of frustration, weakness and inferiority in their hearts and minds. No one is perfect (God has not created anyone perfect)– but someone who can see eye to eye to his (or her) shortcomings is certainly brave, courageous and intelligent. And those who cannot accept that they are human and are fallible are certainly cowards and weak-minded.
One has to understand the difference that exists between self-respect and pride. Self respect is a feeling of respect for one’s own self, a feeling of being self-assured about one’s own self. On the other hand pride for oneself may be a feeling of unsatisfied ego, It shows that one is not in balance with one’s own self so one has to cry out to the world – 'look at me … I am so great!!' Self respect is a feeling to be enjoyed in one’s heart, but pride is a feeling to be advertised to the world. A person having self respect would not tell the world – look at me and see how great I am! While self respect may be a feeling to be desired, pride may be a feeling to get rid of. One does not become great by crying out to the world– 'I am the greatest!' A person having self respect would not want to belittle others, would not want to belittle other’s language, would not want to make fun of others while on the other hand a person having pride will do all of this.
It’s good that Hindi and the related languages and literature believe in and preach the virtues of modesty and courage. Hindi teaches some great virtues and that is why the base of Hindi is constantly expanding without making conscious efforts. There are some languages whose base has not expanded despite the fact that they are in existence for may be more than two thousand years – they have got confined to a small group of speakers in the world… they are not growing ... they are not growing beyond the rate that their population who use it, may be growing.
An example of the power of Hindi and the sister languages was seen in India’s fight for Independence against the British. Hindi played a great role in bringing the mighty colonial rule to its knees. There may be opposition of Hindi in some regions of India, but Hindi will grow. Hindi does not teach its speakers to make fun of others. It’s the language of the brave and intelligent. Hindi does not have to be forced upon people in order to be kept alive. Patience and modesty are the virtues of the brave, not of the coward. It’s good that a Hindi speaker is self-assured, he/she does not have to utterpompous, overtly self-promoting and bombastic statements extolling himself or herself, extolling his (or her) language to conceal his (or her) insecurities.
MONDAY, 8 JULY 2013
Contribution of Islam to India... some thoughts
Islam first came to India with Arab trade as early as 7th century A.D. to Malabar Coast in South India (Kerala shores). Islam arrived in the north India in 12th century with Turkic invasions and has since become a part of India's religious and cultural heritage.
Over the years, there has been significant integration of Hindu and Muslim cultures across India and the Muslims have played a prominent role in India's economic rise and cultural influence.
I am a Hindu. But I feel that Islam has contributed greatly to India - no less than what Hinduism has, but this contribution is not taken cognizance of.
Islam has contributed to the mysticism of India just like Hinduism. Sufism which is an offshoot of Islam has played an important part in that.
I have seen that many Hindus argue like this - in Muslim families the male will have some 3-4 wives and with each of them he will have 6-7 offspring. Thus the argument will say that Muslim population grows very fast. But I have not understood this argument well. The population of Muslims in India is around 12-14 % of the total population of India. At the time of Independence the population of Muslims was around 10-11% of the total population and now it continues to be just around 12-13 % of the total populations. If the argument of those Hindus were correct and the population of the Muslims were growing that fast, the population would have increased to some 30-40% share.... wouldn't it? This fear and argument of these Hindus is just baseless and incorrect. The population growth rate of Muslims is higher but not that higher so that it will make any significant difference.
The contribution of Islam to India is taken for granted and is not recognized (especially by many Hindus).
The language which is spoken by a great many Indians - Hindi, is a language which has evolved from the integration of Islam with local Indian civilization - Hindi has evolved from integration of Persian, Turkish and the local languages Sanskrit, Prakrit etc. Hindi is now the official language of India.
Before the advent of Muslims, the country was fragmented into small warring states for a long time and there was no concept of Indian nationalism. The Muslim rulers, especially the Mughals, unified the country and gave it a central administration. They called the country Hind and Hindustan, i.e. a country of the Hindus (non-Muslims). The name 'India', a distortion of Hind, was given to her by the British rulers.
Thus we owe our name and the language in which we conduct our official business to Islam.
Islam has added variety and diversity to the culture of India.... but for Islam India would have been very monotonous, very colourless and very variety-less.
I also have objection to this string of thinking that links Islam to terrorism - this string of thinking is in fashion the world over these times - just think -- the two World Wars.... Islam did not have any engagement in starting them; the colonialism of the seventeenth and eighteenth century ... Islam did not start that; the evil practice of slavery practised in the continent of America some couple of centuries ago ... Islam did not start it; the evil practice of apartheid... Islam did not start that.... !! Now how could Islam be held responsible for terrorism? True that there may be more Muslims amongst those who have been caught perpetrating terrorist acts, but reason may not have anything to do with teachings of religion of Islam. If one tried to go to the root, one might find that the reason may be political, regional, social etc.
If there were any such problem with the religion, it would not be so popular in the world... Islam is second most popular religion in the world as of the present.
One noteworthy contribution of Islam to the school of thought in India was that of the oneness of God - God is one... all humans are equal. India has been plagued by practices of caste-ism, by ideas of inequality of man - by ideas that 'I am superior to you' , my God is superior to that of yours.... Islam has added reformatory reflections to this school of thinking. Islam also does away with the practice of idol worship. This is also good.
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