Written by Kaleem Kawaja · February 16, 2008 ·
As I read the speeches of our ex-president APJ Abdul Kalam and his vision for India I become nostalgic. He tells us that if we persevere with hard work and smart strategy, despite current difficulties we could make India a world class nation.
My mind flashes back to my student days in high school in my hometown, Kanpur, North India. In those days far fewer creature comforts and modern goods were available to people from middleclass families such as mine. Yet, reading about the planned industrialization and modernization of the country imbued much enthusiasm in me and my friends.
As I began my engineering studies at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, I came across many diverse and motivated young men and women from all over the country. The common thread among us was our optimism and vision of technological progress of India, of eradicating poverty and backwardness, of implementing social justice, of removing hang-ups of religious and ethnic differences; in short a future of moving ahead with confidence.
In those days religion was a private affair for us – my friends were mostly Hindus, a couple of Sikhs and Christians and Muslims. We mingled freely especially on each others’ religious festivals, such as Dassehra, Diwali, Holi, Eid, Christmas which all of us enjoyed equally as our common events.
In US in my years in graduate studies and as a young professional, again I found myself in a circle of friends who were from a variety of backgrounds in India, with whom I had most commonality and with whom I felt most comfortable. While satisfying our curiosity for the many Western elements, we often thought and talked about India and its developing infrastructure and industrial base.
I soon realized that whenever India looked good as a result of some remarkable achievement of either India or an Indian, my American colleagues paid greater attention to me. That encouraged me to paint a positive image of India among the Americans whenever I could.
However, in my periodic visits to India it bothered me to observe that the elements that are at the core of the development of any country, such as law and order, corruption-free administration, social justice, fair treatment of the weaker sections of society, were not getting adequate attention from the government and the leaders of the nation.
While sporadic Hindu-Muslim tension and violence in certain parts of India has been an endemic problem since independence in 1947, generally the major political parties did not encourage it. But in the early 1980s the picture changed radically. A major political party started openly spreading false stories and venom against the Muslim community. Also caste-based politics mushroomed across the nation.
At the same time watching the upsurge of the violence of the misled Muslim terrorists against their fellow Hindus in Kashmir in God’s own paradise, where they had lived in harmony for centuries, was hard to believe. Similarly, it was very painful to watch the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, the 1992 demolition of Babri mosque and the sectarian attacks on the peaceful Christians staring in 2002.
The unprecedented anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 with which the Gujarat state government openly connived, and the subsequent total loss of recourse to justice for the Muslim victims of the carnage shook me to my bones. In this dark hour my spirits lifted when I saw the mainstream Indian media, the Supreme Court of India, many Indian Non Government Organizations, and a majority of Hindus, speak up to help the Muslim victims and to condemn the Gujarat state BJP government.
However, I kept faith that the enlightenment of a majority of Hindus will overcome the zealotry of a few among them. As the Urdu poet BD Pandey wrote: “Hazaaron saal ki yeh daastan; Aur yaad haiy unko sirf itna; Kay Aalamgir zaalim thaa, Hindukush thaa, sitamgur tha.” ( Hindus and Muslims coexisting is a tale of a thousand years; And yet all they remember is that Aalamgir (Aurangzeb) was a oppressor of Hindus and a tyrant.)
As I watch hordes of young Indian Information Technology engineers and other professionals flood the shining offices of major corporations and government all over U.S., and get respect for the quality of their work, my chest swells with pride at being an Indian. As I hear of the growth of hi-technology and industrial and infrastructure development in India’s various cities, and India’s 8 percent annual economic growth, I wonder if the quarter century old vision for India that I dreamt as a boy and that has stayed with me ever since, is now becoming a reality.
As an Indian Muslim I have two identities; my Indian identity and my Muslim identity. Just as other Indians have two identities, the Indian identity and the identity based on their religion. Pluralism, democracy and secularism are the core of our nation. It is on this core that we Indians regardless whether we are Hindus or Muslims or Sikhs or Christians have built our vision for the future of India.
As I stand in front of the mirror from my boyhood of my bright and hopeful vision of an economically advanced and social justice oriented India, I notice that a few cracks are staring hard at me. I am unable to understand the dichotomy that while India has made phenomenal progress in the spread of education, great technological infrastructure and economic progress, at the same time indifference towards one-third of the population that lives below poverty line, and religious minorities, and frequent organized anti-minority violence has also become a visible part of India’s landscape.
Today my vision for India as an Indian and a Muslim is the same as that of my fellow Indians from other backgrounds. That is to repair these cracks and move forward with renewed enthusiasm to build that egalitarian and modern India that two generations of Indians – my father’s generation that actively participated in the freedom struggle, and my generation that was born in post-independence India - have dreamt for more than half a century.
“ Chishti nay jis zameen pur paigham-e-huq sunaya,
Nanak nay jis chaman main wahdat ka geet gaaya,
Mera watan wuhi hay, Mera watan wuhi hay”
( The land in which Moinuddin Chishti preached the message of God’s justice,
The garden in which Guru Nanak sang the song of God’s unity,
That land is my motherland, That land is my motherland. )
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