Ram and Rahim

When in 1906, young barrister Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi launched his satyagraha in South Africa against the discriminatory treatment being meted out to people of Indian origin, his chief lieutenants included Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Dalits and Christians. Among his colleagues were also Chines, British and Germans. Indeed Gandhi was a Vishwamanav (global citizen) whose quest for truth could not be constricted by the consideration of caste, creed or colour.

When he set up the Satyagraha Ashram on the bank of the Sarbarmati river in Ahmedabad a decade later, Gandhiji nominated Imam Abdul Kadir Bawazeer, a Muslim priest who had courted jail in 1910 as a Satyagrahi in South Africa, as the vice-chairman of the ashram's managing committee. Bawazeer succeeded Gandhiji's secretary Mahadev Desai as the chairman of the ashram after the latter was arrested during the Salt Satyagraha in 1930. And, when Gandhiji was arrested, he nominated 76-year-old Justice Abbas Tayyabji to lead the Salt Satyagraha.

Gandhiji's Satyagraha ashram was a global village. Its inmates included Hindus, Jains, Muslims, Parsis and Christians. Even Miraben, the youngest daughter of an admiral of the British Royal Navy, was an ashram inmate, such broad was Gandhiji's concept of universal brotherhood.

When in 2002, a group of concerned citizens gathered at the satyagraha ashram to discuss ways to promote communal harmony, it was attacked by a mob crying 'Jai Shri Ram'. A few days back, the mob that had destroyed the mausoleum of Vali Deccani, a.k.a Vali Gujarati, the great poet credited with founding the composition of shaayari, was also shouting the same very war cry of 'Jai Shri Ram'.

Gandhiji had popularized the singing of the hymn:
"Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram, Pateet Paavan Sita Ram
Eeshwar, Allah Tere Naam, Sabko Sanmati De Bhagwan"

The Muslim, Christian and Parsi inmates of the satyagraha ashram sang the hymn with equal devotion as it was a prayer to one God who was known by different names and whose blessings the hymn sought so that good sense prevailed among all human beings.

But since December 6, 1992, when fanatic Hindu mobs demolished the Babri mosque at Ayodhya as an act of revenge against the 15th Century Moghul emperor, Babar, the chant of 'Jai Shri Ram' has assumed violent connotation, striking terror among the non-Hindus, specially Muslims whom the Hindu fanatics chided as 'Babar ki Aulad' (Descendants of the Moghul emperor).

Communal Trap

A cornered cat pounces at the throat of the one who has cornered it. Should the Muslims act likewise? Some of them did. The serial bomb blast in Mumbai was in retaliation to the demolition of the Babri mosque. So were several other acts of terrorism. But an act6 of terrorism triggers off state terrorism of greater maginitude. Besides, terrorism alienates the common people from a terrorist outfit.

An act of terrorism by members of the minority community helps reinforce the propaganda by Fascist forces that Muslims are anti-social elements who need to be dealt with an iron hand. It was because of the attack on the Akshardham temple complex in Gandhinagar and the assassinatioin of former home and revenue minister Haren Pandya that the police could terrorize the Muslims by subjecting a large number of youths to torture and then putting them behind bars under the provisions of the draconian POTA.

Violence breeds greater violence. Similarly, communalism of the majority community thrives on communalism of the minority community. Some religious and political leaders seek to encourage and strengthen orthodoxy among the Muslims on the plea that preserving a distinct identity is the only way to survive the onslaught by forces that seek to wipe out Islam. But by doing so, they add fuel to the fire of communalism on which Fascist forces thrive.

Another tendency seen among a few Muslim leaders is to accept the supremacy of the majority community and be rewarded with a share in power. Such Muslim leaders, who accept positions in the government or in the ruling party, play a second fiddle to the top leadership and come in handy for the Fascist regimes to tom-tom their 'secular' credentials. As happens with any fifth columnist, they become a subject of abject contempt among their own community even as their loyalty remains suspect in the eyes of the majority community.

A vast majority of Muslims are poor and illiterate, making them vulnerable to the machinations of politicians and the clergy. Politicians, irrespective of their party affiliations, view Muslims as a conglomerate of various monolithic, closely-knit clans each controlled by clerics and/or community leaders. In times of elections, politicians seek the support of these clerics and community leaders, who act as power-brokers.

Politicians, clerics and community leaders have shown little interest in the welfare and uplift of the common Muslims. On the contrary, they seem to have a vested-interest in keeping the masses illiterate and their attention diverted from such burning issues as education, poverty, unemployment, social and economic justice. The same holds true for the Hindutva forces too.

Karl Marx had described religion as the opiate of masses. The followers of Savarkar, Godse and Modi are proving Marx right in Gandhi's Gujarat.

A Leaf from Mein Kampf - Part I

One had only read about Fascism and Nazism in books of history and fiction. But had never experienced living under a Fascist state. One had lived under the constant fear of arrest and police torture during the 19 months of the Emergency. But what the Muslims in Gujarat experienced in 2002 must have been much more dreadful than that.

There were massacres of Muslims, gang rapes of Muslim women and looting and arson of shops and establishments belonging to them.

Armed mobs, led by known Bharatiya Janata Party and Vishwa Hindu Parishad workers, were on a killing spree, targeting Muslims to avenge the burning alive of over 50 VHP volunteers returning from Ayodhya by train on February 27 near the Godhra railway station.

Instead of providing protection to the Muslims, the police aided and abetted the killer mobs. Worse, the police refused to file First Information Reports in several cases and where it became unavoidable to register a case, the FIRs were so doctored as to help the killers, rapists, arsonists and looters escape unpunished.

Gujarat had become unsafe for Muslims. Hundreds of Muslims fled their homeland, Gujarat, after the mayhem. Many enterprising, forward-looking, well-to-do Muslims, like the members of the Chelia clan from north Gujarat, who owned over 400 restaurants, most of them serving only vegetarian food and bearing pronouncedly Hindu names, sold their establishments to move to Hyderabad and Bangalore.

These popular restaurants, other shops and business establishments doing flourishing business in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in central and north Gujarat were singled out, plundered and then set on fire by the Hindu mobs in the aftermath of the Godhra carnage.

(Introduction)

ऐसे बिकते हैं केसरिया पेडे

(यह लेख १९९९ में उस समय लिखा गया था जब पोप की भारत यात्रा पर संघ परिवार ने देश भर में भारी उहापोह मचाई थी)

नागपुर स्थित संघ मुख्यालय के फोन की घंटी सुबह तीन बजे बज उठी. गुरूजी ने झुंझलाकर फोन उठाया और भर्राई आवाज में गुर्राए, "कौन बदतमीज है?"

"क्षमा प्रार्थी हूं गुरुजी. मैं दिल्ली से गोविंद बोल रहा हूं. मामला इतना संगीन है कि इतनी देर रात को आपको कष्ट दे रहा हूं," सामने से घिघियाता हुआ जवाब मिला.

"जल्दी बको, इतना सुंदर सपना देख रहा था, सारा गुड गोबर कर दिया. कहे देता हूं कि यदि फालतू बात के लिए तुमने फोन किया है तो तुम्हें वापस नागालैंड भेज दूंगा. दिल्ली की बहुत हवा खा ली तुमने," गुरुजी गुर्राए.

"गुरुजी, आप तो मुझे तब से जानते हैं जब मुझे ठीक से निक्कर पहनना भी नहीं आता था. मुझे पागल कुत्ते ने नहीं काटा जो बेवजह आपकी नींद खराब करने की हिमाकत करूं. बात यह है कि हमारे जासूसों ने खबर दी है कि वेटिकन के धर्मगुरू ने भारत आने की टिकट कटा ली है. हमारी गीदड भभकियों का उन पर कोई असर नहीं हुआ. अब यदि यह फिरंगी गुरु यहां आता है तो अपनी दुकानदारी का क्या होगा?" गोविंद गिडगिडाते हुए बोला.

"अरे मूरख, तुम्हें भाजपा में क्या भेज दिया, तुम्हारी अकल घास चरने चली गई. शाखा में दी गई शिक्षा भूल गए? हमारी दुकानदारी की सबसे बडी खूबी यही है कि वह प्रतियोगी के बिना नहीं चलती. हमारा केसरिया पेडा तभी बिकेगा जब भोले-भाले ग्राहकों को हम यह बताएंगे कि पडोस के हलवाई की हरी बर्फ़ी में गाय की चर्बी मिली है और इटालियन पिज्जा में सूअर का गोश्त," गुरुजी ने जम्हाई लेते हुए कहा.

"लेकिन गुरुजी, अपने यहां करोडों ऐसे लोग हैं जो सब्जियां महंगी होने के कारण हमारी तरह शुद्ध शाकाहारी नहीं बन पाए हैं. वे तो इन बातों से भुलावे में नहीं आने वाले," गोविंद झिझकते हुए बोला.
'रहोगे तुम निपट मूरख ही. सयाने होते तो अब तक नागपुर मुख्यालय में प्रबंध संघ चालक बन गए होते और मेरी तरह आराम से शुद्ध गाय के शुद्ध दूध से बने पेडे खाते. देश भर के करोडों निक्कर धारियों से गुरु-दक्षिणा वसूल करते, सो अलग," गुरुजी ने गोविंद को फटकार लगाई.

"क्षमा करें प्रभो. दिल्ली में प्रतिदिन प्रेस कोन्फ़्रेन्स संबोधित करने के कारण मेरी मति मारी गई है. मेरी जड हो चुकी बुद्धि में आपकी बात ठीक से नहीं घुस पा रही है. केसरिया पेडे की बिक्री से हरी बर्फ़ी और इटालियन पिज्ज का क्या लेना-देना? महेरबानी कर मुझ गंवार को थोडा ग्यान दें," गोविंद लज्जित होने की मुद्रा में बोला.

"तो सुनो और मैं जो कहता हूं उसे अपनी सिंगापुर से स्मगल की हुई डिजिटल डायरी में नोट कर लो. लगता है तुम्हें अब स्वर्गीय श्री गुरु गोलमालकरजी महाराज के १००१ ब्रह्मवाक्यों की कम्पैक्ट डिस्क देनी ही पडेगी ताकि आगे अपने धंधे के मूलभूत सिद्धांतो को तो न ही भूलो," गुरुजी ने गोविंद को फिर एक बार फटकार लगाई.

"गुरुजी, एक मिनट, मैं फोन से लगा टेप रेकार्डर ओन कर लूं. हां, अब ठीक है, आप के हर सूत्र वाक्यों को मैं रेकार्ड कर रहा हूं ताकि इसे हर रोज सुबह, ध्वज वंदन के समय सुन सकूं," गोविंद ने विनीत स्वर में कहा.

गुरुजी ने खंखार कर गला साफ़ किया, पास पडे तांबे के लोटे में रखा केसर-मिश्रित दूध का एक घूंट भरा, और बोलने लगे:

"हम जिस केसरिया पेडे की लोगों में आदत लगाना चाहते हैं उसकी खासियत यह है कि उसे लोग तभी मजबूरी में खाते हैं जब उनमें दूसरे व्यंजनों के प्रति भय पैदा किया जाए. हरी बर्फ़ी और इटालियन पिज्जा बेचने वाले भी यही करते हैं. सबकी दुकानदारी एक-दूसरे के माल के प्रति लोगों में आशंका उत्पन्न करने से ही चलती है. यदि बाजार में हरी बर्फ़ी और इटालियन पिज्जा न हों, तो केसरिया पेडा कोई नहीं खरीदेगा."

"केसरिया पेडे ही क्या, सभी रंगों की मिठाइयों की मार्केटिंग की रणनीति का यह एक मात्र शास्वत मंत्र है. अब तुम वह टेप रिकार्डर बंद कर दो तो तुम्हें अति गोपनीय बात बताता हूं जिसे सिर्फ़ देश के सर्वोच्च पद पर विराजमान पंडितजी एवं खूफ़िया विभाग का संचालन करने वाले मालपानीजी ही जानते हैं," गुरुजी ने फोन के माउथपीस को धोती में लपेट कर फुसफुसाते हुए कहा.

जब वे इस बात से आश्वस्त हो गए कि गोविंद ने टेप रेकार्डर बंद कर दिया है तो गुरुजी बोले, "वेटिकन के धर्मगुरु को यहां आने का निमंत्रण मैंने ही दिया था. ताकि वे आएं और इटालियन पिज्जा की खूब जोर-शोर से मार्केटिंग करें. हमारी वानर सेना तो तैयार ही बैठी है कि कब पिज्जा का कैम्पेन शुरु हो कि उसके खिलाफ़ प्रचार अभियान प्रारंभ करें. वैसे भी त्योहारों का मौसम चल रहा है. अपने केसरिया पेडे होट केक की तरह बिक जाएंगे."