Communal Egos and Inter-Community Conflict

whatever you like to me. However, I must say that I did not strike the cow with the intention of killing it. I only wanted to chase it away. It was just by chance that it died.” When the man appeared before the demonstrators and they heard what he had to say, their anger cooled off. The men who were earlier bent on angry confrontation simply agreed to let the matter rest by taking from the killer of the cow the cost of the animal. The money was given to them at once, and the problem was amicably solved. Consider another instance of how patience and avoidance of confrontation can prevent an unpleasant situation from degenerating into violence between communities. Many years ago, a group of non-Muslim men were found slaughtering a pig in the bushes behind the Hadi Hasan Hall in the campus of the Aligarh Muslim University. It appeared that they planned to throw the flesh of the pig in the university campus, in the hope that this would instigate Muslims and that this would then lead to communal riots in the university area. It so happened, however, that some Muslim students spotted what these men were up to. They at once informed the university authorities, who, in turn, called the police. The police rushed to the scene and arrested the men. In this way, because the local Muslims responded to a provocative situation in a wise manner, without taking to confrontation and violence, Aligarh was spared the threat of being rocked by communal riots. These instances show how conspiracies can be defused and rendered ineffective by responding to them through wisdom, rather than through confrontation. They illustrate how even when there is every possibility of a communal riot breaking out, it can be completely avoided if people act wisely. No matter how sensitive a situation may get, it contains within itself the possibility of being peacefully resolved. The necessary condition for this is patience. No matter how unfavourable a situation may be, the wise