Inter-Religious Dialogue

DECEMBER 27 Inter-Religious Dialogue In his book The Destiny of Indian Muslims, Dr. Syed Abid Hussain (1896-1978) pointed out that the revolution culminating in India after 1947 wrought certain basic changes in the social and political situation in India. But now that India is a democratic system, Indian Muslims are still living in the past dictatorial age. It is this backwardness of thought on their part which is the basic, underlying reason for all of their problems. Prior to 1947 during the British period the Muslims were faced with a government which was not answerable to the public. It enjoyed the position of a supreme arbiter which was able to take any action whatsoever without taking the public’s approval into consideration. But now that India is a democracy, the present rulers have to take public opinion into account. Under such circumstances Muslims must now try to solve their problems through the people, instead of the rulers. Abid Hussain says: “But Muslims still labour under the impression that the solution to their problems is in the hands of the Government. To the Government alone they take their troubles and from it alone they expect a remedy.” (p. 295) This review of the recent history of Indian Muslims is very apt. The movement launched in the name of Ayodhya’s Babri Masjid serves as the worst example of it. The way the incompetent Muslim leaders led this movement after 1986 amounted to adopting a path of confrontation vis-à-vis their Hindu counterparts on this issue. And Muslims, very naively indeed, believed that the government would come to their assistance, as it was its responsibility to do so, and that, in its capacity as supreme arbiter, the government would give its verdict in favour of Muslims. But the event of December 6, 1992, revealed that this supposition was totally baseless. In his speech on August 15, 1992, the Prime Minister of India had proclaimed that he would not allow the demolition of the Babri Masjid. In December he despatched a 20-thousand strong police force to the border of Ayodhya, besides making a number of other official arrangements. But, in reality, what happened was what the public wanted. On December 6 the Kar Sevaks forced their entry into the Babri Masjid and demolished it. Afterwards they removed the debris in order to build a makeshift Ram Mandir on exactly