Programme

Programme

1990 6 June 10 Programme (383) Dr. M.C. Sharma (41) visited our Centre on July 19, 1989. Born in Churu (Rajasthan) he became associated with the RSS during his school day, and is still associated with this organization. At school he was one of its staunchest members. He even subscribed to the view that Mahatma Gandhi was responsible for all the misfortunes of India. His hero was Godse, the man who shot Gandhi dead in 1948.

He continued to hold these extremist ideas when Mrs. Indira Gandhi, former prime minister of India, imposed emergency rule in 1975. Many RSS workers were imprisoned, Dr. Sharma being one of them. He told us that he had nothing with which to engage himself during his imprisonment, so he began studying books on Mahatma Gandhi. Books by him and on him were easily available in the jail, so he did not find any difficulty in gaining access to them.

He confessed that these books made a deep and lasting impression upon him. When he came out of jail, he was a changed person. Now he believed that Gandhi was the greatest leader of this country. And that people like Savarkar (founder of the RSS) could not have been the leaders of modern India. It was people like Gandhi and Nehru who were needed to undertake this task.

After hearing this story from the lips of Dr. Sharma, the idea took shape in my mind that one of the important tasks to be undertaken in India was the establishment of a centre in a peaceful place, away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Here all sorts of facilities should be available according to modern standards for the understanding and study of Islam. The centre should also have arrangements for proper places to stay. Then educated non-Muslims should be invited there and asked to stay for a few days, or a few weeks, and efforts should be made to introduce Islam to them. If such a centre could come into being, the same benefits could be had on a vast scale as Dr. Sharma received as an individual during imprisonment.

Such a centre would be a means of bringing non-Muslims close to Islam. Such a venture could well open the doors in this country to the making of a new history of Islam.