Popular Belief Versus the Truth

Popular Belief Versus the Truth

1991 5-6 May-June 9-10 Popular Belief Versus the Truth (668) The result of the UPSC examination came as a pleasant surprise. I aspired to be a pilot in the Indian Air Force, and now I had crossed the first hurdle. There were still two to go, an interview and a medical test. On arrival at the headquarters of the Services Selection Board at Dehradun I found that over 50 candidates from all over the country had been called in that batch. Finally, only five would make it.

I spent the first day settling in and getting acquainted with the others. Extending my hand to a total stranger, I said, ‘I am Yusuf Khan.” The young man, whose name, as I later learnt, was Kriplani, knitted his brows as he took my hand, and blurted out, “Do they take Muslims in the IAF?” His question came as a nasty shock. But then, concealing my discomfiture, I answered his question with another. “If they don’t, why have they called me?” Meanwhile, the others had all taken umbrage at Kripalani’s remark and proceeded to give him a good dressing down. Then he was full of apologies.

Actually, Kripalani was only expressing a commonly held belief which was subscribed to even by my college friends. At one stage, even I had similar doubts. In fact, my Muslim friends were so convinced of the futility of trying for a defence job that they tried to discourage me from even applying. That was in 1961.

Kripalani’s off-the-cuff remark nagged me for all of the five days that the interview lasted, and even subsequently, while I awaited the final result, which came six months later. Kripalani had made it, and so had I. The next time we met again was at Allahabad, where we started our training together, fortunately, this time, without any rancour.

The rejection rate in the pilot’s training course is very high. Not only is a cadet expected to fly ‘solo’ within record time, but he must also show suitable progress in numerous other tests which are conducted very frequently. It transpired that Kripalani had problems in coping with his flight training, and finally he had to be suspended. Later, he became a navigator in the IAF. But God was kind to me; and I completed my training successfully. My dreams all came true when I became a fighter pilot. But I wonder where I should have been if I had not chosen to ignore the popular belief that there is a bias against Muslims.

This then is the reason for my narrating this experience (although some would say that personal example is a bad example!) to drive home the point that we must not allow misinformation and false assumptions to weigh us down. That is exactly what Muslims are doing, and the result is that they are descending into the same kind of gloom which prevailed in the fifties and sixties. I find in all their thoughts and actions an undercurrent of despair.

It should be borne in mind that mine was not an isolated case. There are numerous other such instances. But, somehow, our newspapers give prominence to the rejection rather than the selection. This trend has created the impression among the younger generation of Muslims that such a bias exists, that it is all pervasive and that, no matter how hard they try, it will always bar their way to selection.

Every society has its prejudices which, to a certain extent, is inevitable, but this should not become a phobia with us. If prejudice exists, we must simply overcome it by hard work. We should recognise, too, that even prejudice has its limits. Stretched beyond a point, it loses its force. What really matters in this world is one’s own ability. All else is secondary.

A man of lesser ability will always put the blame on prejudice. But a more able person will not treat this as an insuperable problem. He will win out against all odds – even against the most rooted of prejudices.

–Wg. Cdr. M. Yusuf Khan.