ASK MAULANA

highly effective. After 1947, there should have ensued a period of constructiveness inspired by love and fellow-feeling. But this was not to be. For reasons of a very convoluted nature, the politics of hatred persisted throughout the dawn of this supposedly new age. The failure to transform them into the politics of love proved the greatest obstacle to the realization of the Indian dream of post-Independence days—the dream which had sustained and inspired all Indians in the very darkest of hours. What do you think the Indians should have done or should not have done after Independence for fulfilling the dream which had inspired them? Before 1947, certain unwise Muslim leaders had wrongly advocated the idea that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations. This theory, responsible for their isolation had nothing whatsoever to do with either reason or Islam. Without doubt Hindus and Muslims have separate religions, but both are one nation because both live in the same country. That is why all the prophets have addressed their nonMuslim country-men as ‘O my people’. But in the post-Independence years this concept has not been effectively presented before the people. So far as I can gather from my study of this matter, both the Hindus and Muslims are equally responsible for the problem facing the country today. Neither group has fulfilled its responsibility to the new India. It is the intellectuals in a community who lead the people. But in free India the intellectuals of both the communities have failed in this respect. What can the citizens of India do now which can bring about the real progress of this country? Is there hope? Hope should always be there but we should adopt the right methods. In my opinion we have to address the individual minds. Win the mind and you will win the battle is what I believe in. All the Indians should come out of the negative thinking which they have fallen into because of one fear or another about each other. Further, I would advise Muslims to take the initiative in putting an end—on a unilateral basis—to all mutual discord. In the process they should not ask others to change their course of action, nor should they allow themselves to be provoked. They should abandon the methods of protest, complaint and reaction and should launch their movements on the basis of sound internal construction. If Muslims resolved all controversial matters on unilateral basis, they would be following the method followed by the Prophet of Islam. o