Religious Strife in India

It was interesting to read Mark Fineman’s report “India’s Religious Warfare Worst Since Independence” (Part A, Dec. 28). Permit me to bring out some of the facts that Fineman did not.

British India was partitioned into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India. India is secular because it is a Hindu majority country and Hindus by nature are secular. From Malaysia to Morocco, one cannot find even a single Muslim majority country with a secular government or a government that tolerates different views. While Pakistan and Bangladesh have systematically liquidated their Hindu minority population, the Muslim population in India has been consistently increasing.

The report says that Hindus want to tear down a mosque in Ayodhya and replace it with a temple. The fact is that the temple honoring Lord Rama at his birthplace had been there since time immemorial until it was destroyed and converted into a mosque by a Muslim invader named Babar in 1528 AD. Now the Hindus want to rebuild the temple. Ayodhya has been one of the sacred pilgrimage sites for Hindus from all over the world. One can easily relocate a mosque or a temple but a place of pilgrimage can never be relocated.

The current crisis in India is the result of 43 years of political manipulation by the successive post-independence governments. The British doctrine of “divide and rule” has been cleverly used in the form of “divide and win” (elections). Acute disregard of Hindu sentiments and pampering of the Muslim voting bloc by creating special rules for electoral gains are the root cause of the present turmoil. The government and its archeology department have done everything in their power to suppress the truth regarding the Hindu origin of historical buildings throughout India. Now the silent majority has decided to become vocal and the politicians will have to listen.

PURUSHOTTAM SHARMA

Torrance