....or should I say the Hindu-Muslim debate for some could even object to my writing Muslim first and others could say Muslim must be mentioned first...
RIZWANUR REHMAN loves a Hindu girl, Priyanka...They marry but do not live happily ever after...and we say Hinduism is essentially a tolerant faith while we call Muslims rigid...
We say Muslims are pampered for political ends. For example, in the Shah Banu case...
We say Muslims have their own Personal Law...
We say Muslims have four wives and are outbreeding everyone else and soon they will overtake Hindus...
We say Muslims are disloyal as they set off firecrackers whenever Pakistan beats India at cricket or Hockey...
But it's never Mohammad X or Yousuf Y who is targeted, we have demonized a collectivity as a whole...Our national mind is infected with intellectual cancer of thinking of 'us' and 'them'...
I thought it would be difficult to argue that criticism of entire community is wrong but found it almost too simple to do so...
1) The Rajiv Gandhi government's action on the divorced Shah Banu was pure political opportunism...It was asellout to Muslim conservatives but did it not betray Muslim women and Muslim reformers? So why do we stigmatize the community as a whole when many among them too lost out in the process...?
2) Muslim Personal Law covers only marriage, divorce, inheritance...how does it help the Muslims who are not subject to it?
3) Even if some Muslims have 4 wives, how does it increase Muslim population as the number of reproductive women remains unchanged...
4) If a handful of Muslims are pro-Pakistani, how can we label an entire community? Shahrukh Khan cheered the Indian team in the recent T-20 championship final against Pak...Irfan pathan won the Man of the Match for the same game...
Now lets talk about Hinduism...Today, we read about Hindu fundamentalism...Isn't it odd? ...because Hinduism I feel is a religion without fundamentals...no organised church, no single sacred book, no compulsory beliefs...This is precisely the reason I became a believer of this faith... I was born and grew up in a Hindu household. I turned atheist for sometime with the discovery of rationality but it went once i realized its limitations and also considering the fact that the world offers too many mysteries for which science has no answer...
I was happy to call myself a Hindu once again, a religion whose rituals and customs I was free to reject, a religion that did not force me to demonstrate my faith by a visible sign...Above all, as a Hindu, I belonged to the only major religion in the world that did not claim to be the only true religion...
But today, i feel sad when i come to think that the devotees of such tolerant faith plotted and executed post-Godhra proudly admitting on camera how they butchered human life in the name of religion...I feel shameful when I come to think that the devotees of this faith desecrated a shrine and assaulted Muslims in 1992...Muslim invaders may indeed have destroyed Hindu temples, putting mosques in their place, but did this destroy Hinduism???? build 'RAM' in your heart.... and if Ram is in your heart, it will matter little whether HE is in bricks and stone....
When religion teaches love and tolerance, why do we choose to hate and divide???? Why can't we have our daughters married to Rizwanurs and Muslims accept Hindu brides as well...????
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................................................................................................................................................................................................................................speechless.....................mindblowing...........superb.........rocking
i will talk about the merits & demerits of what u said in the article later. Let me tell the world what a great loss print media is goint have coz Simpy has joint electronic media. I want to tell u electronic media can do without u, but print media needs such a talented person like u. Go ahead, keep writing this way
trouble begins when we start placing religion above us. after all God (u can call it by any other names)is meant to help us, not the other way round. I think both nationalism and religion should be a necessary evils. I am a hindu, or an Indian, or to be more specific a Bihari, not by choice, but by birth. So why should we take too much pride what we are borne to. This all Hindu-Muslim (or, muslim-hindu) debate keep ragin on, and incidents like rizwan will continue to take place untill and unless we break our self free from religious dogma
aap to chahoge hi Hindu-Muslim marriages...mann ki baat ko byaan karne ke liye ye sahara accha hai
appreciated wt u wrote..cn jus hope thru such platforms d conservativ n so calld "affluent" wil stop misusin their power n money n open their minds towards buildin harmony n peace in wt s called INDIA, d nation f "UNITY IN DIVERSITY".
GAME THEORY AND COMMUNAL POLITICS
hi dear, nice views. NO solution is full proof but innovativeness is a human evdeavour.Lets use game theory to address the problem. In GAME THEORY, agents choose strategies which will maximize their return, given the strategies the other agents choose. In the case of coMMUNAL pOLITICS...the two strategic agents are people and politicians.
Why People/politicians use religion as a means to end. THE ANSWER LIES IN THE GAME theory. If POLITICIANS use an "irrational approach" to address the arithmetic problem of votes than it only SUGGESTS that the politician (ECONOMIC MAN) uses "irrational means" to maximise returns(votes). THE SOLUTION IS TO CHANGE THE RULES OF THE GAME SUCH THAT USING "IRRATIONAL CHOICES" GIVES THE LEAST RETURNS.
lets see a practical application of the game theory in solving problem of separatism in India. Separatist tendencies exist in india in different parts of the country. Three models have been developed in our political system to combat separatism. Federal polity, parliamentary system and Coalition era.
Federal polity has set the game is such a fashion that Central govt cannot over-ride the wishes of the federating units. One can see the need of this in Srilanka(tamils), Pakistan(baluchis and sindhis) where regional aspirations creat political turbulences. The game theory firsts sets a game where people make predictive choices. This helps manage conflicts. Khalistan, tamilnadu, Bodo, Tripura are being managed through the same approach.
I will elaborate on the use of game theory in communal politics in a more elaborate fashion...in a few more days.
Hey Rohan...u started off really nicely but the end looked abrupt...it left me curious and m looking forward to reading the complete thing... its really interesting...
agar muslims polygamy karte hain to uska ek faayda to hagaa na ki koi bhi muslim ladki avivahit nahi rahegi.
to population pe thoda fark padegaa...
aur sting operation karke Tarun ne negative reporting ko majboot kiya hai..
5 saal baad koi bhi kisi baat ko badha chada ke bol sakta hai .. wahi is case me bhi...
except u r so impressive.. m ur fan.. keep writing...
Why People polarise communities? Just think on this question to get more insights on Game theory. Pls try having an Answer.
Hi everybody...
The gujrat elections vindicate that politicians( read MODI) and people of gujrat are both active players in the game theory...just as was theorized in my last comment. Modi knows how people think...he simply exploits the emotion. Thus Communalism is not created...it is simply brought to the fore by polarising the community. In game theory...players choose strategies which maximise their gains. Modi chose religion because he knew it would maximise his returns( read votes)....MORE TO COME ON GAME THEORY & COMMUNALISM.
Modi represents more than simple use of religion in politics...The english press is severely handicapped by its pedigree to undertake an exploration of this issue. What makes people vote for modi....other than religion? This needs to be explored? The same holds for Shiv-sena in Maharshtra and JMM in jharkhand or Laloo in Bihar? The answer to this question will make the game theory model to politics more fool-proof.
hi simpy...really liked d way u penned ur thoughts here...simply great write...cheers. Mani.
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