The Ayatollahs of secularism

[Tshering22]

The difference between Pakistan and India today is the story of how a great religion, Islam, has been distorted by those entrusted to protect its liberal ethos. Pakistan and several countries in the Middle-East have used Islam not to liberate but imprison their people. But it is in “secular” India that the damage has been most insidious.

You know it is really funny.... this paragraph makes it sound as if 90% of the islamic world is actually offending their own religion and that they never understood it.

The more politicians sequester Muslims into vote silos, the more the middle-class Hindu (not the liberal, well-meaning, Stephanian Hindu) resents them. Discrimination, petty or large, mounts.

That is what pressed so many Hindus to choose right wing; this squandering of a community's votebank by a bunch of politicians who would use them to loot the country.

 

[bronxbull]

Liberal,well meaning,Stephanian Hindu.

I hate that whole college St.Stephens,perhaps in the past it was a good place for liberal arts but we have too many idealistic intellectuals,instead we would like to have some guys with a lets do it attitude,instead of sitting and conceptualizing things.

 

[FaujHistorian]

Muslims in India are the vote bank for Congress etc, not too different from blacks in America. Blacks are the vote bank for democratic party.

In both cases, Congress and democratic party make big promises, and then promptly forget once the elections are over.

In each case vote bank members remain dirt poor decades after decades after decades.

In India Muslims are 150+ million comparable to Pakistan. And yet look at the number that graduates from schools and universities, number judges, police officers, engineers and doctors, and you will find that Indian Muslims are at the depth of poverty and lack of opportunities.

Is it the fault of Indian Muslims or vote bank politics? It remains kind of unclear.



peace

 

[Jackdaws]

There are several other examples of Congress high-handedness.

Rajiv Gandhi opening up the Babri mosque to Hindus to perform shilanyas. The sinister and regressive step taken by Rajiv Gandhi in the Shah Bano case to keep the Muslim votebank happy even if it flew in the face of common sense and natural justice.

 

[Sashan]

Muslims in India are the vote bank for Congress etc, not too different from blacks in America. Blacks are the vote bank for democratic party.

In both cases, Congress and democratic party make big promises, and then promptly forget once the elections are over.

In each case vote bank members remain dirt poor decades after decades after decades.

In India Muslims are 150+ million comparable to Pakistan. And yet look at the number that graduates from schools and universities, number judges, police officers, engineers and doctors, and you will find that Indian Muslims are at the depth of poverty and lack of opportunities.

Is it the fault of Indian Muslims or vote bank politics? It remains kind of unclear.



peace

It is unfortunately votebank politics and I would not blame the muslims except the very conservatives among them i.e mullahs. These pseudosecular parties and mullahs have formed a deadly alliance which have not benefitted the muslims in any way. Perfect example is the shahbano and Arif Mohammad Khan episode. Arif wanted the right thing for muslims but Rajiv appeased the mullahs.

And another effect of this is the rise of hindutva. The reason why I say the rise of hindutva is this - hindu right were always there but in small numbers. Majority of the hindus if you look at were centrists. But many in recent times are seeing this vote bank politics and are disgusted and seeing no alternate secular power, they are veering more towards right. That is what has been happening. As more and more people in India are moving towards middleclass from lower class, you will see the right parties getting strengthened which in itself is not good. If you see, the last BJP rule was the right one in that Vajpayee and Advani kept out the extreme right group at arms distance while focussing on Indian economy. But the same can't be said about BJP in future especially if someone with RSS backing comes to power. That is when one will see the flare up in Hindutva politics.

 

[KingMamba]

Good insight and a very informative read though, because I've never been to India, I don't really know whether this insight is truly reflective of the ground realities of India or not.

Having said that I feel compelled to point out something - Iran is a theocratic state and to a certain extent so is KSA but Pakistan is not ! We may believe in the political and economic paradigms of Islam but we are not ruled by a clergy on their self-appointed divine mission. We're just a dysfunctional democracy besought with immense problems of governance trying to find a right mix of Islam and Modernism.

You would think the author would have done a little bit of research on Pakistan before calling them a theocracy.

You know it is really funny.... this paragraph makes it sound as if 90% of the islamic world is actually offending their own religion and that they never understood it.



That is what pressed so many Hindus to choose right wing; this squandering of a community's votebank by a bunch of politicians who would use them to loot the country.

At first glance this is what it kind of sounds like but the ground reality is that it is the 1% nutcase elite who have hijacked the religion for their own political gains.