‘Only educated Indians can end communalism’
18 Dec 2012 12:34 AM GMT
‘In 1857, there was almost zero per cent communalism in the country while today 80 per cent of both Hindus and Muslims had fallen prey to the devil’s designs,’ asserted Justice Markandey Katju, the chairman of the Press Council of India during the Chapter of the Progressive Writers’ Association organised by the Aligarh Muslim University.
Katju said, ‘There is a plethora of documentary evidence available including correspondence between different viceroys and British government, which makes it clear that history books were deliberately doctored by the British rulers to spawn communalism in India’.
‘India’s steep decline on the tragic path of communalism can be reversed and the country can become one of the greatest industrial powers in the world if the educated Indians accept the challenge of demolishing the demon of communalism from the country. India can only thrive and become strong if the edifice of secularism becomes the cornerstone in the everyday life of the common man’ added Kaju.
According to him, ‘It might take a few decades for the people to grasp the full reality of the roots of Hindu-Muslim conflict, which was engineered by the British as a deliberate state policy for maintaining the British hold over India’.
Referring to the ongoing battle against terror in the Indian Subcontinent, Katju said, ‘There was ample evidence to suggest that whenever incidents of terror took place in India, very frequently innocent Muslim youth were randomly picked up by the security forces. This is not only unjust but also helps the actual perpetrators of such heinous crimes from escaping the clutches of the law.’
According to him, after every terror incident, the police was under pressure to nab the culprits at the earliest and the easiest way out was to implicate innocent persons to ease the pressure.
Vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, General Zameer Uddin Shah, assured that ‘The AMU community was fully committed to the cause of promoting secularism in India and would never bow to the divisive forces of communalism and regionalism.’ Shah said that Muslims often fell prey to discrimination but the only way out for them to ensure that they are able to play their due role as equal citizens was to empower themselves through the ‘weapon of education.’
Katju said, ‘There is a plethora of documentary evidence available including correspondence between different viceroys and British government, which makes it clear that history books were deliberately doctored by the British rulers to spawn communalism in India’.
‘India’s steep decline on the tragic path of communalism can be reversed and the country can become one of the greatest industrial powers in the world if the educated Indians accept the challenge of demolishing the demon of communalism from the country. India can only thrive and become strong if the edifice of secularism becomes the cornerstone in the everyday life of the common man’ added Kaju.
According to him, ‘It might take a few decades for the people to grasp the full reality of the roots of Hindu-Muslim conflict, which was engineered by the British as a deliberate state policy for maintaining the British hold over India’.
Referring to the ongoing battle against terror in the Indian Subcontinent, Katju said, ‘There was ample evidence to suggest that whenever incidents of terror took place in India, very frequently innocent Muslim youth were randomly picked up by the security forces. This is not only unjust but also helps the actual perpetrators of such heinous crimes from escaping the clutches of the law.’
According to him, after every terror incident, the police was under pressure to nab the culprits at the earliest and the easiest way out was to implicate innocent persons to ease the pressure.
Vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, General Zameer Uddin Shah, assured that ‘The AMU community was fully committed to the cause of promoting secularism in India and would never bow to the divisive forces of communalism and regionalism.’ Shah said that Muslims often fell prey to discrimination but the only way out for them to ensure that they are able to play their due role as equal citizens was to empower themselves through the ‘weapon of education.’
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