The Spirit of Indianness..!!!

It was the "Good Friday" and as usual I was browsing through the channels of the TV set at my PG around 10.15 PM. As I was almost bored and tired of the repititive and monotonous array of programmes all across the channels I had a visual encounter with my favourite, Barkha Dutt hosting the show "The Buck Stops Here" at NDTV.

Considering the tense political scenario with the general elections round the corner the debate was centered around the communal hatred spreading across or I must say, manipulated by our fanatical political brigade to tap the priceless votes. It almost seems to be a fashion to shoot to limelight through hate speeches and assaulting the religious sentiments of minorities and even vice versa. The stupidity of Mr Varun Gandhi started this so called flurry of hate speeches.

But what amuses me the most is that even our fanatical political brigade cannot disrupt the integrity of our nation.Though the hatred springs up once in a while and we witness shameful events, the respect we Indians endow for all the religions in our country is commendable. No other country in the world has existed in such harmony for such a long period baring a few acts of indignation which we all Indians regret. The youth thankfully is far above the religious fanaticism and we have learnt to coexist in a majestic fashion unlike some of our religious extremists neighbours.

One point which I want to bring across to justify my stand is the majestic and glittering event that took place in Los Angeles but which was perhaps celebrated more in India than in any other country in the world. Three Indians won Oscars: A.R. Rahman, Resul Pookutty and Gulzar. Their victory set off a frenzy of rejoicing. We were proud of our countrymen. We were pleased that India 's entertainment industry and its veterans had been recognized at an international platform. And all three men became even bigger heroes than they already were.

But here's the thing: Not one of them is a Hindu. Can you imagine such a thing happening in our neighbouring country. Can you even conceive of a situation where the whole country would celebrate the victory of three members of two religious minorities? For that matter, can you even imagine a situation where people from religious minorities would have got to the top of their fields and were, therefore, in the running for international awards? On the one hand, you have our neighbouring country imposing sharia law, doing deals with the Taliban, teaching hatred in madrasas, declaring jihad on the world and trying to kill innocent Sri Lankan cricketers. On the other, you have the triumph of Indian secularism. The same people? Surely not.We are defined by our nationality. They choose to define themselves by their religion.

As you probably know, A.R Rahman was born Dilip Kumar. He converted to Islam when he was 21. His religious preferences made no difference to his prospects. Even now, his music cuts across all religious boundaries. He's as much at home with Sufi music as he is with bhajans. Who can forget his Piya Haji Ali and Pal Pal Hai Bhaari.

Resul Pookutty is an even more interesting case. Until you realise that Malayalis tend to put an 'e' where the rest of us would put an 'a,' (Ravi becomes Revi and sometimes the Gulf becomes the Gelf), you cannot work out that his name derives from Rasool, a fairly obviously Islamic name. But here's the point: even when you point out to people that Pookutty is in fact a Muslim, they don't really care. It makes no difference to them. He's an authentic Indian hero, his religion is irrelevant. And his acceptance speech was even more interesting in which he referred to the primeval power of Om in his acceptance speech.

Most interesting of all is the case of Gulzar who many Indians believe is a Muslim. He is not. He is a Sikh. And his real name is Sampooran Singh Kalra. So why does he have a Muslim name? It's a good story and he told it on aTV show some years ago. He was born in West Pakistan and came over the border during the bloody days of Partition. He had seen so much hatred and religious violence on both sides, he said, that he was determined never to lose himself to that kind of blind religious prejudice and fanaticism. Rather than blame Muslims for the violence inflicted on his community - after all, Hindus and Sikhs behaved with equal ferocity - he adopted a Muslim pen name to remind himself that his identity was beyond religion. He still writes in Urdu and considers it irrelevant whether a person is a Sikh, a Muslim or a Hindu. Let's forget about political correctness and come clean. Can you see such a thing happening anywhere else in the world. Can you actually conceive of a famous Pakistani Muslim who adopts a Hindu or Sikh name out of choice to demonstrate the irrelevance of religion.

India was founded on the basis that religion had no role in determining citizenship or nationhood. An Indian can belong to any religion in the world and face no discrimination in his rights as a citizen. It is nobody's case that India is a perfect society or that Muslims face no discrimination. But only a fool would deny that in the last six decades, we have travelled a long way towards religious equality. In the early days of independent India, a Yusuf Khan had to call himself Dilip Kumar for fear of attracting religious prejudice. In today's India, a Dilip Kumar can change his name to A.R. Rahman and nobody really gives a damn either way. So think back to the events of the last few months.

All I want to state here is that the time is ripe enough that we, the youth wake up and stop the virulent spread of this deadly virus called communalism. We have proved it in the past and we need to carry the spirit of Indianness forever so that no Varun Gandhi or a Vaiko can denigrate the very essence of Indianness which rocks.

We as Indians rock and we will keep rocking forever...

Regards

Dev DC....