INDIAN DEMOCRACY AND RELIGIOUS
FUNDAMENTALISM, A LURKING                             

                         KOMODO DRAGON IN INDIAN POLITICAL SCENE... PART I

                                                Dr K Prabhakar Rao

            Ever since the man has started
living as a social animal with congregation of tribes, he has always identified
himself with some beliefs and customs. As civilization progressed their beliefs
have taken the shape of religions and since then the man kind has been engulfed
by various religions, faiths, beliefs, and rituals. It is known that a religion
is n order of life for human beings where individuals are guided   towards
a goal, good behavior, and orderly life and for a disciplined social life. All
the religions preach and define association of human soul with a divine power.
Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Sikhism and
many other faiths glorify the greatness of God and all the religions aim at
salvation by an orderly life and by good deeds. No religion preaches hatred,
violence and human suffering. Yet the ma has deviated from the true path,
interpreted the texts in a different form, and twisted the versions to
advantage causing human suffering.

                       All the religions have
some type of rituals and practices aimed at controlling the minds of
individuals and to bring in some type of concentration and discipline among
people.  Over a period of time, these
practices and rituals have become more important than the religion itself and
real teachings faded into background. Some individuals who could master the
rituals by virtue of their education, intelligence,  social status over a period of time developed
vested interests in the system and tried to be powerful religious leaders.
Priests in temples, clergy in Christian churches, Mullahs and Maulvis in
mosques belong to this category. Great preachers of religions never give
importance to the rituals for union with god. The story of Bhakta (devotee) Kannappa
is a solid proof for this. It is a clear example where uneducated forest
dweller Kannappa spent a cold night on a tree in a forest and through out the
night he was plucking leaves and dropping down unable to sleep. The leaves were
falling over a Siva Lingam that was under the tree. The tree was a bilwa tree
the most liked one by Shiva.  Lord Shiva
much pleased at the devotion of Kannappa granted him salvation although the
dropping of leaves was unintentional. There are plenty of examples to quote
throughout the world in all religions  where
people are said to have attained salvation by good deeds. Sadly in modern days
religion has been used more for political gains and creating disorder in the
society.

                     Before independence was
gained Hindus , Muslims, Sikhs , Christians 
and all others fought side by side shoulder to shoulder against the
invaders. In 1857 war every one fought under the banner of Bahadur Shah Zafar
the last Nominal Mughal emperor at Delhi.
There were many Muslim commanders in Hindu kingdoms and vice versa.
Vikramaditya, ( Hemu) was the commander in Chief and led the Afghan army
against Akbar in Panipat war II long ago. Similarly Akbar  had innumerable Rajput officers and
commanders in Mughal army occupying very important position.  Raja Man singh was the commander in chief of
Akbar’s army. They never betrayed him even while fighting Hindu armies. Vijay
nagar forced from the time of Proudha deva 
Raya had  Muslim troops.   However the Muslim troops and  the generals betrayed Aliya Rama raya at
tallikota and joined Jihad and this is probably the major betrayal in Indian
history. Rani of Jhansi
had general Ghulam Ghouse Khan as head topchi (Artillery commander) in her
forces. Ghulam Ghouse Khan was a great patriot and died fighting the company
troops at Jhansi
in 1857 and the Rani of Jhansi was  his
side when he breathed his last  after he
was badly wounded by a musket shot. Thus there are ample proofs top conclude
that Hindus and Muslims lived in harmony in Past for many years. Unfortunately
in the last part of 19 and beginning of 20 century the seeds of hate were sown
and the credit must go to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan the founder of Aligarh Muslim
University and later to
Poet Iqbal. They clearly recommended that in free India Muslims will be
marginalized and could not live. They did not rise above narrow religious
sentiments and were fathers for wrecking the nation. Indian Muslim league that
represented Muslims in India
practically were responsible for the partition and subsequent holocaust.
Partition was the unwise decision of last century.

                                     As a
matter fact every religion has fundamentalists and every individual has some
craze for his religion although the fact many may not concede. In many it is
dormant and much vigorous. Some display openly. The dormant one is more
dangerous and is displayed whenever occasion demands and at appropriate times
resulting in abnormal group behavior resulting in clashes with others and
release their religious frenzy. Some are crazy about religion and exploit
sentiments while anti social elements that have nothing to do with religion
fish in troubled waters to gain politically. In our country both methods are
used  to gain politically and  these activities result in building up of
passions during festivals celebrated by Muslims and Hindus such as Muharram and
Ganesh processions, Durga pooja etc. by and large  al communities lived in peace for most of the
them. Even today Hindis take part in Tazia processions ( Peerla Pandaga) while Muslims
 also    take part in Dusserah and Diwali festivals
and wish their brethren in other communities. On the day of Id Hindus make it a
point to wish Muslim friends. It is only a section of trouble makers in both
the communities who want to exploit sentiments and want to create tensions.

                                India
is state where Hindus are in majority. Yet the Hindus agreed to make India a secular state inspite of creation of Pakistan. Even
today, sizeable portion of this minority community sing songs for Pakistan and
display it. During cricket matches they waved Pak flags and applauded when Pak
cricketers scored runs and booed when Indian cricketers had upper hand.
Unfortunately, a minority leader from Hyderabad
even threatened another partition and got away scot free. The government had no
guts to book him. Thanks to the pseudo secularists in India. Thus
message had gone that Indian leaders have weak knees.  The leaders turned their faces other way and
were showing their dirty smile. The Indian political parties have divided the
nation clearly on religion, caste,   and regional and language basis. For creating
vote banks they rake up fundamentalism. 
The Muslim fundamentalism and creation of Pakistan
has also resulted in Hindutva lobby and respective political wings have come up
in India  such as Bajrang dal, Vishwa Hindu Perished,  Shiv Sena etc.  Similarly, many Islamic outfits have surfaced
such as Darga e shahdat, Deendar anjuman and Student Islamic movement of India, etc. The
problems have been further aggravated by the 
annual  festivals and processions
such as Ganesh and Durga processions, Tazia procession, Muharram processions
etc. These processions have become a night mare as fingers are kept crossed for
these events and entire police force is kept busy for these   activities. When they pass off the
administration takes long breath and prays to gods. As years passed the
tensions have not subsided. Mischief makers wait for these days to create
unrest.  Some even display the portraits
of Jinnah, Iqbalinstead of Subhash, Gandhi 
and Patel and Nehru. The Saudi Arabian insignia  is also fixed in front of jeeps by  these men.  

         Hindus and Muslims lived reasonably in
peace in Hyderabad
state under Nizams. But as the  chances
of granting independence became  brighter
Nizam 7  harbored the idea of remaining
independent  after the departure of the
English men. He was inspired the fundamentalist 
and devil incarnate Kasim Razvi, the leader of  majlis e Ittehad ul Muslimeen ( MIM) and
Laikali the Pm and Deen yar Jung the Director General of Police of Hyderabad
State. They gave him false hopes of defending the state even if Inian army
invaded.  They were in league with Pakistan and
additional arms were collected. On the other front a systematic persecution of
Hindus was launched by the Razakar bands under the command of Self styled Field
Marshal Kasim Razvi. The atrocities committed by these thugs on Hindu subjects
in state can not be even penned. The committed lootings, dacoities, mass rapes,
killings, torture, burning of villages, destruction of property etc. . At last
the Nizam succumbed to the police action ( A limited military action) in Sept
1948 ordered by Sardar Patel although Nehru the PM was against it. Hyderabad forces
surrendered after insignificant resistance under the command of Major General
El Edruoos. Hyderabad
was merged with Indian union and Military government under Major Gen Chaudhry
was formed. Communist rebellion too was suppressed in the state. Unfortunately
Nizam did not pay for his misdeeds and it was projected that Nizam was innocent
and was misguided by Kasim Razvi and Laik ali. The PM. But it is a fact that
Nizam abdicated his responsibility as ruler for protecting his Hindu subjects
from official terrorism. The saddest part was that he was made the Rajpramukh
meaning governor. The Indian government developed cold feet for punishing the
Nizam for his role in the atrocities on Hindu subjects and he was pardoned as a
policy of appeasement of Muslims in state. More over Nizam enjoyed reputation
in the eyes of the king of England.
These events prove that the Nizam exploited the religious sentiments in Muslim
subjects and collected large force of Razakars. He even brought in pathans,
Afghans, Punjabi Mussalman from Pakistan
and other parts to terrorize Hindus.

CONTINUED