04-29-2006, 08:44 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Amalendu Misra in his Identity & Religion: Foundations of anti-Islamism in India (Sage Publications) traces the roots of contemporary Hindu-Muslim tensions to some representative personalities of the last century, Vivekananda, Gandhi, Nehru and Savarkar. By locating the toxin as much in the national mainstream as in the more extremist groups of either community, he finds it endemic to the whole national endeavour, both in definition and in management.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The foundation of anti islamism(where is the statistical evidence for such an ideology) in India has very little to do with anything intrinsic in the core beliefs of the Sanatana Dharma or even the most right wing Indic and everything to do with the predatory aspects of the idealogy fleshed out and propounded in the caves and deserts of the Arabian peninsula where exclusivity and anti-kafir sentiment is the law of the land even today. If Islam were to reform itself and accept the premise that other faiths have a place in the cosmos(and not just in Darul harb) the nub of the problem would have disappeared in large part.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Conceptually the problem, as Basanta Kumar Mallik pointed out, is to do with the incompatibility of absolutes of all traditions. Their mutual intolerance may be expressed in different ways, through social habits, political measures or outright violence, but it is logically impossible for two absolutes to be equal. This applies to the absolute of modernity as well, which is gnawing away at the foundations of the religious outlook<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I beg to differ. Sanaatana Dharma has always embraced diversity,not merely tolerated it, so the problem is not of mutual intolerance but the absolute exclusivity of the Abrahamic paradigm carried out to extreme and absurd unsustainable lengths in the instance of Islam.
I do not detect any intolerance towards the average Akhtar in india,but there has always been revulsion towards the propensity for violence, ethnic cleansing and destruction lurking just slightly below the surface in the Islamic psyche and constantly reinforced in their Friday sermons- no secrets here these are loudly broadcast for all to hear. The distinction is too stark to overlook.Muslims are thriving in India both in numbers and prosperity(relative to the Hindu).Can one say anything remotely comparable about Hindus in Pakiland,the indian state of J&K, and B'Desh ?
The foundation of anti islamism(where is the statistical evidence for such an ideology) in India has very little to do with anything intrinsic in the core beliefs of the Sanatana Dharma or even the most right wing Indic and everything to do with the predatory aspects of the idealogy fleshed out and propounded in the caves and deserts of the Arabian peninsula where exclusivity and anti-kafir sentiment is the law of the land even today. If Islam were to reform itself and accept the premise that other faiths have a place in the cosmos(and not just in Darul harb) the nub of the problem would have disappeared in large part.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Conceptually the problem, as Basanta Kumar Mallik pointed out, is to do with the incompatibility of absolutes of all traditions. Their mutual intolerance may be expressed in different ways, through social habits, political measures or outright violence, but it is logically impossible for two absolutes to be equal. This applies to the absolute of modernity as well, which is gnawing away at the foundations of the religious outlook<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I beg to differ. Sanaatana Dharma has always embraced diversity,not merely tolerated it, so the problem is not of mutual intolerance but the absolute exclusivity of the Abrahamic paradigm carried out to extreme and absurd unsustainable lengths in the instance of Islam.
I do not detect any intolerance towards the average Akhtar in india,but there has always been revulsion towards the propensity for violence, ethnic cleansing and destruction lurking just slightly below the surface in the Islamic psyche and constantly reinforced in their Friday sermons- no secrets here these are loudly broadcast for all to hear. The distinction is too stark to overlook.Muslims are thriving in India both in numbers and prosperity(relative to the Hindu).Can one say anything remotely comparable about Hindus in Pakiland,the indian state of J&K, and B'Desh ?