Whether a community feels secure or insecure is a wholly relative
matter, depending as it does upon the actions of the concerned community,
rather than on external circumstances. Its position in society, secure or
insecure, is determined by its own behavior.
For example, the Christian communities of India and Sudan. Both are
tiny minorities, the former comprising three percent of Indian population and
the latter just two percent of the Sudanese population. It might be expected
that such small minorities would live with a feeling of unease vis-à-vis the
overwhelming majorities of their respective countries, and this is certainly
true of the Sudanese Christians, who are dogged by a sense of insecurity. The
India Christian, on the contrary, feel themselves fully secure.
What is the reason for this difference? It is because the Indian
Christian were fortunate enough to have been guided by their leaders into
non-controversial constructive fields, and as a result of their striving over
a period of 200 years they have managed to build an educational empire in
India. Moreover, built health and welfare institutions on a large scale, while
the country is dotted with their religious establishments. All these factors
have ensured safeguarding of Christian community interest in the country. The
Christian community has thus managed to figure more prominently on the national
scene than its small percentage of the total population would seemingly warrant.
It is its very usefulness as a community which has ruled out any question of
insecurity.
The Christian community in Sudan is quite differently situated. Its
leaders, interested more in politics than in constructive activities, launched
a movement aimed at separating a part of Sudan from the rest of the country in
order to carve out an independent Christian State. This policy gave rise to
hostilities between the Christian community on the one hand, and the majority
and the government on the other hand. Strict measures were then taken to crush
the secessionists. Far from resulting in a separate Christian State, all that
this political confrontation achieved was a spate of protests and complaints
against the Government by the writers and speakers of the Christian Community.
If they are now backward and insecure minority in Sudan, it is for the simple
reason that their efforts have always been confrontational rather than
constructive.
Indian Muslims are in a similar, if not worse situation, although the
problem is of a much greater magnitude in the North India, where their feeling
of insecurity is most intense. Recurring communal riots are the greatest
indication of this feeling, but it is the Muslim community itself which is the
worst hit on these occasions, as was evident in the horrific communal riots
which broke out after 1947 in North India, particularly in UP and Bihar.
The South Indian Muslims do not suffer from such feelings of insecurity
as would lead to the outbreak of rioting. The only occurrences of rioting in
South Indian cities have been when one or more North Indian Muslims, having
found their way into the region, have created a tense atmosphere with their
provocative speeches. Even then, such disturbances have been on a very small scale.
On the whole, it would be true to say that while a feeling of insecurity is
commonplace in the North, the South is almost free of it, and therefore free,
too, of rioting.
This dichotomy is on an exact parallel with the example of the Sudanese
and Indian Christian. The large dose of politics administered respectively by
their leaders to the Sudanese Christians and the North Indian Muslims has led
first to emotionalism and then to communal disaster.
South India presents quite the opposite picture. In this region, Islam
was spread through merchants and travelers, in contrast to North India, where
Islam was brought by rulers and soldiers. This is why the South Indian Muslims,
unlike their brothers in the North, have never been swayed by emotional politics.
Instead of flexing their muscles in political arenas, they have always exerted
themselves in non-controversial fields like commerce and education. In this
way, constructive traditions have been established among the Muslims of this
region.
It is this difference in Northern and Southern attitudes which accounts
for the Muslims in one part of the country being prey to insecurity while the
Muslims of another part continue to live in peace and security.
The only way for the Muslims of North India to banish this atmosphere
of insecurity is to tread the same path as their South India co-coreligionists.
That is, they must give up confrontation in favor of co-existence and
adjustment.
For example, Muslims should neither obstruct Hindu processions nor
should they become incensed when processionists raise provocative slogans. If
Muslims fail to receive their due share of admissions to educational
institutions, or of employment in Government Service, they should refrain from
wasting their time in making protests and complaints and, instead, should work
harder to improve themselves to the point where it will become impossible to
ignore or reject them.
Wherever problems exist, opportunities also exist side by side with
them. This is just as true of India as of any other country. But full use
cannot be made of these opportunities unless the problems are thrust firmly
into the background to grasp an opportunity which is the only way to success.
One receives in direct proportion to what one gives. This is a
principle which Indian Muslims should never lose sight of. Rather than be as a
group which does nothing but protest, they should become renowned for their
creativity. In this way, they will become a viable force in the country. But
this can only happen when they realize, once and for all, that nothing is ever
achieved by political confrontations, demonstrations, etc, except the awakening
of national prejudice, and all the negativism and destructiveness which flows
there from.
If the Muslims can make such changes in their policy, the whole
vitiated atmosphere will undergo a radical change for the better. A whole new
world will come into existence. It will be just as if the problem of insecurity
had never existed.
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