Role of Religion in Modern Society

Humanity carries an historical baggage. Religion is arguably the most important component of the burden.
Defined as a set of beliefs in the super natural causation of natural phenomenon, it most likely arose when humans acquired the faculty of coherent thought and communication skills. Prior to that, at the point of divergence from their closest cousins the chimpanzees, and like them they would live in trees, subsist on berries, fruits, tubers and vegetables. They were probably mono androus, possibly mono-gamous too .as indicated by the near universal acceptance of the legend of Adam and Eve .They would congregate into small groups, moving from region to region with changing weather, but not getting too far from a source of water, a natural spring ,lake or a river .An accidental fire, destruction of local trees and vegetation would force them to eat the flesh of animals roasted in the fire and the roasted grain and greens too, leading to their first cooked meal. They probably didn’t relish the taste first, but gradually came to prefer it to raw meat as in the cooked state it would last longer.
Animal meat opened a vast resource of nutrition. Mankind shed vegetarianism and gradually evolved to hunter-gatherer stage. Men would leave women and children in caves and other natural shelters, leaving a few males behind for protection and heavy work and be away foraging for food for days and weeks. Some would fall victim to predators, accidents and elements and not return. Women controlled the household, would have conjugal relations with the ones left behind and look after the returning providers as well. It was polyandrous, matriarchal society.
There was, as yet, no particular need of a religion, there were no marriage bonds to sanctify, no property to be inherited by legitimate issue. If the area became too inhospitable they just picked up and left.
Accidental observation of seed germinating, growing into grain, vegetables or fruit plants would lead to agriculture and long term settlement in a fertile region. Stable habitat was needed for shelter against elements. People now built houses of mud reinforced with straw, laid claim to fields to sow. Concept of property is in incipient stage now. It can be inherited, men would want to pass on the product of their seed, formal marriage became a necessity, boys stronger physically, though less in stamina than the girls, came to be preferred and got the lions share of assets, girls essential for perpetuation of race came to be valued as wonderfully endowed property. Spirit men were needed for blessing the wedding ceremony, also to ward off evils, propitiate gods for a good crop, rain as needed and to keep wild fires, hurricanes, lightening, earthquake, blizzard, hailstorm or drought in check.
Socially beneficial deeds, helping others, honesty, hard work, truth, loyalty , kindness to women, children, elders, the sick and handicapped, respect for property were deemed pious, damage to property, stealing, robbery, murder, abduction of women were branded sins to be punished by misfortune, deprivation, injury and death. Religion is coming to its own as a disciplinary force. Spirit men are getting organized into primitive priestly order to mediate with gods and grant absolution on their behalf.
With a growing body of human knowledge of natural phenomenon, perhaps failure of the priests to tackle adversities, need for supernatural, mystically inspired faiths arose. Priests rise to the occasion, develop dogma, cultist traditions, myths, fantasies and group adherence which survive to the present day. First religions are composite of conclusions drawn from observation of natural phenomenon and supernatural mediated by a creator or a group of them with subsidiary divinities specializing in facilities as Health, wealth, fertility, education etc.
Hinduism is the best example of a composite religion. There is a supreme deity presiding over a cabinet as it were, of lesser gods and manifesting in different forms and shapes as required. Faith, loyalty, courage, honesty, motherhood, respect for elders, piety, observance of rites is emphasized. Rigid economic/social classes are developed with Brahmin for religion, scholarship and teaching and advice to Kastriyas, the warriors, kings and protectors of the system,. Vaisha, the business class, adept at book keeping, market management and trade and the physical workers for agriculture, crafts, carpentry and smithy (Iron, Copper, Bronze) work. Natives are relegated to unclean work and eventually to untouchability.
Society has a structure and religion is needed to preserve the frame work. Bhudism and Jainsism, from anthropological perspective are but sublimation of Hinduism.
Pharaohs also practiced a composite religion based on a stable mix of primitive science and equally primitive mythology. They had the son god and moon god, but pharaohs could compete with them on equal terms. Genetic makeup was revered, the ruler marrying his sister and only the progeny of the union acceptable as successor to the throne.
It was the last era in human history when man stood toe to toe with gods and made them blink. Hinduism did have gods revealing themselves as men and men become lesser gods, but not quite as good as pharaohs but did bequeath gender consciousness, as they had goddesses as well.
Greeks, Romans and the so called pagan religions had pantheon of gods and goddesses, but gods had an edge.
All these religions preach sanctity of property and protect feudal states with a king at the top of the heap. Weakness of faith generally led to breakdown of order and anarchy. It is the bulwark against disruption, internal and external ordaining preservation of order as supreme duty.
Human knowledge has now developed to the extent that composite religions don’t suffice. They were perhaps ineffective against catastrophic calamities, rise of sea level drowning vast expanse of earth, enormous floods, wide spread desertification due to climatic change, passing of ice age, fall of huge meteorites causing dust storm lasting for months, led to the invention of purely divine faiths, with a Supreme Being, uncreated unique and alone (Christianity humanized him as an after thought by giving him a wife and a son He also spoke to Moses) invisible lord and master, macro and micro managing all the worldly affairs, harboring knowledge of past present and future and command over time and all happenings, creating elements, animals and plants, planets and all there is on them, water, mountains, deserts and forests. Man arrogated to himself, the status of the highest creation. God chose messengers among men to pass on knowledge of good and bad, which would please him and what would not, what would lead to eternal bliss of paradise and what would make eternal hell fire his fate.
Having assigned control and perception of all past, present and future events, collective, individual, natural or volitional, the problem arose, that if He knows all, why does he permit people to do evil. An ingenious solution was evolved. God gave some volition to man, sent messenger to teach the difference between right and wrong, a body of dogma, rituals and incantations to please him. He was the supreme puppet master, who granted some independence to puppets but punished them for impermissible use of the faculty.
The contradiction between absolute power and knowledge and free will of humans remained. God was given benevolent as well as ferocious and vindictive traits. He had to be a tiny bit humanized.
Agnostics solved the dilemma by hypothesizing the clock make theory.
Judaism is the most ancient “divine” religion. It has huge set of dogma, indoctrination, history, myth, scripture and traditions. It came to combat social, economic political evils and moral depredation of the declining pharaoic establishment. It didn’t do particularly well, in competition with Pagan beliefs. Ascetic in essence, with commandments demonizing pleasure (though Solomon has plenty of wives, but I suppose having had to marry them he had to look after them, which Pharaohs, Greeks, Persian and Romans didn’t have to) for which mankind had developed the wherewithal and taste for. It was persecuted, victimized, ridiculed and relegated to the lowest status of society. Jews became a devious, crafty, envious, miserly, avaricious characters castigated in literature- Shylock for example. (Even in early sixties, calling someone a Jew in England was an insult and in 1974, I came across a 94 year old patient in Brooklyn who told me that he was not ashamed to be a Jew). Only the guilt complex shared by the Christians the world over, for the holocaust rescued them from destitution. .
As a world order, Judaism failed. It could discipline only its adherents. It did not attract a large body of converts, so putting a brave face on it, proscribed proselytisation, restricting Judaic purity to the progeny of an alliance between a Jewish mother and Jewish father. The ancients were the original feminists .
Jews had been ostracized and rendered ineffective. A young rabbi castigated his brothers in faith for exclusiveness, degeneration, injustice, moral failings, gluttony, debauchery and exploitation particularly of the poor and exhorted them to mend their ways. I venture to say, he was the first socialist, though as a sop he granted kingdom of heaven to the poor. The established Judaic order, sought the aid of the forsworn enemy, the Roman governor and had Jesus crucified. His followers went underground, his teaching collected some sixty years after his death, comforting themselves with the concept that he had atoned for their sins and would redeem them at the end of time. With missionary zeal and secret service, unrivalled since, they vigorously pushed conversions. A firm conviction in after life, eternal and embellished with all one desired, gave them the fortitude to withstand all persecution and torture, the most dramatic being fed to lions.
Their luck turned. Constantine saw light, snatched victory form jaws of defeat and proclaimed it the state religion.( Jews, perhaps gave up too quickly. Maybe they would found their own Constantine). Their day had come. With state machinery at the back, they went forth saving souls, with the bible in one hand and a sword in the other, exceeding in ferocity, what had been done to them before empowerment, never mind the dictum “do into other what you would like to be done to you”. They continued this martial proslytisation till nineteenth forties.
Once they became part of establishment, they supported status quo, feudal system had to be supported, king had divine rights (as long as he was a Christian and paid homage to the Pope) part of which he delegated to his family and the aristocracy. King Henry the 8th thwarted in his desire to marry pretty women and often, created his own Pope( the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who with his hierarchy remains ardent supporter of the establishment to this day). Poor were fobbed off with heavenly favor
Islam is the next innovation. Born in a desert, out of the mind of a commercial traveler of impeccable antecedents, unimpeachable integrity and unmatched intellect, it too emphasized sanctity of private property , and also honesty, truth, brotherhood and unity of Ummah ( roughly nation of Islam ).It prescribed humane treatment of slaves but did not abolish the practice, and what apologists of Islam try to push under the rug, permitted carnal relations with female slaves, with out formalities of religious vows .It proscribed live burial of female infants, and Muslims make much of this prohibition, though it was a rare occurrence by all accounts, proclaimed paradise under the feet of the mother, but allowed multiple wives, the Prophet is believed to have said that if Sajda ( the act of prostration ) was allowed before a Non-Allah ( other than God ) it would be to the husband for the wife, allowed half as much the inheritance to a girl as to her brother and half a vote as a witness, deeming her emotionally unstable .Women could seek divorce but not give it, taking away the facility permissible under tribal customs.
They didn’t trust the women. On the day of judgment, people will be called by their mother’s name ( daughter/son of Ms so and so and not Mr. so and so.)
Non Arab converts to Islam were not given parity with Arabs, for centuries they had to have an Arab patron, this practice persists to this day, all South-Asian workers require a Mavali ( Sponsor, in Mumbai the term is used for hooligans ) This is reminiscent of Indians converts to Christianity who were not quite Sahib Log.
Various doctrines, rules and laws attempted to discipline the unruly Arabs given to blood feuds, a much more profitable alternative- expeditions under written by the state, the holy wars- Jihads was provided.
So far we have seen that religion, primitive and advanced, served the purpose of upholding the established order, pre existing or ordained by it. It legitimized law and order agencies and administration of the state. There was no other means of protecting life and property .
With renaissance, freedom of thought and expression, social and economic theories, idea of human rights, harnessing of the power of steam, industrial revolution, advent of printing press, accessibility of knowledge to the common man, relative economic emancipation and empowerment of the poor and the dispossesed and later communist, socialist and democratic dispensations, loosening of the stranglehold of religion, tremendous increase in productivity, trade union movement, decline of feudal power, enhancement of capital at the expense of the former, making it redundant except in a few archaic societies,( Capitalism, in the first instance had been opposed by organized religion), all made religion redundant as a social force ,.Capitalism co opted the existing coercive apparatus of state, the police, army and the politicians. Religion in order to survive became the hand maiden of capitalism .Capital had the added advantage that it owned all the main stream media, so could brain wash the public .The most glaring success of the perception management being that US citizens, with 45 million among them with no health insurance, are convinced that their health system is better than the National Health care in Europe and Canada.
Majority of people in the developed world, with wide spread literacy, and enhancement of social consciousness are aware of the economic basis of crime ,conflict and war , do not believe in divine infallibility and want to keep faith and state separate.
It is not their fault that the majority of people in the under developed world need the crutch of religion. They have been deliberately kept ignorant, fed with unholy doctrines by agents of corporate capital and neo imperialist powers, which encourage non representative repressive regimes, prevent emergence of popular governments and if they do mange to come up, sabotage their survival. These tools of neo imperialism fritter away national resources by buying weapons of war for use against equally destitute neighbors. Today’s ( 12/9/04 ) report on BBC told us that a Billion children are dying of disease ,poverty, and hunger because their governments do not use their resources in nation building.
Religion had become redundant for as a tool for preservation of social order .By all counts, former soviet union was more egalitarian , provided basic needs to all, food, shelter and vodka, there was little street crime, no mafia, hoarding, black market or starvation , than the current capitalist caricature. China with a smooth transition to a composite capitalist/socialist economic system and booming economy ,India with all its historic social and cultural baggage, has a vibrant economy and world class academies. None of the above needed religion.
Pakistan created in the name of a religion is wallowing in the mire of lawlessness, obscurantism and sectarian and feudal sponsored ethnic cleansing. USA, with resurgence of messianic visions re-elected George Bush with catastrophe impending in Iraq, with soldiers scrounging for armored vehicles and a puppet installed in Afghanistan, whose writ and that of his patron the US extending only to the confines of the capital, Kabul, jobs lost by million at home ,dollar sliding in international markets and economy crawling
Religion has long out lived its utility, except perhaps as a consolation in times of acute personal grief and misfortune, as Morphine is required .for extreme pain, and a sage, it was Karl Marx did compare it to the drug. Advocates of regular, habitual drug use are prosecuted in all societies.

Plight of Stranded

East Pakistan was born on August 15,1949 as a less favored twin of West Pakistan.
I call the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh less favored advisedly. Although the birth place of Muslim league, the only province with Muslim League Government at the time of independence, with a credible history of rebellion against the British Raj in the nineteenth Century, the direct antecedent cause of the British and Indian national congress giving in to the demand for Pakistan ( Calcutta Direct Action Day), more in population and endowed with the only worthwhile source of exchequer, jute, that the country had. Yet the dominant leadership of the country was immigrant, leaning towards West Pakistan, choosing Karachi in West Pakistan as the Federal Capital. Among the 85 senior civil servants inherited from the British, only one was of East Pakistani origin. The Army was overwhelmingly of West Pakistani origin.
Pakistan had no common national language. No doubt urdu, a highly developed language inherited from the later Moghals, was understood by many all over Pakistan but was the mother tongue of only the immigrants from North India roughly 5% of the population.
Bengali on the other hand was spoken by the majority of the population of the country, was highly developed too, but was not understood in West Pakistan.
Jinnah the founder of Pakistan had an idealistic and unreal vision of a united people, secular, democratic and above ethnic or linguistic divisions. He had had his way for too long to brook any opposition. When Sindhi students protested against separation of Karachi from Sindh ( as Federal Capital) his response was “ Do you accept me as you leader?”. Yes the students said, “then accept my decision and go back to your class”.
He went to Dhaka and declared in a public meeting that Urdu and only Urdu will be the official language of Pakistan. Few had the courage to protest (Mujib the leader of Bangladesh’s war of independence later claimed that he was among a dozen or so protestors)
Jinnah died before he could have a constitutions framed or have national elections held. His chosen successor Liaquat Ali Khan, had far less acceptance,nevetheless he also went to Dhaka to declare Urdu as the only official language and war greeted by a large number of black flags.
Democratic process was subverted by the Evil quad,( Feudal lords, Armed services, Civil Servants and Mullahs) all of them concentrated in West Pakistan. They did not want to accept the principle of representation proportionate to population as East Pakistan would have a “permanent majority. All Liaquat could do was to get the constituent assembly to pass a basic principles resolution, effectively repudiating Jinnah’s vision of a secular democratic state.
No one had the foresight to reach a compromise of two official languages, leaving the issue as a festering sore in body politic, till much later when it was reluctantly accepted, but damage to the concept of one nation had already been done.
The evil quad could not countenance even the civilian rule, Liaquat was assassinated, Nazimuddin who had succeeded Jinnah as Governor General (G.G.Head of State) stepped down and took over the office of Prime Minister (P.M.Head of Government) and Ghulam Muhammad, erstwhile civil servant/finance minister became the G.G. Nazimuddin was a very weak person, was soon thereafter, dismissed even though he enjoyed the majority support in the parliament and had the annual passed just before dismissal. After riding the storm against PM’s dismissal, G.G. sacked the parliament as well.
The reason G.G. was able to get away, with blatant violation of established constitutional procedures was because of the fact that no national elections had been held, and the constituent assembly had lost legitimacy. There had been only one major election, that in East Pakistan in which the ruling party had suffered a devastating defeat, winning ten out of over three hundred seats, even the chief minister lost his seat to a college student.
Ghulam Muhammad appointed Army officers to his cabinet (Army chief Ayub khan was given defense portfolio)
After Ghulam Muhammad died, there were unruly incidents. East Pakistan assembly deputy speaker was struck by a chair, and later died as a result. Ex army officer Iskander Mirza inherited the position of G.G, indirect elections were held and there followed a period of horse trading, changing of PM’s equaled only by the Italians.
East Pakistan leaders finally agreed to numerical equality of seats for the two wings in the constituent assembly. A constitution was passed , the patently non-representative assembly started calling itself parliament, elected Iskander Mirza as President and general elections were scheduled for January 1959.
A representative parliament would have been detrimental to the interest of the evil quad, a center-left coalition was likely to win, would have enjoyed public support and international legitimacy, and would have increased investment in development and public services, reduced expenses on Armed forces and very likely abolished the feudal system(India did that soon after independence, East Pakistan did it about the same time). Feudal lords are by and large the progeny of the traitors who had supported the British against their fellow Indians in 1857.
The solution was breathtakingly simple. Iskander Mirza sacked the parliament declared Martial law and appointed the Army chief as Chief Martial Administrator (CMLA) Not to be outdone, a few weeks later, the CMLA fired the president and exiled him to England. ( To give the devil his due Iskander s Mirza supported himself by working as a Manager of an Indian restaurant. Rulers in Pakistan, Politicians, Army officers,and Civil servants before Ayub Khan were politically corrupt but fiscally honest).
Ayub Khan was immensely popular, he managed the country as a military institution, streets were cleaned, trains ran on time, civil servants became punctual, black marketeers were arrested and politicians jailed. Ayub was hailed as a savior. But he didn’t have political vision. Instead of cashing in on his popularity, he suppressed political activity and introduced “Guided Democracy” in which an electoral college of 80,000 directly elected basic democrats would elect the national and provincial assembly members and the
President. He won handily in 1960.
In 1964 elections, opposition parties were able to persuade Miss Jinnah, the sister of the founder of Pakistan, popularly known as Mother of the Nation and venerated as such, to contest for the office of the President against Ayub Khan. Ayub won, but only because official machinery was able to cajole, coerce or bribe the limited electorate to vote for him. His legitimacy was undermined.
Ayub decided to regain his place in the hearts and minds of the people by sending infiltrators to across the cease fire line to Indian held Kashmir, regular troops followed, India attacked across the international border at Lahore. A few weeks fighting ended in stalemate..
It was claimed by opposition leaders in East Pakistan that their part of the country was left defenseless, at the mercy of Indians. Theat the claim was true or false, I cannot say, but it caught the imagination of East Pakistanis and the perception was most effectively exploited by Shaikh Mujib and other nationalist leaders.
Ayub became more unpopular, lost respect of the people and began floundering. A conspiracy against the state was “discovered”. Shaikh Mujib and a few insignificant Army personnel were implicated, the case was tried with maximal effort at publicity but met with only luke warm reception bordering on incredulity. The case had to be with drawn and Ayub was forced to parley with Mujib on equal level thus losing all credibility and turning Mujib into a hero in shining armor.
In West Pakistan Bhutto was trying to take advantage of the cease fire agreement subsequent to the war calling it a sell out. Nobody paid much attention to him till Ayub put him in prison.
Ayub resigned, handed over power to Army commander in chief ( violating his own tailor made constitution, which enjoined upon him to hand over power to the speaker of the national assembly).
The army commander, an alcoholic and a debauch, was advised by the generals, civil servants and politician that there was no harm in holding a general election based on adult franchise, the result would inevitably be a hung parliament, he would remain the president and could indulge in horse trading again as did Ayub’s predecessors..
Mujib in East Pakistan launched a campaign based on six point program which, if implemented, would result in a very weak federal government. The army fully confident that Mujib would not have an overall majority in the resultant parliament allowed him a free rein.
In west Pakistan Bhutto gave the slogan of Roti, Kapra, and Makaan ( roughly food, clothing and shelter) for all.
There was another, in many way a more charismatic leader in East Pakistan Maulana Bhashani, popularly dubbed “Red Mullah” who preached a curious mix of Islam, socialism, nationalism, and internationalism. He had a large following among peasants and workers. His party was expected to win nearly as many seats as Mujeebs Awami League.
A hurricane of unusual ferocity hit East Pakistan. Bhashani demanded, with justification, that the Government look after the victims of the disaster and postpone elections. But Mujeeb has smelled blood and West Pakistani leaders and Army didn’t care. Elections gave Mujeeb159 seats out of 161 in East Pakistan seats. Bhutto won some 80 out of 149 West Pakistan’s seats. Mujeeb had won over all majority in the new parliament

Honor Killing

Of all the evils spawned by the feudal society, honor killing is arguably the most heinous.
Apologists try to equate it with “crime of passion” but crimes of passion are abrupt, unmeditated, and impulsive acts of violence committed by persons who, in their own lights, have come face to face with an incident wholly repulsive and unacceptable and who technically, for the duration of the act, are insane and incapable of self-control. One well known example is that of an Indian Naval officer, commander Nanavati who some thirty years ago went to his apartment, found his wife and her paramour in conjugal embrace, shot both of them, went out, accosted a traffic policeman, confessed to the killing and demanded to be arrested. The policeman demurred, he could not arrest an officer, so the officer took over directing traffic, sent the policeman to fetch a police inspector who arrived in due course and arrested the him.
I have not been able to find as striking an example of genuine Honor killing as this one, though stories of an enraged, out of control, husbands, fathers, and brothers. Killing a “guilty female are reported about once a month in Pakistani news papers.
Honor killings on the other hand are in most cases deliberate, well planned and premeditated acts when a relative of a female kills her ostensibly to uphold his honor though it is well established that in most cases overriding motive is monetary/property loss entailed in giving away a female out of tribe, biraderi etc.
This is a relic of the times when law and order was a matter of tribal code and the British on assuming control and with a view to pacifying the natives, minimizing opposition to their over lordship incorporated honor killing in their jurisprudence even though it was repugnant to their code of justice and fairplay, but then imposed very stingnent conditions Viz sexual activity was actually observed, the perpretrator confessed, had an otherwise upright character, had blood/marriage relation with the girl and reported to the police immediately. Under British rule it was a rare occurrence. The perpetrator would not sentenced to death, there would be a long jail sentence and there would be social sanctions as well.
But above all, the crime was deemed to have been committed against the state in contravention of law and not a simple private affair.
Qisas (eye for an eye) and Diyat (blood money) as part of Hudood laws were promulgated as Presidential Ordnance, not requiring parliamentary assent by General Zia, the military dictator of Pakistan from 1977 to 1988, are closely related relics of pre Islamic societies, where the concept of these offences being family affairs, was accepted. Islam made these violations of law crimes against the state. Since the departure of the British and with them fear of the law and judicial procedures and specially since the dark days of Zia Ul Haq, in clear disregard of the tolerance and fair play taught by Islam and relegation of women to a third class status per Intolerant theology invented over a hundred of years after the prophet of Islam (PBUH) in Abbasid period revived in eighteenth century by a person by the name of Abdul Wahab, patronized by the Saudi rulers as a weapon against Turkish Caliphate, and their local rivals, rulers of Mecca who claimed descent from the prophet of Islam (current standard bearers of the family being King Abdullah of Jordan and the Agha Khan) wholly repugnant to the spirit and word of Islam.
Feudal lords have ruled Pakistan even since its inception; all levers of power, Army, Civil service, Mullahs and Press have been under their control. Army is the most effective tool of feudal society as it has the brute power and can ignore with contempt the law of the land. Other components of the evil quad (Feudals, Army, Civil service, and Mullah) willingly cooperate. Civil servants and judges supinely obey the army. Expression of opinion is prohibited and all coercive apparatus of state is used to crush opposition. Education is discouraged and whatever little is allowed, is subverted by distortion of curricula.

Uncontrolled growth of population is allowed in the name of. religion. West Pakistan (now the only Pakistan) had a population of 35 million in 1947. Now it is 150 million. Even if the government functioned honestly, sincerely and efficiently (which admittedly it does not) no innovation in methods of production could cope with the immense increase in the number of mouths to feed. Health, education, nutrition, physical and mental development continue to deteriorate. This further strengthens the hands of the “evil quad” a human sub-species incapable of protest is being created.
In any case, few in Pakistan have the time, inclination, means or education to think, read books, and analyze the machinations of the “evil quad”. Zia literally ignored unfavorable articles in “Dawn” and is believed to have said that the reader ship of the newspaper was only 40,000(45,000 on Friday) and these 40-45,000 had their interest linked with the ruling Junta.
There are not doubt valiant voices in the country but they are akin to straws in the wind. All conferences, seminars, resolutions and press notes in effect and in substance are irrelevant. They look to the west specially USA for putting pressure on Pakistani authorities to respect human rights and law. But the west is not interested in human rights in third world countries. They supported Taliban in Afghanistan where the fanatics were perpetrating the worst crimes against the Afghans.
A total structural change in society is needed. It would be tantamount to a revolution. Revolutions are historically indigenous and cannot be imported or imposed from outside.
Following is a summary of the report of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International recommendations, and the protection and empowerment of women act 2003, presented to Pakistan National Assembly, presented with a fond hope that it will stimulate some minds and goad them to initiate the struggle against the evil quad.
Human Rights Commission Of Pakistan
Honor killings 1998 to 2002 1464 (married 659- unmarried 534)

Amnesty International Recommendations
Review criminal laws to ensure equality before law and equal protection of law to women.
Make domestic violence in all its manifestations a criminal offence.
Make sale of women and girls or giving women in marriage against financial considerations a criminal offence.
Under take wide-ranging awareness programs.
Provide gender-sensitization training to law enforcement and judicial personnel.
Ensure that human rights activists, lawyers, and women’s rights activists can pursue their legitimate activities with out harassment

The 2003 “Act”
Government to ensure equal participation of women in all walks of life
.
Discrimination in pay on basis of gender is prohibited.

Domestic violence and honor killing be punishable in the same manner as personal injury or culpable homicide.

Every woman shall be entitled to marry a person of her choice.

At least one third of seats on Islamic Ideology Council and other government commissions be reserved for women.

Separate/independent enclosures in jail for women controlled by female police
.

Status of Muslim Women

Status of Muslim women under a) pristine Islam b) Umayyad period immediately following the Prophet and the first four caliphs c) Abbasid period following the Umayyad d) Turkish period e) Muslim rule in India f) Colonial rule g) current crop of Ahab regimes (the creed is discussed below) h) secular regimes like Turkey, Algeria and a few others h) religiously anomalous regimes like Pakistan, Indonesia, Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria.i) Western Governments in Europe and North America. Is based on such criteria as education, exposure to other cultures, social and economic development and financial status. The subject with its manifold aspects is not amenable to instant or easy definition or analysis as Muslims do not constitute a homogenous society, and Islam, as Edward Said very aptly puts it in his book “covering Islam”, in popular western perception seems to mean one simple thing, but in fact, is part fiction, part ideological label, part minimal designation of a religion.
Followers of Islam are broadly divided into a) Sunnis (overwhelmingly adherents of the teachings of Imam Abu Haifa ) b)Shias ( predominantly mainline Twelve Imamites )
Are roughly 5:1 in proportion.
Hanafis, could for convenience be labeled moderates, venerate the period of the first four Caliphs as pious, vilify the Umayyad as :usurpers, have chauvinistic respect for Abbasids, Turkish caliphs, and other Muslim rulers. put saints( through whose teachings and example Islam spread in Asia, Africa and else where, though Muslim conquests and over lordship played a substantial role) and holy men on pedestals of different heights, and subscribe to Sufi thought.
Shias, on the other hand believe that Imam Ali was the designated successor of the Prophet, and caliphate should have passed to the progeny of Imam Ali and Bibi Fatima, the Prophets favorite daughter. Since the disappearance of the last Imam (he was a child at the time, had hidden in a cave to escape persecution and has not been seen since but will return as a redeemer) a legitimate Muslim ruler can only act as deputy to the Imam as Ayatollah Khomeini did.
Sunnis and Shias, though accord the same status to their women folk.
Let us look at the immediate pre-Islam Meccan society. It was tribal but had an active mercantile class. Mecca was at the crossroads of caravan routes and Meccans were exposed to diverse cultures. It was, of course, male dominated, but there were note- worthy women too. The prophet’s first wife was a businesswoman; the prophet had actually been her employee. The first Umayyad ruler’s (Muaviya) mother Hinda actually controlled her clan and incited them to fight against Muslims. Women used to openly propose to men. Infact when the prophet accompanied by his uncle, was going to visit his future wife Bibi Khatija to propose to her, a woman stopped him on the way and offered him a hundred camels if he would marry her.
A male issue, specially the first one, was preferred to a female one (as is the case even now among the majority of world’s population) and occasionally a father on the lunatic fringe would bury a female new first born alive. Women did not have well-defined property rights, were given away to cement tribal deals or friendship between families or to compensate for damage done by one family to another etc. (this is still done in Pakistan, though it is a norm only in the tribal/feudal section of the population.) They were regarded as property. Education rare in any event, and was not deemed very useful. (The prophet had no formal education) so it is not surprising that girls would not get it. Remarriages and divorces were, however, not stigmatized. (Widow marriage and remarriage after divorce were not permitted in India. Hindus who converted to Islam retained most of their customs. Muslims who immigrated adopted a lot of customs prevalent in the country).
So it is not entirely true that women were totally downtrodden in pre Islam Arab society. They, in fact, enjoyed a better position than their contemporaries did in Europe.
The prophet wrought great changes in the status of women, though they were never quite given parity with men. Newborn female murders were prohibited, women were given inheritance rights, girls getting half of what boys would get, if there was no male issue, the boys share would go to a paternal cousin etc The given wisdom was that a girl would be the beneficiaries of what their husband would inherit from their families In actual fact the system kept the larger part of the property in the family. If a girl was given equal share, she would take a greater part to her husband’s house. Giving two third share of the property to a paternal cousin makes a k lot of feudal sense.
Women continued to be regarded as property, they continued to be given away to influential/wealthy families regardless of disparity in the age between bride and groom Female consent was made a requirement but was usually taken for granted. They continued to be regarded as emotionally unstable and rather feeble minded and unclean during the menstrual period. They were not entitled to head an organization or the state, had only half a vote in evidence and were not allowed to enter a mosque during their monthly periods.
The question of a female not being eligible to hold office as head of the state is not that cut and dried. When Miss Jinnah contested the election for the office of President of Pakistan, no less a scholar than Maulana Maududi declared that in an emergency a woman could become head of the state. He regarded usurpation of power by Ayub Khan as an emergency. Considering that Western Style democracy in not compatible with Islam, in the sense that in democracy as known and defined in the west, the state may not give religion precedence over all the others, Mauling Sahib was presenting a rather uncertain argument.
In our corner of woods, the twin tiers area of upstate New York, the Islamic center has broken tradition and elected a woman President and vice-President too. At one time the office of treasurer was also held by a lady as well. Instead of subverting Islamic traditions this female regime is, if anything, more conforming.
Over and above the legalistic changes, women did acquire higher social status. Prophets last wife Ayesha (RA) led an army against Ali(RA) and his
Grand daughter (Imam Husain’s sister) held soirees at her home.
Women continued to hold their own during the rule of the first four caliphs and the following Umayyad period (about a hundred and fifty years) but lost ground (as did liberal, rational, analytical, progressive thought) during the Abbasid period. Abbasids had over thrown the Umayyads in the name of the prophet’s progeny, paid public homage to them, and were, therefore, beholden to the latter for their legitimacy.
. To consolidate their rule, they physically obliterated the leading Umayyads. They dare not treat the prophets family the same way, so wrested spiritual leadership from them by getting a congregation of Islamic Scholars to ban for ever all “Ijtihad” (analytic, rational, innovation, interpretation).
Once firmly in control, they suppressed prophet’s family too.
What right did the rulers or for that matter scholars had to prohibit rational application of scholarship when the prophet had not done it, has never been satisfactorily explained, except the patently lame and self serving explanation that what needed to be done had been done already, and further analytical thought would only lead to dissention.
Only the hitherto collected work of eminent scholars (Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Shafai, Imam Malik and Imam Hambal) could be relied on for Law/Jurisprudence/interpretation of Quran, the word of God, and Hadith, the prophet’s traditions, which is a collection of his sayings and narratives of his acts of life. . (The prophet himself gave explicit instructions that his sayings not be recorded, lest people take them at par with the Quran). The Abbasid are known to have coerced scholars to introduce several self serving “Hadiths” into collections of The Prophet’s sayings.) Only the adherents of the prophet’s family, the Shias (Shia literally means adherent, Imam Ali’s (The Prophet’s son in law, and the fourth caliph) supporters were called Shian Ali) continued to (and still do) accept “Ijtihad”
Because of the obvious lack of authenticity of all the Hadiths, learned scholars had to sift the “Sahih” ones from the doubtful ones. We have such work as Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Tirmizi etc.
Women, as a result, had many rights including the right to consent to marriage compromised. A Wali ((father/guardian) could do it on her behalf.
Society had undergone a sea change too. Abbasids saw the advent of feudal society with a caliph at the head of the hierarchy. Turkish caliphate was also based on feudal system
Historically women have had lesser status in feudal societies than they did in tribal ones. Their status did not change through the whole period of Turkish rule.
Muslim period in India saw the intermingling of Arab/Muslim and Hindu/Indian cultures. Sanctity of motherhood was common to both. Successful invaders invariably impose their mores and norms. But they cannot escape the influence of the subject people. Muslims adopted the mores of sequestration of women, the stigma of divorce and loss of property rights, and female consent to marriage came to be taken even more for granted. . “Honor” killing, a euphemistic term for murder, marriage of women to Quran, so property will not leave the family became prevalent (and persist to this day in Pakistan the leader of Peoples Party in Pakistan, a leading feudal of Sindh has married two of his sisters to the holy book)). Motherhood, however, acquired a higher status.
Things went along much the same way during one thousand years of Muslim rule. In India. Except for building roads and palaces, the rulers didn’t do much, there was no emphasis on education, research, science or industry. Indians lagged behind, women even more so and were easily over whelmed by Europeans who were hungry for resources and accidental beneficiaries of Industrial revolution British,French,Dutch,ItalianGerman,Nothern Europeans and even lowly Portugese acquired colonies.
Turks had also run out of steam. Though their Empire lasted till the after math of W.W.1, they had already been dubbed sick man of Europe in the nineteenth century.
In later period of Turkish rule, Arabs tribal chiefs started resenting foreign over lord ship. They initially undermined Turkish rule covertly Eventually they rebelled and conspired with The British and French colonial agents and became the beneficiaries of the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire. Turkish rule was no longer dynamic; cracks appeared in “ Fortress Islam”
. Arab society had been decaying for centuries. A form of non-divine worship had crept in the belief system. People would go to shrines and tombs not just to ask the saints ( long since dead ) to intercede with God but actually to grant their wishes.
Abdul Wahab a minor cleric, not by any measure a towering intellect, launched a campaign to rid the society of “heathen” practices But in addition he forsook the basic tenets of the religion’s –respect and tolerance for different views, non compulsion in adoption of a faith, sanctity of the brothehood among the faithful, protection of minorities and substituted it with a culture of hate, intolerance, bigotry, harsh restrictions on women and general violation of human rights
. He did not make much headway till he made a compact with tribal chieftains who were conspiring with the British/French. Together they used the movement as a weapon against the Turks. They not only sold their souls to the British/ and French but
Undermined even early Islamic “Ijtihad” leaving the faith with pretty much sterile- pray, eat and procreate- claiming that the Quranic and Hadith injunction on acquiring knowledge meant learning only Quran and Hadith etc
They introduced the concept of separation of religion in Saudi Arabia. The ruling clan is legitimized by the clerics who turn a blind eye to the doings of the princes. The current king, when he was the crown prince lost six million dollars in a casino in one night. On his return home his elder brother King Faisal “grounded’ him to his country. Rulers in their turn support the mullahs.
There is a strong element of hypocrisy in their behavior. Large number of wahabis live in the west inevitably getting involved in interest based financial system, being exposed to females in skimpy dresses etc They could easily live in their countries if they were prepared to give up the affluent life style they enjoy here.
Wahabi influence remained confined to Saudi Arabia for a long time. They did not amount to much till oil money started flowing into the country and the rulers, in order to keep fanatics at bay, and to divert their attention from the lavish and ostentatiously un-Islamic life style of princes, persuaded the clerics to export their creed to poor Muslim countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan and several other such countries.
With the advent of British rule in India, Indians did become the beneficiaries
, Though peripheral, of industrial revolution. Britain had to develop infrastructure in India for exporting raw material, train people for low-level jobs and develop an army to fight other colonists. The much vaunted railway system primarily served the purpose of transporting cotton, jute, indigo and soldiers from the hinterland to ports and the finished products manufactured by the British industry in the other direction.
Women benefited too. Muslims had to concede the rights Islamic jurisprudence had given them, which had been usurped by the feudal/Mullah reactionary clique. A few even got educated.
Muslims in India practiced the mainstream (HANAFI) tolerant version of Islam. They had good relations with Hindus and Christians. Shias were regarded as wayward though very much in the pale of Islam. Shrines and tombs of saints were frequented, the educated ones only asked the saints to intercede with God on their behalf, while the illiterate asked them for favors. They would fraternize with Hindus and attended their festivities during Holi/Diwali etc. They took out Moharram (commemoration of the Prophets grandson Imam Hussein’s martyrdom) processions, though separate from Shia processions. The British were successful, with the help of Wahabis, in inciting Shia- Sunni riots.
Things went on pretty much the same way even after independence. Muslims continued to be governed under their personal law in India. Half hearted attempts were made in Pakistan to enact “Pure” Islamic laws. But there was substantial resistance to the move in urban centres of Pakistan especially in the then East Pakistan.
World had been undergoing rapid change since WWII. The pace accelerated during the fifties and sixties. Muslims countries had essentially secular governments and were making progress in Education and Industry. Standard of living was gradually rising. Dogmatic, fundamentalist movements were on the fringes of the society. People were optimistic. French had to leave Algeria, Egypt had managed to stand up to British/French/Israeli aggression. Nasser had gone toe to toe with Eisenhower/Dulles and forced the latter to blink.
Then came the catastrophic humiliation of the six-day Suez war in 1967. In historical terms Pakistan Army surrender to Indian Army in 1971, Dacca was only a moment later.
Wahabi clerics had finally come into their own. They preached that Muslims were humiliated not because they lacked education, scientific and technological, but because they were no longer good Muslims. They had immensely rich sponsors. Saudi rulers bloated with oil wealth, had resources to spare and funded twenty two thousand religious seminaries in Pakistan alone and many more thousands all over the Muslim world. These schools offered food and shelter and attracted essentially young boys from indigent families, who were indoctrinated into flaming fanatics passionately ready to give their lives for the lure of paradise with all the alluring visions of a luxurious life forever afterwards.
Fate played further into their hands. A few communist generals took over Afghanistan. Soviet Union government undertook to rescue them from certain over throw and American government jumped on the opportunity to avenge their defeat in Vietnam, which they had attributed to Russian intervention. Neither the Americans nor the Russian had the good sense to realize than you cannot cow down a whole population and crush their will, even with your technological superiority. ( Americans have not learnt the lesson yet. Look at their misadventure in Iraq where lives arte being lost on a regular basis, long after declaration of mission accomplished.) U.S. poured in money and arms, trained seminary students in guerilla warfare. They were aided and abetted by the Pakistan Army/ Military Government.
Soviet Union collapsed due to their internal contradictions, the process hastened by the drainage of resources in Afghanistan and now have been reduced to the status of a vassal to US Government They have all the evils of a capitalist society with out the benefit of respect for law and order.
Americans are suffering at the hands of fanatics they nurtured – Bin-Laden, Al Quad and Taliban.
Pakistan inherited Klashnikov/ Heroin culture with resultant turf, ethnic, linguistic and opportunistic civil wars with near anarchy prevailing in the eighties and nineties of the last century in its premier city- Karachi.
Wahabis have become dominant, imposing their will on public and government alike ( even the army cannot stand up to them). Discriminatory laws like Hudood ordinance, wholly repugnant to the word and spirit of Islam cannot be abrogated as political leadership belongs to feudals and religion is a key pillar of the system. One leading cleric, a deputy chief of Jamaat Islami, an accountant by profession, erstwhile lecturer in a college ( self promoted to professorial status) going by the name of Ghafur Ahmad. Publicly stated not too long ago that murder committed under the umbrella of Honor killing was Islamic.
The upshot of the resurgence of Wahabi creed is that women are fast losing ground. They are harassed, made to wrap them up into a veritable sack like a bag potatoes, have their movements restricted and generally life made intolerable for them.
The reverberations have reached Europe , Canada and USA as well. Honor killings are committed in the UK, girls are forced into marriage and incidents of abduction ( after being drugged) are on record in Canada and USA. One can only conjecture upon the number of killings/abductions/forced marriages not reported.
In most Islamic centers in North America and Europe, women are not allowed into the front door, have to pray in a separate room and are otherwise relegated to a second-class status.
A valiant fighter Asra Nomani has taken up the challenge and is confronting male chauvinists among the Muslims. There was a huge commotion but Professor Amina Wadood of Virginia was able to lead a male/female group in prayers.
Status of women, Muslim or otherwise, is related more to diverse sociological, cultural educational and economic factors than to theological doctrine European women lag behind American women in empowerment, because Europe still retains vestiges of feudal society. A Brooklyn N.Y. nurse of Greek ancestry, who once worked with my father, went to visit Greece and stayed with her cousins. Her hosts demurred at her desire to go shopping alone. She sputtered with rage, swore at them in Brooklynese, called a cab and flew back to good old U.S, A.The vast majority of Muslim girls in western countries are confident, independent and worthwhile members of society, very much at par with men. Even the ones not born and brought up in America or Europe catch up with the natives very quickly.
There hope yet. Muslim women in the USA have to stand up for their rights, use all the freedom offered by the American Society to break the bonds of serfdom, which are patently unfair even from the religious point of view.

On Fundamentalism American Style

In order to understand the background of fundamentalism, a brief survey of Socio-Religious evolution would be in order.
Religion is a highly resilient institution. It has been written off many times only to come back up with renewed vigor.
One may justifiably say that religion is as old as human kind. Humans existence as Homo sapiens is scientifically estimated at about 1.7 million years . The first of the species must have reacted to natural phenomenon instinctively running away from fires, seeking shelter from flood and hurricanes.
At some point a group of people must have tried to make sense of hot and cold weather, high and low tide, rain and drought, storms and floods etc. Some were beneficial, others harmful.. It may have dawned on some bright person that there was a purpose, a design or an agency behind it.
The primal instinct was self-preservation. Good was what promoted it, evil led to its retardation? A natural disaster may have coincidentally followed an evil deed for example theft. It might have led to the belief that a super human agency had sent the calamity as collective punishment. Some incidental act may have been followed by abatement of a forest fire.
Lo and behold, something had propitiated the mover of fires.
Humans are at the hunter-gatherer stage of the society. There is no stable abode. Groups travel, after resources of one area have been exhausted. Diet is meat, berries, and fruits. Fire as protection against elements and predators is known, cooking is probably not. Meat is eaten raw (much like today’s rare beef steak in the USA).
We don’t have a concept of property in terms of owning dwelling or land yet. There is no specialization except perhaps; that men went out to hunt and women managed the family. Polyandry was practiced. It was the matriarchal stage of development. The same women had to look after returning providers.
Population increased. Hunting grounds became insufficient, climatic change may have intervened. It became increasingly difficult to draw sustenance from known areas. Mass starvation must have been a recurring event. Thievery and later robbery must have been invented. The disruptive causes must have had deleterious effect; preventive measures must have been taken.
Primitive law and order came into being.
Naturally occurring grain bushes must have been noticed, how seeds when water was available water and exposed to sunshine grew into plants, as did fruit and berries. Some group of people may have decided to stay put in a place with plenty of grain.
Once settled on land, elements couldn’t be escaped from, as easily. One had to build shelter. Someone noticed the beneficial effect of certain plants/leaves/root and he/she became a part time medicine person. Some could build better. Some one may have cried aloud that an impending storm would go away. It may have passed them by, and we have a spirit man.
But all work was communal yet, though specialization was developing.
We now have a definite concept of property necessitating legitimate children who would inherit and law and order agencies, which would protect it. Rulers who could lead wars of plunder or defense became a necessity.
It is final goodbye to equality of man and woman and to matriarchal society.
The need for organized religion came with the concept of property. In order to establish legitimacy of birth, some kind of formality sanctioned by the spirit man must be gone through. Retribution for infidelity must have been threatened to keep hitherto free spirits in line.
Not very secure in their jobs, spirit men must have organized, much like in later artisan guilds. Organized religion is in its incipient stage..
With time, better grasp of natural phenomenon, body of accumulated human experience called knowledge is preserved. Population explodes and society develops into kingdoms, later into empires.
With enhanced knowledge of natural phenomenon, empirical religion gives way to inspirational, which is better able to protect the status quo.
Pharaohs preceded Judaic prophets but did not have “divine” religions. Chinese and Indians had earth-based religions too.
Judaism is the earliest known divinely inspired known religion. Not much is known, from the historical perspective, about it till the times of Jesus Christ, when it had fossilized into stratified society of a luxurious existence for the priestly class and misery for all others.
Christianity was a revolt against the inequities, the injustices and avarice of the priestly order. The priests conspired with their foreign over lords to quash the teachings of one of its own Jesus, as he was bucking the trend. . The new religion went under ground. Bible was compiled some sixty years after fructification.
Church eventually became predominant after a Roman emperor Constantine converted to the religion. From a band of fugitives it metamorphosed to a pillar of establishment, stifling knowledge, assigning stations in life, forcibly keeping vassals, lords and kings in their respective places.
Dark age prevailed. There was dire poverty, ignorance, frequent pestilence and slavery, one law for the ruler, another for the ruled, palaces for nobles and bishops and hovels for their followers, wasteful abundance for the rich and maybe one meal a day for the poor. Religion protected privilege.
Many pagan rites had crept in Christianity. Time was ripe for a reformist movements. Puritanism and Protestantism supplanted Catholicism in large parts of Europe. Among the most interesting reasons for discarding Catholicism, was king Henry XIII’s desire to keep on marrying and popes refusal to keep on sanctioning them.
European population, like number of people else where, was burgeoning. The countries were not very fertile. Mass starvation was recurring experience.
Industrial and technological revolutions gave the Europeans means to travel quickly, emigrate and overpower the natives of the lands they explored.
Europeans have, over the last two centuries shed the substance of religion from the affairs of the state, though they have kept the form. Britain, for example, can not have a non-Anglican as the Prime Minister or the King/Queen.
Americans bucked the European trend. U.S. constitution does ordain separation of church and state, but attempts at subversion and neo-conservative interpretation of the constitution have been going for a long time.
In order to understand why (Americans North and South) and Europe took divergent paths in the matter of religion in daily life and Government, one has to look at the inception of the country. Europeans migrated to Americas for a number of reasons, predominant being economic and religious persecution . A small percentage took to the boats with dreams of fortune, but vast majority were escaping starvation. Destitute masses have to seek solace in and hope for divine intervention. They become very religious. Victims of religious persecution give up hearth, home and even life for their beliefs. They would not be inclined to liberal thought.
The immigrants came upon a vast land, sparsely populated by unsophisticated people, who had been isolated from the rest of the world for a long time and who had been left behind, in the rest of the world’s march, to scientific, and industrial development. What was even more important, the newcomers had powerful tools of war. The natives were overpowered easily, by a combination of brute power, trickery, and germ warfare (they were rewarded for their hospitality to the starving immigrants, by a gift of blankets impregnated with small pox. Not having been exposed to the disease before and totally lacking immunity, untold numbers died. This was the first use of biological war -fare in human history).
The easy victory, further, potentiated the belief, that they were being rewarded for being good Christians.
The trend of economic and religious migration continued till 1960’s when immigrants from Asia started coming. In sharp contrast to earlier arrivals, they had passed through a process of screening which excluded all except the highly educated and whose skills were actually needed in the country. Instead of being a burden, they saved US economy billions of dollars which the country would have to spend on training physicians, educationists, engineers, scientists (roughly $200,000.00 per trainee equivalent to $one billion for 52,000 foreign trained physicians alone) that is, if they could find indigenous candidates, good enough for training in the country.
The newcomers are gradually gaining influence specially the professional groups. But the unfortunate trend under the impact of international events among these immigrants too, is towards intolerance and bigotry.
Group character is passed on over generations. Australia, which was colonized by convicts, is known for the crude and rough (comparatively) language of its people. Americans have continued to cling to religion and take it rather seriously. I once went for an interview for a Medical practice in a small community in Minnesota. They were very hospitable. Their main concern was that they didn’t have a church for me.
Universal literacy, scientific advances, and prosperous life style have not been able to over come the influence of religion.. Americans are easily moved by slogans of moral values, nature of family, definition of marriage, permissibly of abortion and morality of stem cell research. These matters, which have little impact on the life of the overwhelming majority of people, cause them to put vastly more important issues of the vast gap in income between the upper and lower classes, (the bosses in the USA make five hundred times as much as the workers, in contrast to the situation obtaining in Japan, where the former make only ten times as much) and outsourcing of jobs to lower paid Indians and South Americans at the cost of Americans, on the back burner.
Look at America today. The core of its economy was subjected to a dastardly attack on 9/11. The Government correctly went after the perceived perpetrators. It was a successful operation; Taliban and AL Qaida were demolished. Afghans were delivered from a lunatic tyranny and the people afforded a chance to develop representative institutions.
Then, instead of confronting the source of fanaticism- Saudi dynasty which sponsored the so called Madressahs-rligious seminaries where young men are indoctrinated into a peculiarly intolerant brand of Islam , or tackling the genesis of terrorism, Israeli occupation of Palestine, ethnic cleansing perpetrated on Palestinians by the Israeli Government, the U.S. administration, goaded by born again Christians and neo-liberals concocted fables of weapons of mass destruction, deluded themselves with hallucinatory visions of fawning crowds in Iraq, acclaiming U.S. forces as liberators. They dreamed of control over a large reservoir of oil and installing an effective client government.
The war on terror, a legitimate national objective has metamorphosed into war of religions. Leading clerics rave and rant that Islam is a violent religion. A high pentagon military official made derogatory remarks about Muslims, and kept his job. Even President Bush made the Freudian slip equating war on terror to crusades.
They are still mired in the morass of popular resistance, unable to see the way out. Instead of encouraging jobs creation, outsourcing them, overlooking 45 million Americans with no health Insurance and exhibiting shameless complacence over it all.
They had to submit to Ayatollah Sistani’s demand that general elections be held. A new Government of National unity has been installed as a result. But it is unable to deal with the insurgency because all the levers of power are in American hand. .
Insurgents are undeterred by the firepower at the command of USA troops. They kill a few USA soldiers practically every day, and many Iraqi ones, whom they regard as collaborators.
One would have thought, that such an administration would be trounced in an electoral contest based on a literate, well-informed body of voters.
But no, they won because John Kerry was for women’s choice, for stem cell research and ambivalent on gay marriage.
One cannot blame corporate media. They were, if anything tilting towards Kerry. You cannot blame money. Both had it and spent it in abundance. You cannot blame the security issue; in the end people thought Kerry would be as good on the score. People knew that Kerry was far more intelligent, had far better advisers, would be as relentless in fight against terror, would be much more effective, as he could develop a true coalition and get European troops to fight in Iraq. He would be more solicitous of Israel, would abolish the irresponsible tax reduction, trim national debt, put a more humane and acceptable face on capitalism and not appoint members of the lunatic fringe to the cabinet.
It would have been a walk over but for the Christian fundamentalists who galvanized churches (Kerry is a practicing catholic- yet catholic bishops campaigned against him), exhorted voters, transported them to polling booths, launched smear campaigns on T.V., told blatant lies, besmirched the honor of a highly decorated was hero (against a draft evader) so that 50% of Hispanics, normally a democratic constituency, voted for the republican ticket. Ohio, a state with large unemployment was won by the President by 135,000 votes. This all in the name of morality in a country, which has come a long way in accepting varied sexual choices, where women have near parity with men..
Though the difference between the rich and poor has widened (Remember Jesus Christ favored the poor) under Bush, they still voted republican.
People were taken in, as people usually are, perhaps consoling themselves with the thought that priests will intercede for them in the after world, perhaps priests reminding them of Jesus’ pronouncement that the poor will inherit the kingdom of heaven, implying that they won’t if they disobeyed the priest.
One can go on conjecturing but there is no denying the fact that bigotry cost Kerry the election.
Fundamentalism in the U.S.A is a part of the trend all the world over. It cannot be curbed by combating it in this country alone. Injustice, poverty, hunger, disease, ignorance, superstition, religious fanaticism, racism, economic exploitation, and dominance of Capital will have to be dealt with on a global scale.

The Curse of Intolerance

Islam brought a message of peace, amity, tolerance, equality and justice for all mankind. The messenger was chosen in a society riddled with all kinds of social and moral evils. Contrast between the religious teachings and the then reality on ground couldn’t be greater. There was bigotry, usury, intolerance, slaves were treated worse than animals ,blood feuds and tribal warfare were common. Women though not quite at par with men, did enjoy a much higher status than their sisters did in Europe and other countries. They owned properties and businesses, proposed marriage to men, The Prophets first wife proposed to him before the advent of Islam, and a woman had offered a hundred camels to his father as marriage portion before he married the prophets mother.
The prophet preached equality of man and woman, rich and poor. He forswore any compulsion in faith. He forgave his enemies, who had tortured him and his followers. When Mecca surrendered, he forbade any revenge. He enjoined protection of non-believers.
After the prophets demise, there was some dispute over succession. Ansars (natives of Madina) had actually chosen a successor who was prevailed upon to abdicate in favor of Abu Bakr (RA). He nominated Umar(RA) to succeed him.. Umar didn’t designate a successor. There was a tussle between factions supporting Usman(RA) and Imam Ali (RA).
By this time, idealism had given way to pragmatism, Usman (RA) was chosen as the third Caliph, by a procedure regarded by some as not quite above board. He belonged to the Umayyad clan, who had been among the most bitter foes of the prophet. Usman was assassinated, complete breakdown of law order followed. Imam Ali, now reluctant to wear the mantle of Caliphate was prevailed upon to accept the office. Muaviya, of the Umayyad clan, governor of a province, rebelled, civil war ensued, in which close companions of the Prophet were pitted against each other. and killed each other- in the name of Islam.
Supporters of Ali (called Shian’s Ali) a political group which later metamorphosed into a religious sect. There is no evidence that, at the time, Shias had religious beliefs different from that held by other Muslims.
Muaviya was able to take over the Caliphate after Imam Ali(RA) was assassinated by making a deal with Ali’s elder son(Imam Hasan) that the younger son Imam Husain will succeed Muaviya. Breaking his word, he designated his son Yazid to Caliphate. Imam Husain (RA) was enticed into an ambush and all male members of the family except Imam Zainul Abedin (RA)were killed.
During Umayyad rule which lasted a hundred and twenty years, the prophets family were closely watched, but otherwise left alone. They, themselves, shunned politics and kept busy with spiritual and academic pursuits.
Abbasids, descendents of the prophets uncle, Abbas, invoking the name of the Prophets family, incited a rebellion against Umayyad rule, and overthrew them. They initially paid lip service to the descendents of the prophet, going to the extent of offering them caliphate and ostensibly ruled in their name. In actual fact, being beholden to the latter, they were more apprehensive of the clan, than even Umayyad were. They kept the family under strict surveillance and once secure in power, put severe restrictions on them, and even tortured them. The last Imam, a young boy at the time, went into hiding in a cave and was never seen again. Shias believe that the Imam will return one day and redeem all Muslims.
During Abbasid caliphate, religious scholars was coerced into concocting a lot of Hadith (sayings of the prophet). Imam Bukhari the most credible compiler of Hadith critically analyzed over 600,000 purported sayings of the Prophet, and was able to accept only 7,397. Other nearly equally accepted compilers Imams Muslim and Tirmizi came to similar conclusions.
It is reported that the Prophet had expressly prohibited the collection of his sayings, lest they be put at par with the holy book. The prophets apprehension has come true. The majority of Muslims speak of Quran and Sunnah ( the Prophets sayings and examples from his life taken together.) In fact, one group of Muslims call themselves Ahl-e-Hadith. This sect formally equates Hadith and the Quran.
The veneration Muslims gave to the prophets family was initially frowned upon, later discouraged and finally condemned as un-Islamic.
It was during this period that, ostensibly, in the name of purging Islamic thought, of pagan beliefs, the religion was shorn of all tolerance, mercy, justice, arts and poetry, equality of races, and genders. Ibn-e-Tammaya, a leading cleric of the period, was the principal proponent of this “purification” of belief. Wahab, after whose name, the Muslims of Saudi variety are named was a latter day follower of Tammaya.
I have given a brief background of the genesis of the major sects of Islam(Shia-who followed the Quran and teachings of Imam Ali and his direct descendents, the Imams and Sunni-who followed Quran and Sunnah., so one can understand better, that a political movement, evolved essentially due to persecution of followers of Imam Ali ,led to divergence in the belief system. and was used for political advantage. Fatimids ( Shias ) were thrown out of Egypt by Sunnis and Shias took over Iran from Sunnis. Muslims rulers in India were mostly of Sunni persuasion except for occasional prevalence of Shia doctrine, mainly under the influence of Shia women imported as wives for Moghal princes. There were also several Shia regional rulers, specially in Oudh (part of UP) where the capital Lucknow, became the Shia capital of all India.
The only period of intolerance during Moghal rule was the reign of Aurangzeb, who actively discriminated against Muslims who did not agree with his beliefs, imposed Jizia (poll tax) on non-Muslims, but he could not over turn centuries of harmonious traditions. His own grand mother was a Hindu, his army chiefs counted several Hindus among their ranks. In fact, there is reason to believe that he used religion to advance his political ends. He could not have gotten the support of the Muslim establishment if he had not adopted the classic slogan of “Islam in Danger” used effectively by later demagogues too, against his elder brother Dara Shikoh, who was the Crown Prince and of Sufi persuasion.
But the common people, though disparaging each other’s beliefs, lived peaceably together, joining hands when faced with a non-Muslim foe.
British take over changed all that. Muslims went through a period national mourning and profound depression, giving up education and other enterprises. They had lived on land and largesse of Nawabs. The lands were confiscated and Nawabs banished, leaving most Muslims in North/East India destitute. Attempts at educating the them were dubbed heretical. Sir Syed Ahmad and his cohorts were openly condemned as Kafirs.
Decadent societies have a tendency to develop fissures in them.. All kinds of sectarian disputes came to the surface .At this time we come across a few instances of intolerance between the two sects.
With advent of the Industrial age, the concept of Nationalism had developed , and caught the imagination of Indians too.
Indian national congress, brain child of a liberal Englishman was founded in 1885. Nationalism took root and within a few decades started challenging British paramountcy.
The British who had conquered India by the Machiavellian techniques of divide and rule, had not lost their touch. They actively incited inter and intra faith conflicts. Extremists, Hindu, Muslim and the various sects among the two religions, played into British hands and went at each others throats.
Their machinations against Muslim sects in Lucknow are well documented. They bought a printing press for an extremist Sunni cleric who published highly inflammatory diatribes against Shias. The British also financed a “Sunni” college to rival the long established “Shia” college. There were some Shia Sunni riots.
But extremist bigots were shunned by the majority of both Shias and Sunnis. I clearly recall my family (Sunni) refusing invitations to the houses of fanatics, while we frequented both Shia and Hindu houses.
Let us go back about three centuries in history. Abdul Wahab a mediocre cleric, whom I have mentioned above too, tried to revive intolerant and exclusionary doctrines of Abbasid period. He didn’t get any where, till the house of Saud adopted his creed in a fight against fellow Muslims- Shareef, a descendent of the prophet and the ruler of Mecca and the Turkish caliphate. His influence was restricted to Saudi Arabia till oil was discovered, and Saudi rulers in order to divert attention from their debaucheries and luxurious un-Islamic life style started financing the export of his creed.
Sporadic Shia-Sunni violence continued in India and Pakistan till the advent of Zia, the Pakistani Machiavelli who in order to undermine peoples party (of Bhutto) promulgated the so called “Islamisation” program,( and also ordained creation of ethnic parties, the foremost being Mohajir Qaumi Movement (immigrant national movement) and as counter foil to it, Punjabi Pukhtoon Mohaz(Front) and Jia Sindh(Long live Sind movement).Sowing dissension among Muslims, according to a generally accepted saying of the prophet, condemns one to ever-lasting hell fire. Zia got a fore taste of it right in this world.
To give the devil its due- MQM did put a stop to Shia-Sunni riots during its hey day in Karachi.
Zia, whose rule was precarious initially, with the country on the verge of economic collapse, saw his salvation in the American sponsored Jihad against Russians in Afghanistan and gave Pakistan a culture of drugs and guns. After Russians were thrown out and a brief interregnum of war-lord rule, Saudi financed and Pakistan/ American trained, Taliban/Al Qaeda took over. in Afghanistan.
Taliban unleashed a reign of fundamentalist terror, clubbing women publicly for wearing high heels, inspecting pubic areas of men to see if they were properly shaved, measuring beards for proper length, closing girls schools, dismissing female physicians, publicity stoning alleged adulterers, and as though they had not gathered adequate international opprobrium, demolishing millennia old statues of lord Buddha, on the pretext that the international community had not listened to their appeal for help. (Taliban were so ignorant, I won’t be surprised if they believed that the French, Russian, and American Presidents, the British Prime Minister and head of the European union were all Buddhists).
With their roots in Pakistan and the economic/ moral morass the country was in, with attendant illiteracy, export of Taliban theology to Pakistan was inevitable. Add Al Qaeda to it and the mixture became too rich.
Shias, a small national minority were easy target and with perversity of a fanatic, Wahabis went after Shia doctors, engineers and professors with a vengeance.
The military, heavily infiltrated with fundamentalist, revanchists Jihadis collaborated with their civilian counter parts. The other elements of the ruling combine (Feudal, , Civil servant and Mullahs) aid and abet the Jihadis, as any progress, economic ,educational, or industrial, all pre-requisites of Capitalism, which would loosen their grip on the country , would encourage democracy, and threaten their interests.
It can be seen that the roots of intolerance in Pakistani society run deep. They have been nurtured for base political purpose by Clerics, fundamentalist parties, and for nine long years by the military dictator Zia, who fanned the fire of ethnic hatred as well. His predecessor ad military dictator, Ayub, incensed by the les majeste of the Urdu speakers in Karachi had threatened to have them thrown in the sea. Ayub’s son Gohar, later to be speaker of the National assembly, and foreign minister, had incited ethnic riots after the 1964 Presidential elections in which Karachi had voted for his opponent Miss Jinnah in such overwhelming numbers, that “not all the King’s men and horses” could dare to declare Ayub the winner. The riots caused the loss of several hundred lives.
After the initial mass insanity of post partition years, Hindu –Muslim riots had died down in Pakistan. There were episodic Shia-Sunni riots.
The first big conflagration was the Anti-Qadiani movement spearheaded by religious parties. It was concentrated in the Punjab, where large part of the province had to be put under Martial law.
The military were able to crush the movement, but that gave them the initial taste of Government, wit eventual disastrous consequences for the country.
Zia, however, gave a credible structure and legal cover to intolerance. With territorial wars for control of gun and drug traffic to finance and give sustenance to riots, large parts of Karachi, the premier industrial and commercial center of the country was plunged into virtual civil war for several years in the nineteen eighties. Other parts of Sindh were reduced to anarchy too. Untold damage was caused to the country’s economy.
Though they do not have overt ethnic riots in Karachi any more, but there is no law and order in the country. Young hoodlums with green head gears charge around cities, harassing the public with impunity. Shia, (declared heretics by Wahabis) Mosques and , Christian churches are bombed with sickening regularity. People are prosecuted under the so called Hudood and similar laws on spurious grounds. A man is under the sentence of death for writing that there is no mention of stoning to death as a punishment for adultery in the Quran.
Dalit and other women of the disempowered classes are raped in untold numbers on a daily basis. The President, so incensed by the outrage among expatriates and the foreign press, lost his cool. Instead of accepting his mistake, he roared at a questioner in a meeting called to project a soft image of Pakistan. In an instant he lost all the favor he had assiduously gained in Human Rights and liberal circles by assigning a substantial number of seats to women in the national assembly, and taking other measures to combat discrimination against women
I have referred to this incident to high light the intolerance of the rulers of Pakistan to opposition. It is an integral part of the general malaise.
It is incumbent upon all rational people ( not just for idealistic reasons but in their own self interest, as fanaticism does not know national boundaries and the virus of hatred will spread) to oppose, condemn and take part in the struggle against the neo-Neanderthals (that the fanatics are ), and promote, aid and support, in every possible way, liberal and democratic movements every where, but specially in South Asia.

Genesis of Shia-Sunni Violence

Islam brought a message of peace, amity, tolerance, equality and justice for all mankind. The messenger was chosen in a society riddled with all kinds of social and moral evils. Contrast between the religious teachings and realty on ground couldn’t be greater. There was bigotry, usury, intolerance, , slaves were treated worse than animals ,blood feuds and tribal warfare were common. Women though not quite at par with men, did enjoy a much higher status than their sisters did in Europe and other countries. They owned properties and businesses, proposed marriage to men, The Prophets first wife proposed to him before the advent of Islam, and a woman had offered a hundred camels as marriage portion to his father before he married the prophets mother
The prophet preached equality of man and woman, rich and poor. He forswore any compulsion in faith. He forgave his enemies, persons who had tortured him and his followers. When Mecca surrendered, he forbade any revenge. He enjoined protection of non-believers.
After the prophets demise, there was some dispute over succession. Ansars (natives of Madina) had actually chosen a successor who was prevailed upon to abdicate in favor of Abu Bakr (RA). He nominated Umar(RA). Umar didn’t designate a successor. There was a tussle between factions supporting Usman(RA) and Imam Ali (RA). By this time, idealism had given way to pragmatism, Usman (RA) was chosen as the third Caliph, by a procedure regarded by some as not quite above board. He belonged to the Umayyad clan, who had been among the most bitter foes of the prophet. Usman was assassinated, complete breakdown of law order followed, Imam Ali, now reluctant to wear the mantle of Caliphate was prevailed upon to accept the office. Muaviya, of the Umayyad clan, governor of a province, rebelled, civil war ensured, in which close companions of the Prophet were pitted against each other. and killed each other- in the name of Islam.
Supporters of Ali (called Shian’s Ali) a political group. later metamorphosed into a religious sect. There is no evidence that, at the time, Shias had religous beliefs different from other muslims.
Muaviya was able to take over caliphate after Imam Ali(RA) was assassinated by making a deal with Ali’s elder son(Imam Hasan) that the younger son Imam Husain will succeed Muaviya. Breaking his word, he designated his son Yazid to Caliphate. Imam Husain (RA) was enticed into an ambush and all male members of the family except Imam Zainul Abedin (RA)were killed.
Umayyad rule lasted over a hundred years, the prophets family were closely watched, but otherwise left alone. They shunned politics and kept themselves busy with spiritual and academic pursuits.
Abbassids, descendents of the prophets uncle, Abbas, invoking the name of prophets family, incited a rebellion against Umayyad rule, overthrew them, initially paid lip service to the descendents of the prophet, going to the extent of offering them caliphate and ostensibly ruled in their name. In actual fact, they were more apprehensive of the clan, than even Umayyads were, kept the family under strict surveillance and once secure in power, put severe restrictions on them, tortured them, the last Imam, a young boy at the time, went into hiding in a cave and was never seen again.
During Abbasid caliphate, religious scholars was coerced into concocting a lot of Hadith (sayings of the prophet) , the veneration Muslims gave to the prophets family was initially frowned upon, later discouraged and finally condemned as un-Islamic.
It was during this period that, ostensibly, in the name of purging Islamic thought, of pagan beliefs, the religion was shorn of all tolerance, mercy, justice, arts and poetry, equality of races, and genders.
I have given a brief background of the genesis of the major sects of Islam(Shia-who followed the Quran and teachings of Ali’s direct descendents, the Imams and Sunni-who followed Quran and Sunnah, a combine of The Prophet’s sayings and examples of his life) so one can understand better, that a political movement, evolved essentially due to persecution of followers of Ali ,led to divergence in the belief system. and was used for political advantage. Fatimids ( Shias ) were thrown out of Egypt by Sunnis and Shias took over Iran from Sunnis. Muslims rulers in India were mostly of Sunni persuasion except for occasional prevalence of Shia doctrine, mainly under the influence of Shia women imported as wives of Moghal princes. There were also several Shia regional rulers, specially in Oudh (part of UP) where the capital Lucknow became the Shia capital of all India.
The only period of intolerance during Moghal rule was the reign of Aurangzeb, who actively discriminated against muslims who did not agree with his beliefs, imposed Jizia (poll tax) on non-muslims, but he could’nt over turn centuries of harmonious traditions, his own grand mother was a hindu, his army chiefs counted several hindus among their ranks. In fact, there is reason to believe that he used religion to advance his political ends, he could not have gotten the support of the muslim establishment if he had not adopted the classic slogan of “Islam in Danger”used effectively by later demogogues too, against his elder brother Dara Shikoh, whoo was the Crown Prince and a Sufi.
But the common people, though disparaging each other,s beliefs, lived peaceably together, joining hands when faced with a non-Muslim foe.
British take over changed all. Muslims went through a period national mourning and profound depression, giving up education and other enterprises. They had lived on land and largesse of Nawabs. The lands were confiscated and Nawab banished, leaving most Muslims in North/East India destitute. Attempts at educating the tyhem were dubbed heretical. Sir Syed Ahmad and his cohorts were openly condemned as kafirs.
Decadent societies have a tendency to fissions. All kinds of sectarian disputes came to the surface .At this time we come across a few instances of intolerance between the two sects.
Indian national congress, brain child of a liberal Englishman was founded in 1885. Nationalism took root and within a few decades started challenging British paramountcy.
The British who had conquered India by the Machiavellian techniques of divide and rule, had not lost their touch. They actively incited inter and intra faith conflicts. Extremists, Hindu, Muslim and the various sects among the two religions played into British hands and went at each others throats.
Their machinations against Muslim sects in Lucknow are well documented. They bought a printing press for an extremist Sunni cleric who published highly inflammatory diatribes against Shias. The British also financed a “Sunni” college to rival the long established “shia” college. There were some shia sunni riots.
But extremist bigots were shunned by both Shias and Sunnis, I clearly recall my family (Sunni) refusing invitations to the houses of fanatics, while we frequented both Shia and Hindu houses.
Let us go back about three centuries in history. Abdul Wahab, a mediocre cleric tried to revive intolerant and exclusionary doctrines of Abbasid period. He didn’t get any where, till the house of Saud adopted his creed in a fight against fellow Muslims- Shareef a descendent of the prophet and the ruler of Mecca and the Turkish caliphate. His influence was restricted to Saudi Arabia till oil was discovered, and Saudi rulers in order to divert attention from their debaucheries and luxurious un-Islamic life style started financing the export of Wahabi belief.
Sporadic Shia-Sunni violence continued in India and Pakistan till the advent of Zia, the Pakistani Machiavelli who in order to undermine peoples party (of Bhutto) promulgated the so called “Islamisation” program,( and also ordained creation of ethnic parties, the foremost being Mohajir Qaumi Movement (immigrant national movement)and as counter foil to it, Punjabi Pukhtoon Mohaz(Front) and Jia Sindh(Long live Sind movement).Sowing dissension among muslims, according to a generally accepted saying of the prophet, entitles one to ever-lasting hell fire. Zia got a taste of it right in this world. To give the devil its due- MQM did put a stop to Shia-Sunni riots during its hey day in Karachi.
Zia, whose rule was precarious initially, with the country on the verge of economic collapse, saw his salvation in the American sponsored Jihad against Russians in Afghanistan and gave Pakistan a culture of drugs and guns. After Russians were thrown out and a brief interregum of war-lord rule, Saudi financed and Pakistan/ American trained, Taliban/Al Qaeda took over.in Afghanistan.
Taliban unleashed a reign of fundamentalist terror, clubbing women publicly for wearing high heels, inspecting pubic areas of men to see if they were properly shaved, inspecting beards for proper length, closing girls schools, dismissing female physicians, publicity stoning alleged adulterers, and as though they had not gathered adequate international approbium, demolishing millenia old statues of lord Budha on the pretext that the international community had not listened to their appeal for help. (Taliban were so ignorant, I won’t be surprised if they believed that the French, Russian, and American presidents, the British Prime Minister and head of the European union were all Budhists).
With their roots in Pakistan and the economic/ moral morass the country was in, with attendant illiteracy, export of Taliban theology to Pakistan was inevitable. Add Al Qaeda to it and the mixture became too rich.
Shias, a small national minority were easy target and with perversity of a fanatic, Wahabis went after Shia doctors, engineers and professors with a vengeance.
The military, heavily infiltrated with fundamentalist, revanchists, jJihadis collaborate with their civilian counter parts. The other elements of the evil quad (Feudal, Army, civil servant and Mullahs) aid and abet the Jihadis, as any progress, economic ,educational, or industrial, all pre-requisites of capitalism, which would loosen their grip on the country , would spawn democracy, and threaten their interests.
It is incumbent upon all rational people ( not just for idealistic reasons but in their own self interest, as fanaticism does not know national boundaries and the virus of hatred will spread) to oppose, condemn and take part in the struggle against the neo-neanderthals (that the fanatics are ), and promote, aid and support, in every possible way, liberal and democratic movements every where, but specially in South Asia.

Hindu and Muslim Fundamentalism

I am using the term fundamentalism( strictly speaking it does not apply to Hindu religion at all, it being a conglomeration of a set of charming traditions, quaint beliefs, intriguing mythology, historical baggage, profound philosophy, humanism contrasted with abhorrent caste system, adulation of motherhood, co existing with subjugation of women and any number of other characteristics, but no rigid body of dogma or fundamentals) not only as a convenient label, but as used in current parlance, it wonderfully focuses the mind on a particular psyche, mind set, on a muddled theology if you will, which manifestly self serving leaders use to induce followers to accept distorted history, noxious beliefs, deviant religious teaching. This inevitably leads to heightened emotional frenzy, loss of the capacity to discriminate right from wrong, a nebulous higher purpose, resolute faith in the guide and philosopher. The passions are stoked to white heat. . It enthralls people who are semiliterate, mentally immature, in straitened circumstances, not exposed to humane and liberal thought, introspective, perhaps affected by great personal tragedy, indoctrinated in isolation, conjuring dream of ancient glory, its usurpation by the infidel, orgasmic ecstasy of revenge- rape is a common accompaniment of riots. They are given food, clothes and shelter, much like Muslim Madressahs cater to a similar class of people. The alternative to accepting the largesse is usually deprivation, hunger, exposure to elements. They are further deluded with visions of the specific religion’s idea of eternal bliss.
The leaders are generally educated, clear headed, though of a warped mentality, men with a malicious agenda, who do not lose sight of personal gain and take no personal risks. True some of the higher cadre are zealots but they don’t reach the top and at times risk their life and limbs. The leadership does not hesitate getting on the pay toll of vested interests. Valuable land occupied by slum dwellers coveted for building expensive housing estates or for extension of factories, lavish amusement parks, office/ business complexes, can be made available by the simple device of torching the area during a communal riot. The riot does not have to be communal, any kind will do, ethnic, sectarian, linguistic, class, or industrial . In the last instance it saves the cost and bother of negotiations, compensation or court proceeding. Vast tracts of land in Bombay, Karachi, Colombo, Bangkok, Jakarta, and other cities of South Asia. have been so acquired.
Besides this income, loot obtained from the victims, contribution of the followers and other claimants to religious exclusivity also help fill up the coffers of the leaders, who live in the style they feel entitled to. They rise literally on the ashes and bones of the victims, to respectability, election to legislature, nomination to state and federal cabinets, where the scope for the higher cause, self included, gets even wider.
So this essay should be captioned reactionary, economic, capitalistic, pseudo religious fanaticism. This is too unwieldy so I will stay with fundamentalism.
I must hasten to add that though an atheist by conviction I have an indelible mark of inherited Sufism on me. My family abhorred extremism, fanaticism and chauvinism. We shunned Wahabis, Arya Samajis, Islamic Jamats and Hindu Mahasabha in equal measure.. We socialized with equal facility with main stream Sunnis, Shias, Hindus, Rajputs and Kaisth(businessmen class, accountants, administrators, linguists, poets) a few liberal Englishmen and Brahmins, an odd Anglo Indian(of mixed parentage and looked down upon by the British and despised by Indians, they in turn regarded themselves a cut above Indians and fawned upon the British. They monopolized railway services and lower echelon of police officer ranks. In 1947 most migrated to the UK, moaned to any one who listened, of their luxurious life in India. I was accosted by a woman in London who ,with tears in her eyes, dwelt on the number of servant (eleven if I recall correctly) her Bungalow and that no one, but absolutely no one, was left in Delhi in the summer. We all went to Simla (a hill resort, summer seat of British Indian government).
We regarded our friends as charming, cultured, sophisticated, though a shade waywardly. They prayed at shrines, made presentations to saints (actually his disciples )join in Muharram procession (10th of the month of Muharram of Muslim calendar is commemorated for the martyrdom of the grandson of prophet of Islam who gave his life but not his hand into obescience of a corrupt usurper. The procession has borrowed heavily from Ram Lila, there are ceremonial exhibitions of stick word etc. This commemoration is very different in Iran and Iraq, the two countries with Shia majority) join our festivals, what harm would come if they would pray Muslim style once in a while.
India from times unknown, has been coveted for its fertile land, lush forests, pristine rivers, moderate climate, gentle people, beautiful women and spices with pungent taste and smell (so essential to overpower the odor of rotting meat, poultry and fish Europeans had to eat when fresh supplies ran out, as they did every year).
Surrounded by regions with harsh climate, which could not support the exploding population, a phenomenon believed to have occurred 4-5 thousand years BC, and relatively easy of access to central Asian people through the Khyber and Bolan passes in North west of India and other passes through the Himalayas and possibly overseas, invaders, adventurers, traders and economic refugees made a bee line for it.. The original Indians, who had been settled on land which gave forth of its plenty with minimal effort, as a consequence of easy life, had become physically less vigorous and mentally less war like. The new comers who had had to face cruel elements, forage far and wide for food, confront carnivores and other groups of hunter gatherers were far stronger and aggressive than the gentle folk of India and managed to overcome, dominate and enslave the latter. The natives were eventually pushed to the South and North east of the country. These were the Aryans who are thus believed to have spread, from central Asia, to India and far East and to Asian Russia and Europe.
Aryans developed a religion based on nature worship, Sun, moon, rain, fire, lightening, storms, flood and earthquakes. As society stabilized into tribes and people had time to think, ponder and meditate, gods/goddesses of wealth, education, love and fertility has to be invented. Hinduism is thus about the only religion which evolved through a process of observation of natural phenomenon and conclusion drawn there from. It is therefore the only science based (though partially so, the other half of science-replication of results through experimentation was missing) concept.
An organized system was now taking shape with rites, rituals and prayers to propitiate the relevant deity. Men more articulate, shrewd and intelligent had to be assigned to manage it and arrange affairs on auspicious days. They had to mediate with gods too. A preacher class, the Brahmins thus evolved. Other with better physical attributes defended the tribe and in due course, took over as tribal chiefs They were initially chosen by Consensus.
With further social evolution and a number of tribes congregating into collectives, the office of rulers became hereditary. These people Kashtriya- warriors , were to call themselves Rajputs (sons of Raj)
Another body of men mediated trade, bartering good and produce. They came to be called vaishya or business class.
The manual workers physically strong, but not very ambitious or shrewd tilled the land, as peasants and became builders, masons, carpenters, weavers, tailors etc. Natives were made to work on sanitation and do all the unclean dirty jobs as curing hides, collecting and disposing of dead animals and human/animal excreta. They were untouchables.
According to Hindu holy books, Brahmins and Rajputs used to eat meat including beef, in ancient times. The latter still do.
Women, who had been heads of households in hunter, gatherer era, managing the hearth, home and children. Men had to be away for days or weeks foraging for food, leaving a few men behind to protect them. Women had, of necessity, to have multiple husbands, from among those who stayed home and the returning hunter.
There was no concept of personal property- there was little to go by, so inheritance did not figure prominently in the affairs and legitimacy of children to qualify for a share was irrelevant.
With immovable property, houses farms and land, which men had acquired by force of arms and which they wanted to pass on to the product of their seed, legitimacy became paramount. Monogamy was enforced, with all kinds of taboos and superstitions and punishment for women venturing outside the sharp and narrow lines. Those who did were branded “fallen” women. They , most likely, became the earliest sex workers.
Work was heavy and physical, tilling unturned land, carrying heavy stones, wood and produce, fighting with poachers and invaders. Boys were more suited to it, so male issue came to be preferred. Girls were physically weaker and were periodically disabled during pregnancy and parturition. They however exceeded boys by far in endurance.
Females were valued for fertility and had to be protected and cherished. They could, however, not be trusted with affairs religious, so all priests had to be men. Education was also their exclusive right. The warrior class did not see any reason to acquire it. Lower classes were not entitled to it. The business class were content with knowledge of accounting.
This way of thinking runs through all creeds. Women are put on a pedestal. Muslims are taught that Paradise is at the feet of the mother, that she should be taken care of before a father is. But in no creed are they given authority or equal opportunity in education.
Aryans were followed by Huns and Mongols. Both brought an amorphous body of rites and rituals which were, however, not strong enough to prevail.
There was no clash of beliefs yet.. Alexander of Macedonia and Persian kings also ventured into India but they were raiders, plundered and went back with the loot, leaving a few of their compatriots to die of hunger, exposure to element and hostile natives, or to seek shelter with the defeated warriors.
Some Jews did flee persecution in the holy land and migrated to India about a thousand years before Christ but they were too few, ( Jews don’t allow conversion, one has to be born out of Jewish mother, unless you are Elizabeth Taylor or Sammy Davis junior. But conservatives Jews don’t accept even the rich and the famous. Senator, later defense secretary Cohen had a non Jewish mother. He was not quite kosher) and too destitute to have much impact. They and were thoroughly Indianised, except in religion. One of my patients in Karachi was named Rachel. Out of curiosity, , I remarked that it was an interesting name. Demurely she said that she was Yehudi (Jewish). I asked her why she had not emigrated to Israel. She said she did go there, but could not stay for long as the women there were shameless and went around nearly naked..
Afghans are believed by some to be the lost tribe of Israel .
In the first century AC some Christian missionaries also landed in India. (Nestorians) . They , too were few in number, and not particularly successful in proselytizing. Remnants still live in South of India and are indistinguishable from others, except for weekly church attendance.
Another batch of refugees escaping religious repression, the Zoroastrians, came to India when Muslims took over Iran. They also do not permit conversion.
The immigrants mentioned above had one over-riding characteristic in common. They were few in number, though possessed of structured religions, and were not backed by force of arms. Sword behind divinity does wonders for conversion.
So Hinduism held sway in India from the time of the advent of Aryans with standing all comers and spreading to Far East. Buddhism and Jainism, essentially reformist movements, flourished for a while, but only exist in vestigial remnants now, Buddhism largely exported to China, Japan and parts of far east. Lord Buddha’s teachings and to a lesser those of Mahavira, founder of Jains, did shake the establishment, for awhile.
The most famous Indian Emperor Ashoka did pledge allegiance to Buddhism after a particularly vicious carnage in a battle. A large number of his subjects followed suit. But the two creeds, proclaiming non-violence and equality of all(men only) humans fell victim to the machinations of the priestly and the warrior class, whose privileged status they had challenged.
The dominance of Hindu creed was challenged for the first time since its birth many millennia ago, by Muslims about a hundred years after the advent of Islam. The religion had energized Arabs, making them into a highly disciplined messianic proselytizing, formidably unstoppable force. Visions of plenty, delectable women , wine ,food and water, all in short supply in Hedjaz , and therefore rationed of necessity, was an irresistible goad. Loot in the form of gold, jewelry, other goods, women, children and slaves was an added incentive and a pre-requisite for prosperity and a treasury to underwrite further Jihads. Occupation of land and exploitations of resources of the subject people was initially the primary objective. Slavery and concubinage continued to be permitted (and still is). Proseletization was secondary. Conversion was a collateral by product, non Arab Muslim being accorded an inferior status and requiring an Arab patron. The vestiges of this practice survive to this day. One needs an Arab “wali” protector to conduct business affairs in Arab countries
Some Arab Seamen were seized by natives off the coast of SINDH, killed and their property confiscated. This was a routine occurrence (still is, India and Pakistan seize fishermen of the other side, confiscate the boats, eat the fish. The only difference some fourteen hundred years have made, is that not all prisoners are killed, some are kept in jail for exchange of nationals)
The Arab governor of Iraq who had sponsored the sea merchants, protested to the local ruler( Raja Dahir, to become more famous in Hindu and Muslim and Sindhi folklore than his stature would otherwise merit) and demanded reparations. Unaware of what would hit him, the ruler contemptuously rejected the demands and decapitated the emissaries too. The Arab governor Yusuf Bin Hajjaj, a particularly perverse and cruel ruler who relished torture and enjoyed victim’s scream as other would music, sent an expedition under the command of his nephew, a young man in his late teens, Muhammad Bin Qasim later to acquire Icon status among Indian Muslims. In Pakistan revisionist historians under the aegis of “fundamentalist” officialdom call him the first Pakistani.
He duly defeated the Rajah, plundered the land, established a viable beach head and returned to Iraq laden with gold, silk ,precious metals , slaves and women .His uncle had told him off to bring back the virgin daughter of the Rajah, a famed beauty, taking care to protect her maiden hood with his life .The lady to protect her honor, or out of spite, and with a truly remarkable insight into the Governor’s mind told him that she had not been able to resist the victors charms and had seduced his nephew. Regretting the necessity of, but his word had to be shown to be paramount, he ordered his nephew to be put on the rack and the lady consigned to flames .At her last breath, she declared that she was still a virgin, and felt sorry for the hapless commander, but that was life.
The Governor, inconsolable, lamented loudly, tore his hair out, and scratched his face with his own nails. It is not known what he grieved for more , the unjustified torture of his blameless nephew or deprivation from carnal pleasure.
Adventurers, marauders, plunderers and war lords looking for new territory followed. It is a curious fact of history, that invaders were challenged only after crossing the Khyber Pass, what is now Frontier province and the plains of the Punjab( only Porus confronted Alexander near modern Lahore, still allowing free passage over two thirds of the province) Perhaps they practiced war or of attrition, or were busy collecting credible force or patching up inter-ruler disputes in order to forge a common front Perhaps they felt that the enemy was not worthy of notice unless he advanced far enough It may have been for logistic reasons. History does tell us that all major battles with intruders took place at the Punjab-Delhi border in Paniput town.
Warriors came to India for land and riches. Carpet baggers followed for the ruler’s largesse and for the lure of easy life, with plenty of food, fruits and water .Some natives converted to curry favor with the masters, others to get out from under the yoke of upper classes and gain equal status with their erstwhile masters( Islam is egalitarian- for subject races) Some married off their women to cement relations and enhance their status by an alliance with the ruling class .
But the main body of converts owe their change of faith to Muslim mystics, Sufis and Saints who preached and practiced brother hood, tolerance, love, and freedom of choice in faith. Mysticism particularly appealed to the Indian psyche, resonate as it did with their centuries old cults ,rituals, and practices. One look at the religious demography of India will substantiate the point. .Muslims constituted the majority of population in the North-West where Sufis arrived first, were a small minority in the main body of India for a thousand miles ,and then in majority again in North-East, in Bengal, where mass conversion to Islam is attributed to a great Sufi, Bayazid Bustami. The faith spread to far East specially Indonesia, in a similar manner.
Over centuries invaders and natives settled into an amiable accommodation, living and socializing together, and participating in each others festivals, happy and sad times. Hindus served in the armies of Muslim Kings and Muslim generals led the forces of Hindu Rajas. The most well known myth, given wide currency by both Hindu and Muslim zealots, that Aurangzeb, the Moghal king and Shivaji the Hindu rebel, fought for their respective faiths, has no basis in fact. Shivaji’s second in command was a Muslim General and Auranzeb’s general staff was replete with Hindu officers. Aurangzeb spent the better part of his reign fighting fellow Muslim Sultans in the south of India. Following the decline of Moghal empire Marathas had laid siege to Delhi. The Moghal emperor (in name only)appealed to an Afghan warlord- Ahmad Shah Abdali to come to his rescue. In the ensuing battle, a Muslim general of Maratha army nearly broke the flank of the Afghan army.
It is one of history’s might have beans. If Marhatmas had won largely through the brilliant tactics of a Muslim general, Indians may have emerged out of the sloth of Moghal dissipation. A vigorous dynasty may have been born, which could have repulsed Europeans. India would be a dynamic first world country now.
Much too late, Hindus and Muslims gathered under the banner of Bahadur Shah Zafar in one last compulsive, and doomed, attempt to throw out the British.
But deep beneath this accommodation and camaraderie, lurked the ancient feeling of outrage at being supplanted by the Muslims, among upper class Hindus. They objected to Muslims in Bengal being given assembly seats in proportion to their numbers in late nineteenth and early twentieth century,. claming that the latter. were largely a body of converts from lower classes, uncouth ,illiterate and uncivilized.
Brahmans, had suffered the most. They kept on reminding the populace of the ancient glory of India, Hindu Raj, metamorphosing Aurangzeb and his like into standard bearers of Islam, Pirthivi Raj, Rana Sangha and Shiva Ji into Hindu demi-gods
Muslims not to be left behind also made icons out of marauders like Mahmud of Ghazni and adventurers like Ahmad and Nadir Shah and fratricidal bigots like Aurangzeb into high defenders of the faith. Fanatics among them pushed for holy war against Hindus and British alike, railing against accommodation and against Muslims adopting Hindu ways, calling for reversion to pristine Islam. They were the fore runners of Wahabis.
The British having pitted brother against brother, by low cunning and subterfuge, by lies and half truths, by promises and pledges, by bluff and gall, elevated themselves from the status of supplicating traders, to rulers of India. Having snatched the reins of power from Muslims, they initially patronized the Hindus who were already more educated and industrious. They had been running the empire, administration and business for centuries.
After 1857 war of independence the British had realized, that Hindu Muslim unity was a lethal for their paramountcy. Hindus were encouraged to dwell on the mischief Muslims had done to their religion, languages, cultures and psyche. They also realized that some power will have to be devolved on the natives. Indian national congress (INC) was founded in 1885, by an Englishman .
Soon Indian nationalism came into its own. The national movement was led by British trained University graduates, mostly Lawyers .There was no Hindu-Muslim divide as such , but being the majority in the population and having had a head start Hindus dominated the political process. Apprehensive of the campaign gathering momentum, the British started patronizing the Muslims.
Muslims had been going into intellectual and political decline since the failure of the siege of Vienna in late fifteenth century. They had attained such a height that it took a long time to slide to the bottom .About the same time, Mullahs had ruled that the Quran could not be printed in a machine, and by inference all printed works were branded un-Islamic .Though continuing the conquests in Asia, they had lost the edge in science ,technology and research .Muslims in India paralleled the decline of their brothers in faith in Mid-East. They suffered from profound communal depression. as well.
A few Muslim reformers, specially Sir Syed Ahmed Khan tried valiantly to reverse the trend, and given the material to work on, were remarkably successful , but could not quite bridge the gap. To evade victimization by rulers, they shunned the political process, pledging unquestioning loyalty to the crown .
The British encouraged the Muslim upper classes to form their own political organization. Their leader was the Agha Khan, in the current incarnation a product ,pure and simple of the British imperial policy .Muslim League was formed in 1905. Its charter loudly proclaimed its upper class base “ we the Muslim rulers etc” and pledged undying devotion to the Crown. The Agha Khan was its first president.
Hindu and Muslim riots were incited especially over cow slaughter and the proclivity of the Hindus to ring loud bells at the time of sunset prayers by the Muslims .INC secular and nationalist, tried to control the developing conflagration. They had to contend not only with British policy, which now openly favored Muslim in their demand for safe guards under the pretext of protecting minority rights, but also with the scheme of awarding separate electorate to lower class Hindus. If Gandhi had not overwhelmed them with fast unto death on the question, ( upper cast Hindus are only about 25% of Hindu population) INC would have been rendered totally ineffective.. INC also had to deal with Hindu right wing too, who were vying with Muslim communalists in currying British favor.
Politics, before Gandhi appeared on the scene, were upper class, elitist and secular. He no doubt was able to energize and unleash the vast mass of peasants of India, but also released the genie of communal friction, though he tried hard to fight it, by full blooded support to Khilafat
It must be remembered that Jinnah shunned the Khilafat movement. Tagore and Jinnah both are on record in opposing introduction of religious imagery into politics.
The British took full advantage, bringing forth questions of reserved seats, electoral safeguards ,constitutional guarantees, putting the ever dwindling number of nationalist Muslims on the defensive .Some courageous souls, however, stayed the course, the most notable being Maulana Azad.
INC made a few fatal strategic and tactical mistakes. To mention two, in 1928 they reneged on the Congress-League pact for safeguarding Muslim rights, and in 1936, they rebuffed the advances of the only, at the time credible provincial Muslim League body- that in the United Provinces.
It is a curious quirk of fate that a father and son, Moti Lal and Jawahar Lal were involved in both events, the father in 1928 and the son in 1936. The son, as we shall see later, would drive the last nail in the coffin of a united India in 1946,
By the late nineteen thirties, the tide had turned the communalist way. Jinnah once hailed as ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, now the undisputed leader of a Muslim reactionary party, went from strength to strength.
Communal frenzy increased .
The British exhausted by WW11, bowed to the inevitable. They agreed to negotiate the terms of transfer of power to Indian hands.
It is a tribute to the British people that they ditched Churchill, the acclaimed architect of victory, instead electing the pedestrian Attlee, as they perceived correctly that the latter would be able to give them a fair social deal.
The Labor Government, perhaps to placate Churchill and his Tory party implacably opposed to Indian independence, chose Mount batten, a member of the Royal family, to preside over the transition from British rule and hand over reins of the government to the successor states India and Pakistan .If the choice of an inept ,arrogant and rather dim member of the family was a deliberate decision to play havoc with India is difficult to say. But the result was devastating.
Mount batten, mindful of nothing but his place in history, hastened to an ill conceived, ill planned and premature partition. Final boundary awards were not announced till three days after the fateful day. Millions did not know if their homes would be in India or Pakistan .Panic broke out, agent provocateurs had a field day, looters and all kinds of anti social element ran amuck, Police were supine, helpless with out leadership of British officers who had shamelessly abdicated all responsibility .All hell broke loose, normally rational people behaved like raving maniacs, a million were butchered, ten million uprooted. The deep seated scar on Hindu-Muslim psyche has not healed after six decades.
Psychotic trends continue , giving a new lease of life, ever again, to bigotry, intolerance, obscurantism and fanaticism. Pakistan bereft of non-Muslims indulges in ethnic sectarian, and linguistic orgy of massacres. It is currently in the grip of a Neanderthal, male chauvinistic ,supremacist, suicidal, paradise seeking descendents of Taliban . Lest they be accused of discrimination, they bomb the odd church, and abduct a few dalit women.
India has had communal riots with vicious regularity .Major eruption occurred in Jabalpur in 1961 Reactionaries, unscrupulous politicians. don’t let the fire of hatred die down. Ever keeping the flame alive, their greatest glory so far, demolition of Babri mosque, which had been locked up since 1933, and there was no evidence of its being the birth place of Lord Rama the legendary Hindu king .Riots rivaling the ones in 1947 followed with corresponding loss of life .The government frightened of Hindu revivalists dare not control the mobs.
Hindu fanaticism, a reaction to ancient injury, kept in conscious thought by revivalist dreamers hallucinating under charas( a derivative of opium) aided and abetted by an alien ruler and goaded by the extreme right wing lunatic fringe among the Muslims could have been controlled with a little bit of give and take, and statesman like behavior of leaders in accepting one India with three federating autonomous units.
Muslim fanaticism also carrying a historical baggage of ancient glory is however much more deep rooted in dogma and nourished by five hundred years of humiliation and under written by feudals, mid-eastern Emirs and kings and other agents of corporate capitalism and neo-imperialism is much more difficult to eradicate.