Re: Muslims who opt to live in India!!
I disagree. We should look into these matters to remind people that how decisions made in history haunt future generations.
Muslims who opt to live in India are still facing charges and time and again told to go to Pakistan like their brethren did 7 decades back. Its not fault of Indian Muslims. They were probably not for partition. Those who migrated had never thought their demands would result to riots and leaving their homes to new places where they will have to struggle even for identity.
If BJP or even over Indian narrative is of against partition, then they should value Muslims who opt to live in India. If they think that Akhand Bharata is viable option inspite of India divided in different religions, they should show the world that they are tolerant of different religions.
I know these are theoretical discussions and would not do any good to change the situation, but still we need to see things from different perspective in a hope that future generation will take some wise decision and avoid blunders leading to more disintegration.
I have traveled extensively in the UP region of India (have family). There is a heavy concentration of Muslims in these areas. They have big community centers, universities, schools focusing on Islamic studies (Allahabad, Lucknow…) I have yet to see people telling them to go to Pakistani. Heck I don’t think they even care. At this day and age, everyone is busy working, earring and raising a family in middle class-lower class India, that unless you are politically involved, you are not bothered.
And any anti Muslim comments are met with a lot of resistance by the local Muslim clergy who can gang up on you without any notice (Same if the situation in reversed). You really never want to look at cases like AK, SRK to get an idea on how things work at ground.
My distant family has lived in UP for ages and I have yet to see anyone say anything to them (Alteast upfront). About moving to Paki; Don’t think anyone in the family has ever thought about it either. Honesty, they are too engrossed in their lives to even CARE. My uncles friend was just made head of a local city group thing (No idea what it’s called). Was led by an Hindu before. Now it’s a Muslim and the underlying reason was more votes. At the end of the day, it’s all about Money and Power. Religion seem to have taken a third place.
So if you are a normal Indian, you don’t care as long as you can carry on with your business and Islamic duties as usual. If you are in anyway connected to politics, its more about power. There are very few people who actually care. A lower class Hindu probably faces more discrimination than any Muslim population. I have seen Hindu, Muslim women gang up on lower caste folks. People need someone to pick or gossip on, or get votes.
Just think, a karighar (which is what quite a few folks do in the area my uncle lives) comes to my aunt’s workshop to do clothing work. Does he really cares if he lives in pak or India? He works all day at the workshop, spends time with his family in the evening, earns a decent amount, goes to the local mosque and is quite content.
Exceptions will always be there. It’s more of a human issue. If it’s your habit to pick on people, you will pick on them regardless. It could be your race, religion or your status. If you take all Muslims out of India, it will then become a brahmin vs others or Sikh vs Hindus vs Christian issue (Didn’t the Sikh demand a separate region for themselves). All this for someone to come into power and rule. Moving to another country, creating a new state doesn’t really resolve anything. The consciousness of people needs to evolve not religion.