In a refreshing op-ed in the Indian Express, JS Bandukwalla, retired Professor of Physics, MS University, Baroda, writing on the 2002 Gujarat riots has proposed this
?it is time for Muslims to consider unilateral forgiveness
as a Muslim I feel deeply grateful to civil rights groups for their fight on our behalf under the most adverse circumstances. But the Muslims of Gujarat cannot live indefinitely on pity and victimhood. It hurts our self-respect and dignity. We have to move beyond the pain and suffering of 2002. Our energies must be channelled into quality education, business and social reform within the parameters of Islam.
Forgiveness will release Muslims from the trauma of the past. It may also touch the conscience of Hindus, since the crimes were committed by a few fanatics in the name of Ram. Most important, it may give Gujarat a chance to close the tragic chapter of 2002 and move on with confidence, into the future.
It takes great courage and conviction to defy conventional wisdom and popular sentiment to consider moving on. Mr. Bandukwala must be commended and supported for his proposal. It may not bring immideate justice to all the affected but it should atleast begin the process of emotional closure on this sordid episode.
The politics will not go away easily as Mr. Bandukwalla rightly points out.?But the sharpened rhetoric?can make way for reconciliation and collaborative efforts on the social issues Mr. Bandukwalla rightly identifies – quality education, business and social reform.
Gujarat has already demonstrated that it has delivered more justice for the 2002 riot affected than for any of the previous riot affected elsewhere in the country. While commendable it is not enough. Justice delayed is justice denied. If the Leadership within the Muslim Community of Gujarat can demonstrate Statesmanship to not make the 2002 riots a political issue in 2007, the political leadership of Gujarat, the Chief Minister Narendra Modi included, must reciprocate with a commitment to do all within its power to ensure speedy justice in the remaining riot cases by bringing them to trial.
Mr. Bandukwalla has made the first move, it is now time for Mr. Modi to reciprocate.
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Don’t you think he is preaching but not practicing himself? If he can remember the Sabarmati express and the 87 [innocents?] languishing in jail, why not also condemn the burning and possibly express ‘remorse’ on the incident?
If he cannot even entertain the thought that a Muslim mob could have possibly burnt the train, why would Hindus think that they should express remorse for the dastardly acts of politicians and thugs?
Why should a Physicist use phrases like “the crimes were committed by a few fanatics in the name of Ram” when he could as well appeal to the conscience of the people?
Gujarathis have seen their own people, their neighbors and the average Ahmed on the street being killed. We should be asking why they did or allowed that to happen. Bringing Ram, Allah and the Prophet into this appeal seems like a self defeating exercise.
Balaji – I guess we have to give him the benefit of doubt after all he has given the teestas and the mukul sinha’s the finger saying thanks but no thanks.
hmm… I find nothing wrong with Teestas. In this country people have to protest to get even the smallest wheel in the justice machinery to move. Even if every Hindu in this country stands and expresses ‘remorse’ we’ll still be needing Teestas to deliver justice to the victims.
Balaji – when u pursue ur activisim with taliban like fanaticism and then selectively apply it to certain kinds of causes and go completely silent on other causes I am afraid everything is wrong with you. I have not heard a single word from teesta on nandigram or singur so far.
How can one person fight for all causes? Yossarin can blog one day about Godhra, next day about Best Bakery and today about Nandigram. But we need Teestas on the ground. I’m sure someone else is working on the ground in Nandigram.
By the same token shouldn’t Muslim intellectuals, religious leaders and business tycoons also come forward and apologize for the Godhra train burning? After all even those victims and their families deserve emotional closure and justice.
People with sense from both sides – have come forward and apologised already several times. People with no sense have refused to see the apologies being offered from both sides.
But Bandukwala is bound to fail.
Gujarat is the state where Hindus feel like the victor. True, that victory came through stuff that we all know about. But try all you want, victors don’t apologise.
The level of glee at having taught Muslims a lesson – so what if that involved dead fetuses and culturally uplifting rapes – is so high that no one is going to apologise.
A state where one community has been vanquished – that is what Gujarat is. Our own little Hindu Pakistan, Hindu Germany. Not India.
India is a place of compromises, not victories. If victories were what we wanted, we could follow Pakistan and beat everyone other than Hindus down with sheer numbers. And Hitler never apologised. Neither has Modi. Neither has Buddha, but I think he will. Wait and see. Not that apologies are any kind of salvation.
>>Gujarat is the state where Hindus feel like the victor.
Which ones, dupersuper? The ones burned in the train or the ones killed in the temple?
I don’t know whether Hindus are feeling like “victors” or not, but the Hindu-baiting agitprop crowd does seem to be gloomy and desperate. Despite moving heaven and earth it couldn’t dislodge Modi, and it wanted Modi’s scalp to claim ‘victory’. I don’t think it hated Modi so much to begin with — he was just a tactical target that the gang thought is easy to destroy to teach a lesson to Hindus that it saw him as symbolizing. But as he persevered, and even overcame the odds and became popular, the said crowd grew in desperation and bitterness.
Losers.
Superduperman, what I find most amazing -
Gujarat is a state of 50 million + people. From the lowest estimates of casualties in the hundreds to the highest, at like 2,000, how many of those 50 million people do you think were involved? I am sorry, but I know plenty, I mean plenty of Gujarati’s who honestly just refer to that time as “dadagiri”, and went about their own business, just more carefully. Many districts were barely touched. The trouble is, the media and people like you have effectively labeled all 50 million + Gujarati’s (or at least the percent that are Hindu) as Nazi’s, genocide committers, and so forth. Most Gujarati’s are moderate and business-minded and could be less bothered about politics. I can only imagine your delusions of the average Gujarati Hindu, instead of worrying about paying their kids’ school fees, keeping the shop running, vaghera vaghera, just sit and chant “Jai Hindu Rashtra!”
When ‘Secularists’ use some logic one day, we’ll see
1. Hindus feel like victors ?? Damn, I feel oppressed and discriminated here….
2. Ironically, the guys name is Bandukwala.
3. I dont think muslims forgetting and moving on in Gujarat will touch anyone’s conscience. We have been forgetting and moving on since the last 1000 years !! Still it has not touched muslim conscience.
4. Hindu Germany? Haahhh !
5. Janpar, quite true. I was at a university canteen once and got into conversation with some muslim professor there. When asked, I said I am from Gujarat (I reside in Gujarat, though I am not a Gujarati speaker). He might have passed maybe five comments about the riots and I guess he would have called me a Nazi if I had replied back to any of his stupid comments about Gujarat.
The Gujjus have done nothing wrong.I am proud of them.Let us celebrate gujarati pride and move on.We are sick of secular mullahs.
Dear Superduperman
It is all about politics.
Budda will only apolize if he see that muslim vote bank in WB is moving away from them, Not due to convication.
Oh, I am forgetting to tell, he has apolized on many issues many times on their past missdeed to please bengali Bhadralok to come back in power.
Coming from Gujarat, I feel amused that there are people who do not want to wake up to reality. If anyone wants to write about Gujarat, Gujaratis, present political situation in the State, he should personally visit the state independently and move about its nook and corner. I have reasons to hope he would be a changed person. Except for the media and political parties opposed to BJP, NM, and NM’s govt., the ordinary people of Gujarat are very well settled in their daily pursuits of life, having left the bitter memories of 2002 behind. Witness all the religious festivals, processions, there has been no major instances of communal tension and rivalry for the past 5 years.
Prof. Bandukwala’s oped is an excerise in self-defeatism mainly because the article fails to address the root-cause of 2002 riots.
‘Sarva Dharma Sambhav’ is a philosophy practised by majority community to its logical conclusion. Other minority communties have accepted the philosophy too but the glaring exception is the community to which Prof. Bandukwala is appealing to. If his message is accepted, maybe it would be a turn for the better.
Let’s wait and watch.
“Our energies must be channelled into quality education, business and social reform within the parameters of Islam” – Good Luck!
Why do people only say Hindu “Hitler”, why not also say Hindu “Mao” or Hindu “Stalin” or Hindu “Bin Laden” or Hindu “Mullah Omar” or Hindu “Imam Bukhari” or Hindu “Prophet”?
Is it because Mao and Stalin are the “good guys” in the leftist psec worldview?
Is it because certain “secular” parties in India openly have Mao and Stalin’s photos framed on the wall in their party offices? (considering the FACT that Mao and Stalin each killed MILLIONS more people than Hitler)
After all Hitler exterminated “just” 2-3 minorities whereas Stalin exterminated dozens of minorities, it just so happens that the minorities that Stalin exterminated do not have a lot of clout in the world media.
Is it because criticising Bin Laden and Mullah Omar would immediately bring a few fatwas flying your way?
Or would it be “communalistic” to criticise Bin Laden or Mullah Omar or the heads of LeT or JeM? Has our esteemed ManMoorkhji ever criticized ANY Muslim leader past or present EVER? Could someone please provide me with a link?
I have seen Mr. Bandukwala perform his anti Hindu (anti Hindu not merely anti Sangh) act in the various Gujarat documentaries, noted the snide comments against Hinduism, so with all due respect to him, he should take his forgiveness and STFU, it is just a tactical retreat in the face of overwhelmingly united Hindu front against Islamism, it does not denote a genuine change of heart.
I will leave here with typical Bandukwala crapanalysis of Hindu Muslim interactions:
“The Islamic precept of equality was superimposed on the Hindu caste structure. This had far-reaching sociological implications for both faiths. But it also involved Muslim rulers and Hindu subjects. Sometimes it was Hindu rulers and Muslim subjects. The result is a past that continuously haunts India. One can find countless cases of horror, perpetrated by a Muslim forefather against a Hindu forefather. Or it may be vice versa.”
Superduperman: You are correct about one thing, Hindus in Gujarat feel like victors, because they are.
They have consistently shown the middle finger to all psec tricks to induce guilt in them for resisting Islamist aggression (Muslims, as we all know, need feel no guilt, that Hindus are allowed to visit temples in Islamic state of Kashmir, is enough to bring tears in psec eyes, as they wank off screaming KASHMIRIYAT … KASHMIRIYAT).
First it started with “OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, these evil middle class Guj Hindus looted shops after the riots”, followed by, “OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, these evil Guj Hindus voted for Modi”, followed by “OH MY GOD, these Hindus feel no remorse”.
Please do not give up, just because you have been unsuccessful, janta needs constant entertainment after all.
Hi,
I have read with great interest the article by Prof. Bandukwala this blog refers to. The article is based on unfounded assumptions. Prof. Bandukwala also summons Quran and traditions in Islam for such a unilateral “forgiveness”. I would like to point out how these Quran quoting and Islamic traditions are naive at best.
The assumption, made by Prof. Bandukwala is that Hindu community was an agressor, while the Muslim community was merely a passive victim. The mainstream media also wants us to believe this. However the way riots were started and the death toll of Hindus and Muslims does not support this claim. Thus I find Prof. Bandukwala showing moral high ground of a “victim forgiving his agressor” a bit arrogant.
Prof. Bandukwala narrates a story about Prophet Mohammad that how he forgave and cared for a woman who used to throw dirt on him. Can Prof. Bandukwala point at the primary sources (i.e. Sahih Hadiths and Sunnah) where this story appears? I have never encountered this story in any of the primary scriptures (May be my knowledge of Islamic scripture is poor). On the other hand, the Hadiths are full of many stories of how muslims killed the people who insulted or opposed the prophet. At least the picture I got of the prophet from the Islamic scriptures is that of an intolerant and cruel person, not that of a tolerant and forgiving person.
Similarly Prof. Bandukwala claims that the prophet forgave the people of Mecca after its victory. The learned professor failed to state that only those who gave up arms against the prophet, accepted him as the final prophet and became Muslim were forgiven. Thus it was not generousness on the part of the prophet. Why kill someone when they have accepted what you want them to accept.
Further Prof. Bandukwala writes -”such forgiveness by victims conforms to the highest traditions of Islam”. Can somebody do me a favour to sift thru the massive volumes of Islamic theology and Islamic history and find any trace of a “tradition of forgiveness”. At least I am not aware that any such tradition exists in Islam.
My final point, when Prof. Bandukwala talks about forgiveness, what exactly he means in practical terms about such a forgiveness? He certainly does not mean dropping law-suits against the Hindu rioters. Perhaps what he means is this: In any public discource about hindu-muslim relations, any forum where Hindus and Muslims meet, each time a hindu meets a muslim, a muslim should assume the moral arrogance of “you hindus are barbarians, rapists and murderer, we muslims are civilized and we have forgiven you”. But in talking about such a forgiveness, does not he commits the mistake of sticking the guilt of few criminals on the entire community, and at the same time overlooking the crimes commited by the criminals of his own community?
Such kind of “forgiveness” will do nothing to Hindu-Muslim relations. A more sensible approach would be to treat criminals as criminals and innocents as innocents irrespective of the community they belong. There is nothing like collective guilt and collective forgiveness. If as a Muslim I find it irksome to be made to apologize for the crimes done by other Muslims (For example apologizing for what is done by Jihadi groups in Kashmir to Kashmiri Pundits, as demanded by the Hindu groups, after all I have not done, neither supported in any manner those crimes, why should I apologize?), an innocent Hindu will find it equally irksome to apologize for the crimes commited by some criminal who also happens to be Hindu.
- Anwar Shaikh.
Anwar, while I don’t know much about Quran writings and Hadiths and Sunnahs, I completely agree with your last paragraph. Treat every individual, even a religious one, as an individual and deal with him or her accordingly, irrespective of if they are Muslims or Hindus. Our current secular tradition doesn’t allow. It’s based on reason which the current Indian intellectual brand of secularism abhors.