The Beauty of Religious Coexistence in India

The Indian Muslim Culture

I had one of the most wonderful experience recently when I was invited over to a house warming function of my office administrator in the city of Hyderabad, India. I will call him SS. I have known SS for over six years. His first name is a popular Hindu name while his last name is a popular muslim name. When out of curiosity I asked about his name, he mentioned that he grew up in a culture where muslims do not differentiate between Hindu gods or the muslim god. My curiosity piqued even more when he asked for time off to take his family to Tirupati to visit the Hindu temple (Tirupati is a popular Hindu pilgrim center in south India). He claimed that it was a family tradition to visit this temple after children write major exams (this again is a Hindu tradition among south Indians).

Few days back we were invited to his place for house warming party (Gruhapravasam). As we approached his house we could hear the loud chanting of a hindu priest. Inside the house we saw his family and that of his brother's seated obediently, dressed in traditional hindu attire, and performing many hours long pooja (Satya Narayana Vratam. Ironically it is a hour long story narration telling what ill will happen if you don't worship Lord Satya Narayana). I sat amazed looking and hearing a traditional Hindu pooja being performed in a muslim house. I was afraid that the local mosque's imam would show up any moment and protest. 

SS father-in-law sat next to me and as I struck conversation with him, he patiently explained the situation. He said that this is very common among the muslim families that belong to "backward caste" (people that belong to the lower rungs of hindu society) in the coast regions of our state (Andhra Pradesh). Muslims are part of the committee that take care of local temples. SS once told me that his family in his home town was in charge of the local temple's keys. He claimed that more recently Muslims of their region celebrate Hindu festivals along with Hindus and vice versa.

Borrowing of other religion's gods or tradition is not accepted in Islam and could be severely punishable. People have been lynched for far lesser religious mistakes.

It is very common in India for Muslims and Hindus visiting and praying to each other gods. Durgahs (muslim saint's tombs) are usually filled with people of all religions. Such simplicity, without minds clouded with religious bigotry is so refreshing to hear in a world filled with anger, hatred, and violence in the name of religion. These emotions are not new to India and may be worst in India. After 9/11 such emotions run amok all over the world. 

My ignorance about Islam especially the subcontinent muslim culture became evident when I was a graduate student in central Texas (College Station). My interaction with Pakistani students and later with Pakistani nanny who brought up both my sons in New Jersey was an eye opening. Growing up in a small town in India I was constantly fed by the media about the "evil Pakistan next door" and by the right wing political parties about extremism of Islam only to know that our muslim neighbor (Pakistan) lives out of as much fear about the Hindu neighbor as we do of them. 

It is after reading about Islam in a chapter in a book written by famous Indian writer, Khushwant Singh, about Sikhism that I understood the beauty of Indian flavor of Islam. Indian islam is not the traditional islam that one is aware of coming out of Arabia. Indian Islam has strong Indian roots of respecting wise people (saints), giving more credibility to those who can quote and teach from many religious books. This is an Indian way of living not just Hindu way. This lovely co-existence allowed India to give birth to more religions than any civilization did and most of them continue to flourish. This fever of co-existence influenced even the most fervent muslim invaders that came to live India. Moghuls, who came to rule India from central asia and Afghanistan were prime examples. Even many of Delhi Sultanate rulers before the Moghuls were tolerant. 

The most beautiful outcome of this is the flowering of Sufism in India. Most Indian muslims, whether Sunnis or Shia follow Sufi flavor of Islam. A Islam that coexists with local religions, traditions, and draws from local culture to build a beautiful peaceful and exciting way of life. Saints like Guru Nanak (founder of Sikh religion), Kabir (muslim brought up by Hindu foster parents), Shiridi Sai Baba (muslim saint more venerated by Hindus) are all products of Sufism. A true muslim from Arabia would be aghast to see an Indian muslim praying in Dargahs, allowing people of other religions into the mosques or donating money for construction of Hindu temples, tying threads to their wrists (thaayathu) and many more traditions that have common roots with India way of praying.

It is said that Indonesia did not convert to Islam because of Arab traders but only after the coming of the benevolent muslim traders from India (said to be from Gujarat) that they connected with Islam and discarded their Hindu and Buddhist religions. They continue their traditions with their Hindu and Buddhist roots to this day.

You can see this fragrance of secularism in India when you visit certain places like Fatehpur Sikri where one of the most secular illiterate emperor of India (Akbar) lived and debated about theology. One wonders why India was the only nation that was spared from the onslaught of Islam conversion from Spain to Indonesia. Indian's philosophy of "Live and Let Live" must be the reason. 

Not everything is as rosy as I potrayed till now. There have been incidents of religious intolerance in Indian history. The worst being the last powerful Moghul emperor Aurangazeb. Whose long rule of intolerance has sown the seeds of distrust and anger between muslim and non-muslim population. One wonders how India would have turned had Aurangazeb had not hounded and killed his elder brother, Dara Shikoh, the heir apparent, who was a Persian and Sanskrit scholar,  knowledgeable about most religious scriptures, translated many Hindu scriptures to Persian and Persian literature to Indian languages, and promoted harmony between muslim and hindu population. The scar of Indian partition on religious grounds and subsequent riots will remain on the Indian psyche for many generations to come. 

But the incredible India of religous diversity and tolerance is not visible when one comes on a quick visit or as a tourist. This is the India I was ignorant of even after living for last seven years. This is the India that hides behind the snarling traffic, polluted cities, and daily struggle for simple things in life like clean water, electricity, transportation, affordable housing.  In a struggle to survive under crushing population and eagerness to catchup the developed societies, is India losing the unique identity, character, and way of life that it built over centuries? As towns and villages become more like the cities of India will it lose the tolerance that is in-built? I am afraid it will as long as Indian schools emphasize more on academics like Math, Science and not on the achievements of its scholars, thinkers, religions and make the younger generation aware of its own achievements especially religious co-existence and diversity.

Few months back, when the gated community I live in Hyderabad, wanted to build a temple, one resident proposed including a mosque and church. This resident was shut off and his suggestion ignored and mocked. This is a community of educated, high worth, well travelled individuals. Is this the new India shining?

As we left our office admin's house after the house warming ceremony, his father-in-law mentioned that had they grown up in the city of Hyderabad (which has a significant population of muslims) they may not have been tolerant.

I have my doubts how long India will keep up with its tradition of secular living. As much as I detest the ruling congress party in India, I have to admire that they have steadfastly held on to the platform of secularism.

[I came across an article recently from a Pakistani newspaper titled "Democracy and Indian Muslims" by Tafail Ahmad. I suggest you read the article in context with my blog here.

Story of Mewar Rajputs

It is 4:15 AM on June 20th. I just returned from a trip overseas and awake because of jet lag. For last few weeks I have been reading a book that I finally finished few minutes back. At this time of the day, I felt I should capture my thoughts in this blog before I become lazy by morning.

I have been to the state of Rajasthan in India twice. Each time I have explored different regions. I still have one more trip to make to cover rest of Rajasthan. I have been to Jaipur, Jodhpur, Chitoor, Jaisalmer, Udaipur, Ajmer, Pushkar, and few other areas. I grew up in India reading Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) comics which were the only source of history of various parts of India. Our history books focused only the major events of Indian history and mostly of Delhi and around. One set of ACK comics that fascinated most Indian kids are the stories of the famed Rajputs of Rajasthan - Rana Sangram Singh, Rana Kumbha, Rana Pratap Singh. They were the cowboys of our wild west. They stood up to all invaders of India from Babur, Akbar, Jahengir, etc and continue to survive to this day. My travel to all their major cities piqued my interest about them more.

Coming to the books I read recently, two of them coincidentally told me the story of Babur and Rana Sanga (Rana Sangram Singh) of Mewar in Rajasthan. The first is titled "Warriors of the North" which is a historical fiction about Babur. How he rose from being boy king of Farghana in central Asia, who lost his kingdom while in pursuit of his ancestral city of Samarkhand, eventually becomes king of Kabul only to be drawn to Hindustan (India). After defeating the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi, he wages another battle with the Rajputs under the leadership of Rana Sanga and wins the battle against all odds thus establishing his Mogul empire in India.

The second book I just finished is titled "Cuckold". It is a historical fiction narrated by the eldest and heir apparent of Rana Sanga - Maharaj Kumar (Bhojraj). This book enlightened me about the constant wars and battles between Mewar, the region that Rana Sanga ruled in Rajasthan and the Muslim kingdoms of Gujarat and Malwa. More importantly this book talks about the famous female saint of India - Meera Bai - Bhojraj's wife. For those of you who are not aware of Meera Bai, she was a great devotee of Lord Krishna. She wrote many songs, poems about Lord Krishna and considered him to be her husband. According to ACK, she became so famous that Emperor Akbar (grandson of Babur) and his famous court musician, Tansen, visited her in disguise and listened to her in awe. As a parting gift left a jeweled necklace on her feet. This may be very doubtful because she lived during the times of Babur and very unlikely survived that long to be during the time of Akbar.

This books, narrated by Bhojraj, tells the battles between Mewar and other two warring kingdoms, how Rana Sanga was the last Rajput king to form a coalition of Rajput kings to fight Babur at battle of Khanua. Apparently, if they had moved quickly, they would have grabbed Delhi before Babur could have and may have staved off the invasion and eventual establishing of Islamic Mogul rule in India. They missed the boat and when they tried to dislodge Babur they lose the battle in spite of superior numbers and also the treachery from one of the coalition ruler (so common in our history). More interesting while these historical battles were being fought in North India, Vijayanagar empire in the south was watching cautiously under the rule of Krishnadevaraya. It appears all these Hindu-Muslim rulers watched with caution the coming of Babur from Kabul even though he ruled the puny kingdom of Kabul.

Rana Sanga is a heroic figure in Indian history. He is a one-eyed, battle scarred Rajput hero. Against many odds and betrayal by his brothers he becomes the king of Mewar. His defeat in the hands of Babur eventually leads to his assassination. Mewar falls into the hands of his incompetent son Vikramaditya. In this book, the heir apparent, Bhojraj just disappears but history says the he died in battle.

Even more interesting about this book is that through out the novel, the wife of Bhojraj is referred to as the "little saint" who is in love with Lord Krishna but her name, Meera bai, is never mentioned. Even though I had an inkling that this character sounds and behaved like Meera Bai, I dismissed that thought because I thought Meera Bai belonged to much earlier times.

It is fascinating for me to know that 16th century India (1500s) had some of the most fascinating people, rulers, and events that molded India's future. Babur was able to defeat the Lodis to become the king of North India. It is explained in both these books that Babur had superior technology against the Indians in form of matchlock guns (or rifles) and canons. Rajputs, who are famous for infighting among themselves were united by Rana Sanga but failed to dislodge Babur. Around the same time the Vijayanagara empire, which came into existence to prevent the march of Islamic rule into South India was at its zenith under the rule of the famous Krishnadevaraya but eventually succumbed to the united Muslim army in 1562 in the battle of Tallikota. Meera Bai was singing and composing poetry about Lord Krishna at the same time all these events were happening. Vasco da gama discovered sea route from Europe to India in late 1490s and so at the start of the 1500s the Portuguese were making attempts to establish in India. So, believe it or not, both the Europeans and Moguls started around the same time to establish themselves in India. The later were successful but were soon replaced about 250 years later by the former.

So what did I learn out of this? Fate is a strange thing. I don't know if it is predetermined or not. Given the history of India's constant friction with its Muslim populace, would India been better off had it stopped the first Islamic invasions from Persia and Afghanistan if Prithviraj Chauhan was supported by his father-in-law? Would we have been better off had Rana Sanga captured the tottering Delhi before Babur did?

When I visited Chittor in early 2000s with my family I was shown the palace of Rani Padmini (another legendary beautiful queen of Chittor who committed suicide (Jowhar) rather than be taken prison by a Muslim conqueror who lusted for her), the temple where Mera Bai sang and danced for Lord Krishna, the unscathed Victory Tower built by Rana Kumbha, the first of famous Ranas of Mewar. They showed the location where Rani Padmini and the ladies of palace were supposed to have lit pyre and committed Jowhar. They also told story of Rani Karmavati who, ironically, pleaded for help from the son of Babur, Humayun when Chittor was under siege of Sultan of Malwa. This event did not get my attention until I read "Cuckold" today. Here is the twist of fate and irony.

According to this book, Rani Karmavati, was behind the assassination of her husband Rana Sanga so that her debauched son Vikramaditya can become the king of Mewar. Rana Sanga was supposedly assassinated on his way back to Chittor after the defeat at battle of Khanua. Her son was so incompetent that very soon the vast kingdom of Mewar shrunk in size and the very Sultan who was defeated by Rana Sanga laid siege to Chittor. To save his son and Chittor, Rani Karmavati, request for help from then king of Delhi, Humayun, son of Babur. It is the same Moghuls against whom her husband fought and lost. The tourist guide said that Humayun's help came late and Chittor fell to Malwa. In tradition of the Rajputs, Rani Karmavati committed suicide by Jowhar (jumping into pyre). What a fate for a queen who constantly plotted and assassinated her own husband for her son. According to the history I read, Humayun never responded to her plea.

Indian mothers love for their children is legendary. They go to extent of discarding their parents, siblings, even their spouse for their children. When their children are in danger these once mild mothers turn into tigresses. This should explain the legendary friction between an Indian mothers and their daughters-in-law.