Unity in Diversity By Markandey Katju

India is the country which perhaps has the most diversity of all countries in the world–so many castes, languages, religions, ethnic and regional groups, etc–which is because we are broadly a country of immigrants, like North America ( see my article ‘ What is India ? ‘ online ).

https://justicekatju.com/indians-must-unite-85c986df9376

So to emerge as a powerful modern highly industrialized nation, which alone can abolish our massive poverty, massive unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition ( every second child in India is malnourished, according to Global Hunger Index ), lack of proper healthcare and good education for our masses, etc it is imperative that despite our diversity we maintain unity and amity among our people, and launch a mighty united people’s struggle for our socio-economic emancipation.

And to achieve that for my people, I had to travels thousands of miles away from my motherland and sit at the feet of the Iroquois, a native American people ( formerly called ‘ Red Indians ‘ ) living in reservations in present day New York state and nearby, a people regarded as ‘savages’ by the ‘civilized’ people, but whom I regard more civilized than the so called ‘civilized’. They too, like us, were at one time fighting with each other, but then in 1142 A.D. a great man, Dekanawida, known as the Great Peacemaker, appeared among their 5 warring tribes, and taught them that mutual peace, not war, would be beneficial to all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Peacemaker

This message became known as the Great Law of Peace, and ensured that the Iroquois Confederacy would remain the most powerful force in America for centuries.

Why did I have to travel thousands of miles from my own country to learn this, and then report back to my fellow Indians. There were many Dekanawidas India has produced from whom we could have learnt, but did we listen to them ?.

There was the great Emperor Ashoka. whose rock edict in Girnar, Junagarh around 250 B.C. ( which I have seen ) says :

” To exalt the merits of one’s own religion, deprecating the others, is to do the worst harm to one’s own religion. Priyadarshi ( i.e. Emperor Ashoka ) wishes that all religions in his dominion are respected, and people live in peace and amity”.

There were the Jain sages, the Tirthankars, who preached Anekantavad, the philosophy of tolerance.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/satyam-bruyat/anekantavad-of-jainism

The great Emperor Akbar propagated the doctrine of suleh-e-kul or equal respect for all religions and communities.

https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-emperor-akbar-is-the-father-of-the-indian-nation

There were the Sufi saints who taught tolerance, love, and compassion for all.

One day in Delhi the renowned Sufi saint, Nizamuddin Aulia ( 1238-1325 ), was standing with his disciple Amir Khusro, on the bank of the river Jamuna. The saint saw Hindu worshippers bathing in the Jamuna, and remarked ( in Persian) :

” Har Qaum raast raahe

Din-e-wa qibla gaahe “

Which means :

” Every people has a pole (qibla) to which it turns”

i.e. : Every sect has its own right path of worship.

Amir Khusro immediately completed the couplet with a verse of his own :

” Man qibla raast kardam

bar samt kaj kulahe”

Which means :

” I, however turn my face

towards the tilted cap “

( Nizamuddin Aulia used to wear a tilted cap. In other words, Amir Khusro turned towards sufiism ).

The same message was given by Tiruvalluvar, Kabir, Narayan Guru, and countless other sages and seers, but did we listen to them ?

We are taught in our history books, deliberately distorted by our British rulers and their acolyte Indian historians, that India became free only in 1947 after 1200 years of slavery. But were we slaves under the Mughals ? It is silly and false to say so. Just because our ruler was a Muslim does not mean we were slaves. In fact India prospered greatly under Mughal rule.

https://indicanews.com/justice-katju-indians-benefitted-greatly-during-mughal-rule/#:~:text=I%20submit%20that%20far%20from,richest%20countries%20in%20the%20world.

But our history books had to be falsified and distorted to make Hindus and Muslims hate each other.

https://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/pande.htm

Once it so happened that coincidentally Holi and Muharram fell on the same day.

Holi is an occasion for joy, while Muharram is an occasion for sorrow. The Hindus in Lucknow, which was the capital of Avadh, the kingdom of the Nawabs of Avadh, decided not to celebrate Holi that year out of respect for the sentiments of their Muslim brethren.

The Nawab, Wajid Ali Shah, took the tazia from the Bada Imambara in Lucknow to Karbala and buried it there. Then he enquired why Holi was not being played. He was told the reason.

Then the Nawab declared that since Hindus had respected the sentiments of their Muslim brethren, it was the duty of the Muslims, too, to respect the sentiments of their Hindu brethren.

Having said this he proclaimed that Holi will be celebrated the same day throughout Avadh, and he himself was the first to start playing Holi, although it was Muharram.

Incidents like the one mentioned above will rarely be found in our history books

The approach of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah is the kind of approach all Indians should have. But instead we foolishly swallowed the wicked propaganda of our British rulers that Hindus and Muslims are intrinsically each others enemies ( the divide and rule policy ), we still do not give equal respect to our countrymen and countrywomen from the North East, we discriminate against dalits, Muslims, women, etc. And we are carried away by the false promises and propaganda of our political leaders, who polarise our people and spread religious, caste, ethnic and lingual hatred only to get votes.

No wonder I had to travel far away from my motherland and sit at the feet of the ‘savage’ Iroquois to learn the correct path Indians must take, and spread their wisdom among my own countrymen and countrywomen