Jo tu hai, so main hoon
Jo main hoon, so tu hai
Ek Muhammad
Har-ek Muhammad
Ever since the Shaheen Bagh shindig a little less than a year ago, and running up to the present Mulla Rage (oops! Moulin Rouge) Paris Opera, I have wondered everyday about this noxious hatred of the Hindu by the Muslim, this acidic contempt of the Muslim by the Hindu.
No print, electronic or social media discourse over the past 11 months has been complete without the choicest expletives in ‘comments’ boxes against each other, and their respective faith, their places of worship, their God and Goddesses, their Prophet and Avatars and their kith and kin. The girl child, the mother, the wife, the sister, the sister-in-law, the daughter-in-law, the boy, the father, the husband, the brother, the brother-in-law, son-in-law, their camels, their horses, their cows, their pigs, their asses. Their asses. No one and nothing has been spared.
So, where did this clash really start from? When? Some strongly believe it was triggered by the favourable court verdict on Ram’s temple; others, since the incorporation of Kashmir into the rest of India, lock, stock and barrel without notice, without choice. A still larger section is convinced that it all started with India offering no-questions-asked citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and Christians from the neighbourhood, while ignoring Muslims like Rohingyas and Uighurs and non-Muslim Muslims like Taslima Nasreen and Salman Rushdie (who is a citizen, but his Book is banned).
Given these contrived, confusing, controversial claims, I have been poring over pages after pages of history for these past many months to firmly locate a well-grounded starting point.
Would you believe, till the takeover of India by Her Majesty’s Government in 1857, the Hindu never called a Muslim a Muslim, though he called him all sorts of names: Ashvapati, Kshatrapati, Turushka, Turk (all Sanskrit names for originally Hindu inhabitants of these regions ), Mlechha and Yavan and even Arab, but never a Muslim? And it was the Muslim who first called a Hindu Hindu.
Without doubt, the genesis of this deep-seated name calling and hatred lies buried in the books of one of India’s most revered mystic poets Amir Khusrau (1253-1325 CE), today loved and adored by millions of Hindus and Muslims alike. In his epic Ashiqa, the Sultan’s son launches what ideologues of today’s extreme Hinduism call ‘love jihad,’ on a Hindu princess.
At the other end of history’s rainbow, is another great Sufi mystic lost to obscurity today. Aurangazeb’s eldest sibling Dara Shukoh (1615-1659 CE), who might have been emperor, strongly advocated that to master the Qu’ran, reading the Upanishad was a must for the true believer.
Between Khusrau and Shukoh, my intellectual loyalty bends towards the later, though I am a regular at the dargah of the former where, at least once a year, I bend my soul in prostration.
I do believe strongly that to practice the Bhagwat Gita one must read the Qu’ran, and to understand the hidden Qu’ran, one must necessarily read the Gita.
Having said that, I discovered the clash of two great civilisations actually reaches a compromise in a gem of a conversation in the epic discourse of medieval Maratha Sant Eknath (1533-1599 CE).
Eknath, for the uninitiated, was a Brahman householder from Paithan who once led an emergency charge of the Sultan of Ahmadnagar’s army against invaders because his guru, a Hindu saint soldier, and general of the Sultan’s army, was in deep meditation.
I also suspect that Eknath’s conversational poetry provided the template for Pakistan’s national poet Allama Iqbal (1877—1938 CE) to pen his classic Jibreel-o-Iblees.
To stretch a long story r.e.a.l.l.y long, India’s antagonistic Hindus and Muslims of today must seek refuge in Eknath’s dialogue to navigate the flotsam from our current civilisational confrontation for a peaceful voyage to hereafter.
Do read this epic poem till end.
Amen!
Hindu-Turk Samvad
Eknath: The goal is one; the ways of worship are different,
Listen to the dialogue between these two!
The Turk calls the Hindu ‘Kafir!’
The Hindu answers, ‘I will be polluted – get away!’
A quarrel broke out between the two;
A great controversy began.
Muslim: ‘O Brahman, listen to what I have to say:
Your scripture is a mystery to everyone.
God has hands and feet, you say –
This is really impossible!
Hindu: Listen, you great fool of a Turk!
See God in all living things.
You haven’t grasped this point
And so you have become nihilist.
Muslim: Listen, Brahman dipper-in-water,
You leap in the water like ducks.
Whoever studies your scripture
Is a great big fool!
You have a kamakhaloko scripture.
It says God goes out to beg.
Bali caught him and made him a door-keeper!
This sort of story deceives people.
All your scripture is just ridiculous.
You make Allah a servant!
What a bharavalavilla!
This talk is for dim-witted men.
Hindu: You don’t remember your own book,
It can be read in the Sulkhan
pratham abdula alla huve
[Allah] said begging is the sweets of heaven.
This begging is your God’s counsel!
Faqir Abdulla was loved by God.
He went to Heaven by giving and taking alms.
Begging is ultimately holy –
God himself showed us this.
Faqir (new character): I, the Faqir, speak straight out.
Faqir Fatjari is praised by God.
The Faqir serves God.
The Faqir loves God.
Faqir – God
The Faqir says, ‘God is no god’
The Faqir says, ‘But God.’
The Faqir is a servant of God.
Truth is duality.
Hajrat is the giver of life.
Make a joyful noise at the saint’s tomb.
Salvation is in heaven;
The unwary go to sorrow.
This is Allah’s creation;
The negligent go to hell.
I, the Faqir, ask alms.
Allah takes away sin.
Alla valkalatatil tu alla
O Allah, you exist everywhere.
Allah, you exist in the Caliph.
Allah, you are the seeing and the seen.
Allah, you are the knower and the known.
Allah, you are life and the giver of life.
Allah, you are the alms that fill the stomach and take away sin.
Bring oil and bread, you who have ears!
Allah! give me milk and rice,
Allah, give me gravy, bread, wheat cakes,
Allah give me lentil cakes,
Allah give me sweets and sugar!
Hindu: (Sanskrit) I, the Brahman, recite a verse:
One who lives on alms lives on nothing;
Bhikshus reject only their homes.
One who is discontent is the real sinner.
The contended one is described as drinking soma.
Bali was a special devotee of God.
God loved his way of devotion.
So God always stands near him.
Why do you revile this?
Muslim: Your Brahma laid his daughter.
The Vedas he preaches are all false.
Your Sastras, your Vedas, your ‘OM’
Are all evil tricks.
How many falsehoods, how much nonsense all that is.
Thieves took away God’s wife,
So monkeys came to help him!
You’ve read and read the scripture and died!
Admit your mistakes and shut up!
Hindu: She you call your teacher’s wife
You treat her as your own wife!
Look at the ‘faithfulness’ of the Turk!
And he censures the Brahman!
Father Adam and Eve made a pair
You have read this book.
You don’t know your scriptures, you fool.
Why do you quarrel with us?
Adam and Eve enjoyed each other:
From that came the world of men!
You give your name as Adam.
You speak, and make a fool of yourself!
Baba Adam’s Eve was taken by Satan.
Well, Sita was stolen by Ravana.
Why do you deride our story?
The angels took counsel:
Gabriel
Israfael
Mankail
Naskail
Michael
Victorious, they returned with wife Eve.
Rama called forth great warriors
To search for Sita.
(What’s the difference?)
Muslim: Listen, Brahman, you are clever as an ass!
Your answer is nonsense; your answer is stupid.
Whoever reads your scripture
Is greatly unenlightened!
Fool! Your God was imprisoned;
Kansasur came to kill him.
Devaki concealed your God.
What a stupid scripture for the ignorant!
What was hidden, closed in, was made open
From this sort of thing comes knowledge?
Ya hila ya salim!
You deceive yourself with your own mouth.
You call God a keeper of cows.
When you hear these stories you weep!
You call God a cattleman!
The kafir has lost his sense.
You have destroyed the greatness of God!
Shall I give you a blow?
And still you argue!
Hindu: Look how your mouth babbles on
.
God is present in every place –
Why not in prison?
You take this as a contradiction in vain!
One who has greatness of mind
Knows God is not fixed in one place.
God is hidden in the secret, brother!
Read the Qu’ran and see!
It is difficult for the mind to grasp God
But God can fill one’s mind
And open the secret of the secret.
Your Prophet so spoke!
Holy man, holy man Shahmodin Ali
The great one said:
Cow, elephant, monkey –
God protects everyone.
This is stated in your books.
Why don’t you honour it?
Dogs, crows, rats, birds –
God protects these too.
You don’t know your own scripture, dumbbell!
Why do you pick a fight with me?
Muslim: You go on talking, talking, Brahman.
What sorts of pretexts are you giving me?
You bow before God,
But has God shaved your head and beard?
You Hindus are really wicked.
A stone statue rules over you.
You give it the name of God.
You wake it with an ek tari!
In its presence you read the Purana
Men and women all stand together.
You bow and scrape in front of it.
Isn’t that so, you great fool?
You smear ochre on a stone
And your women stand before it!
Naked sadhus, clad in lemon leaves,
Are followed by young maidens!
Your Vedas and all are impotent!
Without exception, your verses are unworthy.
You make such a hubbub when you worship
You must think God is unheeding, neglectful!
Hindu: God is in water, in places, in wood, in stone.
That is the chief meaning of your book,
Look, you yourselves don’t know it!
The Turk’s ignorance is total!
The ghee, liquid or solid, is one substance
So, see, the absolute and the image are one.
But you hate the image!
You are great undiscrimnating fool!
Whatever desire the devotee has,
That desire is fulfilled by God.
That’s the theory of your book!
Why don’t you realise this?
I have revealed your lack of faith to you!
You shout from afar at the God close at hand!
One time, ‘Allah!’ One time, ‘Allah!’
The rest of your day is wasted,
And he has not met you so far.
For the distant, one gives a great shout!
For the near, one whispers.
You ought to meet Him who is close.
By shouting you only wake the children!
You think God is in the West.
Are all other directions barren?
You say God is in all four corners,
But don’t understand this, you fool.
Five times a day belong to God.
Are other times taken by thieves?
You have deceived yourself about your scriptures.
You have made a one-direction God!
You tell us we worship stones?
Why do you place blocks of stone over the dead?
You worship a haji of stone.
You believe it to be the true pir!
Why do you preserve the bones
Of those who are only corpses?
You cover the stone with flowers and silk cloth;
You burn incense before it!
Muslim: You can bathe in the Ganga and become pure;
Then why do you maintain distinctions?
Even separate cooking and eating?
You call out ‘Pollution, pollution!’
All is impure, sinful, to you.
You say God exists in all living beings.
Tell me, who of you eats all together?
One man doesn’t touch another.
Each lives apart from the other.
If so much as a grain of his food falls on yours,
You catch him by the throat!
Don’t leave your religion half-done.
What about this opposition between every two groups?
A woman must eat in her own home.
But sometimes you expel her!
You go at her at night, you sleep with her;
Then you don’t call her impure!
That girl you have taken as mistress –
You don’t eat in the house of her people!
You like the daughter but not the food!
O what a great book of the Brahmans!
‘Our food is very holy;
His food is completely bad.’
This is the relation between relations!
Your scriptures are false!
The daughter is pure, father is impure!
Let your scripture become ash;
Let karma, dharma, be reduced to ashes!
To hell with the Brahman for this hypocrisy!
Hindu: You Muslims are complete fools.
You don’t know what is faulty, or faultless,
When one creature gives pain to another,
How can he go to heaven?
If God kills an animal, look, it is carrion.
If you kill one – that is holy and pure!
You have become more pure than God!
The Muslim is deceitful and sinful.
When you sacrifice an animal, you throw it aside.
It suffers in front of you.
What the hell do you gain from this?
The learned one is mad, Maulana Salim.
When sacrificed, the goat goes to heaven.
Then why not kill yourself
To get to Heaven’s home?
The Maulana may do a thousand killings,
But can the good Maulana bring one being back to life?
This is fruitless toil for heaven.
This immediately becomes a sin.
Hindu and Muslim both
Are created by God, brother.
But look at the belief of the Turk:
He is supposed to catch a Hindu to make him a Muslim!
Did God make a mistake in making the Hindu?
Is your wisdom greater than His?
You make the Hindu a Muslim
And assign the crime to God.
Muslim: He who kills has committed a sin Look, the Turk says that is right!
Listen, he has committed a crime!
Let’s not quarrel over nothing.
While killing, the Maulana recites from the Book,
But his tongue cannot move to restore life.
No one can do that but God.
What the Brahman says is true.
It is the hand of heaven that cuts the throat;
That hand really creates its own ways.
If trouble comes in the future
God will rule.
Hindu: The Brahman says, O yes, Swami.
As a matter of fact, you and I are one.
This controversy grew over caste and dharma.
When we go to God, there are no such things.
Muslim: The Turk says, that is the truth.
For God, there is no caste.
There is no separation between devotee and God
Even though the Prophet has said God is hidden.
Eknath: The Turk whose dharma had subsided
Listened to his inner heart.
He became filled with joy.
Instead of a mantra, instruction was given.
At that moment, they saluted each other.
With great respect, they embraced.
Both became content, happy,
Quiet, calm.
‘You and I quarrelled
To open up knowledge of the high truth,
In order to enlighten the very ignorant.
In place of karma – awakening!
‘In place or words we have established the word’s meaning.’
The highest truth pierced them both.
Enlightenment was the purpose of this quarrel.
Both have been satisfied.
The argument was about oneness.
The argument became agreement.
Eka Janardan says, “Self-knowledge
And great bliss came to both.’
~Eknath
1533-99 CE
translated by Eleanor Zelliot
India’s Islamic Traditions, 711-1750
edited by Richard M Eaton