Recently the President of the USA Barack Obama in a 25 minute speech at a National Prayer breakfast while praising India as an incredibly beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity, lamented it was also a place where in past years religious faiths of all types have on occasion, been targeted by other people of faith simply due to their heritage and their beliefs. For a good measure, he added that these acts of intolerance would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation.
What President Obama said must be true as he is the head of the most powerful nation in the world as also the fact he is Nobel Prize winner for peace. So it seems.
It is good to look at India.
India is the most populous country second only to China with 1.3 billion at the last count and wonder of wonders has a working democracy which is alive and kicking. It has a civilization which runs from a time when most countries were not even born forget what their names were.
Four of the world's religions originated here, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism arrived in India in 1st millennium CE making it home of the most religions from the earliest times known to man.
India's Muslim population is 177 million is almost same as Pakistan's population of 188 million. They are spread all over India and have practiced peaceful coexistence than any other set of religious groups save some occasional disturbances. India has population of 32 million Christians is more than other Asian countries.
Even in place such as Varanasi the oldest and most ancient city in the banks of Ganga, thousands of Muslims live with Hindus peacefully.
India's best known late Shehnai player Ustad Bismilla Khan refused to leave Varanasi when he was beyond 90 and very sick for medical treatment as he did not want to leave Ganga the most sacred river for Hindus.
Kabir (1440-1518) born into a Muslim family, became a saint and sang dohas on Lord Rama from Ramayana. He was popular amongst both Hindus and Muslims.
We have had Muslim presidents, Christians heading parties, the Khans ruling Bollywood in India and two Muslims - the Nawab of Patuadi Jr and Mohammed Azharuddin captaining Indian cricket team. The best example of this was when a BJP-led Government headed by Atal Behari Vajpeyee invited Abdul Kalam to become President of India and such gestures are unheard of anywhere. Furthermore, at that time Dr. Kalam was working in Defense Research Organization perfecting India's missile programme. Then as well as now Smt. Sonia Gandhi, a Christian was the president of oldest Party in India, the Indian National Congress. There are hundreds of such examples wherein Muslims, Christians have worked in top positions belonging to different religions as a matter of routine. This has to be mentioned lest outsiders think we are Hindu dominated country reeking with intolerance.
One has never heard of intolerance creeping in, be it in playing arena, politics, culture, Arts and science.
Many people outside have asked me how is it India has survived as a Nation? Frankly I had not thought of it myself.
Every 200 miles you will meet an Indian who looks different, whose language is different, who dresses differently and eats a different food. This pattern repeats throughout India and yet the country has survived as an entity. This is the example of our unity in diversity.
There are 29 States and 7 Union territories in India. India is a multilingual, multi ethnic pluralistic society. There are 24 national languages and more than 122 dialects.
More movies are made in regional languages such as Tamil and Telugu than in Hollywood.
India has shown it can live with religions of other faith, other languages and culture peacefully and what's more even celebrate mutual festivals like Eid, Deepawali and Christmas.
Every year musicians gather in a small village Thiruvaiyaru for Thyagaraja Aradhana In Tamil Nadu where musicians gather to pay homage to the saint-composer Thyagaraja (1767- 1847) Some leading musicians like Sheik Chinna Moulana have performed on his Nadaswaram, a wind instrument with two reeds here leading the congregation when the deity of Sri Rama is taken in whose honour Thyaagaraja composed thousands of songs.
Sure India has had communal disturbances in the past and in the present too. But it is the resilience of its people which overcomes such hurdles and move on with life.
United States too had communal problems in Watts and recently in Jackson Mississippi. People will learn from such mistakes, mishaps and move on.
It would be unfair to criticize either blacks or the whites are intolerant as US for generations has shown it is a matured society and has come a long way to build a warm and solid edifice which has stood the test of time. I am sure Marin Luther King Jr. will always be proud of the achievements that America has made just like Gandhiji will be of India notwithstanding some occasional hiccups.
India and America have shown lot more tolerance than most countries and that is why its people are living in a democracy alive, kicking well and thriving. Aberrations will always be there, but they are more an exception to the rule.
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