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| The Hindu Phenomenon |
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THE NEHRUVIAN FRAMEWORK |
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| Indian
Muslims, I am convinced, after many years of reflection,too, like
Hindus, need self-renewal; unlike Hindus, they have proved incapable
of engaging in such an exercise even under the stimulus provided by
British rule, and only the triumph of Hindutva can help create a
milieu which obliges them to try one overcome the inertia of
tradition reinforced by the ulema.
I must confess that, like many others, I too have tended to think in terms of leaving Muslims to their ghetto mentality, and to oppose the demand, by BJP leaders, among others' for a uniform civil code. My argument has been that so large and obstinate a community cannot be pushed against its will, that any attempt to do so would aggravate existing tensions and that such a risk should best be avoided. I have also had no reason either to believe that modernizers in the community are anything but an utterly marginal phenomenon or to dispute that the ulema continue to represent it. that, incidentally, was also why I was not opposed to the scandalous piece of legislation known as the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act which, in fact, denies even utterly destitute Muslim divorcees in danger of becoming vagrants the right to alimony from their former husbands. Incidentally, this attitude is also proof that our secularism has become a euphemism for callous indifference to the fate of Muslims. V.P.Singh and others may woo them in their search for power, but they cannot offer them a way out of the ghetto mentality. The BJP offers them such a way, though it too does not know the glorious implications for Muslims of the Hindutva platform and harps on the old demand for a common civil code.
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