I'm a Hindu and I'm sick of people trying to break ties with Muslims
The tagline of Twitter says: “It’s what’s happening" with an "s" each after "it" and "what".
Currently in India, "it" is religion. We just love talking about religion. By we, I mean all of us. The news channels, the politicians and the people in general.
Interestingly, I came across an article written by Khushwant Singh where he observes in a quirky way that Indians have four favourite topics. God, money, politics and sex.
This article was published in 1982 under the title "favourite topics". It is 2017 and not much has changed, I wonder.
Just last week, Sonu Nigam - whom I admire a lot for his singing talent - tweeted about having an issue with the loudspeakers in a nearby mosque. Presumably, he was being troubled by the loud "noise" of azaan while he was trying to sleep or something like that. Maybe. Who am I to comment?
I don’t live in the vicinity of a mosque to experience his trouble. But his tiny trouble troubled the digestion of an entire nation. Twitter - the voice of the voiceless - lit up with hashtags in his support. Some people turned poets and started writing beautifully about how they love waking up to the morning azaan; others resonated with the singer and said they were suffering for years.
But that was just Day 1.
Day 2 saw some cleric all the way from Kolkata taking personal offence in this matter, hence announcing a reward of some Rs 10 lakh for whosoever could shave the singer’s head.
Rs 10 lakh!
That is a lot of money right there. It is four times what a martyr’s family gets on receiving a Paramvir Chakra. So much for just some... hair? The hair collectors of Tirupati must be ashamed of their earnings.
Anyhow, let's move to Day 3.
The legendary singer, instead of somehow finishing the matter, demanded to be paid the aforementioned reward after publicly getting his head shaved.
Twitter again "erupted" in support and against the singer (Twitter sometimes looks to me like some ever-active volcano, ready to "erupt" at the word go). Now Sonu is bald, trying to prove a pointless point while the people against him are taking a stand as well. Now he is trying to justify himself, adding an asterisk to his initial comment by saying he didn’t just mean mosques but also temples and gurdwaras.
There is still some development going on in this story.
What did anyone achieve out of this? The news channels wasted screen space, time slots and creative energy (if they have any) on broadcasting a head shaving ceremony all day long (which was kind of gross) and then ending the day with a prime time debate about "should loudspeakers be banned in mosques?" and "Did Sonu do the right thing?"
No one ever said "why are we discussing this right now?"
An ultrasonic anchor with some washed up celebrities who are only good for such debates (or Bigg Boss) wasted your TV time and mine. When I come back home after a long day, I don’t wish to watch a man going bald on national TV!
Every second day, someone or the other says something stupid and we are stupid enough to waste our precious energy in shouting, tweeting and hearing about it. It is a routine these days. Someone "tweets" something. People go mad. "Someone" tries to justify by saying he or she was misquoted. People go mad again. Hashtags are drawn out like swords and wars begin.
If we had used this energy in half an hour of running (even jogging would do) everyday, India would be an obesity-free country.
Religion was supposed to be a personal matter. It is what you believe inside your home and inside your mind. I have a dear friend who goes for namaz three times a day, keeps a beard, follows every rule he is supposed to follow.
I say my prayers in the morning before leaving for work and then throughout the day, we are neither Hindu nor Muslim. We have a bigger responsibility towards our firm, towards our job.
We can go back to our respective religions once we have finished our job. I do discuss religion with him sometimes when I am curious about something I see him practising. Why something is done in a way it is done. And he explains with great enthusiasm.
The glitter in his eyes reminds me of my mother when she explains what a certain custom means. Whether I believe in the theory or not is my personal choice given my own sensibilities but it is important for me to know and understand so that even by mistake I don’t judge or question someone else’s faith.
But as Khushwant Singh further writes in his article and I quote: "When they (Indians) discuss God or religion, they emphasise their own religiousity or denigrate others as sanctimonious humbugs."
This is when the problem arises.
Let us take the cow for example.
A poor herbivore harmless cattle which just loves to moo and chew grass, has become the face of a debate which should not have been there in the first place. We hardly care for a dying cow in bad health or chewing polythene.
Honestly, we don’t care about the animal itself. I wonder if the cow herself asked to be worshipped or to be eaten. It is just religion we care about. How can someone dare question our belief? How can you eat what I worship? How can you worship what I eat? No one really cares about the "what" here which is cow, unless we have to write an essay about her.
India has been a vocal country in terms of religion for ages. The Hindu-Muslim rivalry dates back to the era of the Delhi Sultanate when the idea of "nation" was not even heard of on this side of the Indian Ocean.
There have been countless wars and battles all in the name of superiority of a certain religion. India was conquered, annexed, burnt, ruled and at last even partitioned in the name of religion.
Yet, we don’t seem to learn our lesson. Instead, we are turning worse. We are losing our sensibilities not just about religion but also about basic humanity.
At a time when Tamil Nadu farmers - to prevent their families from dying - are eating rats in the national capital in front of the Prime Minister's Office, just to grab some attention (for over a month now), we are more worried about whether a singer is right or wrong in his analysis of a certain practice.
It’s what’s happening in India. It’s what’s wrong. With an "s" each after "it" and "what".
Who needs a President Donald Trump to ru-i-n India? Aren’t we enough already?
It is high time we change our topics of debate. It is high time we find empathy within ourselves, some compassion, some basic humanity and show some concern towards the real problems glaring our country in the face.