The clash of civilization

[raj mon]

 

 The clash of civilization
Last Thursday, in the New York Times OP-ED section, I read an excellent article by David Brooks titled “Drafting Hitler-A clash of cartoons and civilization.†  This topic is very current and on the mind of many people.  How could things have gone so wrong, was the very first thought that entered my mind?  Then I reflected on this, and gradually came to the realization that the signs were historically always there, only we mortals, in our pursuit of happiness, liberty, and prosperity, had simply decided to ignore it.  ‘If the problem does not exist, why fix it’, seems to be the mantra of the day.

 To fully comprehend the depth of this situation, I guess I would have to dwell into the past, well before my lifetime and beyond.

 In the year 1985, from a hospital in Queens, New York, where I was born, it took me many years to fully understand, who I really was.  My parents are from India, having migrated to US in 1983, so that their children could have better opportunities, than what they had, from what I am told.  Now at the age of twenty-one years, I am beginning to understand a lot more than what my prior worldview had been.  Moreover, I must confess, without shame or remorse, that I was a normal, healthy, average American born boy, doing what boy’s normally do.  My parents took me to many Hindu temples of many different traditions, which was not unusual, and there were quite a few, around the US and India, both orthodox and not so orthodox.  However, what seems to be not so usual was that I also visited the famous Churches, Buddhist temples, Synagogues, Sikh temples etc. but never to a Mosque.  To explain this I guess I would have to indulge into my parents past background and their upbringing and surroundings.

 

My Hindu parents were born, in what was, at that time, undivided India, that is, before 1947 and before the creation of Pakistan.  They, and their parents, and their parents, and so on, lived in a state called Sindh.  Because Sindh was located in the upper North West corner of India, and not too far from the Khyber Pass, over thousands of years, Sindh was flooded by migrations of people from many parts of the world.  Different cultures and traditions, further enriched this bountiful state, and trade and commerce grew. Religious tolerance of different faiths was the corner stone of their success and prosperity.  However, this was not to last!

 

Much before the British colonized India, Sindh became the entry gate for hordes of  Moguls, who were first attracted to, what was then called the ‘the land in which rivers of milk and honey flow’.  Having a very easy entry in this part of India, which perhaps, had not witnessed much violence or wars, the Moguls soon began to dominate and rule, as this was their true calling.  Not finding much resistance, and getting more comfortable by the day, the other aspects of their true calling began to surface, the conversion of all the people of Sindh to their faith.  The fear of death by the sword, converted many, and those that resisted were soon killed by having their head chopped off, in public display of their sheer power and determination.  Many girls, of different faiths, having reached their age of puberty, were kidnapped and married off to their Mogul brethrens, in order to increase their population.  And all this, in the name of their God!  Being allowed to have as many as four wives, or more, I am no too sure; the Mogul population grew rapidly.  And, in 1947, the Sindh population was more than eighty percent of Mogul faith.  Similar happenings also took place in the neighboring state of Punjab and elsewhere.  Owing to the sheer numbers of converts in Sindh, the full state of Sindh became part of Pakistan.  In 1947, once the British left India, Sindh became the battleground of massive killings and untold violence, and the remaining twenty percent who had escaped conversion, had to flee for their lives, with almost nothing on their backs, landing in many different parts of India, penniless and homeless.

 

My parents and their parents were part of this tragic and heartless exodus into India from Sindh.  These moments of their horrendous past have been so over whelming, that they have simply erased it from their memories, and simply do not talk about it.  I guess that is why, when I was growing up, my parents never took me to visit any Mosques.  Perhaps also, people of different faiths are not very much welcomed into Mosques.

 

This brings me to the other aspect of my spiritual upbringing, as to why I visited so many different places of worship, other than those of Hindu faiths.  Over the years, I have learned that Hinduism is really an offshoot of ‘Sanatana Dharma’ or simply put, ‘Eternal Spiritual Faith’.  What this means, is that there is only One God and all people of all faith and religions, are just different manifestations of this One God.  This God is neither a Hindu, Christian, Muslim or what have you.  All religions, faiths, etc. have their birth, from their Messiahs, Masters, Gurus, Saviors, Prophets, Messengers or Teachers.  And, all without fail, are from their God, but are not considered God themselves.  Many different explanations have come down through history, trying to explain what this God is.  And while we are still trying to understand and comprehend God, many claims are been made, by all religions, of the superiority of their one God.  And perhaps, this is the root cause of the many divisions, sorrows and violence that we see in our world today, in the name of God.  Hence, the historic existence of fundamentalists, jihad’s, crusaders, and warriors of God.  History repeats itself, and we see this repeating again in our present time.

 

This brings me back to David Brooks’s superb article in the New York Times, which I quote in parts.  It is a soul-searching enquiry to understanding why we are perhaps, heading blindly, into what many people call ‘the clash of civilization’.  David writes “At first I sympathized with your anger at the Danish cartoons because it’s impolite to trample on other people’s religious symbols.  But as the rage spread and the issue grew cosmic, many of us, in the West, were reminded of how vast the chasm is between you and us.  There was more talk than ever about a clash of civilizations.  We don’t just have different ideas; we have a different relationship to ideas.â€

 

 Perhaps what my parents and grandparents experienced fire-hand, in 1947, is gradually dawning on the West, that people of different and opposite faiths,  always have had different relationship to idea’s, and , it was only because of the historical circumstances, that held back these different ideas from becoming a reality.  What has been deeply hidden, but never forgotten, is beginning to show, ever so slowly, but surely, it’s true face.  Poverty, hunger, money, military might, lack of education and a growing intolerance of the others right to exist, only add fuel to the inevitable ‘clash of civilization’.  And sadly, a few can sway the unthinking many.  But history does not necessarily have to repeat itself. And my God does not have to be superior to your God, nor the only way to salvation.

 

David continues ‘We in the West were born into a world that reflects the legacy of Socrates and the agora.  In our world, images, statistics and arguments swarm around from all directions.  --- In our world we spend our time sifting and measuring, throwing away the dumb and offensive, e-mailing the smart and the incisive.  We aim, in Michael Oakeshott’s words, to live amid the conversation-‘an endless unrehearsed  intellectual adventure in which, in imagination, we enter a variety of modes of understanding the world and ourselves and are not disconcerted by the difference or dismayed by the inconclusiveness of it all’.  We believe in progress and in personal growth.  By swimming in this flurry of perspectives, by facing unpleasant facts, we try to come closer and closer to understanding.â€

 

How stimulating it is, to intellectually grasp, the significance of these words.  And one cannot, but be alerted, to the fact, that it is the very different interpretations, of different people, of this intellectual dialogue, that creates the many difference.  And why do different minds, though all intellectual, understand in different ways?  When the invading Moguls, first entered Sindh, because of their intellectual understanding of the situation at that time, backed by sheer might and single-minded purpose, were able to conquer and rule for so many years.  The residence of Sindh lacked the intellectual capacity, or rather, intellectually interpreted in a different way, according to their faith, to fully grasp the purpose of their new visitors and were lulled into compliancy and ultimately to their death or conversion.  The many readers of David’s article will intellectually interpret his words according to their own understanding.  Because what David writes, and what Socrates taught, is not Math’s nor science, which can have only one answer or conclusion.  Would anyone consider Hitler, Mao or even Bin-laden a non-intellectual?  Yet they have killed many.  Human nature is a unique phenomenal outcome of so many diverse factors, which includes emotions, past experiences and circumstances that one can’t even start to intellectually narrow down the differences to one common denominator, acceptable by all.  This explains why we cannot intellectually define or accept, what that one God is, though we never deny the existence of that God.  Unless one is above all religious faith and dogmas, and is a lover of God, just for the pure joy of that love, love for love’s sake, minus what one has read or been taught by books or masters or priests or mullahs , will always have differing intellectual understanding.  Perhaps, Sanatana Dharma may hold the key to the final intellectual grasping of our ever-searching soul.

 

David, in his conclusion, writes, “You fundamentalists have turned yourselves into a superpower of dysfunction, demanding our attention week after week.  But it is hard to intimidate people forever into silence, to bottle up the conversation, to lock the world into an epic war only you want.  While I don’t share your rage, I do understand your panic.â€

 

For a moment, imagine that this last paragraph was written by any fundamentalist, and addressed to the audience in the West.  One can see how very different it reads and the emotional anger it creates.  Is there even a little truth to this?  Perhaps yes, and perhaps no.  Once again it all depends on the intellectual and emotional interpretation of the person who wears the shoe that hurts.  And the merry-go-round continues.

 

  Christ said, ‘let that person who is without any sin, throw the first stone’.  The question ‘did the chicken or the egg come first’?  No one knows the answer for sure.  And frankly, there can never be a conclusive or factual answer to this question.  How many more sacrifices need to be made, in the name of God, before God decides, enough is enough .I do not know the answer, to this I readily confess.  And those who are weak and meek may ultimately inherit the earth, but at this moment, I share their rage and do understand their panic.

  Love:)
  rajesh