Thursday, September 20, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
THE NEW PATHANS
Folklore in northern India goes something like this. A Brahmin, with his sacred threat ceremoniously held over his ear, was standing on the side of the road and answering the call of nature. He got a big thump on his back. Flabbergasted, on turning to see what had hit him, he found a Pathan with all his colorful native plume decorating his head as his regalia, was fuming over his act of sacrilege. The Pathan said: Pandit, how dare you pee while facing the west, where is our Ka’aba. Don’t you know we pray our Namaz facing west towards our Holy Ka’aba? You are insulting our Holy Masjid.
The Brahmin, a noble soul, fully conversed in matter of sacred and profane, immediately realized that he has ‘sinned’.. He profusely apologized to the rightly enraged Pathan and said, Khan Saheb, pardon me. It was my mistake due to ignorance. It will never happen again.
Days passed. One day the Brahmin saw the same Pathan sitting on his haunches, at the edge of the street, facing the West, while answering the call of nature. The Brahmin was amazed. He stopped and waited for the Pathan to finish his business. When the Khan turned, the Brahmin most politely asked: Khan Saheb, how come you are now facing the Ka’aba and doing your thing. The Pathan flared up: Stupid man, don’t you know, it is our Ka’aba and not yours.
A new Pathan is now ruling this country. Whenever bombs go out, he is quick to arrest and imprison any Muslim, around whoever he gets his hands on. The general excuse is that only a Muslim can be a terrorist. So the Muslim is a fair game. Whatever may be the glaring evidence be. In city after city in Maharashtra, Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS people are caught red handed, but released scot-free with minimum of fuss. The argument for the police seems to have been borrowed from the old Pathan: It is our country, not yours.
However, this argument is unraveling the very security and integrity of the nation. Both Sangh Parivar and Naxalites are drunk with the heady wine of mutilated sense of nationalism, that they can get hold of the country by bombing its people, left and right. Unless the New Pathan realizes, that he is indulging in the same sacrilege on his own Ka’aba that he falsely blames the Muslims for, his indulgences will destroy this country.
It is now left to the Muslims, the new Brahmins, to fold their hands in humility and let the New Pathan know, that this land belongs to all of us and he is as much moved and pained to see its gradual sliding into anarchy, as it should, being the son of the same soil himself.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
#5424
THE NEW PATHANS
Folklore in northern India goes something like this. A Brahmin, with his sacred threat ceremoniously held over his ear, was standing on the side of the road and answering the call of nature. He got a big thump on his back. Flabbergasted, on turning to see what had hit him, he found a Pathan with all his colorful native plume decorating his head as his regalia, was fuming over his act of sacrilege. The Pathan said: Pandit, how dare you pee while facing the west, where is our Ka’aba. Don’t you know we pray our Namaz facing west towards our Holy Ka’aba? You are insulting our Holy Masjid.
The Brahmin, a noble soul, fully conversed in matter of sacred and profane, immediately realized that he has ‘sinned’.. He profusely apologized to the rightly enraged Pathan and said, Khan Saheb, pardon me. It was my mistake due to ignorance. It will never happen again.
Days passed. One day the Brahmin saw the same Pathan sitting on his haunches, at the edge of the street, facing the West, while answering the call of nature. The Brahmin was amazed. He stopped and waited for the Pathan to finish his business. When the Khan turned, the Brahmin most politely asked: Khan Saheb, how come you are now facing the Ka’aba and doing your thing. The Pathan flared up: Stupid man, don’t you know, it is our Ka’aba and not yours.
A new Pathan is now ruling this country. Whenever bombs go out, he is quick to arrest and imprison any Muslim, around whoever he gets his hands on. The general excuse is that only a Muslim can be a terrorist. So the Muslim is a fair game. Whatever may be the glaring evidence be. In city after city in Maharashtra, Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS people are caught red handed, but released scot-free with minimum of fuss. The argument for the police seems to have been borrowed from the old Pathan: It is our country, not yours.
However, this argument is unraveling the very security and integrity of the nation. Both Sangh Parivar and Naxalites are drunk with the heady wine of mutilated sense of nationalism, that they can get hold of the country by bombing its people, left and right. Unless the New Pathan realizes, that he is indulging in the same sacrilege on his own Ka’aba that he falsely blames the Muslims for, his indulgences will destroy this country.
It is now left to the Muslims, the new Brahmins, to fold their hands in humility and let the New Pathan know, that this land belongs to all of us and he is as much moved and pained to see its gradual sliding into anarchy, as it should, being the son of the same soil himself.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
#5424
