Being a human
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I'm....well, you know my name. I'm a human being of 23 years of age - I belong to the same Homo species as you all do. I'm a citizen of India. I was born in a Bengali muslim family. These are my "identities" determined not by myself but by chance or by God, whatever you believe in. Even so, I'm a "Muslim" to some people, to some other I'm an "apostate", to a few I'm an "Indian" but I'm a human being to none. 'Human being', the first identity of us humans, is died down under the mighty aggression of religion, caste, gender, country, continent and many other discriminating beliefs and cutoms coined by us, the humans themselves. Likewise, my identity of being human is lost to people, even though I keep on striving to retain it to myself all my life.
Identity of being human having been lost, I don't know if my other identities matter to people in any way but I definitely know that my unsolicitatedly native affiliation to a certain religion matters to them the most. Born in a Muslim family, I can't negate that being a Muslim is a small part of my whole identity despite my utter skepticism in any religion inasmuch as I'm still related to it by birth. For this sole reason, I'm frowned upon, sneered, jeered and even threatened day after day in my own country by those people whom I consider my own. Shakespeare said, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet." But I can say that there is something in my name that doesn't smell sweet but reeks of my being Muslim to some people and even if I change my name to any other name, which sometimes I have to under certain circumstances, I suppose, I would still reek of my muslimness to them. My disposition being quite unlike the stereotyped dispositions of Muslims doesn't give any substantial clue to them of my being a muslim in any amicable meeting or conversation until they come to know my name. Upon listening my name, a suddenly suppressed change of behaviour comes over them, which, even though suppressed, is so palpable from their facial expressions- it's like the time when without being told anything we get to understand what the other person is trying to say. To them my name defines my religion and in turn, my whole identity. How disheartening it is to be dissociated like this for being a Muslim by those of my own!
Thanks to the ignition of communalism by the political parties in present India, since recent past the conflagration of religious hatred and violence has been escalating in India and been devouring the innocent hearts of its people. It has already caused many riots and massacres in some parts of our country. In our West Bengal, even though violence of other kinds are happening, religiously motivated riots have not luckily taken place in the recent past, maybe owing to our cultural bond and reciprocal sense of tolerance. However, the knowledge of extreme communalism and the heart-wrecking incident of Calcutta Killings in 1946 still pops up now and then in the mind of those cognizant about them to torment our mental peace and status-quo. Nevertheless, since my childhood till 7-8 years ago I had never experienced or even heard of this kind of religious tensions in our Bengal or in India for that matter and had always seen peaceful co-existence of Hindu, Muslims and other communities. Unfortunately, now this relationship among the Hindus and Muslims are riddled with extreme hatred towards each other and social media is playing the pivotal role in spreading the religious hatred generated by the political parties day in and day out. It might also be the fact that the hatred was present before in the hearts of people like the watered-down lava which was not possible for them to manifest on account of social or governmental restriction but that cooled-down lava is now being ignited day by day to burst out into a volcano by the political parties for the heck of their benefits. Politics and Religion is now inextricably interwined with people finding religious propriety in political parties and with the political parties fulfiling their aspirations from this buffoonery of the people. Everyone is now politically opinionated, even those who have no knowledge vis-a-vis politics, with half-baked, distorted informations and, charged up by this, channelling their frustrations in personal life out towards the weak. The miseries of past is being dug out in order to blame the innocents and inflict the same miseries upon the weak. Under such circumstance, I can feel the warmth of this boiling lava of hatred in people's heart from time to time both in our virtual and real society.
Hatred is all around. Insult is a companion of hatred. And there's not even been a single week when these two didn't deprecate me to my toe for my muslim attachment. The way some people react behind my back or sometimes on my face, it's as if "muslim" is a cussword to them. I can understand the fact that humans are naturally intolerant and that they only like to be around those in whom they find similarities. Even though it is highly obnoxious behavior of humans and they must curb this thinking with the help of education, I can't understand why muslims and hindus don't identify with each other as an Indian. After all their lifestyle is almost more similar or at least way similar than to that of the people of other Muslim countries or Hindu countries. I am afraid that one day this dormant hatred of their heart might burst out to destroy me. Those people raging to eradicate Muslims from India day in and day out might quench their thrist of Muslim blood by killing me, lynching me. Given the current scenario of our country, I cannot deny its possibility; every now and then innocent human beings are being killed for either being a muslim or being a pro-muslim. Even so I have nothing to do with anything wrong happened in the past or being happened at present around the world to the Hindus by the Muslims, I am blamed and held responsible for terrorism, the expulsion of the Kashmiri pandits from Kashmir, the persecution of the hindus in Bangladesh, the Calcutta riots, historical incidents of riots, what Mughals did to the hindus and even every single miserable incidents happening or happened to the hindus or any other religious people around the world. More than hatred and insults what depresses me as a muslim is this fear of being killed, being beaten, my pants being striped off in front of people to see whether I'm a Muslim because I am no fearless, I am no warrior, no hero, I am just a human being purporting to live a peaceful life.
In order to address this problem from the unbiased perspective of a human being, I must put forth the other side of this issue regarding the intolerance of the Muslims towards other communities that equally germinates hatred and propels this atmosphere of hate and violences towards an apocalyptic end. In the news-medias and the intellectual forums in India, it's quite evident that most of the intellectuals don't criticise the intolerant mentality of the muslims in the same way the criticise that of the extremist hindus and always turn a blind eye towards the contribution of the muslims to the birth of this dreadful scenerio. Islam, like the other two Abrahamic religions, as in Christinity and Judaism, upholds the idea of fierce monotheism. It is ruthlessly intolerant in co-existing with any other beliefs, even with its equivalent faiths, Christianity and Judaism. Unlike Hindusim, Buddhism or Zainism that were born in India itself, Islam was an alien faith in India before it was appropitated by our distinctively inclusive Indian culture. India embraced Islam despite all its ferocity and rigidity of faith and ingrafted it in her own culture. Due to this, we can make distinction between India's muslim culture and that of any other muslim countries. Born in a muslim society, I barely identify bengali muslim culture with the culture of other muslim countries and I daresay that any bengali muslim, with an impartial and inspecting view, can claim that his culture and life is more similar to that of the muslims of Arab or Pakistan than to that of his/her neighbouring hindus. All the same, muslims here are so full of hatred towads their fellow neibouring religious people. Immune to any rational ideas like any other religious bigots, most of the religious muslims belittle, denounce and even abuse Hindu beliefs and idols. Most of them are of the opinion that all other religious people are "kafirs" or "disbelievers and enemies to Islam" and harbour an ernest desire to tempt their "kafir" friends or collegues into converting to Islam which, it's said in Islam, will help them to draw God's favour to go to heaven. With such harmful intolerant belief, I don't figure out how come they profess they are peaceful citizens of India intending to live peacefully with their "hindu brothers". No one has to think hard to point out their hypocrisy when it comes to the comparison between the Islamo-Arab culture or the culture of any muslim country and Indian culture or even to a India-Pakistan cricket match. Recently when Taliban took over Afghanistan and imposed the inhumane, misogynstic "Shariah law', I noticed a flurry of happiness among a certain section of muslims surrounding me and they even went to the extent of criticising India's support to the then Afghan government. It was for them as if it was a victory of Islam which would give a certain menacing message to the non-muslims across the world. This one incident can describe their mentality and how "peacefully tolerant" they are. I always see this sort of anti-Indian mentality in them and their cordial support to the muslim-predominent countries, even at the expense of their motherland, India. Their dogmatism in their religion, I reckon, has turned them into a heartless, fearful community and comes in their way as a deterant force while they purport to identify and emphatize with non-muslim Indians.
I have gone through three significant periods so far in my becoming a skeptic about the authenticity of religion. Born in a muslim family, I had been brought up with islamic indoctrination like all other muslim children. Uptil my mid-teenage I was a moderate muslim notwithstanding my fierce islamic indoctrination. I used to practice my religion but didn't have an abhorrent view towards all other religions. Subsequently, from my mid-teenage to my late-teenage, I became a radical anti-religious person owing to the expansion of the ambit of my knowledge. However, most significant reason behind this radical change of thinking perhaps was my interaction and friendship with the people belonging to other religion. It was at that time that I began to lose faith in any particular religion having observed no substantial distinctions between me and my non-muslim friends as human beings. Since then I became a abhorrent critique of religion so much so that I started criticising blatantly people's conservatism and superstitious beliefs and practices on their face, even though it had got nothing to do with my life. Sometimes later I came to realize that radicalism can't be a way of life whatsoever: even though my belief is not in tune with that of others, I shouldn't ridicule them so long as their beliefs and customs do not harm anybody else's life. However, ever since I stopped being a blind follower of islam I became a subject of hate and threats of the radical muslims too. My denial of any religious impositions on me has led them to consider me an apostate, a "kafir" too. I am as much scared of the violent disposition of these fundamental sects of the muslims as I am of the radical hindus because I have seen them in their violent forms, how fiercely barbaric they can be. It is for these extremist muslims' propensity towards barbarism and nonsensically aggressive behaviour towards others that some non-muslims look down upon me, consider me in a bad light- in this case I'm made victim of the their misdeeds.
Under such circumstance where one is judged and hated for his personal belief, I am grappling with these hatred from the orthodox religious people in my life. I am trapped in this cage-like existence riddled with hate and violence with an obsolete human identity. But I must mention that amidst all this, I have found my solace in the company of my loved ones who have still humanity alive in them defying all the hateful norms of their religions. To them, I am a friend, a companion, not a muslim and to me, they are my loved ones, my family. We eat together, gossip together, travel together, pray together following the customs of all religions, emphathize with each other, cry in each other's sorrow, laugh in each other's happiness- and above all, we love each other as all humans should do. Their love and company rinse all the sorrows of my heart caused by the hate of the others. I find the existence of the true identity of India and the essence of humanity as well among them. I know, there are many friend circles like ours in our country which are immune to any religious hate and discrimination and I hope that this sort of human relations will multiply over the course time in our country because only this can save us from the lethal jaws of communalism. Let us be humans above all and everything; we are meant to love, not to hate.
~Imran
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