Sex,Scotch and Scholarship

by Khushwant Singh

  Ram Jawaya had also spent several sleepless nights keeping watch and yelling back war-cries to the Muslims. At last fatigue and sleep overcame his newly acquired martial spirit. He slept soundly with a heap of stones under his charpai and an imposing array of soda water bottles filled with acid close at hand. The noise outside woke him. The shopkeeper picked up a big stone and opened the door. With a loud oath he sent the missile flying at the dogs. Suddenly a human being emerged from the corner and the stone caught him squarely in the solar plexus.

  The stone did not cause much damage to Ramzan but the suddenness of the assault took him aback. He yelled ‘Murder!’ and produced his knife from under his shirt. The shopkeeper and the grocer eyed each other for a brief moment and then ran back to their houses shouting. The petrified town came to life. There was more shouting. The drum at the Sikh temple beat a loud tattoo - the air was rent with war-cries.

  Men emerged from their houses making hasty enquiries. A Muslim or a Hindu, it was said, had been attacked. Someone had been kidnapped and was being butchered. A party of goondas was going to attack, but the dogs had started barking. They had actually assaulted a woman and killed her children. There must be resistance. There was. Groups of five joined others of ten. Tens joined twenties till a few hundred, armed with knives, spears, hatchets, and kerosene oil cans proceeded to Ram Jawaya’s house. They were met with a fusilade of stones, soda water bottles and acid. They hit back blindly. Tins of kerosene oil were emptied indiscriminately and lighted. Flames shot up in the sky enveloping Ram Jawaya’s home and the entire neighbourhood, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh alike.

  The police rushed to the scene and opened fire. Fire engines clanged their way in and sent jets of water flying into the sky. But fires had been started in other parts of the town and there were not enough fire engines to go round.

  All night and all the next day the fires burnt and houses fell and people were killed. Ram Jawaya’s home was burnt and he barely escaped with his life. For several days smoke rose from the ruins. What had once been a busy town was a heap of charred masonry.

  Some months later, when peace was restored, Ram Jawaya came to inspect the site of his old home. It was all in a shambles with the bricks lying in a mountainous pile. In the corner of what had once been his courtyard there was a little clearing. There lay Rani with her litter nuzzling into her dried udders. Beside her stood Moti guarding his bastard brood.

  Religion

  My sentiments regarding places of worship are summed up in a beautiful little couplet by a Punjabi Sufi poet:

  Masjid ddhaa de, Mandar ddhaa de

  Ddhaa de jo kuchh ddhenda

  Ik kise da dil na ddhavein

  Rabb dilaan vicch rehndaa.

  Break down the mosque, break down the temple

  Break down whatever there is besides;

  But never break a human heart

  That is where God Himself resides.

  The Magic Words

  All religions have a few words believed to have powerful protective and curative potential. It is difficult to unravel the mystery behind them. In Hinduism we have the mystic syllable Om or Aum. It is chanted in its elongated form and believed to have the entire range of sounds in it. Intoned by itself or in combination with one of the names of God, Hari, as Hari Om, it does produce a soothing effect on jangled nerves and brings peace of mind. The Sikh equivalent Ek Onkar (there is one God) is derived from it, but does not enjoy the same popularity among Sikhs as does Om among Hindus.

  The Muslims do not have any single word to match Om, but they do have some which, like Allah-o-Akbar, are repeated while telling the beads of a rosary. They also recite select passages of the Quran which are believed to be more powerful than others. The most frequently quoted is of course the opening lines of the holy book, Al-Fatihah:

  All praise be to Allah

  Lord of all the worlds,

  Most beneficent, ever merciful,

  King of the Day of Judgement,

  You alone we worship, and to You alone we turn for help.

  Guide us (O Lord) to the path that is straight,

  The path of those You have blessed,

  Not of those who have earned Your anger, nor those who have gone astray.

  - Ahmed Ali

  Next to the Fatihah, the second most popular verse is the Ayat-ul-Qursi, the throne verse:

  God: There is no god but He, the living, sustaining, ever self-subsisting.

  Neither does somnolence affect Him nor sleep.

  To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth; and who can intercede with Him except by His leave?

  Known to Him is all that is present before men and what is hidden

  (in time past and time future)

  and to even a little of His knowledge can they grasp except what He will.

  His set extends over heavens and the earth and

  He tires not protecting them:

  He alone is all high and supreme.

  There is no compulsion in matter of faith.

  Distinct is the way of guidance now from error.

  He who turns away from the forces of evil

  and believes in God, will surely hold fast

  to a handle that is strong and unbreakable,

  for God hears all and knows everything.

  - Ahmed Ali

  The Ayat-ul-Qursi is embossed on medallions and worn by Muslim ladies attached to their necklaces. It is also the most popularly quoted verse on Muslim graves. The third in popularity are lines from Surah Yaseen. This Surah is also a favourite citation on mausoleums. On the entrance gate of the Taj Mahal, it is reproduced in full.

  Among Hindus, the mantra regarded as the most powerful is the Gayatri from the Yajur Veda. To me it appeared as an invocation to the sun and I could not decipher any hidden meaning in it. I turned to my onetime Hindi teacher (I studied Hindi only for two years before I turned to Urdu) for an explanation. Dr Dashrath Ojha, who retired as a professor of Hindi and Sanskrit of Delhi University some years ago, was kind enough to illumine my mind. I share his explanation. First the mantra:

  Om bhur bhuvah swah

  Tat savitur varenyam

  Bhargo devasya dhimahi

  Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat.

  Let us meditate on God, His glorious attributes, who is the basis of everything in this universe as its creator, who is fit to be worshipped as omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient and self-existent conscious being, who removes all ignorance and impurities from the mind and purifies and sharpens our intellect... May God enlighten our intellects.

  Dr Ojha advises that in order to comprehend the full meaning of the mantra, the reciter must pause at the end of each line and let the meaning sink in.

  After the incantation Om is ‘Bhur bhuva swah’, meaning on earth (bhur), in the sky (bhuva) and in the heavens above the sun (swah). ‘Tat’ stands for God, ‘savitur’ God as the creator and the power that sustains creation; ‘Varenyam’ indicates that God is transcendent; ‘bhargo’ that He is the light that dispels darkness and purifies impurities; ‘devasya’ - He is the light behind all lights and the bestower of happiness; ‘dhimahi’ is the exhortation to meditate on Him, ‘dhiyo yo’ stands for intellect, ‘nah’ for ours and ‘prachodayat’ is the prayer that God may direct our energies towards good deeds, thoughts and conduct.

  According to Dr Ojha, the purpose of reciting the Gayatri mantra is as follows: ‘As this mantra invokes an integrated form of endless and beginningless God, all limitations which are normally found in the worship of a personal god or goddess are totally absent in its goal. As such it helps to clean our mind of its impurities in totality as and when it expands in tune with the meaning of its repetition. Thus, gradually, this mantra helps us to possess an enlightened intellect. This enables us to know more and more about God in meditation and the mysteries of nature through intellect when it is directed towards objects. This also makes us maintain constant awareness of the very basis of our existence. As this mantra directs the imagi
nation of the mind to a limitless state, it strikes at the very root of our basic desires and instincts, not necessarily of this present life, but also many past lives.’

  There is something inherent in all religious systems which makes them intolerant towards others. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable when a section of believers break away from the main body to recognize sub-prophets of their own with their separate scriptures, places of worship and social organizations. No religious system is known to have escaped the cancer of intolerance.

  Hinduism, which makes lofty claims of being the most tolerant of religions (the caste system notwithstanding) was unable to contain itself either against Jainism or Buddhism, which broke away from it. When Hinduism came back into its own, it wreaked terrible vengeance against Jains and Buddhists and virtually wiped them out as separate communities.

  Judaism was unable to accept the emergence of Christ and denounced Him as a heretic. Christians never forgave the Jews for what they did to their Messiah and continue to persecute them to this day. Then Christianity splintered into many churches - Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Protestant and dozens of others. Catholics and Protestants have waged wars against each other and perpetrated massacres of each others’ populations. When Islam rose out of paganism, Judaism and Christianity, Muslims suffered the same fate. They repaid the Jews and the Christians in the same way.

  Smaller religious communities like the Sikhs did not escape this malaise either. While they were able to make adjustments with the numerically more powerful Hindus and Muslims, they could not tolerate subcommunities which broke away from the Sikh mainstream.

  Two groups, the Namdharis and the Nirankaris, which recognized gurus of their own, were ostracized. Neither of them is allowed inside gurdwaras and no amritdhari may have matrimonial relationship with them. Bhindranwale turned the wiping out of Nirankaris into an article of faith. Their sacred books, Avtar Bani and Yugpurush, were condemned as derogatory of the Sikh gurus (I was unable to locate anything offensive in them), and Baba Gurbachan Singh was murdered.

  From the outside, Islam gives the impression of being a unified, monolithic religious group. It is nothing of the sort. It broke into two, immediately after the death of Prophet Muhammad. The larger section accepted the succession of the first three Caliphs -Abu Bakr, Omar and Othman. A smaller group regarded them as usurpers and recognized only Ali, the Prophet’s son-in-law, as the true successor. Ever since, the Islamic world has been split into the Shias and Sunnis. Their hostility continues to this day. While the Sunnis have not had many breakaway groups and only follow different schools of jurisprudence, the Shias have virtually dozens of subgroups with their own mosques, rituals and graveyards.

  Muslim intolerance towards breakaway groups -the Bahais and the Quadianis - has been noticeably fierce. Hundreds of Bahais were executed in Iran for no crime except being Bahais during the reign of Ayatollah Khomeini. Pakistanis did not lag behind in their fervour in persecuting Quadianis. This group, which branched out in 1889 under the leadership of Mirza Ghulam Ahmed of Quadian (now in Indian Punjab) has done more to spread the message of Islam in Africa and Europe than any other set of Muslim missionaries. It has also produced some very distinguished men like Chaudhary Zaffarullah Khan, judge of the supreme court and later foreign minister of Pakistan, and Professor Abdus Salam, the only Pakistani winner of the Nobel Prize. But they have, nevertheless, been the target of Muslim fundamentalism. Their township, Rabwah, along the Jhelum, witnessed a lot of violence before the country’s highest judiciary declared Ahmediyas to be non-Muslims. They are not allowed to call for prayer from the minarets of their mosques and not even allowed to describe themselves as Muslims. They have declared themselves a minority.

  The only point of contention is that the ulema maintains that Islam recognizes Muhammad as the last of the Prophets (Khatmun Nabi) and anyone who accepts a successor is a heretic. The Ahmediyas strenuously deny that they ever question Muhammad’s singular Prophethood and look upon their Mirza Sahib and his successors simply as guides. This is not good enough for the Pakistani ulema.

  The fact that the Aga Khan is regarded as a living God by his Ismaili followers and that there are innumerable Muslim sects based on worship of pirs is considered besides the point. Logic has never been the strong point of any established religion. Nor has there been room for accommodation of a different point of view in the minds of religious bigots.

  Mrs Indira Gandhi ordered the Indian army into the Golden Temple. Her Sikh bodyguards avenged the insult by killing her. Sikhs killed Mrs Gandhi, so Hindus avenged her murder by killing thousands of Sikhs. Mrs Gandhi’s murderers were hanged so Khalistani terrorists took revenge by hanging a few innocent Hindus. The spirit of revenge is deeply ingrained in the human psyche. It is not an animal instinct because animals do not kill to take revenge, only in self-defence or for food.

  All religious systems have tried in their own ways to exorcize the spirit of revenge from the human mind. Some have achieved notable successes in this direction by adopting penal codes which forbid people settling their scores themselves and making punishment for crime the business of the state.

  This significant step was taken in the transition from the Old to the New Testament. Judaism sanctioned ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’. In the Sermon on the Mount which forms the most important part of the New Testament, Jesus is quoted as preaching: ‘Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man shall sue thee at the law, and take away the coat, let him have the cloak also’ (Matthew 5:39-40).

  One must be fair to Judaism. Although it sanctioned retaliation in equal measure, it did not justify a person taking the law into his own hands. It was not for the individual whose eye had been pierced or tooth knocked out to execute revenge but to lodge a complaint and submit to a court’s judgement whether or not the man who did him harm was to be punished in the same manner or compensated by a sum of money. ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’ was also an integral part of the Judaic faith.

  Islam, which took a great deal from Judaism and Christianity, made a similar compromise between crime and punishment. It accepted the principle of an eye for an eye, but allowed compensation in place of similar punishment as legitimate and elevated forgiveness to the pedestal of supreme virtue.

  Badla or revenge has never been sanctioned by any of the religious systems of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism or Sikhism. Jainism made ahimsa parmo dharma - the supreme religion - and even forbade killing of animals for food. Likewise, the Buddha preached non-violence in face of violence. Sikhism of the first nine Gurus as compiled in the Granth Sahib also preaches the moral superiority of turning the other cheek over retaliation. Among the most-quoted lines is from the Muslim divine Baba Fareed:

  Jo tain maara mukkian

  Tina na maaren ghum

  Apanery ghar jai ke

  Payr tina de choom

  Those who hit you with their fists

  Do not turn and hit them back;

  Seek them out in their homes

  And kiss their feet.

  Guru Gobind Singh, the last of the Gurus, turned the Sikhs into a militant fraternity and exhorted dharmayudha - the battle of righteousness - in face of unwarranted aggression. But he did not justify a person taking the law into his own hands. And sanctioned the use of force by a people only after all other means had been tried and had failed - it was only then that they were to draw the sword. In a memorable passage he wrote: ‘I came into the world charged with the duty to uphold the right in every place, to destroy sin and evil. Holy men, know it well in your hearts that the only reason I took birth was to see that righteousness may flourish: that the good may live and tyrants be torn out by their roots.’

  There are other aspects of the spirit of the revenge that need to be considered. There may be some justification for wanting to avenge the wrong done to y
ou by paying the wrongdoer in the same coin. To wit:

  Tit for Tat;

  Remember that;

  You killed my dog,

  I’ll kill your cat.

  You may not rest in peace till you have maimed or murdered the man who raped your child. Such levelling of scores has its own logic. But when vengeance is sought to be extended to people of the wrongdoer’s caste or community, its implications can be horrifying. This unfortunately has become a regular pattern of our lives. When one man desecrates a place of worship we not only desecrate his people’s place of worship, but also seek to avenge ourselves against his clan or community. The sickening incidents of communal riots bear testimony to this extended spirit of revenge. And often we extend the domain of vengeance against the entire society by organizing bandhs and gheraos, derailing trains, burning buses and causing damage to public property.

  It would be naive to expect that religious sermons will curb the desire to seek revenge. Forgiveness is a very rare commodity. There are not many in the world who, like Jesus Christ on the cross, would say of his tormentors: ‘Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do.’ However hard it may be to forgive the wrongdoer, it is the only antidote to badla.

  Israel Zangwill has a lovely short story about how a place can acquire sanctity and people who have blind faith at times benefit from it. It is about a remote village in eastern Poland where lived a poor Jewish woodcutter with his young wife. Near their home lived a middle-aged woman with her son who had been born paralytic. She had spent whatever she had to have him treated, but it had been of no avail.

  Come Christmas and the village and the surrounding country was under a layer of snow. The woodcutter had made a little money selling firewood and was looking forward to eating a square meal after a long while. Early on the morning of Christmas Day, the woodcutter’s wife went out into the woods to pick holly and mistletoe to decorate her home.