Peace & Harmony News
Hindus celebrate "Urs'' of Muslim saint Asmal Pir
Muslims help Hindus in their pilgrimage to Amarnath
Hindu and Christian friends help a blind Muslim boy
translate Holy Quran into Braille
A Muslim serves as a
priest at a Ganesh temple
Feature
Building civic links key to Hindu-Muslim amity by
Lalit K. Jha, from India West, 1/22/1999
Epic Enemies: A Discussion of Hindu-Muslim Relations in
India-by Ankur Shah
*Hindus celebrate "Urs'' of Muslim saint Asmal Pir
People of the Saurashtra and Kutch regions are known for their rich culture, tradition and devotion towards gods, goddesses and saints. Reverence for communal harmony is common among those owing allegiance to different religions, according to a July 28, 1998, Times of India News Service report from Rajkot, Gujarat in India.
Thikariyala, a small village in Wankaner taluka inhabited by Hindus, is a pointer to this reality. It is a village with a difference since the entire population of around 2,200 Hindus assembles once a year in the month of "ashadh'' at Pir Dargah to celebrate the "Urs'' of Muslim saint Asmal Pir by offering "chadars'' and ``dhajas''. The lone Muslim family in the village is that of the seventh generation of ``Munjavar'', known as priest Haji Sha Gigasha. Along with his family, he has devoted himself to the maintenance of the holy shrine.
Without any discrimination pertaining to caste, creed or religion, villagers sit together for lunch which is prepared by them. They also care a lot for the environment and animals. Special ``ladoos'' are prepared for dogs of the village and 40 kg of jowar is fed to birds everyday by a bird lover.
Legend has it that saint Asmal Pir, whose native place was Jiyana village under Wankaner taluka some 400 years ago, gave his life in trying to life save cows from robbers. It is believed that his head was found in Thikariyala village and other parts of the body in nearby villages.
* Muslims help Hindus in their pilgrimage to Amarnath
Shouts of ''Jai Amarnath, jai Bholanath'' rent the air as people from villages around the Pahalgam-Chandanwari road in Jammu and Kashmir cheer on the pilgrims in their arduous trek to the sacred Hindu Shive shrine in the ice cave of Amarnath. It does not matter to Hindu pilgrims that most of the people who shake hands with them are Muslims; nor does it matter to the villagers that the devotees are Hindus, according to a August 4, 1998, Rediff on the NeT report from Pahalgam-Chandanwari Road, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
For years the Hindus and Muslims in this part of the state have led a symbiotic life. The porters, the horsemen and the palanquin bearers, who carry the old and infirm to the shrine, are mostly Muslims. There is no hint of animosity or hatred on their faces.
Most of the vendors serving hot coffee, tea and biscuits also are Muslims. Hindus have no inhibitions whatsoever among the Hindus in accepting the servings.
In fact, the rows of shops located below the holy shrine that sell prasad (food offered to the gods). Most of them are manned by Muslims!
At Panchtarani and Sheshnag, the Muslims have pitched tents and are providing all amenities to the pilgrims. On cold nights, they would be at hand to hand out blankets and fire from chullahs to those in need. It is interesting to note that despite the presence of langars, where food is served free, most of the pilgrims preferred to dine with their Muslim brethren, in tents.
* Hindu and Christian friends help a blind Muslim boy translate Holy Quran into Braille
In a shining example of communal amity, a blind Muslim boy, Syed Noor Mohammed Shakir, 20, a second-year student of Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati, is transcribing the English translation of the holy Quran into Braille with the aid of his Hindu and Christian friends, according to a March 12, 1999, India Abroad News Service report published in India West from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.
A Hindu friend, C. Anjanayalu, who runs a private junior college in Tirupati donated Rs. 28,000 to help Shakir buy a computer and a scanner to make his work easier. "Hindu and Muslim means nothing to us. We have always been good friends. I have spent my entire childhood with the Muslims", Anjanayalu said.
The computer and scanner have arrived, but some software is still awaited. Till then Shakir will depend on his friends like Bhaskar and Jyotishwara Reddy to read the holy Quran aloud to him so that he can transcribe it in Braille.
They were all dressed in pathani lehengas and kurtas, laced topis or safas covering their heads and beat themselves with ritual fervor crying, "Hai Hasan, Hai Hussain." It was nothing unusual on Muharram except that they were all Hindus, according to a April 28, 1999, Times of India report by Jhimli Mukherjee from Vadodra, Gujarat, India. At Kaka Saheb Ka Tekra at Bhoiwada, in the city, the entire Hindu mohalla has been observing Muharram for the past 200 years. Here, every member of a Hindu family is a devoted follower of the legendary Rafai Pir, whose dargah almost adjoins the Tekra."And, it is because the Bawa is our mai baap, we observe Muharram. Our forefathers did it since the Bawa's times, we are continuing with the tradition."
* A Muslim serves as a priest at a Ganesh temple
Every morning and evening a 60-year-old priest arrives at a little Ganesh temple housed in the M S University faculty of technology and engineering building at Vadodra (Gujarat, India), says this March 1999, Times of India report from by Sajid Shaikh from Vadodra, Gujarat, India. He spends the next few minutes performing puja before the presiding deity.
Nothing unusual about that - except that the priest is named Abdul Rashid Ismail Shaikh. A true-blue Muslim by birth, Abdul is a Ganesh devotee by choice. A peon (at the faculty) by profession, he is the unofficial priest of the temple. Even though a Muslim, he has impeccable credentials to hold the high position - he is a Sanskrit scholar and the shlokas roll off his tongue with unfettered ease. "I am the Muslim Brahmin here,'' says the man who is endearingly called Chacha (Uncle) by all on the campus.
His knowledge of the epics is amazing. He can narrate or recite any episode from the Ramayana or the Bhagwad Gita. Such is his grasp of the Vedas and Shashtras that at times he steps in to correct other pujaris. Abdul's fascination with Hindu scriptures began when he was a child. ``I stay in the Madazampa area in city. Ours was the only Muslim house in the locality, which was a Hindu area full of Gujaratis and Marathis. I used to join the Ganesh Mahotsav in the area. It was great fun,'' he recalls.
Gradually, this fascination led him to probe deeper into the philosophy of Hinduism. This did not, however, lead him to abandoning the religion he was born into. On the contrary, he was able to compare the two almost like a theologist. The similarities in the two religions struck him. ``In the end, it is the same Malik. Har mazhab pyar sikhata hai (every religion preaches love),'' he says, lamenting that fanatics on both sides fail to see this. ``Khudatala har chiz mai hai, chahe wo Tajuddin Baba ka mazaar ho ya ho Sai Baba ka mandir, (God is everywhere, whether in the mausoleum of Tajuddin Baba or the Sai Baba temple),'' he says.
However, like all those who dare to choose a different path, Abdul has had to face his share of problems. Members of his own community ostracized him earlier; but eventually they came to understand him. ``I don't have any complaints. I know what I am doing and I know that it is right. The greatest religion is that of humanity,'' he avers.
At the university, Abdul, who is due to retire in June, 1999 is a revered figure. ``We all respect him. People like him are rare,'' says mechanical engineering department reader G D Karhadkar. Almost everybody on the campus echoes the view. ``He is a learned man and as far as the shlokas are concerned, he can leave behind even the bestof pandits,'' says Arvind Bhavsar, tool operator in the faculty.
* Building civic links key to Hindu-Muslim amity by Lalit K. Jha, from India West, January 22, 1999
Building human bonds through inter-ethnic networks was the key to communal peace and harmonious coexistence between Hindus and Muslims in India, says a joint Indo-U.S. research study. "The biggest guarantor of communal peace in India is civic links between the communities rather than reliability on the government," research scholar Ashutosh Varshney, who delivered a lecture on the subject in New Delhi, told India Abroad News Service.
Varshney, associate professor of political science at Columbia University in USA, led a team of 20 scholars in a seven-year project titled "Civic Life and Communal Conflict: Hindus and Muslims in India." The project, at an estimated cost of $250,000, was funded by the Social Science research Council, MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Harvard University in USA, and the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in India. The study is to be published by the Yale University Press.
According to the study, which covers a period of 45 years between 1950 and 1995, there were as many as 700 Hindu-Muslim riots in India with at least 7,200 deaths and tn times as many injured. "The overwhelming proportions of them were Muslims," said Varshney.
While Hindus constitute over 80 percent of India's 960 million population, Muslims, with nearly 12 percent, are the single largest religious minority.
The study has tried to find out why some of the Indian cities are more riot-prone than others despite having similar features like economic competition, polarization on political grounds and segregated neighborhoods.
Tensions, small clashes and rumors prevailed in al cities but there were certain factors that transformed them into riots in some cities while in others they simply died down, the study observes.. "The occurrence and prevention of riots depends on how well Hindus and Muslims are integrated in the city through organizations, assemblies and civic sense," Varshney told IANS.
Varshney's conclusions were based on extensive research, over 1,300 interviews and field study of six cities with sizable Hindu-Muslim populations. Aligarh, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, with a Muslim population respectively of 37 percent, 30-35 percent and 14 percent, have a record of endemic violence, while relative peace has prevailed in cities like Calicut (37 percent) in Kerala, Lucknow (30- 35 percent) in Uttar Pradesh and Surat (14 percent) in Gujarat.
"There is an integral link between the structure of civic life in a multiethnic society on the one hand and the presence or absence of ethnic violence on the other hand," said Varshney. The study observed that inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic networks of civic engagement played very different roles in ethnic conflict. "Because they build bridges and manage tensions, inter-ethnic networks are agents of peace, but communities are organized only on intra-ethnic lines and the interconnections with other communities are very weak, ethnic violence is quite likely, it said.
For example, Varshney said that cities like Aligarh had riots as even various business and trade organizations were divided on religious lines while in cities like Calicut both the communities were integrated into one organization. In cities like Surat, traders' associations formed peace committees and tried to verify the facts as soon as rumors spread, while imposition of peace committees on riot- prone cities never worked.
"These were precisely the reasons why Lucknow had no riots in 1992 despite being just 80 miles away from Ayodhya (where the 16th century Babri mosque was destroyed in 1992 by right-wing Hindu fringe groups)," he said. "Associational integration cannot be broken up so easily. Every day intimacy and integration can be disturbed," Varshney said. "Vigorous associational life, if inter-ethnic, acts as serious constraints on polarizing strategies of political elite," he added.
Riots in India, Varshney said, were an urban phenomenon. "With increased urbanization there was greater need to strengthen civic sense in Indian cities," he said. As many as 96 percent of the deaths due to communal riots during the period of study were in urban areas, the study found. Varshney sees an important role for non-government organizations, trade unions, business organizations, professional associations and even bar associations in urban areas in preventing riots. "Riots mostly begin with a small clash or a rumor and sometimes with a big event like the Ayodhya incident, Varshney said. According to the study, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Aligarh, Hyderabad, Meerut and Baroda were the six most riot-prone cities of the country. While Mumbai and Ahmedabad, with 1,200 and 1,150 deaths during the 45 years under study, accounted for the maximum number of casualties, Aligarh, with at least 400 deaths, accounted for the highest per capita deaths in India, said Varshney. The biggest riot in terms of casualties in independent India is said to have taken place at Ahmedabad in 1969 when as many as 630 people were reported killed in just five days.
Referring to the states, Varshney said Gujarat, Maharashtra Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were the four most riot-prone. While riots in the first two were fewer but with greater intensity, they were regular with lesser intensity in the last two.
The study also tries to break the myth that riots were related to the composition of the police force. "Kerala has the least number of Muslims in the police force, he said, adding that the state had just three Hindu-Muslim riots resulting in less than ten deaths in 45 years. On the other hand, in Hyderabad, which has a sizable Muslim presence in its police force, big riots were an annual feature between 1979 and 1986, and again between 1992 and 1995.
"Epic Enemies: A Discussion of Hindu-Muslim Relations in India"
by Ankur Shah
Few men have urged a love for all people as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi did. During his lifetime, he fervently maintained a program of toleration for all classes, creeds, and religions. At the age of seventy-eight, Gandhi began his last fast, the purpose of which was to end the bloodshed between the Hindus and the Muslims. Soon thereafter, the leaders of these two groups pledged to stop fighting and Gandhi broke his fast. Then, twelve days later, Gandhi was assassinated on his way to a prayer meeting in New Delhi. He was shot three times by a Hindu fanatic who opposed Gandhi’s toleration of Muslims. A shocked India and world sadly mourned Gandhi’s death.
Now, fifty years later, the seeds of hate between followers of the two religions continue to sprout. The approximately 130 million Muslims in India comprise the country’s largest minority, representing fourteen percent of the country’s population of 931 million.1 Hindus retain the majority, forming eighty-three percent of India’s religious followers. Religion plays a vital role in India’s way of life. Religious laws of the Hindus and Muslims govern the people’s clothing, food, marriage, and even occupations. The gulf of mistrust, fear, and hatred existence today between India’s Hindus and Muslims has been long entrenched in South Asia’s history.
The Muslims began invading the Indian subcontinent during the 1100’s; however, Islam did not become particularly dominant until the Mughal rulers arrived in the early 1500’s. During this period, many low-caste Hindus converted to Islam to escape discrimination, mainly in the Northern heartland of India. Eventually, the imposition of colonial rule in India fueled animosity and conflict between the Hindu and Muslim communities. After the decline of Mughal power, the British often utilized “divide and rule” tactics in order to maintain governance over the vast area. In essence, the Hindu-Muslim conflict has existed in earnest since this time.2
While Muslims began to mobilize to ensure their rights early in the twentieth century, it was not until the 1930’s that the idea of an independent Muslim state gained support. The Muslim League, which formed in 1906, feared that plans for an independent India would give Hindus too much power over Muslims, and that the Indian National Congress would keep Muslims from taking active roles in the provincial governments.3 The Muslim League quickly gained legislative seats and power, and in 1940, its leader Muhammed Ali Jinnah demanded that an entirely separate Muslim country be carved out of India. Widespread Hindu-Muslim violence occurred during the ensuing years, until in 1947, Indian and British leaders agreed to partition the country into India and Pakistan in hopes of ending the violence. Both nations became independent, yet demanded that an entirely separate Muslim country be carved out of India. Widespread Hindu-Muslim violence occurred during the ensuing years, until in 1947, Indian and British leaders agreed to partition the country into India and Pakistan in hopes of ending the violence. Both nations became independent, yet more bloodshed followed the partition as one of the largest population transfers in history occurred as many Muslims left India to reside in Pakistan while Hindus moved to India.4
Despite the recent partition, India and Pakistan continued to fight over India’s northernmost state of Jammu and Kashmir, where a Muslim majority existed. India and Pakistan fought two more wars over Kashmir, in 1965 and 1971. This area remains a thorn in relations between Hindus and Muslims, “the most incendiary legacy of the deep-rooted conflict” that led to the 1947 partition of South Asia.5 Few commentators in 1947 would have predicted that the Kashmir dispute would remain “unresolved and seemingly irresolvable” fifty years later.6
The birth of Pakistan is 1947 did not settle Hindu-Muslim differences or end conflicts. To the contrary, all the old problems remained. “Religious differences and orthodox zeal provided ample fuel to keep the fires burning once the power, political ambitions, and fears of leaders of the Muslim League, Congress, and the British Raj sparked the initial rage.... Hindu temples with their towering gates and walls, often covered with naked gods and voluptuous goddesses, remain a source of constant provocation to Muslim eyes and minds, even as Muslim butchers provoke Hindu rage and fury each time they lead a cow or her calf to slaughter.”7
However, the problem is more complex and involves more than simply a difference in values. Violence and communal strife have defined the relationship between Muslims and Hindus since partition. The religious conflict between Hindus and Muslims has been perpetuated by numerous occurrences and issues over the last decade in India, and the outlook for now remains rather bleak. At the heart of the present-day dispute is the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya, in North-central India. Hindu fundamentalist parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena contend that the mosque was located on the birthplace of Ram, who is an incarnation of a Hindu god, and that a Ram temple was torn down in order to construct the mosque on the same site a couple of centuries ago.8 Acting on their beliefs, a mob of Hindu zealots stormed the mosque in 1992 and reduced the eighteenth century building to a pile of rubble. The destruction touched off Hindu-Muslim rioting across the country that has killed thousands in the past few years.
Besides this death toll, another one of the fallouts of the chaos in the wake of the Ayodhya incident is that both Hindus and Muslims now realize how much damage each can inflict on the other.9 A widening divide definitely exists between the two, and no serious effort has been made to bridge it. Many Hindus have blamed Muslims for worsening the relationship, and the compliment has been returned.10 Muslims have an acute sense of insecurity. Although many have resided in India for centuries, they are often viewed with suspicion and considered “anti-Indian” by the majority Hindu community, and the retain numerous grievances towards Hindus. Muslims complain of educational and economic backwardness. Although Muslims comprise over twelve percent of the population, their school population is less than two percent. Muslims are lagging behind Hindus in professional areas as well, and are under-represented in government employment, armed services, and police forces.11
However, in recent years, Muslims in India have complained adamantly of oppression at the hands of the Indian government. India is an independent republic made up of twenty-five states and seven territories. Although still a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, India does not recognize the British monarch as its ruler. A president serves as India’s head of state, but a prime minister actually heads the government. Currently, Shri K.R. Narayanan and Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee hold the respective positions.12 India possesses a Constitution and Bill of Rights similar in many ways to America’s. India also had a federal government, involving a Parliament-Cabinet structure. The bicameral parliament consists of the Lok Sabha (House of the People) and the Rajya Sabha (Council of States). The prime minister chooses a cabinet and heads the government with the support of Parliament.13
Two major political parties have dominated Indian politics since partition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the National Congress Party. During the past decades, and increasingly since 1992, both parties seem to have adopted policies harmful to Muslims and beneficial to Hindus. When Indira Gandhi split the Congress Party in 1969 to get rid of the party bosses, she talked of secularism and minority interests in attempts to gain Muslim support. However, she also began to encourage Hindu forces in subtle ways to maximize Hindu support. She almost ditched the Muslims, resulting in a deterioration of Hindu-Muslim relations, major riots, and more insecure Muslims. Rajiv Gandhi, India’s next prime minister, proved no better as he followed his mother’s policy. Narasimha Rao, the next Congress prime minister, proved an absolute disaster as he failed to protect the Babri Masjid mosque from demolition in 1992. Intense rioting resulted, and the Congress government did nothing to defuse the situation and restore the confidence of Muslims.14 Muslims have no real reason to feel happy with the Congress. In the last fifty years, a period dominated by Congress rule, the Muslim community gained little. A recent apology on January 26th by the Congress Party for the Ayodhya incident proved meaningless to Muslims, in the absence of a commitment to rebuild the mosque on the disputed site.15
Angered at the Congress Party for failing to protect them, Muslims voted for leftist parties in the 1994 state elections, inadvertently leading to a victory for the Hindu-nationalist BJP.16 The growth of Hindu nationalism became a major issue in India during 1992 and 1993, especially after the Ayodhya incident. Many members of the new majority BJP actually supported the mosque’s destruction, reflecting the beliefs of many Indians that Hindus have been victimized by centuries of Muslim rule.17 The BJP is even committed to building a Ram temple at the disputed site. In essence, both parties did nothing to ease Muslim concerns or further their causes after the mosque’s destruction. Rather, they maintained an evident pro-Hindu stance. The Indian government actually blames Pakistani-backed insurgency as the prime cause for the collapse of the political process within Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir since 1989.18 The pro-Hindu BJP has even recently called for a repeal of Article 370 of the Constitution, which provides the Muslim-dominated state the right to retain its cultural identity.19
“The government hasn’t started any riots. But they’ve proved that they are anti-Muslim,” said one Muslim whose son was killed in a 1993 riot.20 Three years ago, Bombay erupted in Hindu-Muslim riots that killed eight hundred people while the Hindu-dominated police stood by, or even joined in. In early 1983, the worst fighting since 1947 broke out in the state of Assam. Police did nothing to curb the violence, and 2,000 people, mostly Muslim, were killed in the fighting.21 Sporadic Hindu-Muslim riots continue, especially near pluralistic metropolises such as Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, and Ahmedabab. As a rule, they run their course in a few nights or weeks, generally sorted out by pro-Hindu local police.22 Very rarely do Muslims emerge positively in the eyes of the Indian government or police. In almost all communal riots, the state police and government openly play a partisan, anti-Muslim role.
Everywhere one looks, the government’s non-partisan approach is obvious. The most visible evidence of the government’s pro-Hindu policies is the formal change of the name of Bombay to Mumbai, after a Hindu goddess. The BJP recently formed a coalition with the outspokenly anti-Muslim Shiv Sena party. The Maharashtra state government dissolved the State Minorities Commission, a public body to safeguard minority rights, claiming it only reminded Hindus and Muslims of their differences. In January, it suspended a judicial inquiry into the riots of the 1992 and 1993 that was investigating who was responsible and why police failed to act. That includes some policemen and Shiv Sena state legislators who were accused of helping Hindu mobs that targeted Muslims.23 The BJP has vowed to reverse special programs setting aside jobs and spots in colleges for Muslims, as they do for the lower castes of Hindu society. It also wants to eliminate the right of Muslim religious law, dictating personal issues like divorce and marriage.24 Basically, the Indian government leads Muslims to feel alienated “as a result of having constantly been given second-class treatment in their attempts to alleviate the community’s lot.”25
Indian government policy towards Hindu-Muslim relations has thus far been characterized by partisan Hindu nationalism, a laid-back stance towards the problem, neglect and oppression of Muslims, and basic ineffectiveness in nullifying or even alleviating the problem. Rather than improving Hindu-Muslim relations, the government has increased tensions. The inability of the federal government to follow a decisive policy on the Ayodhya issue has greatly contributed to Muslim discontent. Still, all of the blame for current problems should not be shoved upon the Hindus; rather, the Muslims also need to do their part to improve relations. Even at the individual level, many Muslims continue to be provocative in their actions.26 The past, even with all its faults, must now be forgotten. Muslims “must now convince Hindus of their love for their country, and that it is as deep as that for their religion... and instead of resenting the taunt of disloyalty, they should try to dispel it.... It is time they gave up their suicidal tendency of getting excited over temporary irritants which invariably lead to a Hindu backlash against them” and of constantly talking about “preserving their identity.”27 Muslims must now speak up against the “reactionary anti-Muslim elements” and insure that “ordinary Muslim citizens are not suspected of lacking in nationalism” and not excluded from the mainstream because they wanted to retain their distinct Indian-Islamic heritage.28
The solution to the epic problem of Hindu-Muslim conflict lies in mutual respect and tolerance. “The bloated rhetoric of secularism, constitutionalism, and rule of law must give way to common sense and realism.”29 Sensitivity to each other’s feelings and aspirations has to be a mutual affair. It should be the sacred duty of all to prevent violence; for this, all “hate propaganda” must stop.30 If either group has any grievance, it should be expressed in silent processions or town meetings, and not in angry or armed demonstrations.
Rather than taking actions after riots have already begun, the government must adopt a more activist stance and a preventive approach. The government should act positively and support both Hindus and Muslims. “It is high time now that the government and both communities diverted their full attention to more constructive activities.”31 Any government, whether local, state, or national, found guilty of criminal failure to maintain law and order, has no right to continue in office for another day. The government should be striving to ensure the safety and honor of their citizens. This can be assured by the signing of a permanent peace treaty, an economic union, a defense union, or even a confederation. Perhaps, India and Pakistan could even grant each other Most Favored Nation Status in trading agreements. If the USA, Canada, and Mexico would pull it off, why not the Hindus and the Muslims? Brotherhood and cooperation should overcome tension and disagreement.
Hindus and Muslims have coexisted now on Indian soil for more than 1,000 years, and in countless Indian villages and towns; they still live side by side, temple and mosque, within view of each other. Peaceful and happy pluralism can be maintained by permitting different religious groups to manage their own faiths as they wish, without infringement or interference from others. The basic fact is that “from the Himalayas to the seas, the Hindustan peninsula is one land mass, one crucible of civilization, one cradle of culture and, therefore, with all the divinities, there is one people.”32 If the French and the Germans--who fought two World Wars against each other--can be good friends and neighbors, surely the Hindus and the Muslims can do the same.
Endnotes
1. Eddie J. Girdner, Muslims in India, http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/mar/indmus.htm, March 29,1998.
2. Ibid.
3. P.P. Karan, “India,” The World Book Encyclopedia (Chicago, 1992), 130.
4. Girdner.
5. Stanley Wolpert, India (Los Angeles, 1991), 99.
6. V. Hewitt, “Kashmir: the Unanswered Question,” History Today, September 1997, 60.
7. Wolpert, 24.
8. Girdner.
9. Jennifer Lin, “Hindu-Muslim Relations,” Knight-Ridder Newspaper, May 10, 1996, 51.
10. Dr. Zariq Zakaria, The Widening Divide, (Penn State University), http://www.hindunet.org/alt_hindu/1995_Aug_1/msg00005.html, March 29, 2998.
11. Mr. K.R. Malkani, A Treaty to Heal Hindu-Muslim Rift, (Times of India, February 8, 1993), http://rbhatnagar.ececs.uc.edu:8080/hindutva/krm_treaty.html, March 29, 1998.
12. The Government, (The Indian Parliament Home Page), http://alfa.nic.in/, March 29, 1998.
13. Karan, 116.
14. K.R. Malkani, Hindu vs Muslim, http://www.timesofindia.com/ads/id50hindudiv.htm, March 29, 1998.
15. Zafar Agha, “Apology Meaningless to Muslims,” India Abroad, March 20, 1998, 16.
16. Naresh Fernandes, Anti-Muslim Prejudice Goes Behind the Scenes in Bombay, (The Associated Press), http://newmedia.jrn.columbia.edu/~njf8/muslims.html, March 29, 1998.
17. Brian Rajewski, Ed., Countries of the World (Detroit, 1998), 643.
18. Hewitt, 62.
19. Agha, 16.
20. Fernandes.
21. Karan, 134.
22. Wolpert, 248.
23. Fernandes.
24. Rajewski, 647.
25. Agha, 16.
26. Mohan Guruswamy, India’s Muslim Problem, (Hindustan Times, June 22, 995), http://www.hindunet.org/alt_hindu/1995_Jul_2/msg00105.html, arch 29, 1998.
27. Zakaria.
28. Agha, 22.
29. Shri Girilal Jain, Beyond Ayodhya’s Watershed, (Times of India, December 14, 992), http://rbhatnagar.ececs.uc.edu:8080?ramjanmabhoomi/gj_beyond_wat ershed, March 29, 1998.
30. Malkani, Treaty.
31. Zakaria.
32. Malkani, Treaty