Wanton Desecration

If the communique of the District Magistrate of Moradabad is to be relied upon, the news contained in it is serious and disquieting. Two temples are reported to have been desecrated and the Hindus assembled seriously assaulted. No cause for this, wanton desecration has been assigned. A similar incident is reported to have taken place at Amethi in the Lucknow district. Here the Hindus are supposed to have blown conches in defiance, it is said, of a magisterial order. If they did, it was for the magistrate to punish the offenders, not for the Mussalmans to enter the temple in a large body and commit assaults and desecrate temples. There is no doubt that these cases have an organisation at their back. It represents a deliberate attempt to create dissensions and prevent Hindu-Muslim unity. What the organisation can hope to gain by such acts is difficult to understand. It cannot enhance the dignity of Islam, it cannot popularize it. If it is material gain that is sought, it is not possible to achieve it. And if the organisers seek to gain Government favour by these methods, they will find themselves undetected.

(Young India, 21.8.1924)

Gulbarga Gone Mad

I hinted last week that there was evidently an organisation at the back of the mania for desecrating Hindu temples. Gulbarga is the latest instance in point. Whatever the Hindu provocation, if there was any, the Mussalman outburst has an ominous look about it. The desecration of temples cannot be justified in any circumstances whatsoever. Maulana Shakat Ali when he heard of Shambhar and Amethi desecrations exclaimed in a fit of temper that the Mussalmans should not be surprised if the Hindus retaliate and some day find that their mosques have been desecrated. The Hindus may feel flattered or pleased over the Maulana's indignant exclamation. But I do not and I advise the Hindus not to be. Let them understand that I feel, perhaps more keenly than most of them, every fanatic outburst on the part of Mussalmans. I am fully aware of my responsibility in the matter. I know that many Hindus feel that I am responsible for many of these outbursts. For, they argue, I contributed the largest share to the awakening of the Mussalman masses. I appreciate the charge. Though I do not repent of my contribution, I feel the force of the objection. Therefore, if for no other reason for this at least of greater responsibility, I must feel, more keenly than most Hindus can, these desecrations. I am both an idolater and an iconoclast in what I conceive to be the true sense of the terms. I value the spirit behind idol worship. It plays a most important part in the uplift of the human race. And I would like to possess the ability to defend with my life the thousands of holy temples which sanctify this land of ours. My alliance with the Mussalmans presupposes their perfect tolerance for my idols and my temples. I am an iconoclast in the sense that I break down the subtle form of idolatry in the shape of fanaticism that refuses to see any virtue in any other form of worshipping the Deity save one's own. This form of idolatry is more deadly for being more fine and evasive than the tangible and gross form of worship that identifies the Deity with a little bit of a stone or a golden image.

True Hindu Muslim unity requires Mussalmans to tolerate not as a virtue of necessity, not as a policy, but as part of their religion, the religion of others so long as they, the latter, believe it to be true. Even so it is expected of Hindus to extend the same tolerance as a matter of faith and religion to the religions of others, no matter how repugnant they may appear to their, the Hindus, sense of religion. The Hindus must, therefore, reject the idea of retaliation. The law of retaliation we have been trying since the day of Adam and we know from experience that it has hopelessly failed. We are groaning under its poisonous effect. Above all the Hindus may not break mosques against temples. That way lies slavery and worse. Even though a thousand temples may be reduced to bits, I would not touch a single mosque and expect thus to prove the superiority of my faith to the so-called faith of fanatics. I would love to hear of priests dying at their posts in defence of their temples and their idols. Let them learn to suffer and to die in the defence of their temples even as God allows Himself to be insulted and broken up in the insult and damage done to the idols in which being omnipresent He undoubtedly resides. Hindus will not defend their religion or their temples by seeking to destroy mosques and thus proving themselves as fanatical as the fanatics who have been desecrating temples.

To the unknown Mussalmans who are undoubtedly behind these desecrations I submit:

Remember that Islam is being judged by your conduct. I have not found a single Mussalman defending these outbursts not even under provocation. There seems to me to have been little if any provocation offered by the Hindus. But let us assume that it was otherwise, that Hindus played music near mosques to exasperate Mussalmans, that they even removed a stone from a minaret. Yet I venture to say that Mussalmans ought not to have desecrated Hindu temples. Even retaliation has its limits. Hindus prize their temples above their lives. It is possible to contemplate with some degree of equanimity injury to life but not to temples. Religion is more than life. Remember that his own religion is the truest to every man even if it stands low in the scales of philosophic comparison. But presumption is against such, Hindu provocation. The desecration of Multan was an unprovoked act. I have been trying to find proof for the allegations about Hindu desecration in the places referred to in my article on Hindu-Muslim tension. I have failed to receive any proof in support of them. You will not enhance the reputation of Islam by the acts reported about Amethi, Shambhar and Gulbarga. If you will permit me to say so, I feel about the honour of Islam as much as I feel about my own religion. This I do because I desire to live in perfect, open and hearty friendship with Mussalmans. I cannot help saying that these desecrations are cutting a deep wound in my heart....

At An All-Religion Prayer Meeting In Patna on 12 March, 1947

"If a misdirected individual took into his head to desecrate a temple or break idols, should a Hindu in return desecrate a mosque on that account? Does it in anyway help to protect the temple or to save the cause of Hinduism?"

At a Prayer Meeting in Patna on 28 March, 1947

"If this reported desecration (of the mosque) on the Holi day is a fact, it is a bad omen for the Hindus, for Bihar and for the whole country."

Speech, Prayer Meeting, 21 November, 1947

I cannot help mentioning the fact that according to the information received by me 137 mosques have been destroyed in Delhi during the riots. Some of them have been converted into temples. There is one such mosque near Connaught Place which can never remain unnoticed by anyone. Today there is a tri-colour flying over it. Desecrating the mosques in this manner is a blot on Hinduism and Sikhism. It is gross adharam in my view. The blot which I have mentioned cannot be wiped out by saying that even the Muslims in Pakistan have desecrated the Hindu temples or changed them into mosques. In my view, any such act can only destroy religion, whether it is Hinduism, Sikhism or Islam.

Speech, Prayer Meeting, 30 November, 1947

The Sardar (that is, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel) has made some arrangements and he is going to protect all the mosques... You must have read the notice sent by him in the newspapers that the occupied premises of the mosques should be vacated in a week's time, otherwise they will be vacated with the help of the police.... If some Hindus have installed an idol in some mosque....so long as it has not been sanctified and not worshipped by pure hands, in my view it is not an idol but a mere piece of stone... Such idols have been installed in the mosque at the corner of the Connaught Place. In my view, there is no Hanuman in those Idols. To me it is mere piece of stone which has been shaped like Hanuman and to which some sindoor has also been applied. It can be worshipped only if it is legitimately installed and sanctified. But all this has not been done. Hence it is the duty of those who have installed the idols to remove them from there at daybreak and then keep them wherever they choose. By thus installing idols in the mosques they are desecrating the mosques and also insulting the idols... Why should the Sardar send the police...? Those who are Hindus among you should become watchmen and remove the idols so installed. We should offer to repair the mosques which have been damaged. But the Sardar says that the government should bear the expenses of the repairs of those mosques. Why should the government do it? Is it not because we are not doing it ourselves?...

"An idol has no value unless it is duly installed in a consecrated place by duly qualified devotees. Forcible possession of a mosque disgraces Hinduism and Sikhism. It is the duty of the Hindus to remove the idols from the mosques and repair the damage...

Conditions for Breaking Last Fast, 13-18 January, 1948 for Vacation of Muslim Shrines Occupied in Delhi.

(1) Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki's tomb at Mehrauli should be repaired. Muslims should have full freedom to visit it and there should be no interference of any kind in this.

(2) All non-Muslims should voluntarily withdraw from those mosques in the city that are being used for residential purposes or have been converted into temples.

(3) Muslims should have the freedom to live in those areas where they had been living before riots broke out

(4) Muslims should have full freedom to travel by trains.

(5) Economic boycott of Muslims should end.

(6) Muslims should have full freedom to invite non-Muslims to live in their areas.

(7) Those Muslims who want to migrate from Pakistan (to India) should have the freedom to do so.

(8) Pakistan should be given Rs. 25 crores as promised.

At Dargah Qutub Sahab Mehrauli, Delhi, 18 January, 1948

I am also distressed to see the costly marble trellis damaged. It is no answer to say that similar or worse things have happened in Pakistan. Have we fallen so low as to stoop to such acts of vandalism? Granting that such incidents have occurred on a large-scale in Pakistan, it will be improper to institute comparisons in evil doing. Even if the whole world did wrong, should we do likewise? If today I take to evil courses, will it not distress you? For me it will be worse than death. Similarly, we have reason to feel ashamed at the damage done to the Dargah...