I- H.S. Bhabhra's Letter to Shahabuddin, 18 January, 2000

While thanking for your letter dated 15.11.99, I am Amazed to learn that you are not conversant with Hindi .. One would obviously infer ... that you are one of those who for no reasons hate Hindi. Urdu, which you prefer Impartibly, is also nothing but a derivation from Hindi itten in Arabic script with Arabic and Persian words here and there ... Urdu is a language as close to Hindi as all other provincial languages like Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi etc.

However, for your convenience I am ... translating  my earlier letter in Hindi ... The Indian culture is not only incident but also one of the oldest and that always has been the binding force behind its people. India has never been one political entity earlier but inspite of that its culture Mood firm against all external attacks and attempts to destroy it. Only Indian culture has this unique power ...

Culture is an evolution of civilization which perennially enriches itself over the period. Obviously it is influenced hy events of history from time to time. Culture creates a sudden instinct in a mind that makes it reacts instantaneously to a situation. This factor which Indian culture has imbibed from the time of VEDAS still remains Intact and compact. This core part of culture never got Influenced.

The word 'composite culture' you have used a missioned, culture of a country is a close knit fabric. It Cannot be composition of two pieces. If that happens, such i country cannot remain united. The very idea of calling Indian culture a 'composite culture' is anti-national and communal. This was the idea that mainly divided this country. earlier. It seems such forces are again trying to further disintegrate this nation. India has one culture and it is one country based on it. Indian Muslims inspite of shifting their religious faith to Islam remained firmly a product of Indian culture ... An Indian Muslim has the same instinct as that of an Indian Hindu. Indian culture is deep rooted in the minds of all the followers of different faiths ...

Indian culture has unique parameters. It absorbed various faiths; it has different languages. Consists of many castes and creeds but still it is conspicuous ... and clearly reflects its character. The Muslim in India cannot be taken away from this culture. Any communal attempts to impose any superficial and artificial idea of composite culture on them would destroy the entire country ... So, for Gods sake do not try to separate them in the name of composite culture. Please don't try to divide the people of this country once again.

Il - Shahabuddin's Response, 23 February, 2000

Thank you for your letter of 15 January, 2000 which is the translation of your earlier letter of 15 November, 1999 in Hindi.

First, let me put your mind at ease. I do NOT hate Hindi but I do not know it well enough to carry on a correspondence on a sensitive subject. My mother tongue is Urdu, which I love as any one should love his mother tongue. Urdu is indeed very close to Hindi but it is not derived from Hindi. Both Urdu and Hindi have a common origin in Khariboli of the Doaba. Thus they are sister languages born of a common mother. Urdu and Hindi have a vast vocabulary in common. Urdu has accepted words freely from all languages including English.

Incidentally, Gujarati etc. are not provincial languages'. They are all NATIONAL LANGUAGES like Hindi and Urdu. Hindi, of course, has a special status as the Official Language of the UNION and as the principal language of six States and as the Mother Tongue of a larger number of people than any other national language.

Urdu is not written in the Arabic or the Persian scripts. Urdu is written in the Urdu script which is phonetically much more comprehensive than either of them or even Hindi.

Regarding Culture, you yourself concede that it is ever-evolving. In that case, the Indian Culture today is not the Indian Culture of yesterday, nor will the Indian Culture of tomorrow be the Indian culture of today. All one can say is that the core of the Indian Culture is the ancient Hindu Culture. But Indian Culture was not frozen in the Gupta age, it kept on evolving and changing through harmonisation with all new cultures that entered the Sub-continent since the Aryans. Indeed, the Indian Culture retains the influence of the pre-Aryan cultures; as well.

Permit me to disagree with you that the phrase 'composite culture' is a misnomer. Our culture is composite in the sense that it is multi-dimensional, shows a historical influence of many cultures throughout history and contemporary diversity.

.Under the common umbrella of our composite culture live many cultural groups who have their own manners and customs and way of life. There is no homogenous Indian Culture and the composite culture recognises the existence of many sub-cultures, which are also as legitimately Indian as any other.

Recently your leader L.K. Advani himself used the phrase composite culture in the Lok Sabha, Is he also 'anti-national"? Presidents after Presidents, Prime Ministers after Prime Ministers have used this term to qualify Indian Culture. Were they all anti-national and communal', as you say? In my view, anyone who identifies the Indian Culture with Hindu Culture or Islamic Culture is not a nationalist. And so is anyone who equates India with Hinduism, or Indian History with the history of the Hindus - to the marginalisation or degradation of other religious and cultural groups. It is this narrow-minded exclusivism or quest of assimilation, which may break up our country. Recognition of all religions, all races, all-cultures, all languages that compose our national diversity will keep the country together.

Muslim Indians, themselves, do not have an 'Islamic' Culture, even one common culture. In Bengal their culture is largely Bengali, in Kerala it is largely Malayali and so on. Even then there are clear differences in their way of life; in their birth, marriage and death rites; in their religious practices. This does not amount to separatism.

The cultural problem is to a large extent the problem of the Hindi-speaking region. It arises out of Hindi-Urdu relationship. There is no point in blaming each other or reversing the flaw of history or coercing people into uniformity. That is why Gandhiji wanted Hindustani as the National Language, with two scripts Devanagri and Urdu.

We have to accept that in the age of ethnicity, when all self-conscious groups all over the world, are seeking recognition of their specific identity, we cannot force a uniform identity on all Indians. We have to live with our diversity to keep our common motherland united and work together take it forward towards its glorious destiny.

To put it in a nutshell, the Muslim Indians are basically Indians as the Hindu Indians are but they are not Hindu, exactly as the Hindu Indians are not Muslim. But they are the sons and servants of the same motherland.