Being a sikh raised out of India, I do not understand this hatred or strong ill-feeling against muslims. I have been raised by an educated family, who has always followed the teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib. Nowhere in this does it state to put down others because of their cast or religion.
Yes, we are all equal and yes our own vanities as humans have caused this seperation and fight for power in the name of religion.
I think such feverent comments against religions are driven out of fear and only fuel ill-feelings amongst the religions.
Were you there when these fights occurred? Are we not meant to learn from our past? If we do hold onto the past and use it to fuel anger then will we not end up repeating the past?
What's the point of that?
Yes, it is all very revolutionary to state that we should all behave as equals etc etc. and very hard to digest because most of the Indian population still have such great hatred in their hearts for Pakistanis. I've tried to understand from so many people why this is so..and the only reply I get is just 'because it is'. Wow - now that is revolutionary considering its 2007.
Many good, good points.
Firstly, yes being raised outside of India one is subjected to constant bs of everything under the sun is equal and let us all be friends. Nice, but you are kidding yourself if you think the vast majority of other peoples and religions think you and the guru's teachings are equal to theirs. So while you take the high road, be aware of who is on the low road, and what their objectives may be.
I think people are generally ignorant and amnestic about partition of India. My honest and researched view is that a lot of the violence was instigated by the muslims, and then there were retaliations by the Sikhs of the middle of Punjab. If you read, the earliest violence was along the Northwest frontier provinces, as the Pathans needed little encouragement for molestation of others. Ask yourself a simple question: Who is more prone to communal violence: A sikh who is brought up being brainwashed to accept all faiths and peoples as equal, and with nary a thought to conversion of others, or someone whose religion says go out, kill or convert the {censored}, and by the way, have some halal meat here before you go, and do not forget to slit the throat of this poor animal and drain its blood before you gobble it down. So again, feel free to be idealistic, but idealism without knowledge can be detrimental.
Your comment about letting go of the past has merit, and probably is what is needed for peace and prosperity on the indian subcontinent. But a few remarks regarding the animosity and "hatred" between India and Pakistan.
You may ask why there are no old beautiful hindu temples throughout much of northern India -- because they were all destroyed and looted (while members were butchered and raped) and mosques built on top of it. Take a look at why the "Hindu Kush" is called that --- it means Hindu killer. When the central asians had conquered the weak and womanly hindus of the time, they took Lakhs and LAKHS of slaves to markets of central asia and middle east to be sold off. Can you imagine what they did to the women they captured? Anyway, legend has it that as a caravan of hindu slaves was being pushed through one of these passes, night time temperatures dropped and 100,000 people died, possibly giving birth to the name "hindu kush" mountains. We do not need to go into the other sundry massacres, wanton destruction of hindu and buddhist culture, and the looting and raping of society at large. Sooooooooo........while you are saying the right thing, why should the people of India love and smile at those who nearly destroyed their culture and religion? Also, a deeper point for you. The pakistanis are deeply schizophrenic about themselves. They are brown, they wear silwar kameez, they eat dal, roti also, they speak similar languages ---- they know we all belong together. They also know that all our forefathers were the same, and I think this is something abhorent to their notion of being an Islamic state, of being separate from us or need to seem to be different from us. For if you scratch nearly any Pakistani, there is a hindu underneath, somewhere and somewhen.
Also, look at modern history. The three wars India has had with pakistan, why did they occur? India has always held back because of superpower considerations,and never delivered a knock out blow to pakistan. Sikh and Indian troops had reached the lahore railway station in 1971. We gave a fair bit of land back, in hopes of peace. We gave them a good black eye in the creation of bangladesh, with surrender of 90,000 pakistanis to India, the largest surrender at that time since WWII and their release was based on the understanding that the Kashmir LOC would become the border. So what did our neighborly friends do? Start a rebellion in Kashmir, which they still cannot win back. Take the Kargil episode, with Pakistani forces invading Kashmir while Vajpayee is talking peace with Musharraf. Hmmmmmm....now what is it that you do not understand regarding India's dislike of pakistan?
And to end off this long post, look at what our sikhs did during that time. Our soldiers were instrumental in pushing back the pathans and afghans and pakistanis from Kashmir in 1947-48. Sikh regiments were airlifted to Srinagar. Nehru was asked if we should proceed to Skardu, Gilgit and Baltistan while we had the enemy on the run. The answer was NO, let us take it to the UN! In 1965 and 1971, do you really think India would have withstood Pakistan on its western border without Sikhs? The shameless Indian kuthay even gave the order to withdraw to Beas in 1965 when Pakistanis had launched a strong thrust into Punjab, and it was General Harbaksh Singh who disobeyed orders to fall back to Beas. The Indian high command was willing to cede western punjab to protect more central core areas in the north. Time and again, many brave Sikhs, Rajputs, Gurkhas and Jats have fought to push back unprovoked Pakistani aggression.
Anyway, if you have read all this, I hope it lends more to think about this complex topic.
I am learning Gurbani just fine.!
