To Rashmun: A Pakistani intellectual's honest views on Mughal rule

by Rishi Sat Feb 23, 2013 11:55 pm

The other day a young proud Muslim with a college degree pointed out
all these blessings to me, and then explained, “We are so blessed
because we are Muslims, you know.”
This innocence is the fruit of a well organised movement which
teaches our students that the whole world, not a part of Arabia, was
dark and ignorant before Islam. Civilization started in the 6th century
after Christ.

A lack of awareness is a precondition for narcissistic pride.
Bragging is as natural to a child as humility is to a wise man. An
organised movement has been active for centuries to keep us away from
wisdom, which grows only when we learn and think. This movement was put
in motion in our past to maintain the dominance of Muslim kings and
aristocracy who needed some dedicated force to fight for them. Hindu
subjects could not be that force. So, Muslims were pumped with pride:
the pride of faith, pride of valor, of ability to kill, of sexual
prowess.

Our literature is replete with stories of massacre, of ravaging the
infidels and their cities, and of sleeping with so many wives, although
we claim our ancestors were the kindest, so delicately spiritual, the
most pious and just of all mankind. We have been told that reciting the
Qur’an was enough to be self-righteous; all skills of life except
wielding the sword were low jobs for the subject people. No system of
education, therefore, developed during the 800 years of the Muslim rule.

http://dawn.com/2013/01/08/self-love-and-its-fruits/

What is learning? What fields need learning? Do we need to know about
agriculture, trade, manufacture, health or social matters for a
peaceful society? These questions were seldom taken up; countless
issues, that need the good ruler’s attention, were left to their fate.
Our Muslim kings had little interest in the famous handicrafts of South
and East India beyond collecting taxes or using their products. So the
ancient India of arts and crafts, of mathematics and music did not grow
in any field except some architecture. We make tall claims that our
rulers of India established justice and equality, but the tragic truth
is that the untouchables were never rescued and Sati was never challenged while our kings collected taxes on Hindu worship.
When the British colonialists ended the rule of our kings, our
religious leaders declared it a tragedy for Islam and pitted us against
new sciences. The narcissist self-love, which had alienated us from
Hindus for centuries, again served as a tool to keep us from “Christian
sciences”. Those who pleaded for new sciences were declared infidels and
continue to be declared so, to this day. Whatever the motivation of
Pakistan’s founding fathers was, our aristocracy and clerics were clear
on their mission. The mission was to keep us sick with nostalgia and
pride, to hold us from the wisdom of humility. Islam served as the most
effective tool to perpetuate their hold.

by Guest Sun Feb 24, 2013 12:18 am

The guy is talking nonsense. For instance, his claim that sati was never challenged by muslim rulers is false. Akbar had banned forcible sati, and the only reason he did not ban voluntary sati was because the Hindu intellectuals of the time convinced him that doing so would be against Hindu tradition. The fact that religious hindi poetry flourished during the reigns of Akbar and Jahangir and others should also be noted. It is also a fact that Akbar was a patron of musicians from South India.

To Rashmun: A Pakistani intellectual's honest views on Mughal rule

To Rashmun: A Pakistani intellectual's honest views on Mughal rule

Re: To Rashmun: A Pakistani intellectual's honest views on Mughal rule