Letters-37: “Muslims in India-3”

1. Does Shabana know that all Indians are discriminated against for one reason or the other at least once in their lifetime by a fellow Indian? It could be because of anything – language, community, food preference, the State or region to which one belongs, and so on. Talk to someone who has been looking for a house in any of our metros and you will come across stories after stories. A person of Shabana’s stature should have refrained from making statements that can deepen the communal divide. – Murali Saranadhi, Chennai.

2. That Shabana Azmi finds it difficult to buy a flat in Mumbai does not mean that Muslims across India face the same problem. As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, one can say with certainty that Muslims do buy houses or lands in predominantly Hindu areas. The two communities coexist peacefully. – E.Sathyamurthy, Chennai.

3. Ms Azmi would do well to introspect. There could be a host of reasons other than her being a Muslim for her inability to buy a flat in Mumbai. Many of us belonging to the majority community encounter similar difficulties. But unlike Ms Azmi, we do not have the luxury of wallowing in self-pi8ty or blowing them out of proportion. – Premilla V.Nair, Thiruvananthapuram.

4. Muslims perhaps find it difficult to buy or rent houses in Hindu-dominated areas and housing complexes because they are non-vegetarians. But is equally true that bachelors and single women, and people working in BPOs are not preferred as tenants in many cities, including Chennai. The issue, therefore, has nothing to do with religious discrimination. – Surendra Kumar Srivastava, Chennai.

Courtesy: The Hindu, Madurai, August 22, 2008 (Selected letters from “Letters to the Editor” column).

Wikipedia article on “Religious Discrimination” and “Religious Intolerance”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_discrimination

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_intolerance

Grateful thanks to The Hindu and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

From my Spiritual Diary-48:

· It is only after the practice of intense tapas that men are freed of guile and stinginess. God vision comes to them who are free from crookedness and cunning. But in the name of simplicity, man should not become a simpleton. It is good to be a devotee, but to be a dullard. Know what is right and do what is good. (Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa).

· Neither this person nor that person is the cause of anything; at the root of all is God. Everything has emerged from him. Never forget him, “from whom has streamed forth this eternal activity”…. Don’t pay much attention to external causes; rather, practice to see everything within. “Your lover is in yourself, and your enemy too is within you.” (A Hindi saying). “He himself is his friend, and he himself is his enemy(Gita VI.5)”. (Swami Turiyananda).

· Tapasya sharpens the mind, followed by longing. Then one can understand that this rare human body is perishable. Then one begins to long to finish it quickly. If this life is wasted, one cannot be sure when one will again be born in a human body. So one takes to it in right earnest. And giving up food and sleep, tries for it. One says to oneself with firm determination, “I shall get up only after THE GOLD HAS BEEN MELTED…. THE WATER HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO THE FIELD – only then shall I bathe and eat – such a FIRM RESOLVE one makes. Thakur (Sri Ramakrishna) used to say: “I would lie down in the Panchavati night and day unconscious. Sometimes a snake would crawl over me and I would not take notice.” (“M” – Mahendra Nath Gupta).

· Don’t eat too much, and give up this craze for outer cleanliness. People with a craze do not attain Knowledge. Follow conventions only as much as necessary. Don’t go to excess. (Sri Ramakrishna).