[Reader-list] Ways of Life and Transgressions

[radhikarajen at vsnl.net]

When cats were figting for the "fair share" of butter, it was monkey which ate all the butter, as can be seen now, the Pope who  has so much concern for the death of his folowers has no concern when war criminal Bush and company imagined the weapons of mass destruction in iraq, killed millions as collateral damage, but pope was silent then. Just like SHRC and NHRC, who keep silent all the while when every day basis human rights are violated by the evangelists  by "helping" the poor tribals and then converting them, but wake up when 90 year old man is killed to "protect"  the right of these criminals. Even some motivated journalists invent maoists as killers , not goons with guns of evangelists. ?

----- Original Message -----
From: Prabhakar Singh <prabhakardelhi at yahoo.com>
Date: Friday, August 29, 2008 5:25 pm
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Ways of Life and Transgressions
To: Rohit Shetti <rohitism at gmail.com>, Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net>
Cc: Sarai list <reader-list at sarai.net>

> It appears we can not think anything beyond Hindu or Muslim 
> because our minds are over-obsessed with it.The arguements are 
> quite misplaced and made just for making it as we are basically 
> Hindu or Muslims and take a pre-determined stand in the name of 
> openness,liberal,forward looking,progressive and logical approach 
> but we are worse than fundamentalists or terrorists.This is 
> nothing but intellectual perversion.
> Prabhakar
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Rohit Shetti <rohitism at gmail.com>
> To: Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net>
> Cc: Sarai list <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Sent: Friday, 29 August, 2008 1:49:27 PM
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Ways of Life and Transgressions
> 
> Dear Shuddha,
> 
> That's a beautiful piece. Let me play a bit with the words in the last
> paragraph that you wrote.
> 
> "I find cases like Husain and Dillu Ram Kausari interesting not
> because of what they paint of what they say, but because they seem to
> cause such prolonged traffic jams on the 'ways of life'. *After 
> all they
> crossing the road.*"
> 
> I guess this is what drives many zealots to do what they do since 
> they do
> not get beyond 'slogan-level thinking', as one dear friend of mine 
> puts it.
> 'Crossing the road' is a slogan enough to spur them, without ever 
> waiting to
> understand what it is that amounts to 'crossing the road' and if 
> there is
> any real harm in it.
> 
> Rgds,
> 
> Rohit
> 
> On Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 1:31 PM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta 
> <shuddha at sarai.net>wrote:
> > Dear All,
> >
> > I have been intrigued by the exchange on the list of late that has
> > preferred to jettison the term 'religion' and prefer in its 
> stead the
> > euphimistic phrase - 'ways of life'. I am referring to the exchange
> > between Chanchal Malviya and Jeebesh Bagchi, arising out of the
> > heated correspondence on the disruption of a small exhibition 
> devoted> to M.F.Husain.
> >
> > i am quite convinced that the term 'religion'  which derives 
> from the
> > latin root of the word religio (bond) and religare (the verb 
> form of
> > 'to bind') remains for me a useful word to name the act of 
> committing> oneself in any form. In this sense, atheists and 
> agnostics are just
> > as religious (in their commitment to doubt) as are those blessed 
> with> faith. I would describe my religious commitment as 
> agnosticism - a
> > commitment to doubt everything, (including the value of doubt) 
> and a
> > certainty that we cannot speak certainly of anything at all, because
> > there are always counterfactuals, and hitherto unimagined, or 
> unknown> possibilities, that goad us on to yet newer 
> possibilities, or to
> > return to some very old ones. This is just to say that it would 
> be a
> > mistake to assume, as is often done with some arrogance on the part
> > of the more pronouncedly 'faithful', that atheists and agnostics 
> have> no 'spiritual' quests. They do, and they dont, just as those 
> who are
> > ostentatiously 'religious' do, and dont, or do only in as much 
> as it
> > allows them to burn a few churches as they go questing. If Hindu
> > fundamentalists have chosen to renounce the ties that bind (religio)
> > them to life, who would I be to object, because, I am not a Hindu.
> > But I have no quarrel with the term 'ways of life'. The more 
> words we
> > have, the better.
> >
> > This discussion arose out of a rage felt by some that a group of
> > zealots had broken and disrupted an exhibition that featured some
> > images of and by Husain, and the counter rage felt by others 
> that the
> > zealots had no right to be criticised because they were acting to
> > protect the honour of the Hindu deities that they felt Husain had
> > insulted.
> >
> > The second case is as follows - what right has Husain, a Muslim to
> > insult Hindu deities by portraying them in a manner that is 
> offensive> to the sentiments of many Hindus. (Husain's 
> motivations, or the
> > aesthetic merit of his images are not the issue here, what is at
> > issue is the insult seen to have occurred when a non-Hindu 'touches'
> > a sacred Hindu icon with his 'insulting' imagination. Those so
> > enraged, also throw the following challenge, has the opposite ever
> > occurred?
> >
> > I am not here to make a case for Husain. (As I have said before 
> I do
> > not have a very high opinion of his work as an artist). I am 
> here to
> > make a case for what is considered to be transgression. No one 
> can be
> > sure when they have transgressed. Because transgression can be seen
> > to occur even when the motives of the person concerned are far from
> > transgression. Husain can say in his defence, and indeed has on
> > occasion said that his paintings are an index of his 
> appreciation of
> > Indic culture and its diversity of expressions, of his closeness
> > (since early childhood) to forms of iconic imagery in popular 
> Hinduism.>
> > Here his intent is clearly not to insult, on the contrary, it is to
> > declare his appreciation for the beauty of the iconography of 
> popular> Hinduism, a charge for which he would be equally hated by 
> both Hindu
> > as well as Muslim fundamentalists.
> >
> > It has not been noticed that no Muslim fundamentalist or even Muslim
> > religious figure has come out in defence of Husain. They are in fact
> > in tacit agreement with their Hindu peers. A Muslim making images,
> > and that too of Hindu goddesses, because he is drawn to them, can
> > only be seen as blasphemy in their eyes. On this, like on so many
> > other issues, Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists are in total 
> agreement.>
> > Let me come now to an interesting counterfactual argument. I 
> refer to
> > the life an work of a little known late nineteenth century and early
> > twentieth century Urdu poet of Delhi called Dillu Ram Kausari. 
> Now as
> > his name suggests, Dillu Ram was a Hindu. The trouble is, throughout
> > his life he composed deliriously passionate elegies (na'at)  to the
> > Prophet Muhammad.
> >
> > One of his quatrains went as follows
> >
> > Kuch 'ishq e Muhammad mein nahin shart e Musulman!
> > Hai Kausari Hindu bhii talabgaar e Muhammad!
> > Allah re! kyaa raunaq e bazaar e Muhammad
> > Ke Ma'bood e Jahan bhi hai kharidaar e Muhammad!
> >
> > Being a Muslim is not a condition for loving Muhammad!
> > Kausari, the Hindu, is also a seeker of Muhammad!
> > By Allah! How delightful is the bazaar of Muhammad
> > For the Lord of the Worlds is also a buyer of Muhammad!
> >
> > This kind of sentiment shocked both Hindus and Muslims. Hindus,
> > because how could a Hindu sing what amounted to love songs to a
> > Muslim prophet, and Muslims, for the same reason. Both felt slighted
> > and insulted by the transgressive way in which the imagination 
> of the
> > poet had 'touched' the body of what was sacred for one, and not, for
> > the other.
> >
> > Another poem, which proved to be even more controversial, went like
> > this -
> >
> > Rahmatulilalamin kay Hashar mein maana' khulay
> > Khalq saari Shaafa e Roz e Jaza kay saath hai
> > Laykay Dillu Raam ko jannat mein jab Hazrat gaye
> > Ma'loom huwa kay Hindu bhi Mahboob e Khuda kay saath hai!
> >
> > The meaning of "Mercy unto the Worlds" became apparent on 
> Judgement Day:
> > The whole creation is with the Intercessor of The Day of Acquittal
> > When the Prophet took Dillu Ram with him into Paradise
> > It was known that this Hindu too is with the Beloved of God!
> >
> > This poem, especially scandalized Muslim orthodoxy, because it dared
> > to suggest that the prophet himself would intercede on behalf of an
> > unbeliever on the day of judgement.
> >
> > It is interesting to note that Dillu Ram never became a Muslim, at
> > least not in his lifetime. An article in the interesting web portal
> > Chowk  http://www.chowk.com/articles/12692 by one Asif 
> Naqshbandi says
> >
> > "It is also said that Dillu Ram, delirious with his love, would
> > sometimes stand in the middle of the bazaar in Delhi, put chains
> > around his neck and feet and shout at the top of his voice to all
> > passers-by, "Muhammad! Muhammad! Muhammad! Yes! Muhammad is the
> > Beloved of God! Muhammad is the first and only Beloved of God! 
> If God
> > loves you, He loves you because of His Beloved!" Some people even
> > stoned him and he would often come home covered in blood but he was
> > totally lost in his love of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon
> > him!)"
> >
> > There is an apocryphal story of how on his deathbed Dillu Ram 
> Kausari> had a vision of the Prophet himself, who came to him, and 
> that he
> > read the Kalima with him. But as this vision is reported to have
> > appeared only to him, as he lay dying, and as he is no longer 
> with us
> > to either confirm or deny this deathbed conversion, we can only
> > surmise that it was a generous, but somewhat disingenuous method of
> > having Dillu Ram's somewhat unorthodox Muslim apologists claim him
> > for themselves.
> >
> > As far as we are concerned, Dillu Ram Kausari, caused grave offence,
> > by his love for the Prophet, both to Hindu as well as to Muslim
> > zealots, as long as he lived.
> >
> > If, the things we call religions are 'ways of life' then we can
> > always determine for ourselves whether we want to walk on a one way
> > street that runs into a dead end, or to cross many paths, walking
> > down one way, for one purpose, down another way for another, and
> > sometimes just standing in between paths, figuring out our journey,
> > as we go about our lives.
> >
> > I find cases like Husain and Dillu Ram Kausari interesting not
> > because of what they paint of what they say, but because they 
> seem to
> > cause such prolonged traffic jams on the 'ways of life'. And all 
> they> were doing was crossing the road.
> >
> > thanks and regards,
> >
> > Shuddha
> >
> > -----
> > Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> >
> > _________________________________________
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