Prashant’s made a fascinating that Pakistan’s constitution hates minorities so that Pakistanis don’t have to. However India needs the BJP to control minorities.
I find the Muslim minority in India to be perplexing. They should ditch the hijab, stop eating beef and integrate wherever they can. They should also only do the Azaan one Friday afternoon a week; beautifully recited by a qualified Arabic-speaker.
Of course however they must eschew Hindi whenever possible in favour of Urdu. I find it very problematic that Muslim children are learning an alien Brahminical script when they should be keeping to their Perso-Arabic heritage.
In some ways the West, Israel & India are under major strain between populism & liberal democracy. It may just be that liberal democracies work well in hegemonic majoritarian cultures not those that have large and growing (Muslim?) minorities?
RSS has been declining since the mid-2000s with the rise of twitter 🙁
“an alien Brahminical script” LOL.
I know you aim to provoke, but this is a bit rich 🙂
I’m serious – I’m not into reading Sanskrit, I like it when my wife does but I prefer Persian & Arabic scripts.
After many years of participating in India & Indian culture in real life; it only takes me a few months on Brown Pundits to realise why TNT exists. When every aspect of an identity is assaulted so that the other side thinks that our ancestors (which is what the Turkic invaders were and what the vast majority believe them to be; irrespective of evidence) were evil from get-go, well then expect some push back..
Lol @ Omar
I think the crusade to reject “Brahminical” scripts should start with the largest single linguistic group of South Asian Muslims. Let’s see what they have to say…
Bloody hell! I forgot, they already did!
I greatly respect you Zach, but there is no reason why Indian Muslims need to give up the hijab and stop eating beef. Lots of Indian Hindus eat beef. This whole crusade against beef and in favor of “gau mata” is a new obsession of the militant Hindu Right. It wasn’t always this way.
Indian Muslims should fight their battles. Hinduism is a beautiful religion & Indian Muslims should Hinducize where they can except when it comes to the language. For if they give up the language then extinction & assimilation will surely follow.
I am far too influenced by Sir Syed lol
I don’t think people should be forced to “Hinduize” themselves. If they choose to do so that is a different matter but assimilation should not be a condition for living in India.
South Asian Muslims already are culturally different from Arab Muslims. That is because we are not Arab. For example, Qawwali is a South Asian form, heavily influenced by the use of music in Hindu worship. You won’t find Qawwali in Saudi Arabia.
I have no issues with assimilation but forced assimilation is a different matter.
The fact that Indian and Pakistani Muslims have started to ape the Arabs is a whole another issue and I am definitely not in favor of that.
+1