Hindus and Muslims are nearly equal in number in Hyderabad. If the question of Hindu-Muslim and Hindustan-Pakistan can be resolved in the mind, it would be wonderful. In my opinion, the biggest thing for reforming the mind is the perspective from which history is viewed. Although the difference between Hindus and Muslims is religious, I will not comment on that. No matter how liberal a Hindu becomes, they will still consider their Rama and Krishna slightly better than Muhammad, and no matter how liberal a Muslim becomes, they will still consider their Muhammad slightly better than Rama and Krishna. But this difference should not be too much. If the difference does not exceed nineteen or twenty, then the minds of both can be set right. This is all I have to say about religion, nothing more.
The real issue is which perspective to take on history, because after all, when we talk about Hindus and Muslims, it is not in the air, not about the Muslims of Arabia — the Muslims of Hindustan are ultimately the brothers of Hindus, not the Muslims of Arabia. When there is no relation, they will not understand each other. If they stay together for two days, they will get annoyed and will not be able to abuse each other.
The general misconception in the minds of both Hindus and Muslims is that the Hindus think that the Muslims ruled and committed atrocities for the last 700-800 years, and the Muslims, no matter how poor they may be, think that they ruled for 700-800 years and are now seeing bad days.
Both Hindus and Muslims have misconceptions ingrained in their minds. This is not true. If it were true, I would not say anything about it. The reality is that for the last 700-800 years, Muslims have killed Muslims. Not in a spiritual sense, but in a physical sense. When Timur came and killed 4-5 lakh people, 3 lakh of them were Muslims, Pathan Muslims, who were killed. The killer was a Mughal Muslim.
If this fact reaches every Muslim household that at times Mughal Muslims killed Pathan Muslims, and at other times African Muslims killed Mughal Muslims, then people will clearly understand the events of the last 700 years—that this is not a matter of Hindu-Muslim, but of native versus foreigner. First, the Muslims of Arabia or elsewhere came. They were foreigners. They ended the rule here. Then gradually over a hundred-fifty years they became natives, but when they became natives, another wave of foreigners came who killed these native Muslims in the same way as they killed Hindus.
Then these foreigners too became natives over a hundred-fifty years, and then another wave came. Our country’s destiny has been so poor over the last 700-800 years, that the native has remained impotent and the foreigner has remained a plunderer or you can say wild. This is the result of our 700 years of history.
If both Hindus and Muslims understand this, then the conclusion will be that every child should be taught, in every school, in every household, whether Hindu or Muslim, that Razia, Sher Shah, Jayasi were ancestors of all of us, both Hindus and Muslims. I want to say that I count Razia, Sher Shah and Jayasi among my parents.
This is not something trivial that I have said at this time. But along with that, I want that every person among us, whether Hindu or Muslim, [knows] that Ghazni, Ghori, and Babur were invaders and plunderers of the whole country, foreigners who ended the freedom of the natives, and Razia, Sher Shah and Jayasi etc. were the ancestors of all of us. If this perspective of looking at the last 700 years develops, then Hindus and Muslims will not view the last 700 years differently, they will start looking at it from the unifying perspective that in our history this was the matter of natives, this was of foreigners, these were ours, those were others, and the perspective of both will become one.
When we reach this far, then I want to draw some conclusions for today from it. Today, both Hindus and Muslims will have to change. The minds of both have become corrupted. First of all, regarding the issue that I have placed before you. How many Hindus will say that Sher Shah is among their ancestors and how many Muslims will say that Ghazni, Ghori were plunderers?
Since I am saying this, this comment seems good, but when you return home, some devil will make you listen, “Look, what nonsense you have come listening to, if Ghazni-Ghori had not come, then how would there be Muslims?” Look at the language the devil is speaking in? So, this means Islam or Muhammad is lesser than Ghazni-Ghori. Think about what its consequences would be. And similarly, the devil’s language will be, “Look what that speaker was saying, he made Sher Shah your ancestor.” Think carefully, chisel your mind, turn it over, clean out whatever filth of the last 700-800 years has filled it, then come back to that statement and think that it has become very necessary for both Hindus and Muslims to change their minds.
At this time, the mind is corrupted. I will give two examples. On the surface, the situation is fine, mostly fine. Where do riots happen? They do happen occasionally, but on the surface, the situation is fine. But what is inside, everyone knows. Any honest person cannot hide the fact that inside, the minds of both are alienated from each other.
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The reason I feel most hurt is because of this our country is deteriorating. No country can be happy until all its minorities are happy. I do not just mean Muslims. In fact, to tell you the truth, I give special importance to Muslims in education, poverty, every matter. Similarly, there are other groups like Harijans, tribals, etc. Until they are happy, Hindustan cannot be happy. This is the first principle. Fixing the mind is also part of this.
Another major issue is that if we can somehow unite the minds of Hindus and Muslims, then perhaps we can also start the process of uniting Hindustan and Pakistan. I do not operate under the assumption that the partition of Hindustan-Pakistan has happened forever. No good person should accept this.
What is the way to unite minds? On one hand, there is a lot of suspicion and doubt in the minds of Hindus toward Muslims, and it cannot be denied that in the last few years in the military, and leaving aside ministries, and in Delhi ministries of the same kind, Muslims have not been given their due share in big jobs. Very few people say this, because people hesitate a bit in speaking the truth.
Both Hindus and Muslims should understand it well. There is a misconception among Muslims that Nehru sahib is their protector. They should understand how he is their protector. It is also necessary for Hindus that whatever Nehru sahib does, whatever the Congress does, they should understand it, because it seems that the Congress has written a prescription to somehow continue ruling, even if the country is destroyed.
That is why Hindus should now clear their minds that after all, we are all citizens of this country. Suppose there is some matter of suspicion and in some moments of crisis, some Muslims cannot be trusted in how they will take a stance at that crisis moment. But one thing must be understood well, that the more Hindus suspect Muslims, the more dangerous Muslims will become, and the more goodwill and love Hindus treat Muslims with, the less dangerous Muslims will become. If Hindu people understand this principle, the situation may improve somewhat.
This thing should also be remembered that spies do not operate in an ordinary way. Spies are people of great fun. There is great power behind them. They do not just wander aimlessly here and there. Let me tell you something in this regard – both the governments of Hindustan and Pakistan are useless. There is a lot of coming and going of people. I think 200-300 or 400 people keep going back and forth. Most of them are illiterate. If they are literate, they know how many days the visa is for, when it will expire, so they return before that. And remember, it is not just in Bengal, there are still around 1 crore or 90 lakh Hindus in Pakistan.
When the Hindus of Pakistan come here to Hindustan or when the Muslims of Hindustan go to Pakistan, most of them are illiterate. They do not understand matters of ‘visa’ etc. and if 400 people go, then surely there are 40-50 people or 20 or 10 people who stay even after their visa expires. The governments on both sides are so dirty that they understand that each one is a spy and take them to the fort to harass them. Why would a spy overstay their visa dates? They will get their visa made separately, get their passport made separately. They have many tricks, many means. Both the governments of Hindustan and Pakistan should have some mercy on these ordinary illiterate people and not unnecessarily harass them by treating them as spies. Spies are of a different kind.
Just as I talked about the change in the Hindu mind, I am also talking about the change in the Muslim mind. Wherever I talked about removing English, the Muslims who have been with me for many days understand, otherwise the foreheads of others start throbbing that ‘what is he saying, he wants to impose Hindi’. How much suspicion is there in the Muslim mind! I am talking about abolishing English so that this language, which is of 50 lakh educated people, is not imposed on us crores of people, we get relief, we can run the affairs of our government in our own language. The language I want to bring is the mother tongue.
It has nothing to do with Hindi. Bring Tamil in Tamil Nadu, Bengali in Bengal. To tell you the truth, newspapers have propagated a lot of dirt about me in the wrong way these days, as if I want to impose Hindi. This is completely false. People made a lot of noise for linguistic states to be formed, the Marathas sacrificed thousands of lives for Marathi, but when Maharashtra was formed, poor Marathi remained separate. I am shocked by this. Even there, the English queen still rules.
In Tamil Nadu too, this English queen rules. In Andhra Pradesh too, the English queen rules. I had said in that context to remove the English queen, bring your own languages. But people are afraid that when their own mother tongues come, Hindustani will come in Delhi. What is the solution for me? If you want, I am ready for Hindi queen not to come. Suppose the people of non-Hindi areas agree on one language, Tamil or Bengali, then I take the responsibility that I will convince the 20-22 crore people of the Hindi areas to make Tamil or Bengali the language of Delhi.
Actually, today the mind of both Hindus and Muslims has been spoiled by the rule of votes. They go during elections, not at other times. They do not even hold meetings and ask for votes. Those who ask for votes always keep in mind that they should not say anything that offends the listener.
The result is that out of all the parties in Hindustan, none of them talk about changing the Hindu-Muslim mindset. They want to take votes by giving consolation to the old garbage, misconceptions and delusions that exist in the mind. This is the biggest flaw in our political life today that we people, especially the leaders, get scared of speaking the truth because of the rule of votes. The result is that the minds of both Hindus and Muslims remain spoiled, and do not change.
There should be improvement in this. It is clear that Muslims should not remain as they are. They should break apart. Just as Hindus break into different parties, Muslims too should break apart.
But it is somewhat accepted that when Muslims go, they will go together. They will always form some unity. Earlier there was the Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, then Razakar, but now there is still unity. Always forming a group, as many Muslims as possible have moved together in one group, this is not right. The result of this could also be that Hindu people start moving together in one group, following the right politics according to their faith. If today in Hyderabad, Hindus and Muslims, not in thousands but I would say in lakhs come together for this and take out processions two-four miles long in the city, then not just in Andhra Pradesh but a current will run through entire Hindustan – what is this happening that Hindus and Muslims are jointly taking up something? That unity can happen when people do not gather as Hindus and Muslims, but based on their perspective of what politics they want to do.
This is part of ThePrint’s Great Speeches series. It features speeches and debates that shaped modern India.