The Politics of History

How Nehru sought unity in the diversity of Hindus and Muslims. An extract

Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee

Nehru understands the impact of Islam in India and of Indian Muslims as a flowering (and deepening) of a cultural identity that is unique. He writes in The Discovery, ‘An Indian Christian is looked upon as an Indian wherever he may go. An Indian Moslem is considered an Indian in Turkey or Arabia or Iran, or any other country where Islam is the dominant religion.’ One may ask: How vague or concrete is this Indianness of the Indian Muslim? One of the answers Nehru provides is:

The fierce monotheism of Islam influenced Hinduism and the vague pantheistic attitude of the Hindu had its effect on the Indian Moslem. Most of these Indian Moslems were converts bred up in and surrounded by the old traditions; only a comparatively small number of them had come from outside.

Ambedkar speaks of ‘incomplete conversions’ and finds it a ‘mechanical cause’ behind the common characteristics between Hindus and Muslims. His reading of Ernest Renan, on what makes a nation, made Ambedkar conclude something quite different:

In depending upon certain common features of Hindu and Mahomedan social life, in relying upon common language, common race and common country, the Hindu is mistaking what is accidental and superficial for what