Violence begets violence

In Ajaz Ashraf’s novel, The Hour Before Dawn, the residential neighbourhoods of Delhi awake every morning to read tantalising accounts of India’s ‘Secret History’ stuck to the walls. Each edition of Secret History seeks to justify the demolition of the Babri Masjid planned for 6 Dec, 1992.  Who is the author of Secret History? A dying man tries to find out, in the process learning why the lust for blood runs deep in people. The following is an extract from the book:

                Secret History

O Hindus,

On 6 December, you the Hindus, the only true people of this holy land, the only legitimate children of your Mother, will get another chance to prove your manhood, and reclaim that which was taken away forcibly by the barbarians, who came here centuries ago and defiled the purity of your motherland, plundered and raped her with a cruelty your history had never witnessed before. There are only twenty-seven days left for the brave sons of the land to assemble in the town of Ayodhya and remove the last vestige of slavery, obliterate the symbol of your humiliation, and raze to the ground the mosque whose domes have mocked you for centuries. 

Do not let those storytellers lead you astray. Do not listen to those who say, let bygones be bygones, let us live in the present. The wound they inflicted throbs in your collective memory. The pain you experience today lies in the bloody chapters of your history. Haven’t you heard of the military raids of Mahmud of Ghazni? Don’t you remember his repeated ransacking of your temples and royal treasury? Wise sons, long before the Muslims established their empire in India, Mahmud rode out from Ghazni to invade your motherland. Between the years 1001 and 1027, he led seventeen great raids on your country. Every time your ancestors replenished their coffers, the barbarian rode with a sword in his hand, jihad in his heart, and the slogan ‘Slay the infidels!’ on his lips. 

We could have forgotten his seventeen raids – we could have dismissed these as acts of barbarism. We could have forgiven him for stealing our wealth – we could have seen this as the impulse of a man whose greed was insatiable. We could have reconciled to the slaughter of hundreds in cold blood – we could have said Mahmud of Ghazni wasn’t an exception. You turn to us and ask: so what is it about Mahmud of Ghazni that we loathe?... Noble sons, don’t you remember his raids on the Somnath temple in Gujarat?... Don’t you see in his action the desire to humiliate idol-worshippers? In 1026, Mahmud led an army to the coast of Gujarat. Evil descended on earth, horror reigned supreme for weeks. Our knowledge of his invasion is derived from the account of Qasim Hindushah Firishta. Haven’t you heard of this sixteenth century historian? Haven’t you read Tarikh, the book he authored? In it you will find details about Mahmud’s raid on the temple of Somnath. In it you will find Firishta applaud the barbarian who destroyed the idol your ancestors worshipped. 

“…The sight of the temple fanned the hatred of Mahmud of Ghazni. He entered the hall where stood the idol of Lord Somnath, five yards in height, two of which were sunk in the ground. Insolently, he lifted the royal mace and struck off Lord Somnath’s nose. Two pieces of the idol, he ordered, were to be dispatched to his capital in Ghazni: one was to be thrown at the threshold of the public mosque, the other at the door of his own palace. Two more fragments were to be sent to Mecca and Medina. 

As the devil from Ghazni disfigured Lord Somnath, the crowd of worshippers outside the temple wailed in horror. They offered sacks of gold to save Lord Somnath from further humiliation. There was much excitement among Mahmud’s generals at this offer. They turned to him and advised, ‘Let the Hindus have Lord Somnath without His nose and ears; let us take their wealth and leave the land of the impure.’ But Mahmud of Ghazni replied haughtily, ‘My fearless generals, if I accept their gold, I shall be known to posterity as Mahmud the idol-seller. Do you not know I desire the appellation of Mahmud the Destroyer? Obey my command and shatter the idol into several pieces.’ 

As soon as Mahmud issued the order, the historian writes, the soldiers delivered a mighty blow on Lord Somnath. In one stroke the belly of the idol split open. From it tumbled out diamonds, rubies, and pearls of much greater value than what the Hindus had offered….”

Wise sons, we know those storytellers well, we know what they will say in their own defence. They will say Firishta is unreliable, he wrote his book five centuries after Mahmud of Ghazni’s invasion. They will tell you that Mahmud invaded India because he needed the wealth of your ancestors to finance his empire.…

They will even quote poet Farrukhi Sistani who claimed to have accompanied Mahmud of Ghazni on his expedition to Somnath. In his account, Sistani says Mahmud attacked the Somnath temple believing that it housed the image of Manat. Know it, wise sons: Manat, Lat and Uzza were the goddesses the Arabs worshipped before Prophet Mohammed decreed their destruction. The images of Lat and Uzza were shattered; Manat was whisked away, it was believed, to Somnath. It was to implement his Prophet’s order, those storytellers claim, Mahmud of Ghazni came riding into your country. Don’t you see their duplicity?... Tell them, misinformed Mahmud of Ghazni may have been, yet he destroyed the idol of Lord Somnath. 

They will say, wait, the idol in the temple of Somnath didn’t have a human form. They will quote another medieval historian, Alberuni, to say it was a black stone shaped like a phallus. They will jump around and say, look, look, there are so many versions, nothing is clear, history is precisely that. We know you will turn to them and point out, in every version there was the destroyer, and Mahmud was his name. In every version there was something destroyed, and it was dear to your ancestors. You will say whether it was Manat or the image of Somnath or the phallus, Mahmud smote it with hatred. 

Wise sons, ask: from where did Mahmud’s hatred for the idol spring?... Know it, in Muslims the hatred for idols is considered virtuous. In them, there is deep contempt for us whom they call infidels…. Do you still think Muslims will hand over the mosque in Ayodhya to you?... 

Brave sons of this land, come to Ayodhya on 6 December. Show them hatred begets hatred, violence begets violence, and till such time the ghosts of centuries haunt, peace shall never prevail. They took away the fragments of your gods, you take away the bricks of their mosque; they broke the idol you worshipped, you break the mosque they pray in. Till then, rise and raise your arms, rise and say, Lord Ram.