The Gulf Crisis and New World Order — Page 108
Sixth Frid ay Semwn Nov 16, 1990 was bound to make the edifice crooked as it was being built on prejudices. As such, many of the dangers which we see in India today, the ultimate cause of them is prejudice. The tendency is to make decisions away from justice and on the basis of selfishness. For instance you can see the differences which have now begun to develop between the Muslims and the Hindus in which deep rifts have developed. Its basis, according to the Hindus, is the prejudices of the Muslims, while the Muslims claim quite the converse. Similarly, the dangers which are arising because of the linguistic differences in India, are due to prejudices as well. South India is developing a feeling of deprivation, in that the races living in the north of India who are more familiar with the Hindi language, or have some knowledge of Sanskrit, are ruling all of India, and are not treating with fairness those who speak one of the other 1500 languages spoken in India. Thus selfishness and prejudice is apparent behind all the divisiveness in India. It may have different names. In some places linguistic conflicts are seen, in other places religious and national conflicts are seen while in still others, racial conflicts and the conflicts of castes are seen. For instance, the lower caste Hindus have been a target of oppression by upper caste Hindus for thousands of years and they are being ground in the mill of atrocities. They have never been able to gain any human respect. It is such an unjust treatment, but there is such a psychological and ideological division that the lower castes are not considered worthy of any human dignity. The government of V. P. Singh which has recently collapsed and the reason of its collapse, in essence, was that he had raised voice against these prejudices; h e had hoisted a banner in support of justice. Despite the fact that he belonged to the higher caste of the Rajputs, he started a great movement to restore the rights of the minorities. Similarly, he protected the sanctity of the Muslim religion. In short, the strife which has now started in India (you will hear different names for it, and the different names will be based on various kinds of differences), is due to lack of justice and due to the height of prejudice. It is this fundamental reality which is emerging as a danger for the whole of India and this danger is increasing by the day. 108