Comments on: I am Hindu, you are Muslim

By: the mad momma

the mad momma — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:56:41 +0000

i agree with sb. Growing up i knew so much more about Hindu festivals than anyone did about christmas or easter. i still have idiots wishing me happy good friday – as an adult! its just a question of majority religion and the fact that there is so much awareness on TV etc. I had written a post about that a while ago.

By: u

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:02:22 +0000

I think it is a bit of both. But as I said above, it is a limited study. If you read the full report, the level of prejudice does make it a bit of a “Hindu-Muslim thing” as well.

By: some body

some body — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:55:13 +0000

ra:

this is not a hindu-muslim thing. it is a majority-minority thing. my kids are growing up in the usa, a christian country. they probably know more about christian festivals than hindu festivals. and i would bet – that would be a very unfair bet – that most christian kids (as old as my kids) would have no clue about the hindu religion (or even that hindu is the religion and hindi is the language – this, arguably, is confusing even to adults here).

whatever this study says, i am pretty certain that minorities have a much better time vis-a-vis the majority in india than in, say, even the usa.

- s.b.

By: Gayathri

Gayathri — Fri, 08 May 2009 01:07:36 +0000

Well. Very interesting. But when we take a place like India where mass media, art and everything social tends to portray Hindu rituals, festivals and arts in abig way, much awareness is created among the viewers. For no one turns a channel away becos it seems to be portraying a Hindu festival coverage or anything.

Also, the temples and processions are fairly open and not closeted into secrecy like mosques. You know what they are are, what they contain, the bells ringing, chanting, people coming out with holy ash smeared over their foreheads. Everything is visual for everyone to see.

But show a picture of a dome like structure to any non muslin kid, he will immediately recognize the structure to be from the Mughal influence. This is true all over the world. Similary with the Gullah and the Purdah.

I have worn Purdahs around my face, just for the romanticism of it as a teenager. No one knows what it conceals. I always imagined very very beautiful women ,mysterious and what not.

But imagine when a kid sees it. It is more of a frightening gesture. He does not know who is behind the veil and it is naturally threatening to see someone all in black and you can only see their eyes, if you see that.

Also Hinduism in its truest sense is a way of life, not a religion. I would say almost 80% of the people in India are actually hindus in way of life than religion.

I sometimes wonder if the responses of such studies should be presented at all if not in the interest of the nation’s progress.

What good comes from setting forward such a result when the bottomline seems to be ” Hindu kids are prejudiced; Muslim kids are not;” It is going to be viewed very negatively by both. Do you really think that such a study is going to cause parents from prejudicing kids? It will be more like, “well. In this country, majority should always suffer. There is no equality. In case, the study had revealed otherwise, it would have never got such precedence.”

Which unfortunately is true in the ecclestial state of India’s politics.

By: Kamini

Kamini — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:09:12 +0000

Ammani’s story shocked and saddened me. Most of the time, I despair that things will never get better, that parents will keep inculcating their prejudices in their children, and the same same cycle of distrust and suspicion – and even hatred – will continue. What is taught in the home will override any measures in school, I am afraid. My children attended the United Nations International School in New York, which I think is a little slice of heaven on earth. There are children from so many different countries, ethnicities, religions, and you have an Israeli child being best friends with a Palestinian; an Indian with a Pakistani – it’s just terrific. Of course, the parents who send their children to such a school are (by and large) not bigoted to begin with.