Kolkata: The head of the apex body of right-wing Hindu groups in India says all communities would live together in harmony in the country, irrespective of their diverse culture, religion, language and food habits.
“Everybody will live in harmony as the sons of Mother India. All of us will live together, irrespective of the diversity of culture, religion, language and food habits,” Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), told a October 3 program in Kolkata to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Sister Nivedita, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda.
Quoting Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore, Bhagwat said, “Tagore had once told the British not to think that the Hindus and Muslims (of India) would be wiped out by fighting against each other as this would never happen. Despite their differences, they (Hindus and Muslims) will find a path of coexistence and that path will be the Hindu path.”
Bhagwat recalled an incident when a former Rajya Sabha member who now runs an Urdu daily, had asked him why was he opposed to the Sachar Committee report.
“He had told me that all the Muslims in India were originally Hindus and that somehow, they had become Muslims and now, they would remain so.
“He had also told me that there was a tradition of singing ‘qawwali’ among the Indian Muslims and one would not find that in any other country and the reason behind that was that they had not forgotten the practice of singing bhajans,” Bhagwat said.
“These were his words. He had said that if all of us came to know the truth, these differences would disappear. For this, he had said, we needed education and the Sachar Committee report would help the Muslims get it,” Bhagwat said.
“So, why was I opposed to the Sachar Committee, he had asked me. I had told him that I was aware of this truth, but the day the people he represented acknowledged this, I would stop opposing the Sachar Committee,” he added.
The earlier United Progressive Alliance government, in 2005, had commissioned the Rajinder Sachar Committee to prepare a report on the social, economic, and educational conditions of Muslims in India.