Communalism always calls for culture. He may be ashamed to come out in his true form. Both of them are still considering their own culture as untouchable, have forgotten that now there is no Muslim culture, no Hindu culture, no other culture, now there is only one culture in the world, and that is economic culture, But even today the cry of Hindu and Muslim culture goes on crying. However, culture has nothing to do with religion. There is Aryan culture, there is Iranian culture, there is Arab culture, but there is no such thing as Christian culture and Muslim or Hindu culture.
Hindus are idol worshipers, so are Muslims not grave-worshippers and place-worshipers? Who offers sherbet and sheerini to the tajiye? Who considers the mosque to be the house of God? If there is such a sect among Muslims, which considers it to be infidel to bow down before the greatest of prophets, then there is a sect among Hindus which considers deities as pieces of stone and rivers as streams of water and scriptures as gophers. Here we do not see any difference between the two cultures.
So what’s the language difference? no way. Muslims may call Urdu their Milli language, but Urdu is as unfamiliar to a Madrasi Muslim as Sanskrit to a Madrasi Hindu. Hindus or Muslims speak the language of the common man, whether it is Urdu or English, Bengali or Marathi, in the province in which they live. …then is there a difference in their dress? … a Hindu man also ties a turban like a Muslim. Often both have beards. Go to Bengal, where both Hindu and Muslim women wear saris, Hindu and Muslim men wear kurtas and dhoti. The practice of Tahmad is very recent, when communalism has gained momentum. Take food. If Muslims eat meat, then eighty percent of Hindus also eat meat. High class Hindus drink alcohol, high class Muslims also. Lower-class Hindus also drink, lower-class Muslims also… Music and painting are also a part of culture, here too we do not find any cultural distinction.
Then we do not understand what is that culture, to protect which communalism is putting so much emphasis. In fact, the call of culture is only pretense, utter hypocrisy. And its creators are also the same people who live in the cool shadow of communalism. This is just a mantra to drag the simple men towards communalism and nothing else. The defenders of Hindu and Muslim culture are the same nobles and the same community, who have no faith in themselves, their countrymen and on the truth, so they understand the need of such a power till eternity, which acts as sarpanch in their disputes. . These institutions have nothing to do with the happiness and misery of the people. They do nothing more than help the ruler in ruling the people by rising above each other for positions and concessions. It has also started spreading the hypocrisy that Hindus can achieve Swaraj on their own. Examples are also given from history. Except by spreading such misunderstandings and spreading mischief among Muslims, no result can be achieved.
If there was a time, when Hindus got independence during the rule of Muslims, then there was also a period when Muslims established their empire during the time of Hindus. Forget those times….This is not the era of communal rise. This is the economic age and today the same policy will be successful, so that people can solve their economic problems, so that this superstition, this hypocrisy done in the name of religion, this policy of milking the poor can be eradicated. People today have neither leisure nor need to protect cultures. Culture is the addiction of the rich, of the gluttonous, of the careless. Survival is the biggest problem for the poor.
(This is an edited version of the author’s famous article published in 1934)