Media has its own evaluation of newsworthiness of an event. What is projected in the print and electronic media is just is just a pick from the battery from different social and political events occurring world over. Many such events, which we may feel are important, may not find a place in print or electronic media. One such event was recently held Roza-Iftar at Hanumangarhi at Ayodhya. Very few channels took a note of it and the major section of print media preferred to ignore it for reasons best known to the media managers and those who determine the policies of media.

On 20th November hundreds of Muslims came to the biggest and most popular temple in Ayodhya, Hanuman garhi. They offered Namaz and broke the fast in the sacred precincts of this temple. Incidentally it is one amongst many temples in Ayodhya whose mahants are opposed to the politicization of temple mosque issue and those who feel that solution to the Ram temple Babri mosque should be left to the people of Ayodhya. Incidentally Ayodhya has been the holy place not only of Hindus but also of Buddhists, Muslims and Jains as well. The Nawab of Awadh had many a Hindu courtiers, one of whom got this temple built on the land donated by the Nawab and even today this temple has a huge landed estate donated by the Avadh Nawab. While VHP and its cohorts are out to force a decision in favor of the temple most of the people from Ayodhya are sick of the Ram Temple campaign as it has affected the life of all the residents of Ayodhya in an adverse manner. Their business has come down, many business families had to shift their work to nearby towns and overall this prosperous town is faced with grim economic situation. As one of the mahants put it, “we have lost our independence as the city has become a sort of fortress with police regulating our movements at every stage”.

All the communal hate which has been poured out seems to have eluded the psyche of people of Ayodhya who seem to have seen the plot behind the attempt to force a Ram temple at the disputed area. Before the event planned for 17th October, the local Muslim community was gripped by a great amount of fear, and it is at that time that the local Mahants went to the Muslim bastis assuring them that they are not alone. It is also noteworthy that the turnout planned by VHP was nowhere in sight and just the small number which came out had very little percentage of local population. It comprised mainly of those who came from Southern states, the people from UP and places nearby to Ayodhya were few and far between. It is in this context that one sees the great relevance of local intercommunity interaction. Mahant Gyandas of Hanuman garhi and many other such Mahants talking the language of peace and harmony, enjoy a great prestige amongst Ayodhya people, those from all the communities. The initiatives taken by such Mahants have a great healing touch on the wounded psyche of intercommunity relations. In a way this is the best way to bridge the gap between communities, the gap which has been consciously manufactured and widened by vested elements to bake their electoral bread. In the current scenario, the political events which have been shaped during last two decades with Gujarat being the dump to which hate campaign can stoop to achieve its political goals, the hate towards minorities and suspicion towards the majority community has worsened. The incessant violence has led to the alienation of a large section of minorities and this is leading to ghettoisation at physical and psychology levels. The existence of ‘mini Pakistans’ has gone up. Practically every city has Muslim dominated areas, addressed by this derogatory term. At the same time borders have been erected between the areas inhabited by one community vis a vis the other.

How does one work to unwind this situation? How can we build the intercommunity relations afresh? One recalls that Indian traditions had a rich intermix of practices coming from all the religions inhabiting this land. The cultural ingredients come from all the sources, from all the streams which lived here. Be it the music, literature, art craftsmanship, architecture or the sartorial patterns one can clearly see the influence of both the religions. At religious level Bhakti and Sufi both were extremely popular and were based on the available spiritual wealth irrespective of from where it came. Kabir, Nanak, Bhakti and Sufi saints are the high point of this. Classical Hindustani music cannot be imagined without the contributions of Hindu and Muslim stalwarts both. The achievements in the literary world are no different. In a way one can say the divide has not been along the religious lines but across the elite and the average people.

The average people thronging the Sufi shrines and following Bhakti Saints came from both the religions. The Shudras in particular found an escape by going to Sufi shrines. It is only the elite Brahminical streams which were exclusionist and kept the average people out from the precincts, which they controlled. Spirituality has a great bonding power, and spirituality does not recognize the religious boundaries outlined by the elite. Same applies to most of the arenas of human life and discourse. Holi festival beginning from the Muslim zamindars house in the UP villages and Shudras participation in the Moharrum falls in the same category. Love thy neighbor has been the dictum in the life of the communities. There are shrines of Christian saints thronged by people of different religions. There still are churches in the city of Mumbai, like the one in Mahim where people from all religions go to pray and seek the blessings. How long can they withstand the pressures of the rising tide of politics which claims to derive its legitimacy from a particular religion is a matter of anybody’s guesswork. Will this politics start encroaching upon our food habits? Will it start to influence our dance and music is again a matter of conjecture, but those things are under a threat is above any shadow of doubt with the lengthening shadows of trishuls.

But now the neighbor belonging to the other community has been sent packing to the distant ghetto, as the communal violence instilled a mortal fear for safety and security. The neighbor-hoods are now converging to one community norm and in such situations the retrograde religiosity replaces the librating spirituality. In such situations the conservatives of the community are dominant, be they Mullahs or Acharya of different shades. The ghettoized community tries to withdraw in a shell and the gradually increasing physical distance creates more suspicions. These suspicions further weaken the possibilities of emotional bandings and the hate propaganda gets the most fertile situations to perpetuate it. The vicious circle sets itself.

No amount of demystification is as effective as the efforts to bring the communities together on common grounds, the physical closeness. Inter community celebrations, the participation in each others festivals is a powerful tool of creating the solid bridges which are lasting and can withstand the venom of hate propaganda. What happened in Hanuman Garhi, right in the heart of the place which is being battered by the politics of Hate, can be the glorious example of proactive affirmative actions in promoting National integration, which is a prerequisite of democratic society. Similar experiments have also been undertaken by various secular action groups, but obviously there newsworthiness in sufficient to draw the attention of media which sees that its circulation graphs or viewer-ship ratings can go up more by highlighting the events which are sensational, even if they have a very negative impact on our national psyche and social connectivity.