Just as the Mahabharata serves to train its audiences in distinguishing good from evil, and seeing the wide gray areas between the black and the white, Talmud has served the same purpose for the Jews for millenia in living a moral life. The holy book that would “fill 6,200 normal pages,” according to Wikipedia. It “contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis on a variety of subjects, including Halakha (law), Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, lore and many other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law and is much quoted in rabbinic literature.”
At the heart of both Ramayana and Mahabharata and the Talmud is a teaching and learning process. It’s a method of seeking the truth. It’s not always simply a memorization of wisdom by the learner, but a process of rational discovery, the use of individual reason, kept within bounds by strict rules of logic and proper conduct. Outside all matters pertaining to personal faith, or deen, the grasp of any kind of reality through a rational discourse has served many societies well. It relieves social tensions and finds solutions to problems facing everybody.
The Vedas and the Talmud, but not the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament, are among the world’s few ancient texts that are not revealed, but evolved, divine or not, according to Viresh Sharma, who lives in Connecticut and is a self-described vanaspratha, which in Sanskrit means someone who is detached from the affairs of this world in a stage that is higher than sanyas. He also says, “The ideas in Vedas are not to be taken as absolute and that is what makes Indians ‘argumentative’,” an allusion to Amartya Sen’s book, “the Argumentative Indian”.
German culture was flourishing during the first half of the 20th century, and the Jews had achieved great heights in the pursuit of knowledge, producing such giants as Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein who later migrated to the United States. The success and affluence of the Jews in Germany fuelled a centuries’ old Christian hatred of the Hebrew people; early Christian preachers held the Palestine Jews responsible for the Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. The organized Nazi hatred led to the annihilation of 6 million Jews across Europe.
The tide turned immediately after the end of World War II, when the state of Israel was created by the European colonialists. Principally involved in the turning of this tide of history were Jewish professors in academia everywhere, top scientists in their laboratories, judicial scholars in high courts, journalists and industrialists and financiers manipulating the politicians.
The Jewish rise to worldwide power was complete by 1970. Except for the decisive June 1967 war, they had reached the pinnacle of dominance entirely through a democratic process in the United States and Canada, and later in Europe. They prospered in a legal environment of equal rights, excelling in all fields of human endevour. Power is never offered to anyone on a platter. It is always seized. Grabbed.
In a nutshell, this was the arc of history of the Jewish rise to power. The secrets of their success: Keeping religion private, using science to determine social reality, and struggling to fortify both a freedom of conscience and a right to free speech — protected free speech regardless of its often hate-filled content.
The Jewish model simply assumes democracy. If free speech is guaranteed, truth will prevail, many of the Jewish philosophers have shown.
Can this model be applied in the Indian situation? Yes, it can be applied. Any effort in this direction must proceed from an assumption of equality among all claims to the truth of the Hereafter. In other words, all truth claims are equal. No one group can reasonably make a claim of exclusive ownership of the Truth that guarantees salvation in the Hereafter only to the adherents of this claim. Any such claim is in and of iteself suspect, but it is protected speech. People must be allowed to make such claims.
What would this mean in real life? At the street corner in, lets say, Meerut or Amroha or Hyderabad? It would mean:
A) The acceptance of social and political differences among people, often within the family.
B) Practice of the principle that the exercise of one’s freedom of speech and congregation does not interfere with other people’s rights. It would mean that no one individual or group is allowed to impose on others their kinds of worship or celebration, such as the invasive jaagrans or calls to prayers or the ringing of bells. Good neighborly relations should prevail.
C) School textbooks that present several viewpoints.
D) An educational system that promotes the idea of the oneness of the people, and equal rights.
E) Glorification of one’s land, as fervently as it is done in most countries of the world.
F) Support for an electoral system that is geared to represent the people’s wishes.
G) Recognition of the fact that the majority opinion can and should prevail, but all losing minorities must be accepted as legitimate and members of a democratic polity, as opposed to anyone being declared a traitor.
H) A celebration of all subcultures.
I) Gender equality and justice.
Secularism means different things in different societies. In France, the wearing of hijab by a high school student is seen as a violation of secularist principles. In America, and India, it is a matter of personal choice of an item of clothing. In Turkey, hijab-wearing is cause for discrimination in jobs and educational opportunities. However secularism is defined, at its heart is acceptance of and respect for religious differences. This does not mean downgrading of religion, but its separation from the life of the public that encompasses a great diversity of opinion and interpretation of tradition within one ethnic community, not to speak of the population as a whole.
Progress can only be incremental, and it’s never accomplished without paying some kind of price. Who decides how much price to pay to achieve what? Majority opinion, whether in elections or informally through other elite networks.
All social philosophies, barring the extremists on both ends, aim at self-improvement both at the micro and the macro level. The ethical philosophy of Islam aims at producing good human beings. The same can be said of all other traditional religions and value systems. This has to be the point of departure for all debates and discussions on the subject of social and moral values, all of which derive from ideas cherished by people and underscored by our common humanity.
I totaly agree.. religion should be personal always.. it should not b applied in society. Every body shld b given total fredom…science should b given more priorty and madrassa instituition should be modified.. so that peopl coming out from this institutn can contribute to the society in civil servce defense servce politics and every where.. dis wil improve the image of muslims.. we need people lik apj kalam….
If equal opportunities are given to Muslims in education there’s no doubt that India will get 10s of thousands of AJP Kalaam to serve this nation, I guarantee
what do mean … muslims r not allowed to go to public schools , or colleges or universities … this ur own choice to land in other activities …. dont blame the government for that
I have doubt on this author real name i am sure his real name is not “usama khalidi” if he is real Usama Khalidi than he should require more knowledge of Islam in order to understand the knowledge and power. “God commands you to practice justice, enjoins you to help and assist your kin and He forbids obscenity, evil or oppression, so that you may remember Him.” (Quran 16:90)
I don’t have any doubt on your real name, as it sounds very clear that you are a typical gosht eating muslim. First understand what’s written and then comment. Don’t jump to conclusions.
This is as an eye opener for the Muslim elite – this articles contents should rattle the conscience of the “blame others” group. The Muslim elite chooses to bury their head in the glorious past of Muslim achievement in science and math and lastly resort to meaningless criticism of the author as evident by these comments.
Yes, Jews pinnacle to peak in science, medicine, finance, law, and politics. But this was not given to them on the platter. Any minority population anywhere in the world should follow their footsteps if they were to be successful in preserving their culture. Be it Uigher in China or Bosnian in The Baltics.
U want to follow jews and want to become like jews? What the “Jewish power” has given to the world? Cant you see that the jewish model has Injustice, oppression….ask the Palestinians.
WHy dont Muslims learn from the Sahaba may Allah pleased with them and the earlier generations. Did u forget that Muslims have ruled most part of the world???