First   they  came  for  the  Jews
And  I  did  not  speak  out
Because  I  was  not  a   jew
Then  they  came  for  the  communists
And  I  did   not  speak  out
Because  I  was  not  a  communist
Then  they  came  for  the  trade  unionists
And  I  did  not  speak  out
Because  I  was  not  a  trade  unionist
Then  they  came  for  me
And  there  was  no  one  left
To  speak  out  for  me
			- Partor  Niomaller

The history of independent India is replete with Bhiwandi, Bhagalpur, Godhra, Aligarh, Meerut, Mau, Varanasi and the list goes on to an unending numbers. Many books and articles have been published over the years to read the human behaviour and psychology at the time of such communal riots.

What happens with the people living together in a friendly atmosphere over the years become foes in a fraction of time, just in the name of religion? How many of us, Hindus or Muslims have read their scriptures and sacred books with its true meaning?

Quran is in Arabic and Bhagvad Geeta is in Sanskrit and if we try to find out the people who really understand the meaning of the verses and shloks written in these books, we will get merely 1% percent who really understand the true essence of their religious books and meaning which Islam and Hinduism preached to its followers or believers.

If we don't understand the preaching in these books then why and for what religion we are fighting for? If we have read then which of these books preaches about killing one another?

May be some of us will argue and blame politicians that they for their benefits incite communal frenzy between people. If the answer is this then why we become a victim to such a ploy, if we know it is deliberately done then why we come out to take the lives of each other whom we think has nothing to do with it. Just because our sentiments are attached to one religion, though we don't know what the religions have taught us. If we don't know about the religion we follow then why we call it a communal riot?

It should be given some other name; something should be done which may not bring contradiction to the teachings of religions. A bad name to any religion which has nothing to do with the acts of its followers, who have never opened their eyes to absorb the meanings of one's religion.

India once a place of monks, saints, and sufis, etc about which we are proud of and imparted the teachings to the other parts of the globe will cease with the inhuman acts of ours in coming decades. We should always keep in mind that a communal riot not only poses threat to the secular, democratic ethos but also to the economic well being of society.

by Khalid Musanna

''Freedom implies not only emancipation from political bondage but also equal distribution of wealth, abolition of caste barriers and social inequities and destruction of communalism and religious intolerence".
- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose