Prof. Aziz Ahmed was the first to trace the shortcomings of three medieval Scholars, - Amir Khusrau, Muhammed Isami and Malik Muhammed Jaisi -in his “Epic and counter Epic in Medieval India”26. Here it has been expounded that Muslim rule in India contributed two literary growth, - one is the Muslim epic of conquest; and another is the Hindu epic of resistance. Now these literatures had psychological roots of the contemporary authors who wished to glorify specific communities and war heroes. The Muslim narratives developed through Qasidas(panegyrics), mostly which were conducted on the occasion of campaign by the Muslim kings in various Hindu kingdoms. Now, in medieval period we have few instances of notable compositions about the annals of Muslim victory. In this consideration, Amir khusrau’s Miftah al Futuh is the first war epic (Razmiya), which narrates four victories of Jalal-Al-Din Khalji, two of them against Hindu rajas. The next work of Amir Khusrau, Khazain al Futuh, was written in prose form, and the conquest of Turks against the Hindus had been glorified. The Khalji campaign of Deccan was identified as a bravado of iconoclasm. Khusrau’s next epic “Ashiqa” was courtly (Bazmiya) in subject, related to the love story of Alauddin Khalji’s son Khizr Khan for the Hindu princess of Gujrat, Dewal Rani. Here one psychological perspective is obvious that is the recognition of conquers right of possession upon the dominated Hindu beloved. Khusrau, beyond dispute being a poet laurate, is the only individual figure of medieval century who said to have conveyed the pluralistic depiction of Hindustan, and his genius authorship absorbed both the major and micro beauty of Hindustan’s culture, peoples, nature and environment. But one may surprise to see his quotation about how he set out a Muslim majoritarian tendency-

“Happy Hindustan, the splendors of religion, where the (Muslim holy) law finds perfect honor and security…. the strong men of Hind have been trodden under foot and are ready to pay tribute. Islam is triumphant and idolatry is subdued.” 27

Amir Khusrau’s last epic Tughluq Nama had an actual sake to signify the re-establishment of Muslim power in India by his hero Ghiyath al Din Tughluq. Following, such cases one may be confused about his contrary approach. However, through these all-critical overviews we should interpret Amir Khusrau as visionary, literary genius and harbinger of nation’s pluralism. Likewise, we must not abstain to evaluate Khusrau on the ground of his majoritarian intention towards the Hindus. But, one thing I have to point out here that the Indo-Persian historiography as well as medieval literary traditions often used the term “infidel” for non-believers that doesn’t actually means to illiberally representing other counterparts. At best, we can project them as the mind set up circle of Muslim authors, otherwise, there is no dissidence to deliberate Amir Khusrau far more superior than that of the contemporary scholars about their treatment of Non-Muslims.

The formation of Indian heritage has been a long-drawn process from far ancient period. Our culture digested each and every elements of whole universe which gradually became the principle of Indian nation. There might have been numerous advents of foreign powers, rise and fall of royal dynasties, political turmoil, but altogether the deep-rooted homogenous socio-cultural relationship had never been threatened on the manner of political institutions. Perhaps, this is the most exalted disposition of this sub-continent. In the same mode, we should also elucidate the insight of Amir Khusrau who dedicated his generous espial in the creation of composite culture. Hence, in later period his footsteps had been followed in many notable aspects of Indian culture. Precisely, in the field of recognizing the other faiths still we have no more example like Amir Khusrau.

2.

We have various major opinions about the growth of Bhakti movement in India which held the role of Islam behind the rapid augmentation of this mystic school. Iswari Prasad states, - ‘the Muslims introduced a new spirit into Hindu society by laying stress on the unity of God. The implicit explanation stands on one formulation – the Hindus said to have influenced by the austerity of Islam, and its faith on oneness of God’28. Dr. Yusuf Hussain in his “The Glimpses of the Medieval Indian Culture”, made an assumption, by giving the case of Ramananda who reported to have acquired the knowledge of Islamic ideas, and was unconsciously inspired by them29. However, it is hard to bank on these above arguments. As the idea of universal brotherhood was already existed in ancient India, and its extraction had been presented by Vedas. Even, the Bhakti movement as a regeneration of Hinduism, gained much response from the lower-class masses, and was not wholly established. The fundamental factor was to raise up against the Brahmanical sway, and exploitation which was actually a continuous process itself beyond any external force. Although Bhakti movement could not collaborate to perpetually eliminate the interregnum between Hinduism and Islam, but it had created a good bonding of these twogreat religions for transitory time.

My analysis now redirected to another influential mystic saint as well as a prominent poet of medieval century, Kabirdas or Kabir. I would like to evaluate his composite ideas through many of his literary offshoots. As far as his caste and profession is concerned it has been elicited from Kabir’s own word-

(You are a Brahmin and I am a Julaha from Kashi, Julaha Kabir says that there is no way without blessing of God)

He was a poor Julaha – a Mohammedan weaver of Kasi. It is, therefore, certain that because of his extreme marginal background he was unable accomplish formal education during his infancy. He mentioned in a couplet of his Doha – “Moshi- kaged suth nahi, kalam dhari nahi hath”31 (I never touched ink or paper nor did I take a pen).

The idea to regard Kabir as the prophet of Hindu-Muslim unity has been directed differently. The Apostle of Hindu-Muslim Unity, written by Muhammad Hedayetullah, and published in 1977. In his preface, Hedayetullah says this about Kabir -

“He was not only a true product of the interaction of Hindu-Muslim ideas, but also a sincere ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity. By preaching a new spirituality, he not only disregarded the formal religions of Hinduism and Islam, which he considered merely man-made, he also struggled to unite the two communities by a new piety which would not discriminate between them either religiously or socially....”32. Denouncing all religious formalisms, he preached a new dogma of universalism with an attempt to resolve the tensions that had prevailed between the two communities for so many centuries. Now, I would like to cite from Amartya Sen’s ‘Argumentative Indian’- “A similar commitment to accepting—and exalting diversity can be seen in many other writings, from the prose and poetry of Amir Khusrau, a Muslim scholar and poet in the fourteenth century, to the rich culture of non-sectarian religious poetry which flourished from around that time, drawing on both Hindu (particularly Bhakti) and Muslim (particularly Sufi) traditions. Indeed, interreligious tolerance is a persistent them in the poetry of Kabir, Dadu, Ravi-das, Sena and others....”33. However, whether he was a pioneer “Hindu-Muslim unity”, or his effort was “interreligious tolerance”, we have to reach in detail.

As an exponent of dynamic society Kabir spoke up against the bigotry, and rigidity of both his coeval Hindus and Muslims. I would like to give few examples. This is an earliest collection, and mostly authentic which threatened the Muslims slaughtering and eating of cows-

“We have searched the Turk’s religion (turakii dharam).

These teachers throw many thunderbolts.

Recklessly they display boundless pride.

While explaining their own aims, they kill cows.

How can they kill the mother?

Whose milk they drink like that of a wet-nurse?

The young and the old drink milk pudding,

But these fools eat the cow’s body.

Simultaneously, he attacked the hidebound Hindu ritualistic elements in his same words-

“The pandits have gone astray studying and pondering the Vedas,

Lost in many secrets they do not find their own selves.

Absorbed in their daily prayers, sacrificial libations,

And the six ritual acts, they stay in their ashrams.

They have imparted the Gayatri mantra throughout the four ages,

But go and ask if any have attained salvation.

Ram is found immanent in everyone, but they purify themselves.

Tell me, who is lower than these?”35

Moreover, according to Kabir, ‘it is not only the ritual actions of Hindus and Muslims, even their religious books, the Vedas and the Quran, are equally worthless’. One can realize how he drastically step up against them from another of his song-

“He who taught the Muslim creed (kalamam) in the Kali age

Was unable to seek out the power of the creation.

According to karma, the actor performs his actions.

The Vedas and Muslim books are all worthless.

According to karma, one became an avatar in the world.

According to karma, one fixed the Muslim prayers.

According to karma, circumcision or the sacred thread.

Neither the Hindu nor the Turk knows the secret.

Water and air were joined together,

All this turmoil was created.

When surati is absorbed in the Void,

On what basis can our caste be told?”36

What Kabir clearly says in these quotes is not that both religions lead to the same goal, but rather that true religious experience totally transcends the doctrines and practices of any specific traditional religion. This idea is, in fact, probably the most frequent and dominant idea found in all early collections of Kabir’s compositions. In Kabir, God or the absolute or the Supreme Spirit is finally identified with the religious subject’s mental experience of a unique, non-temporal and non-sensorial consciousness. The logical conclusion is rather that Kabir had little or no use for everyday religious institutions and everyday religious customs and allegiances whatsoever. To say otherwise is to distort history in favour of some contemporary historical project. The secular state is to one’s mind clearly a worthy ideal, but Kabir’s contributions to this ideal are dubious at best, however much we may otherwise love his poetry and his ideas.

He was a founder of humanistic lore with the inclusion of material forces. Once, a set up believe was associated in both these two great religions, where it had been often insisted upon temple and mosque as the house of God. In order to entrust the latter’s hereditary faith, overtly discrimination broke out. Sometime, not alone the Hindus or Muslims were treated for not allowing each other’s sanctum, but even the females had no place there. In mosques or holy shrines hardly, women could get entry. Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq openly promulgated that ladies must be prevented from their accession at Sufi shrines. Same fact goes to several temples which strictly brought the senses of opprobrium against the females. That’s why, Kabir strongly claimed to curtail the value of those so called “temples” and “mosques” through his poems. I am citing one of his quotes –

“O servant, where dost thou seek me?

Lo! I am beside thee.

I am neither in Kaaba nor in Mosque:

Kailash:

Neither am I in rites and ceremonies,

Nor in Yoga and renunciation

If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt meet me

In a moment of time.

Kabir says, “O Sadhu! God is the breath of all breath” 37

Actually, the worldly impetus in a visibly divine tone was the basic subjective theme of Kabir. In his tenet no more enunciation on traditional theology had been propounded, rather than this he wished an extinction of common scriptural approaches based on divergent community faiths. Kabir’s notion of composite society, indeed, relied upon moralistic venture of human being. He stands on behalf of the women to hinder the long form of gender discrimination, whom had always been regarded as the cause of misery, and decline in a family. We should observe his quote-

(Don’t think of women as hell, she is the goldmine of all saints.

Its women who gives birth to the men of God, the women are the mine of jewels

Never defame a woman, a woman is the mine of jewels

All men come out of woman, Dhruva Prahlad alike)

The above discussion of two mystic figures of medieval India delineated their approach towards a composite social profile. Now, I shall look forward to the role of these preachers in the formation of Indian heritage. This analysis should also be an effort to revisit that despite being the presence of such dynamic harmonious perception in our civilization; how after the advent of colonial rule Indian mind had been separated, and both Hindus and Muslims had become the victim of radical communalism. As mentioned earlier, we have seen the devoted struggle of these mystic preachers to eschew socio-religious rigidity. But, in spite of such efforts, why our sociological behaviour still remained with the notions of purity and pollution. This aspect has also need to reinterpret here.

The rise of communalism in Indian sub-continent had a longdrawn process, which has been traced by several scholars. Precisely, after the arrival of colonial rule, due to the purpose of discriminating both Hindus and Muslims, they had imposed different policies-based on hostility or identity. Now, we should look into the basic modes of communalism. In materialistic nature, it is a motive which peoples derived from their pre-generators through various transmission of superstition, bigotry and ritualistic rigidity. However, in the course of time, such factors gradually generate the psychology of that programme. In this consideration, other observations are noticeable – when a particular community considered its superiority, they always directed to prove themselves on its behalf; and inversely, when a particular community thinks about so called ‘identity crisis’. Then in time after time the locomotives thrives as an obvious antagonistic force to reestablish their peculiar appearance.

There are multiple opinions behind this process. Anil Seal, one of the most leading scholar of Cambridge school, argued about the absence of nationalism because of the numerous sways of dissidence, conflict and diversity among the Indians39. Hence, the extract of his perception was the hereditary presence of communalism and racism rather than the ideas of ‘unified nationalism’. We can include few more characteristic of our sub-continent, – firstly, because of the regional variations there are various psychological atmosphere among the peoples which varied even after each kilometre; and secondly, religion do not play as the supreme force to mobilize a particular community where the senses are mostly centred round with racial or ethnical influences. We have many examples of indigenous groups

who shared their common ties and rituals despite remaining fundamentally in own faith. 

Immediately, after the beginning of Aligarh movement, a group of British academicians like- Theodore Beck and Morrison, infused the concept of separate identity among the intellectual Muslims. By which, it had been disseminated that National congress is an institution of Hindu majority, and no amelioration of Muslims could be achieved from there. This rumour gradually became a model of ‘identity crisis’ for upper strata of Muslims. Hence, if the Muslims dreaming for political, economic and social advancement; certainly, they need separate party or democratic platform within British dominion. Sooth to say, it was an incessant intention of those British officials to very strategically induce division between the two-dominant community of Indian sub-continent. On the eve of swadeshi movement, the growth of Hindu nationalism was also a catalyst in making this distance. Beyond dispute, they were the pioneer of anticolonial struggle, but their objective was imperfect to imbibe everyone in the mainstream of anti-British agitation. Hardly Muslims could participate in their organizations. Another reason can also be traced that the Muslims were not in touch of western education as the British education was regarded as ‘Haram’ or Lesson of Christianity from the days of 1857. Surprisingly, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s Aligarh college had often been called as the institution of Christianity. Mostly the elite Hindu groups could attach with English because of their financial stability. In the course of time, under the effect of British ‘divide and rule policy’, the new emerging educated Muslims drastically advocated the two nations theory. Eventually, Muslim league, Hindu Mahasabha and RSS came into being; and directly or indirectly they were supported by Britishers. I dare to say, even among the congress leaders such radical elements had been acted, otherwise, it is hard to believe that how Madan Mohan Malavya, a reverent educationist, politician and three times elected president of INC, took his alteration from Congress to Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahsava40. Same example goes to Mohammed Ali Jinnah, whose leadership later became the extreme locomotive of Pakistan41. Whether it was the responsibility of British policy alone, or the long evolutionary process that does not make sense. But the curse has not been erased still. We have seen in earlier discussion of both Amir Khusrau and Kabir’s approach who laid the foundation of sociological assimilation by excluding conflicts, superiority-inferiority and purity-pollution. It was, therefore, a fight against the evil norms -like ‘Pan-Hinduism’, ‘Pan-Islamism’ and ‘PanSikhism”, which later developed as the guiding medium of colonial policy making.

Even, in 21st century India it is hard to imagine that in this sacred land of Kabir and Amir Khusrau, how we unfortunate peoples are occupied by communal, community, caste, race and ethnic rivalry. Perhaps, we are unable to nourished their estimable humanistic doctrine to regard anybody not as ‘Hindu’ or ‘Muslim’ but as human being only. Just as like Kabir said “Hari in the east Allah in the west look within your heart from there you will find both Karim and Ram”. In lieu of, we put our reliance widely upon canonical texts illustrated by the ungenerous ‘Brahmans’ or ‘Mullahs’. During the period of colonial rule political opportunists keep this tool as weapon for gaining more power. In post-independence period, and until now communal politics is going on. In each and every corner of our country regularly we are experiencing many horrible incidents caused by these elements. Another fact is also to remark here is the absence of scientific and impartial history writing among the academicians of this discipline. The prime objective of this social science is the ascertainment of truth. Do some extend, we may not have this capability as we human beings made of bone and blood, so it is impossible to be unbiased completely. But at least we can try to reach in the very approximation of truth to formulate our glorious heritage.