Farah Naqvi - Ayodhya Verdict: India’s Muslims Sought Dignity, Not Land
the full theory of the
good enables us to distinguish different sorts of moral worth, or the lack of
it. Thus we can distinguish between the unjust, the bad, and the evil man… some
men strive for excessive power, that is, authority over others which goes
beyond what is allowed by the principles of justice and which can be exercised
arbitrarily. In each of these cases there is a willingness to do what is wrong
and unjust in order to achieve one’s ends.
But the unjust man seeks dominion for the sake of aims such as wealth and security which when appropriately limited are legitimate. The bad man desires arbitrary power because he enjoys the sense of mastery which its exercise gives to him and he seeks social acclaim. He too has an inordinate desire for things which when duly circumscribed are good, namely, the esteem of others and the sense of self-command. It is his way of satisfying these ambitions that makes him dangerous.
But the unjust man seeks dominion for the sake of aims such as wealth and security which when appropriately limited are legitimate. The bad man desires arbitrary power because he enjoys the sense of mastery which its exercise gives to him and he seeks social acclaim. He too has an inordinate desire for things which when duly circumscribed are good, namely, the esteem of others and the sense of self-command. It is his way of satisfying these ambitions that makes him dangerous.
By contrast, the evil
man aspires to unjust rule precisely because it violates what independent
persons would consent to in an original position of equality, and therefore its
possession and display manifest his superiority and affront the self-respect of
others. It is this display and affront which is sought after. What moves the
evil man is the love of injustice: he delights in the impotence and humiliation
of those subject to him and he relishes being recognized by them as the willful
author of their degradation. John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, (1999), p 385-6. (Emphases added)
“If the judgement had
gone in favour of ‘the Muslim’ party, our blood would have flowed on the
streets! Right-wing hordes would have descended on the land. No Muslim would
have been allowed to take possession. That is the simple truth. Why is it that
no one has the courage to just say that?” These angry words burst from a
young Muslim student of Delhi University. He said it as only the young can –
simply and directly, shorn of legal sophistry or academic qualifiers.
He then proceeded to
speak, and I knew he would just burst if he didn’t, about how he felt, how
humiliated, how small, how angry, how helpless. “Is this what Muslims are
reduced to? You take our land, you destroy a historic mosque, burn our homes,
lead riots against us, and then you get rewarded. Muslims have to fight this.
We have to lead this fight. Let secular Hindus join us…” Lots of young educated
Muslims I’ve spoken to in the last few days are saying some version of this.
They have ideas too
about how they want to respond to the five acres of land being offered in lieu
of justice. Some want to reject it outright. Others speak of building a
hospital or a school. Several young people imagine creating in Ayodhya a
memorial to the riot victims of 1992-93. Others want a memorial to all victims
of the spree of lynching that directly preceded the judgment. Why not? A
memorial to Akhlaq, Pehlu, Junaid and Tabrez. A memorial to enduring injustice.
No one, not one single person I’ve spoken to, believes that what a young woman
student calls the ‘mosque-monument-of-humiliation’ can ever be built on that
land.... read more:
https://thewire.in/communalism/ayodhya-verdict-indian-muslims/amp/see also
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Democratic Liberties Only Belong To The Bold And Vigilant: Justice Chelameswar
Peace as a punctuation mark in eternal war
Arthur Rosenberg on Fascism as a Mass-Movement
Purushottam Agrawal: Being Hindu in a Hindu Rashtra
Listen, Mister Muslim: By Javed Anand
