Interfaith Challenge and Train to Pakistan
I think Margaret is onto something here. It seems that there is a precarious balance, but after finishing Kushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan tonight, I’m certain that if there is no interfaith dialogue, there will only be infinite interfaith strife. From what I can tell about being open and tolerant, the trick is primarily, to do two things. First, it’s important to know where you’re coming from – what you believe, how you feel about issues, and likewise, how you feel about faith. Second, be able to see commonalities in places you really wouldn’t expect them. Be open and receptive to finding ideas that span across traditions and beliefs, and even, in some cases, be willing to incorporate these ideas into your own beliefs and practices. I'm a big fan of religious syncretism.
One shining example of this was summed up in a single image I saw when trying to find a picture to put on the other computer in the RFP office (don’t worry, Briana, I didn’t delete the image of the dog). I was looking for images of Kundun, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. One image I saw was of him at the Wailing Wall, wearing a Jewish kippah. He was touching the wall in great reverence, adorned with traditional Jewish religious headwear, and while some may find such displays offensive (and I’m sure there must be some who do), I found the image to be greatly heartening. I think it shows willingness on Kundun’s part to be open to other faiths, other spiritualities, because he appreciates and has great respect for the validity and the value of other traditions. He has said many times “obviously, I am a staunch Buddhist,” but that doesn’t mean that he thinks that Buddhism is the ONLY faith, or the RIGHT faith. He views it as his faith, but simultaneously, one among many. So I think this is so important: being comfortable with your own beliefs, but also realizing the value that other beliefs can have for other people, as well as the potential it can have to illuminate your own ways of thinking about, perceiving, and acting in the world.
Kushwant Singhji’s Train to Pakistan is a brilliantly written novel about how the effects of the 1947 partition of India shaped the religious understandings (or lack thereof) in a small village in the Punjab. I think it beautifully and savagely explicates the potential that a lack of tolerance and open-mindedness can have on people. In mere moments, Muslims and Sikhs who had lived as brother and sister in a small village are turn against each other, thirsty for blood, furious with monolithic conceptions of the ‘other.’ At one point, a Sikh bhai asks, “what have the Muslims done to us?” The reply? “They are Muslims.” The brilliant writer and academic (and former Hampshire College faculty) Eqbal Ahmad said that ‘othering’ involves a double distortion: glorifying the achievements of the ‘us,’ and darkening the contributions of the ‘them.’ Singhji takes the reader through these distortions, and the book has a really brilliant and (thankfully) heartening twist at the end.
Something that Eqbal said that I will carry with me forever was something I heard in a documentary on him. He was talking about Partition, and said (I’m paraphrasing here), “Yesterday, it was the Indians against the British. Today it is the Hindus against the Muslims. Tomorrow, it will be the Hindus against the Sikhs and the day after that, the Christians. There is no end to the logic of difference.”
There’s a mosquito trying to get dinner from my body and I’m doing my best not to squish it.
-Will
One shining example of this was summed up in a single image I saw when trying to find a picture to put on the other computer in the RFP office (don’t worry, Briana, I didn’t delete the image of the dog). I was looking for images of Kundun, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. One image I saw was of him at the Wailing Wall, wearing a Jewish kippah. He was touching the wall in great reverence, adorned with traditional Jewish religious headwear, and while some may find such displays offensive (and I’m sure there must be some who do), I found the image to be greatly heartening. I think it shows willingness on Kundun’s part to be open to other faiths, other spiritualities, because he appreciates and has great respect for the validity and the value of other traditions. He has said many times “obviously, I am a staunch Buddhist,” but that doesn’t mean that he thinks that Buddhism is the ONLY faith, or the RIGHT faith. He views it as his faith, but simultaneously, one among many. So I think this is so important: being comfortable with your own beliefs, but also realizing the value that other beliefs can have for other people, as well as the potential it can have to illuminate your own ways of thinking about, perceiving, and acting in the world.
Kushwant Singhji’s Train to Pakistan is a brilliantly written novel about how the effects of the 1947 partition of India shaped the religious understandings (or lack thereof) in a small village in the Punjab. I think it beautifully and savagely explicates the potential that a lack of tolerance and open-mindedness can have on people. In mere moments, Muslims and Sikhs who had lived as brother and sister in a small village are turn against each other, thirsty for blood, furious with monolithic conceptions of the ‘other.’ At one point, a Sikh bhai asks, “what have the Muslims done to us?” The reply? “They are Muslims.” The brilliant writer and academic (and former Hampshire College faculty) Eqbal Ahmad said that ‘othering’ involves a double distortion: glorifying the achievements of the ‘us,’ and darkening the contributions of the ‘them.’ Singhji takes the reader through these distortions, and the book has a really brilliant and (thankfully) heartening twist at the end.
Something that Eqbal said that I will carry with me forever was something I heard in a documentary on him. He was talking about Partition, and said (I’m paraphrasing here), “Yesterday, it was the Indians against the British. Today it is the Hindus against the Muslims. Tomorrow, it will be the Hindus against the Sikhs and the day after that, the Christians. There is no end to the logic of difference.”
There’s a mosquito trying to get dinner from my body and I’m doing my best not to squish it.
-Will
posted by Will Brideau @ 11:17 PM
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