When I first came to college in the town of Behrampur, I saw that the
educated people were more communal in their mindset than the simple
people in my native village of Basantapur in Murshidabad district.
People in the village were religious, no doubt, but were more tolerant
of other religions and lived peacefully with other communities.I
began to question religion, education, and started studying the
different faiths, which resulted in the book “Banglay Hindu-Musalman
Samparka” (Hindu-Muslim Relations in Bengal).
Nazrul Islam in conversation with Anuradha Sharma. Here
If you ask me to choose between corruption and communalism, I would say I am ready to tolerate corruption than live (or die) with communalism.
Corruption can be fought by vigilant activists but lives lost in communal violence cannot be brought back. Against corruption, the whole country will stand united but communalism will further polarise the nation.
J. Sidharthan,
Tuticorin
A letter in The Hindu. Here
