I have accepted this invitation with extreme humility and delight, for the fact that a prestigious institution like Odisha Sahitya Akademi thought of me worthy to stand here in front of you. I have been told of the names of the legendary Indian writers and scholars who have graced this yearly function and shared their views with this august gathering for so many years. Obviously I am humbled to stand here. I have been told that I have to share my thoughts with writers and scholars who represent this language, literature and culture. Since we have not been translated enough amongst ourselves, we do not know enough of our literatures. This is particularly remarkable in the light of the fact that, we know world literature in the form of Camus, Kafka and Marquez and the like, mostly through English translations. As a result of our colonial legacy, we still use English as our link language. Of course, wherever possible and acceptable, we do use Hindi. The consequential impact of popular Hindi cinema is not merely the popularisation of Bambayya Hindi in unexpected parts of the world like Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the entire middle east for that matter, but it has also softened the attitude of southern Indian states towards it. It is a kind of silent revolution brought about by the Hindi cinema in our country. The great Bal Gangadhar Tilak during the pre-independence era had noted that Hindi will be the obvious choice for the supreme national language of the country after independence. Our post-independence history tells us that it was not and, is not that easy. People in the southern states vehemently oppose such a notion and still refuse to admit that they know the language. But they do understand it,; for sure. Still, even today, taking into considerations different compulsions, we use English language as our link language. I don’t believe in the offence to the attitude and views of non-Hindi speakers of this country, for the simple fact that, all of us have every right to love our mother-tongues. This love and this diversity has never been a roadblock in the unification of this country. The great Indian historian, Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi had once stated that, there are many puzzling, interesting and encouraging facts about this country, India and its people. The people here are diversified on many grounds and still they are united and bound together. This unity in diversity is our strength and it must be cherished, because such a unique and genuine binding is difficult to be found anywhere on this globe. Our world will be a better place, if this attitude is accepted and internalized by the populace of the globe.

In 2001 I chanced to be a member of a delegation of Indian writers visiting Paris, France. During our conversation with the scholars at a university there, a stinging question was asked by a scholar. For him possibly it was a simple and casual enquiry, meaning no harm. But, any way, it stung me. The question was, ‘Have you read each other’s writings? How are you placed in that domain?’ Obviously, we did not know much. In fact, we scantily knew each other. All of us had met for the first time on that tour. We were five in number and represented Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Malayalam and possibly one more language. I was told that there were two more delegates who did not join, as the air-tickets offered were of economy class. The writers concerned were working in high positions in the government and decided traveling by that class to be a disgrace to their position. Personally, I was not in a position to differentiate between this class distinction, as I was unaware of it. That, in fact, was my first experience of air-travel. We communicated with each other either in English or Hindi. In response to the scholar’s question, I displayed my patriotism and said, India is a vast country with a population of over thousand millions. It has got twenty-four national languages. Each of them is an ancient language and is spoken by millions of people. The language I represent, Marathi, is spoken by over hundred million people. The writers like Haal, Mhaimbhat, Namadev, Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram have written in it. Their writing can certainly be compared with the best in the languages of the world. The same can be spoken for all of our languages. All of them have their own rich literary traditions and cultures which are very rich. I admit, we have not been translated enough amongst ourselves. But that doesn’t mean, we have utterly not been. We are one country, one people and we are bound together by common cultural threads that go deeper beyond languages. The pure air from the great Himalaya has knit us together for millennia. Our great rivers have bound us together. The great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata have bound us together. Both of them have been rewritten, reinterpreted in all our languages since millennia. In the recent past our saint poetry has kept us together. I admit, there is a room for more work in the direction of translation. But don’t compare us with anybody else. Europeans today, have come together with economic and commercial interests. We, in India are an ancient nation of nations and we are bound together by our culture. We have a long history of being together for centuries. Despite a long history of quarrel and wars, we in India are bound together by common threads of our culture.

It was alright to answer that question the way I did there. The scholars there, were civilized enough not probe me further. But the questions still lingered and persisted in my mind. I felt that none of the arguments I made there were wrong. So, why did it linger and persist? How can I say that we have not been translated enough in to each other and still we are one people bound together? What quality forms the real basis of something that binds us together? What is the basis of our Indian-ness? Is it common history? Is it common culture? Both of these are, in fact, not common beyond a certain limit. Added to that, our languages are different. The scripts we use are different in most of the cases. So, what is it that which binds us together? Speaking of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and the Himalaya was alright. In the gist of my mind I felt that argument was not wrong, but it was not complete. There is something else, something more or something different and unique that is responsible for this. And suddenly it occurred to me that, it is the sharing that binds us. We have a common history of sharing and openness of heart. We have a common history accommodating outsiders, mostly intruders for that matter. Of course, there were asylum seekers from time to time and refuge was granted to them. We have a long history of intrusion from all sides – from the north-east and the north-west and seas below from Gujarat to Kerala and from Tamilnadu to Bengal. We represent all races and ethnicities of the globe. We have a very long history of commercial relations with the entire world. Gunadhya’s Kathasaritsagar or Brihatkathamanjiri is an ancient work originally created in Paishachi language and available in Sanskrit translation and from there now available in translation in most of our languages. It dates back to more than 2000 years. It contains long stories. It contains chains of stories being born from one to the next, continuing in this manner. The genres in literatures are born out of life, out of the compulsions in life. As a part of the merchandising activity, our ancestors had to travel in ships through seas for months. These were not easy and secured journeys. They had to be constantly awake and alert during this passage. These long chains of stories served the purpose. The assimilation and acceptance of these have become a part of our cultural gene. We can find the traces of races and ethnicities of the world, in us. What made us attain and internalize these virtues – if I may say so? The answer lies in the geography and environment of our Indian sub-continent. From time immemorial, this is the land of plenty. Until recently, passports and visas were not required for humans to move and reside anywhere on this globe. Naturally, people from all over the world were attracted by our subcontinent. They either invaded or sought asylum. They came on commercial and merchandise expeditions and chose to stay here. They even came as serfs and stayed and contributed to the welfare of the people here. The strategy of guerrilla warfare, which Marathas adopted and developed under the leadership of great Chhatrapati Shivaji was originally taught to them by a dynamic Divan Malik Ambar in Ahmednagar’s Nizamshahi. He was the first to adopt it in Maharashtra, for fighting with the mighty Mughals. Malik Ambar was an Abyssinian serf who got promoted to that highest office by the virtue of his bravery and political acumen. The great Ho Chi Minh came to visit India in the capacity of the head of the state of unified Vietnam which came in to being after USA had to withdraw from the bloodiest war in modern history there. During this visit Ho Chi Minh had visited Mumbai. At the airport he got down and saluted the soil there. The dignitaries that accompanied him- both Indian and Vietnamese- were astonished at this unusual gesture. He said, I am saluting this soil because the great son of this soil has taught me guerilla warfare tactics, which we used effectively in recent war against mighty Americans. His name was Chhatrapati Shivaji. He said, he read about it in a book from a library in Paris.

My principal point is people from all over the world, for centuries, could find shelter here. Naturally all of them got mixed together. As a result, we have traces of all races and ethnicities here. That has made us tolerant. This abundance has made us tolerant. Due to plethora of amenities for living here, we could accommodate them all those who who wanted to come and stay here. Tolerance is a virtue bestowed upon us by the geography of this subcontinent. That is our identity. Our Indian-ness lies in there. You will find racist and ethnicity centered people all over the world. They are constantly worried about the existence of their own kind. We are not. We don’t represent a specific race and ethnicity. Our neighbors like China, Japan and Korea are very strongly ethno-centric. We must be proud of the fact that we are not. As an aftermath of Korean War, there were thousands of children born to Korean women of American soldiers who used them as pleasure women. Obviously the symptoms of racial mixing were quite evident in their body features. Both the people and governments of Korea refused to acknowledge them as Korean citizens. They were denied all rights and privileges of the citizenship. Finally, the government of USA had to accept them as its citizens and it did. The case of Chinese and Japanese is no different. Till recently- and perhaps may be to this date – no citizenship was awarded to a child born out wedlock between Japanese and a foreigner. Similarly, the Chinese are strong believers of racial purity. The supremacy of the Han race is paramount to the Chinese. You can see how they treat the Tibetans and Uighurs of Xinjiang. During the 1962 war against India, the Chinese had reached up to Tejpur in Assam. We know that wars are not merely fought with weapons and bravery. The propaganda machinery plays an important role in it. While in Arunachal, this machinery started telling people there, to look at themselves. They said you look like us. We are one people. You don’t have anything to do with India. But the people in Arunachal didn’t agree. They said we have our history embedded in our songs for centuries. They tell us the stories of the killings and humiliations our ancestors had to suffer at your hands. You are our enemies. We are Indians. This soil has given us food shelter and peace. We will never betray it.

There are many theories as to how and when Marathas came to settle in Maharashtra. According to Vi Ka Rajawade, a celebrated historian, three groups of Marathas came from three different directions. The groups, according to him were known as Surashtrik, Vairashtrik and Maharashtrik or Maharajik . Out of these, the Maharajik group was pushed out of Yunan province of China by the Han Chinese. Then they stayed at the outskirts of Maghadh kingdom in Santhal region for years and then drifted south to present day Maharashtra. Marathas have retained the word HAN in their language. To HAN means to beat mercilessly. In a way Marathas have retained this history in the word. When I mentioned this in passing during my speech years back in Pune a listener approached me after and told me that this word with the same meaning is present in Sanskrit. I said, that doesn’t prove anything. The theory that Sanskrit is the mother of all our languages is defunct. All of our languages are born of our Prakrut Languages. Prakrut means natural, whereas Sanskrit means created by making sanskaras. Sanskrit was created by the sages to preserve the valuable literatures in our Prakrut languages. That language has done a commendable job as far as preserving our ancestral heritage is concerned. I don’t deny that. There are perquisites that have been enjoyed by sections of our society which can’t be overlooked. I don’t want to go in that domain and be a part of that debate, simply for the fact that, it is out of place for the point I am trying to make. Marathi is born out of Maharashtri, which is a very ancient language of this country. The same can be said of many of our languages.

Tolerance is rare virtue that is presented to us by the history, geography and the culture of this sub- continent. A popular sentiment and interpretation of being a Hindu is being tolerant. But, according to some, it implicitly means that being a Hindu is being weak. A weaker soul glorifies and looks at himself as somebody in the position of metaphysical dominance. They say that the Hindus were weak and were always defeated at the onslaught of Muslim invasion. I, personally don’t subscribe to this school of thought. Look at India today, this is the only region in the world that sustained and stayed as it was with the iron in its soul, under the onslaught of swords of Muslims for more than 1500 years. How can you call them to be cowards and weak hearted? The Hindus accepted and internalized the liberal Sufi thought of Islam. Most of the Marathi saint-poets are in some way or other the disciples of Sufi saints.

Everywhere else the Muslims attacked and won, not here. Look at Malaysia, Indonesia and the African countries and you will realize this. See, I am not anti-Muslim or pro- Hindu. See, I am not the Hindu in the light in which a Hindu is projected today. I am a Hindu because I don’t see that as a religion in the sense the religions in the world are looked upon at. To me being a Hindu is being free to follow my convictions. You can be a Hindu and you don’t have to be religious. For me, this is the only religion that provides that freedom. No religion in present day world can give us this freedom. To be a Hindu is to be tolerant. To be a Hindu is to be free. No other religion gives you that. They come with testaments and practices and rituals. For me to be a Hindu is to be tolerant.

A popular belief that prevails in our country is that only the Hindus here are tolerant. The people following other religious practices are not, especially, not the Muslims. I strongly condemn this kind of rhetoric. For me Muslims in India are our own people, our very own. They are Indians. And nobody has any right to question their patriotism. They are born and brought up here as all of us have been. They have chosen to stay here after partition by their own will or by other compulsions that necessitated them to do so. In any case, they are here as we have been; for centuries. None of us have any right to question their integrity and love for this soil. To be more explicit, being born and brought up as a Hindu doesn’t give you right to question their patriotism. Muslims here are as tolerant as Hindus.

In this light, I can recite three different incidences. They cover a broad spectrum of Muslims,; from an artists of highest caliber, an intellectual and finally to a common Muslim. Let me tell them one by one. The first involves the great Bade Gulam Ali Khan. Everybody in the world of music knows him. The great maestro was a legend in his lifetime. After partition of the country in 1947, he was told by some of his associates that a new country was brought in to being for the Muslims, which was called Pakistan. PAK- E- STAN., The sacred land. So, why not go and stay as a Muslim citizen there. Bade Gulam Ali Khan approved of the idea and went to Pakistan. Obviously he continued with his work in the domains of classical music. It was a part of his life. It, in fact was his life. So, as the story goes, he was invited to perform in front of the dignitaries there. They included the cream of the society, which included government officials and the military generals. During the recital of a raga, the lines he dealt with were,  कन्हयाने बय्या मरोडी

As you all know, in classical singing the lines do repeat themselves in different sets of ascending and descending tonal vowels. The maestro, as usual was singing to his hearts delight. And it was something celestial. And then and there came a message written on a piece of paper, saying

The maestro just didn’t bother about the messages and continued singing. Obviously, he was in a completely different world. But the flow of messages with the same text continued and formed a pile. Finally, he did have a look at them. When he read, he got disturbed. He said, Kanhaiyya is with us for centuries. My ancestors had him. I can‘t sing without him. He is always there in our music. He is a son of soil and part of us. He said, I don’t want to continue singing here. He stopped singing then and there. Not only that, the great maestro got up and went directly to Indian consulate and told the then High Commissioner to Pakistan, Sri Prakasa that, I don’t want to stay here. I want to go to India. Make arrangements for my journey out of this wretched place. Sri Prakasa politely agreed. But the maestro said, I want to go to India right now. He insisted his desire which put the commissioner in difficult spot as arranging such things at such a brief notice was not easy. The commissioner had to obtain various permissions from Pakistani authorities. He somehow managed that chartered a plane for the maestro, so that he could reach India from right there and then. For the rest of his life, Bade Gulam Ali Khan stayed in India peacefully and stayed in the world of music, which he desired most.

Next anecdote is about a university professor, who by birth was a Muslim. He was a colleague of Professor Bhalchandra Nemade, who, as we know, is the greatest living Indian writer and a scholar. Nemade told me this story. (I rate him as an outstanding poet, scholar and a novelist; in that order.) Nemade and that Muslim professor were colleagues working as professors in the Department of English at Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathawada University, Aurangabad; Maharashtra. This Muslim professor was offered a job at a university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The salary package offered was enchanting. But for him, more enchanting was an opportunity to stay in country of his religion. He could visit Mecca and Medina at will. That was most satisfying. He thought of permanently shifting to Saudi Arabia and did it. After a few years- may be six or seven- Nemade got to see this colleague of him at Church gate in Mumbai. After initial pleasantries and enquiries Nemade said, well! For how many days, do you plan to stay here in India?

Oh, I have come here for good.

How come? You had vowed to stay there.

Yes, I had. But I changed my mind.

How come? Why? What went wrong?

Are,; there, right from morning till the night you get to see Muslim faces only. It is so ridiculously monotonous. There are absolutely no Hindus. I am an Indian Muslim. I simply can’t stay without Hindus around me.

The next anecdote involves me; myself. I was moving through a wildlife sanctuary. The young forest officer was a friend of a friend and was taking me with some more friends for a ride through the sanctuary. During this travel the officer saw a man and ordered the driver of the jeep to stop. The man in front timidly stopped. He wore a green turban, a lungi and a loose fitting shirt typical of Muslims in that region, i.e. Marathwada region of Maharashtra.

The officer got down and said to the man,

Are you coming from there? Have you paid your respect to the deity there?

He pointed towards the Hindu temple at the top.

Yes, the man said.

How come? You are a Muslim and you offer prayers to the Hindu God!

The man waited a while, looked towards the sky and said उपरवाले के सामने क्या हिंदु और क्या मुसलमान साहब? उसके सामने हम सब इन्सान है. और कुच नही.

We are not Hindus and Muslims for celestial powers. For them, we are simple human beings and nothing more.

This understanding overwhelms me. Right from a common Muslim to the great maestro the understanding of being together is supremely evident. You will experience the same sort of sentiments and logic from the Dalits- the downtrodden and oppressed of our society. Despite staying in most miserable conditions, they adhere to tolerance and togetherness. I think,; as the members of this very ancient civilization, we should celebrate this quality which has come to stay with us in the form of cultural genes.

This very virtue, our very identity; bestowed upon us by our ancestors, is under threat today due to political and social inertia. To preserve our identity, to preserve our Indian-ness; we will have to fight against the pressures and tensions that have been built around this greatest value, the tolerance. We,; the men and women of letters have to play a responsible role and fight against these evil designs. Let us begin it by understanding and rejuvenating this principal value; the tolerance bestowed upon us by our ancestors.