One word that has been much profaned these days is 'fundamentalism.'  It has been coined with malicious intentions and as such is a 'fake currency.'  Unfortunately people not only accept it, but use it without giving it a second look or thought.  Those who have given currency to the word 'fundmentalism' and 'fundamentalists' have not only done a disservice to those particular religions, but have also pushed back the process of peace and reconciliation between peoples of those different religions.  

All the religions are based on simple and sound fundamentals. None advocates violence, and terror. A person following the fundamentals of his or her religion cannot be an extremist.  Those who are extremists and terrorists are in fact and anti-fundamentalists. To call them 'fundamentalists' – Islamic, Hindu, Christian, or Sikh – is to target the religion itself, whereas the need is to target those who have not understood the essence and fundamental principles of their religion. The distinction has to be made.  We don't need a Sherlock Holmes to tell us: "Elementary, my dear Watson. Elementary."  So, from here on I will add 'anti-' in brackets.  

There is no 'extreme' Islam or extreme any religion.  As K.P.S. Gill, former Director General of Police of the Punjab, credited with crushing the Khalistan secessionist movement, told Fernandes: "Obviously, any religion can have its words twisted by zealots."  We never tire of saying that all religions preach peace, but in the same breath untiringly use the words coined by the popular media that are given currency to serve their end of hitting the religion at the roots. The medium is the message, and the more we use their terminology, not only do we help further spread their message, but also help grind their axes, which cut the branches that are giving us peaceful shade. 

Since in a Pavlovian way 'Islam' comes up in the West's conditioned way, whenever 'terrorism' is mentioned, it is worth mentioning what Deepak Chopra, author of 42 books, including Peace is the Way, wrote in the Ottawa Citizen just recently.  "If you look closely at Islam, it embraces every aspect of life. To be educated around the Quran, which is all that madrassas (religious schools) teach, is part of basing your family life, social customs, courts, government and almost everything else around the Quran," he wrote.  "This isn't evil, it's the way of Islamic culture, which has had great peaks and valleys, just like Christian culture," he added. 

According to Chopra, believing every dire news item without looking into it is the same as fostering ignorance. So is the acceptance of blanket generalizations about foreigners one hasn't even met.  One may add, and so also is the blind use of the words 'fundamentalism,' and 'fundamentalists.'  "I could make the radical suggestion that each of us go out and make friends with a Muslim family. That idea may be too shocking, but if we replaced ignorance with good feeling on both sides, the sad, familiar story would start to change. Removing our own ignorance is a unilateral way of dispelling terror that's completely positive," Chopra explained. 

This is reminiscent of what BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said quite a while ago that festival food specialties should come from Hindu neighbors on Muslim festivals and vice versa.  However, that thought existed just for the few fleeting moments while she was on TV.  Reality did not get to taste it at all. 

In far away (from India) Senegal, whose population of 11 million is 95 percent Muslim, Senegalese Sushmas have been doing something similar without any fanfare.  They cook 'iftar,' (the meal with which a Muslim ends the fast in Ramadan), and Muslims invite Christians to their homes to celebrate the festivals of Eid.  Then there are those who keep a prayer mat in their houses for use by visiting Muslim friends.  It is one of the everyday kindnesses that highlight religious tolerance in Senegal whose first president was a Catholic – Leopold Sedar Senghor, a poet and politician.  He ruled the former French colony for more than 20 years after independence.  

When I showed Holy Warriors to a colleague of mine, he asked me what it was about.  "It talks about Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Christian (anti-) fundamentalism," I answered.  "You have all that in India?" was his reaction, emphasizing the two words 'all that.'  I am sure hundreds of thousands of others have similar disbelief and Fernandes has done a yeoman service of bringing it into the open boldly and broadly.  

"Home to all the major religions, India is also, inevitably, host to virtually every type of religious fanatic," writes Fernandes at the very outset without mincing any words, which characteristic is visible throughout the book and her journey around India talking to leaders and the led.  "The old and the new have shaped militant movements in Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism and Christianity," she writes, and adds, "India's (anti-) fundamentalists were radicalized by anger over the past and fear for the future."  From Kashmir to Jammu, Delhi, Deoband, seat of the Darul-Uloom in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Nagaland, Punjab, Mumbai, Gujarat, and Ayodhya, leader after leader and the common men enumerate alienation, marginalization, unemployment, economic starvation, and identity crisis as the major reasons leading to extremism and (anti-) fundamentalism.  "The Western world after 9/11 was obsessed with extreme Islam. But here in India was evidence that every major religion can be hijacked by the forces of (anti-) fundamentalism," writes Fernandes.   As the Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid said: "The international community has placed the Muslim inside the frame of terrorism. This has to end."  

The Introduction to the book under review says it well and all.  The first 17 of the 24 chapters seem to be a warm up for what follows.  The crux of the matter dealt with in the last seven chapters.  The 43-page chapter on Deoband titled Messengers of God, does not say much but 15 pages on Thackeray – 'The Godfather' -- say a lot.  For one, the title of the former is inappropriate, and might even seem offending to many, whereas for the latter, one can draw his own conclusion.  

When at Deoband, Fernandes asked the students what jobs did they want to do, and one of them answered: "We scholars have a very sacred purpose.  To meet you kind of people.  Western countries are claiming Muslim ulema (scholars) are terrorists and Islam is a religion which can destroy the whole world.  The West says the Holy Quran is a book which teaches terrorism.  So we want to talk to you, make you understand. That is our job."   During her meeting with M. G. Vaidya, national spokesman of the RSS' (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – National Volunteer Organization), she was asked what RSS literature she had gone through.  Unsatisfied with the choice of reading material he grabbed her notebook to jot down his own preferences, saying: "You must read all of these and then we'll discuss."  "A stab of fear pricked my heart. Mr. Vaidya wished to convert me. Or rather reconvert me," writes Fernandes. 

It seems that Deoband was included to maintain a so-called 'balance' in the absence of a militant organization with a vast following.  If so, it was a wrong choice because the purported assumption of the revered institution breeding extremism does not stick.  Although there are some minor slips like using the word 'ulema' (religious scholar), when she means Ummah (the Muslim Nation), and misspelling of some names, the subject is dealt with understanding, professional integrity, frankness, boldness and seriousness that it deserves.   

As one puts down the book, one has the feeling that the problem is not with the religions but with the fact that (anti-) fundamentalism has been turned into a political factor.  Fernandes journeyed to the heart of Hindu nationalism, watching "the twilight assignations of Hindutva's saffron warriors, goose-stepping into the sunrise…"   

According to her, the unmasked face of Hindu (anti-)fundamentalism was shown to the world in spring 2002 when the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) state government in Gujarat "appeared to be complicit in Hindu riots against Muslims in which thousands of Muslims were systematically targeted and killed."  The world has seen, and the BJP has suffered the consequences of raking up the past to reconstruct the future.  "There is evidence to suggest that some form of national introspection can be cathartic," she says and adds that the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission's examination of horrors of apartheid in forensic detail proved to be a healing process in itself.  Unfortunately, as she says, people like Thackeray are not interested in the politics of integration.  

"We alone cannot fight the ISLAM,' he boomed the word out loud, much as a father would shout the word monster or dragon to scare his children while telling bedtime stories," Fernandes writes of her interview with the Shiv Sena chief.  "His delivery continued unabated: a breathless torrent of rhetoric now, streams of consciousness detached from reasoning," she adds.  In a few words she sums up the real SS and its founder and gives a lot to think about for India and Mumbai's 'peacewallahs.'  

While leaving, Thackeray presented her with a basket of fuchsia orchids, which was recorded on camera.  "I left the house consumed with thoughts on the best way to dump the flowers," she writes.

Holy Warriors: A Journey into the Heart of Indian Fundamentalism by Edna Fernandes Published by Penguin/Viking, New Delhi, India.  Pp 332+xxiii.

By HABIB SHAIKH Freelance journalist based in Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaE-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it