31. Synthesis of Culture

INDIA IS a big country, a big nation composed of different cultures, which are tending to blend with one another, each complementing the rest. If I must wait for the completion of the process, I must wait. It may not complete in my day. I should love to die in the faith that it must come in the fullness of time. I should be happy to think that I had done nothing to hamper the process. Subject to this condition, I would do anything to bring about harmony.

Either people of different faiths having lived together in friendship have produced a beautiful blend of cultures, of which we shall strive to perpetuate and increasingly strengthen the shape, or we shall cast about for the day when there was only one religion represented in Hindustan and retrace our steps to that exclusive culture. It is just possible that we might not be able to find any such historical date and if we do and we retrace our steps, we shall throw our culture back to that ugly period and deservedly earn the execration of the universe. By way of example, if we make vain attempt to obliterate the Muslim period, we shall have to forget that there was a mighty Jama Masjid in Delhi second to none in the world, or that there was a Muslim University in Aligarh, or that there were the great forts of Delhi and Agra built during the Moghal period. We shall then have to rewrite our history with that end in view. Surely, today we have not the atmosphere which will enable us to come to a conclusion about the conflicting choices.