When Vegetables Became Hindu And The Goat A Musalman — Story Of A Family WhatsApp Group That Turned Hostile Over ‘Eid Mubarak’ Wishes

I don’t use Whatsapp much for my own personal reasons. Most of the times it’s uninstalled and when it’s installed I check it few times of the day when I have absolutely nothing else to do; that is, after a round of Twitter, Instagram, Reddit etc. Today as it was Eid, early morning when I got up, I sent Eid wishes to all of my contacts who celebrate it via of course Whatsapp, Twitter, Instagram, FB messenger and few SMSes (two of my friends are still not technologically connected).

Late afternoon, as I was browsing through few replies and other messages, I stumbled upon a text in a family Whatsapp group. Now, I usually stay away from Whatsapp groups but this particular text just plain annoyed me. Message which was written in local language roughly translated to,

“Nobody celebrates it here… Don’t post such wishes…”

I opened the group to check who had posted what. I personally feel these groups are a den of bigotry and hate. That’s one of the reasons I have stopped reading group messages. Anyhow, my search landed me to an image from a cousin sister who had wished everyone a “Happy Eid”. It was a no-nonsense casual text. And then suddenly few had jumped on to school her. She is 25 plus years old and for sure knows her share of the world. I would have left them at their hateful best but the group also has small children. They use phones at home to post cartoons, pictures of babies (which I tell you, was the main reason why I uninstalled WhatsApp for the first time!) etc. What would they be thinking? How would this “don’t wish because you don’t celebrate” narrative frame their mindset? How would it affect them at the school where they have people from Muslim houses? Their minds are tender and they get matured in ways how we train them. My sister who had posted wishes was already explaining that she just wished it and that there is nothing like you have to celebrate something to wish others. But there was no calming others down. I wanted to jump in but I also knew, it would just spiral into another fight with no end to it. It miffed me how we have been dividing festivals on basis of religion and even outraging over people who wished in good faith. Where will this lead to?

It reminded me of a shayari (Urdu couplets) from Sagar Khayyami,

“नफ़रतों की जंग में देखो तो क्या क्या हो गया
सब्ज़ियाँ हिन्दू हुईं बकरा मुसलमाँ हो गया”

Look what had happened in the war of hate
Vegetables have become Hindu and Goat, a Musalman!

While I was searching for this, I found a satirical poem from actor-comedian Javed Jaffrey where he used above couplet to pen his own poem. It read,

“नफरतों का असर देखो, जानवरों का बटवारा हो गया,
गाय हिंदू और बकरा मुसलमान हो गया।

ये पेड़ ये पत्ते ये शाखें भी परेशान हो जाएं,
अगर परिंदे भी हिंदु और मुसलमान हो जाएं।
सूखे मेवे भी ये देखकर परेशान हो गए।
ना जाने कब नारियल हिंदु और खजूर मुसलमान हो गए।।

जिस तरह से धर्म रंगों को भी बांटते जा रहे हैं,
कि हरा मुसलमान और लाल हिंदुओं का रंग है, तो वो दिन भी दूर नहीं।
जब सारी की सारी हरी सब्जियां मुसलमानों की हो जाएंगी।
और हिंदुओं के हिस्से बस गाजर और टमाटर ही आएगा।

अब समझ नहीं आ रहा कि तरबूज किसके हिस्से जाएगा?
ये तो बेचारा उपर से मुसलमान और अंदर से हिंदु रह जाएगा”

Such are the effects of hatred, even animals have been divided,
the cow has become a Hindu, and the goat a Muslim.

Even the trees, the leaves and branches would lose all patience,
if the birds next were to be divided into Hindus and Muslims.
The sweets are all very confused,
knowing not when coconuts became Hindu and dates Muslim.

The way religion is dividing everything,
that green is now a colour of Muslims and red for Hindus,
Then even that day isn’t far off, when all the green vegetables would belong to the Muslims,
and Hindus would be left with carrots and tomatoes.

Now, here is a conundrum — what does the poor watermelon do?
It’s Muslim on the outside, but from inside a Hindu.
- Translation by The Indian Express

I copied the Hindi poem and pasted it into family WhatsApp group with a caption — Spread love not hate. Nobody becomes a Musalman(Muslim) just by wishing ‘Eid Mubarak’ just like no one becomes more Hindu by wishing ‘Happy Diwali’. Keep your minds cool!

Thank heaven’s there was no discussion on it any further.

P.S. I don’t celebrate Eid at home but we receive sweets, Biryani and other delicacies from our neighbors and family friends. Likewise when it’s Diwali or Dasara, my mum sends specials to their homes. It has been like this since I remember. Many would resonate with this. We are already divided on scores of lines, please don’t create few more to divide fellow human beings any further.

Eid Mubarak To All!

Update:

A Redditor on Reddit post about this piece remarked,

I actually think the family member who told the “Cousin” to stop posting “Eid Mubarak” has a point. In this case, the whole family group is obviously not muslims; so why would you wish the group member where none follow the religion. Did she need to be schooled? Maybe not, but I can see why some member asked her not to post it. I personally would have just ignored.
The author than goes to say his muslims neighbors bring food for Eid and he distributes it for Diwali. How is this related to a non-muslim wishing a non-muslim for Eid? Does she even know the significance?
I think the author is seeing an issue where there is none. This is not an example of intolerance or religious divide.

Fair point. But then, there was reason why I simply didn’t ignore it. It wasn’t about just this. As another Redditor replied,

Would the same family group be equally miffed about random Merry Xmas or Friendship Day greetings? I’d be very surprised that they celebrate either of those. The fact that a harmless greeting didn’t sit well with so many family members suggests that there is prejudice at play.

Actually there was more to my outrage than just this as well. There were details to above story which would have helped in understanding why I outraged. First, I’ve seen Eid and Christmas wishes in the group before. And everyone used to wish along, joke or just ignore. Second and most important aspect is about location of our houses. Most of our homes including cousin’s before her marriage were around a local mosque (those who were schooling her stayed few km’s away!). In fact, at my place, it’s a tradition to visit Mosque after visiting temple and vice versa as both are situated opposite side of the road. And both dates back to a long time in history. We all since childhood have been visiting each other’s religious places. That’s one context. This was also one reason why I got miffed. If not, I too would have ignored it as it was a non-issue.

To better understand how closely intertwined the communities are (or were), you can listen to a Qawwali from December, 2015 held during annual festivities at Mosque where Qawwal talks about how Hindu-Muslim families live at this place.

You can find full Qawwali here.