......................The Topi politics..................

World Celebrated the joyous festival Eid al-Fitr today, a festival of harmony, joy & sweets. EID reminds me of one of my favorite childhood story “Idgah”, by Munshi Premchand, where young Hamid dismisses his own temptations and buys a present for his ageing grandmother instead.  The message learnt with this story was that kindness, humbleness & compassion are real festivals.

Saw the neighborhood kids in the morning running to shops with their “Eidi” in hands & with their new clothes specially bought for the day. By afternoon refrigerator was half full with sweets, and social media was full with Eid wishes.  

Everything looks perfect, until one switch to television. Every channel is busy covering Eid, every political party trying to be Muslim friendly & becoming so called secular. I wonder at times, why they have to prove their secularism every now & then, with every second political figure flaunting their secular “Topi” and throwing Iftaar parties.

Where it is said or written that wearing or not wearing a Topi makes you secular? I never wore a Topi, nor did my Muslim friends wear Dhaga to celebrate Diwali, but that neither made us less secular nor it shrink our joy to celebrate Festivals.  The core idea about being secular lays in respecting the other religions, their viewpoints, while maintaining your own. Secularism which compromises on your identity is simply pseudo secularism.

My best experience to explain secularism comes from a Muslim friend of mine, who open heartedly invites me for home stay on visit to his city, respects my religious values and prepares separate vegetarian food for me, one who readily discusses core issues and concerns of minority and at the same time carefully listens to my viewpoints.

It is the love and respect for each other’s individuality that makes us secular. Topi & tilak are both important but not flaunting them won’t make you less secular either. You have to choose your own definition of secularism.

I wish if all can be like little Hamid of Premchand's story and understand real meaning of prayers & celebration. Every festival is wrapped with focus on kindness, humbleness & compassion and aims at spreading happiness. So with hope of a true secular nation, wish you all "Eid Mubaraq".