Comparative Analysis of Hindu and Muslim Society
1. Social Difference: Hindu and Muslim Society stand poles apart in their attitude of life. The Hindu society is based on the rigid aystem of Varna (literally: colour) or the Caste system, with the four major castes-Brahmin, Kbatri, Vesh and Sudar, with Brahmins at the top and the Sudars or 'untouchables' at the bottom, in spite of the scientific fact that both the Brahmins and Sudars, when they are dead, Supply an equally nutritious food to the impartial worms. The Institution of the caste dominates Hindu social life, manners, morals and thought. Each group of families with particular caste are internally united by peculiar rules for observance of ceremonial purity especially, in matters of death and marriage, The same rule serve to fence it off from all other groups each of which has its own set of rules. It is almost impossible for a Hindu to regard himself otherwise than a member of some particular caste. All other who disregard this come under the category of Malachcha," out caste barbarians.
Caste in Hindu society, therefore, in one word, means exclusiveness. A society with such ideals will hardly tolerate the idea of the equality of men. Such an idea will mean a challenge to the faith and such challenges will have to be met with even sword to be absolutely eliminated. "The Muslim society, on the other hand, considers the man as the highest creation of God and insists on the equality of human beings before the law. The lslamic community demands from each individual a certain level of character, rational conduct, understanding, tolerance and unsolfish devotion.
2.Religious Difference: The greatest evil desire of man is possossion of power and wealth. To achieve-these man exploits man. Hinduism adopted this evil desire of man as the basis of its society by giving religious sanction to the principles of exportation of man through its Varna system, dividing human being into touchables and untouchables, clean and polluted, and through the worship of wealth (in the form of idol Lakhshmi) and power (in the form of idol Vishnu) by even making human sacrifices at its alter. A society, no matter how religious, which bases its ideals on the worship of wealth and power and religiously practices human inequality and human sacrifice, will always have one road to follow, the road of hatred of man for its self upliftment. Islam as a religion is strongly, monotheistic. That led the believers to their own unity which is expressed by their similarity of thought, similarity of behaviour, and similarity of living.
In Hindu society, cow is a sacred deity to be worshipped. But the Muslim society believes that it is meant for the human service and comfort.
3.Political Difference: The Muslim society believes that the world is unity and the role of a Muslim in the world is self-affirmation and self-assertion with a view to establish the supremacy of moral values derived from Quran and Sunnah. To Hindu society, the world is maya, an illusion. The maya concept leads the Hindu society to the pursuit of wealth.
4.Conceptual Difference: For the Hindus, their war and peace are for self-preservation and personal ego to enslave man to exploit him. For the Muslim, their war and peace are to establish the kingdom of God, to embrace humanity, to free man from slavery in all aspects of life and to lead mankind to a free world where a man does not exploit another man.
5.Cultural Difference: The Hindu and Muslim societies have different cultural aspects. The Muslims claim that their culture is different because it is an Islamic Culture. As the background, contents and contours of the two cultures are so different, their adherents never evolved a common society. Muslims of India, by general consent, consider Urdu as their language. The Hindus have their own language, Hindi, which leans heavily on Sanskrit for its vocabulary. Urdu, on the other hand, borrows more freely from Persian and Arabic, though some of its sweetest phrases are from Hindi. In India the Hindus looked to their own ancient philosophy just as the Muslims traced their intellectual ancestry to Muslim thinkers like Avicenna and al-Ghazali. When the Hindu was contemplating his past, he thought of Kautallya (the author of Artha-Shastra) when the Muslim looked back, he recalled al-Farabi. The philosophic past of the two societies was so different that the Hindus and Muslims could not unite under the umbrella of a single community. In fact the Hindus and Muslims do not merely belong to two different societies but they belong to two diflerent civilizations.
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