मज़हब नहीं सिखाता- the need for the right narratives.
We are wired to fear the other-whether it be a different caste, religion or nationality. It's a primal instinct which flows from the security needs of ancient Stone age and medieval humans. However, as those security fears became unwarranted with the advent of modernisation, it was no longer beneficial to despise the other-but it was still wired. So, Western liberal thought, came up with concepts of fraternity, human rights and social justice to prevent us from turning back to our primal instincts and to help us remind ourselves, "No we don't need to fear the other." It actually became even economically beneficial in the age of industrialization to collaborate with the other. I will be very honest and say that I grew up seeing Muslims as an other. I felt out of place in Muslim living area, I got intimidated by the Kohl in the eyes of men and I wondered why do they pray so differently from us. But thanks to the right people and the right books around me, before I tu