India is constipated with a lot of humbug. Take religion. For the Hindu, it means little besides caste and cow-protection. For the Muslim, circumcision and kosher meat. For the Sikh, long-hair and hatred for the Muslim. For the Christian, Hinduism with a sola topee. For the Parsi, fire-worship and feeding the vultures. Ethics which should be the kernel of a religious code, has been carefully removed.
Consciousness of the bad is an essential prerequisite to the promotion of the good. It is no use trying to build a second storey on a house whose walls are rotten. It is best to demolish it. It is both cowardly and foolhardy to kowtow to social standards when one believes neither in the society nor in its standards. Their courage is your cowardice and your cowardice is their courage. It is all a matter of nomenclature. One could say it needs courage to be a coward. A conundrum, but a quotable one.
(From 'A Train to Pakistan, by Khushwant Singh)
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