Muslims and Hindus in Antique Lands

When Amitav Ghosh visited Egypt he received surprising and ostensibly offensive questions about Hindus and India. Ghosh receives this well being as he is visiting for anthropological purposes, is not a practicing Hindu, and knows the rural Egyptians had not been exposed to Hinduism. Where in Midnight's Children it seems that Muslims and Hindus should have had at least some cultural understanding in India living so close together, the antagonism seems natural being as they are competing groups in the Indian subcontinent. The experience of a Hindu in rural Egypt provides an example of two religions meeting for the first time with an easily understandable power structure.

Since the people of rural Egypt had never met a Hindu before they only had what they thought must be myths about Hindus. With Egypt being an equally ancient land which had transitioned from polytheism to monotheism almost two millenia before, the lack of progress must have been astonishing. For example, the Egyptians are obsessed with the idea that in India cows are worshiped, though Ghosh tries to explained they are revered for the way they improve human life. He once trips in front of a cow and it becacomes the news of the town that he is actively worshiping cows (170-171). For Ghosh, not being religious or nationalistic, this is primarily interesting as a social study.

Another obsessive question that Ghosh is asked by Egyptians is related to the burning of the dead. There is apparently no word for "cremate" in Arabic which differentiates it from simply being burned. The Muslims, unfamiliar with these customs, believe that the intention is to mutilate the body to avoid judgment day. After this conversation Ghosh is giving a piece of advice which would have great upset a practicing Hindu or Indian nationalist, "You should try to civilize your people. You tell them to stop praying to cows and burning their dead" (126). Something interesting in these scenes is that the Muslims don't seem to think Hinduism is something a thinking person would embrace, and Ghosh does nothing to change this.

When looking at initial reactions from Muslims upon meeting a Hindu it is easy to understand why the two groups would struggle to get along. With such divergent religions existing side by side the claim that Muslims worship the one true God could cause any number of problems. Further, to Muslims Hindus are pagans who they would not want to live next to. While Muslims and Hindus appear to have lived peacefull together in Mangalore and Ghosh gets along with the Egyptians. It seems that as long as one community is clearly in the minority and is not creating a challenge for the other community they will generally live by side without a problem.