By contrast, Islam’s experience with the Hindu civilization was wholesome and led to the greatest multicultural edifice the world has known. The pity is that today this great edifice is being chipped away by electoral politics. The war on terror is aggravating an already dismal situation. Partition and what it brought in its train has been a body blow to this history of cultural enmeshing. Also harmful has been organized Christian and Muslim proselytization. Whatever the iniquities of the caste system, conversions should not have had official sanction in a society where conversion is taboo.
