In Allahabad University, during the Babri Masjid–Ram Janmabhoomi agitation, I put a simple question to the packed audience consisting of teachers and students, almost equally divided between Hindus and Muslims. ‘Have the Hindus in this audience ever seen the inside of a Muslim home?’ One or two murmured ‘my father knew Persian’ or ‘my mother cooks chicken’ as evidence of his or her emancipation from religious parochialism. But, no, none of them had ever been to a Muslim home. Likewise, the Muslims in the gathering had never visited a Hindu home. At that moment, a truth hit me between my eyes.
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