Since my return to India in 1987, after serving a India's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, I have had the luxury of looking back on my over 40 years of public service and putting down on paper my thoughts and observations, my reminiscences and recollections Besides a collection of poems, I have so far published two books and contributed articles to various magazine and newspapers.

            This summer, I was convinced by my friend Dr. Shakeel Ahmad to compile another book that would encompass in its scope a much broader spectrum than I have addressed before. It would bring together in one volume the whole range of topics I have written about: from the personal to the professional and from the view of a policeman, an administrator a social scientist and a diplomat. It would also provide the perspective of an Indian Muslim on a wide range of issues affecting India and the world.

            J.K. Galbraith, a former American Ambassador to India, once quipped: "I can think of no task that I would less like than governing India as an autocrat." High praise: and wholly true. India has the distinction of being the largest democracy in the world, with th< second largest population (now over one billion) which accounts for a sixth of the world's total population. It also boasts of the second largest Muslim-population in the world. It is said that there is no country where politics attracts the interest of people more than in India.

            It is a truism to say that ours is a multi-ethnic multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-lingual society. A remarkable phenomenon of Indian society is its almost infernal capacity to absorb social change, and a unique ability, if we may say so, to live with contradictions, maintaining thereby an appearance of tranquil stability. This is so essentially because of the Indian tradition of pluralism and pantheism. However, in the last few decades, we have witnessed a radical though not total change. Traditional values are being eroded, with impunity, resulting in undesirable consequences.

            Today the word "fundamentalism," as applied to Islam, has assumed horrendous connotations. It has, therefore, become necessary to look at this word intensely and put it in the right perspective, for ignorance is the fertile ground for the growth of communalism. It is no use fighting the end result while nourishing the roots. The book gets its title from this lead article.

            My motivation in compiling this book, as in the earlier ones, is a desire and belief that I should share what I consider my varied experiences and my insights into the human experience with the younger generation. Here are a few snippets of the kind of values, beliefs and experiences I would like to share with them:

            I believe that religion in general and Islam in particular is not a pillow to rest upon but a belt to be girdled round the waist so that the traveller who undertakes the journey of life should be able to step more briskly on the path of duty and service.

            I can proudly say that I have lived my life in such a way that I have always stood for the right even against formidable odds. In ordinary matters, I always swam with the current, but in matters of principle, I stood like a rock.

            I firmly believe that failures are the stepping stones to success. I would rather light a lamp and press forward than just sit, cursing the darkness.

            I would avoid the limelight and work behind the scenes; it's super to be famous, but it's safer to obscure.

            I   believe   in Gandhiji’s   adage:   "In   matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place". This precept is the basis for the provision of religious linguistic and cultural protection of minorities in the Indian constitution.

            I believe that the battle for secularism has to be fought on three fronts - political, ideological and administrative. Above all, the spirit of secularism itself, like the rule of law, must come from the hearts of people.

            I feel that communalisation of politics and the politicisation of religion must end.

            I endorse the maxim "power without justice is tyranny, peace without justice is neither peace nor justice."

            I am an inveterate optimist - I'd jump the wall if the door cannot be unfastened. This attitude has helped me in finding solutions to problems, however knotty.

            In solving problems, I believe in the efficacy that "uncommon" trait, robust commonsense, which the knack of not cutting what you can untie, a mental habit of looking at ideas and facts as they are and not as we would have liked them to be, to see things straight and see them whole.

            The book proceeds on the personal level, with autobiographical anecdotes and recollections that bring into focus my spiritual moorings, as I relate my return to the land of my ancestors: first as a pilgrim and then as an ambassador.

            A discourse on Indo-Saudi relations follows, wherein I draw upon my experience as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

            The other essays include the intractable issues of Kashmir and Indo-Pakistan relations, ethics in public life, developmental models and an agenda for good governance.

            The book concludes with my vision of a United Asia. It brings out the dreamer in me, daring to think of the improbable, though plausible, as it applies to the possibility of a United Asia emerging in a rapidly shrinking global village of the future.

                                                                                                                                          Mahmood bin Muhammad

"Palm Grove"
117, Shantinagar
Hyderabad-500028
Andhra Pradesh (India)