This opinion is the outcome of a marathon debate by Dalits and Muslims who talked and discussed ways and mean to counter the rift created between the Hindus and Muslims in democratic India. The debate which concluded on Thursday was conducted by the fledgling Muslim Intellectual Forum who felt that Hindu militancy cannot be combated by Islamic fundamentalism.

There was a clear acceptance by the Muslims and the non-Muslims alike that reforms were the need of the hour so as to offer a better deal to the community. But there was also some interesting divergence of views.

According to Prof Bhalchandra Mungekar, almost 50 per cent of the conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India arose from the debate over the Common Civil Code, more importantly the Muslim insistence on four wives.

``Most of theIslamic world - Turkey, Egypt, Iran and even Pakistan - has given up polygamy. So if Indian Muslims too declare their commitment to monogamy, they can adequately have an equal standing on this issue,'' he suggested.

Former Maharashtra minister Dr Ishaq Jamkhanvala, however, hesitantly disagreed saying, ``Islamic nations who practice monogamy do not have to contend with the kind of religious pressures that we do. Surveys have proved that it is mostly rich Hindu men who have one wife and several co-wives. The Indian Muslim today is by and large too poor to afford more than one wife. However, this demand is not always conceded in principle.''

Exposing some known but often ignored facts about Indian Muslims, Dalit activist Vilas Sonawane said it was about time that there was open acknowledgement of the fact that almost 92-94 per cent of Indian Muslims are converts from Dalits and Other Backward Classes who rebelled against the then prevalent Brahmin domination in the Indian society.

``Is it any wonder thanthat Mulayam Singh Yadav, the messiah of Muslims, opposes the Women's Reservation Bill on the grounds that there should be reservation for Dalits and OBCs among them? Why not for Muslims? Because Muslims will be automatically accommodated in the Dalit-OBC quota!''

So the sour relations between the Sangh Parivar and Muslims in India should not be seen just as a religious strife but an extension of the caste configurations that have existed in this country for centuries.

``There should be wide acceptance of the fact that Muslims first came to India not through violent invasion but as messengers of peace in the 7th century during the 75th year of the Prophet, when the first mosque was built in Kerala. Turks invaded India much later as men of war. So it is about time that we put an end to the notion that there can be no peaceful co-existence between Hindus and Muslims when they did so for centuries.''

Which, according to Dr Surash Mane, can be done only through rewriting the distorted history of India. ``Itis only the victorious class which has the capacity to play with history. So they must be completely annihilated, psychologically and politically. As should those who visit Muslim areas only to take up the chant of the Babri Masjid. Otherwise distorters of history like Arun Shourie will become MPs and we will be condemned to corners.''

Such annihilation, however, can only happen through literature, said Dalit writer Arjun Dangle. ``Why should the Muslim continue to be portrayed as the butcher in all Indian writing? Progressive writing among Dalits has always been reformist, never for entertainment. Muslims must similarly throw up such writers who can create a whole new class among them who will rebel against their exploitation.''

Jamkhanwala, however, had the last word. ``Give us first the means to earn our daily bread without heaping on us hate and violence, and reforms will be the automatic result,'' he said.