“Though the majority of the Mussalmans of India and the Hindus belong to the same 'stock', the religious environment has made them different. I believe and I have noticed too that thought transforms man’s features as well as character. The Sikhs are the most recent illustration of the fact. The Mussalman being generally in a minority has as a class developed into a bully. Moreover being heir to fresh traditions he exhibits the virility of a comparatively new system of life. Though in my opinion non-violence has a predominant place in the Koran, the thirteen hundred years of imperialistic expansion has made the Mussalmans fighters as a body. They are therefore, aggressive. Bullying is the natural excrescence of an aggressive spirit. The Hindu has an age old civilisation. He is essentially non-violent. His civilisation has passed through the experiences that the two recent ones are still passing through. If Hinduism was ever imperialistic in the modern sense of the term, it has outlived its imperialism and has either deliberately or as a matter of course given it up. Predominance of the non-violent spirit has restricted the use of arms to a small minority, which must always be subordinate to a civil power highly spiritual, learned and selfless.”
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Source: Young India, 'Hindu-Muslim Tension: Its Cause and Cure' (29 May 1924).
About this quote
Character isn't fixed at birth; it's shaped by the surroundings you live in and the thoughts you rehearse for years. A group's long history conditions its temperament, and sustained mental habits leave a mark even on bearing and manner over time.
When to use it
- Someone who spends years around calm, deliberate people slowly losing their short fuse.
- A team steeped in a blame culture growing defensive by reflex, even when the individuals are decent.
- A person raised amid constant arguing carrying a combative posture into every adult disagreement.

