TORN BETWEEN THE NATION AND THE RELIGION: part II
Leaders of Indian freedom of struggle having a substantially large following among the believers in diverse faiths like Hindus Muslims and others did not accept, the two nation theory propounded by the erstwhile colonisers as such. The masses formally embraced the concept of India -phenomena that had existed in this land for ages but got crystallised during struggle for independence and formalised between 15th August 1947 and 26th January 1950. An idea of a secular Indian republic had taken a shape, and a size that wanted then to follow a socialistic pattern of society,
Beside the lay citizens, whose thought process comprises ‘not-a-great-concern-about-politics’ as such, sizeable numbers of Muslims knowingly opted to stay back in India and a sizeable numbers of Hindus who knew and understood ‘what-it-means’ to stay in a joint-family (call it a joint-nation) happily adopted it. The concept India being a joint nation, in the minds and hearts of these fellow-people, meant staying together, allowing everyone and each to be free to follow their own and varied religions, cults, castes, creeds, customs, cultures and what you have yet also meant to stay and undivided as a nation and constantly convinced about: “I am an Indian first”. During those formative years of India, a popular topic for essay-writing in schools used to be “The unity in diversity”
Decades immediately after the partition did see a period of greater harmony between Indian Muslims and others but for occasional eruptions of religious ego-centric riots and blame for the same is to be shared by local intolerances – when seen objectively and without taking a partisan view.
There was a period when a fruit dealer from a merchant family, Yusuf Khan, spotted by a Devika Rani -a London educated and accomplished heroine and her Russian husband (second)- had to be renamed as Dilip Kumar or a Mahajbin Bano, preferred herself to be called as Meena Kumari – lest the Muslim name(s) would get a lesser acceptance from audience (call it-it acceptance by the Nation). Cut to today no such fear exists. It is all Khans who are the heart throbs of nation. As a nation, India today does not discriminate against Muslims as such and incidentally the editorial board of India Today, a widely read and popular news and analysis magazine, is headed by MJ Akbar as on date.Muslims like believers in any other faith,deservedly, are thus definitely popular with Indian nation, more today than yesterday..
Gradually, however the globalization of markets including that for semi-skilled and unskilled variety, trade links abroad, improved networking and speedier communications – all very good indicators of human development- did bring and have informational and other proximities that juxtapose and showcase far-better material achievements by Muslims in oil-rich Arab countries, Europe, USA and other prosperous countries. Even if it is a ‘poor-cousins’ treatment, Muslims from India are preferred over other Indians in oil-rich Muslim countries for manual, menial, low skill and even high-skill jobs. This is evident from the ‘Muslims preferred’ content in the advertisement on behalf of Gulf recruiters and employers, and prominently published in Indian newspapers. An affinity gets generated- a cousin is a brother, always closer to a non-brother or a fakir. Generous contributions from abroad for places of religious worship and charities also provide an abetment to yearning for a better life and thus a discontent with what we have (from the nation) vs what Muslims have elsewhere (from the religion).
Like in other parts of world, particularly in Europe, certain changes have been visibly happening also in India, to begin with in urban areas. Then similar changes get followed in the country side as well, of course with some little time lag, these changes began subtly and have been getting extenuated with Indian economy markedly expanding to reach outside and that was instrumental to a gradual replacement of socialist (socialistic pattern in case of India) to a market economy ending the isolation, we had from richer industrial economies and oil-rich, smaller but wealthier Muslim economies.Human psychology leads people not towards analysing their own compentencies, own decisions, own performances but fend to find scapegoats on whom to put the blame for one’s lower grades against those achieved by others..
Last few decades have been witness to a trend for more and more Muslim youths wanting to form and become more attached to their own communities, where Islam’s values and regulations get greater attention, prominence and also adherence. This may and should be seen as a totally natural phenomenon but for their side-effects that get generated and tend to culminate ultimately to renounce / denounce / deny the concept of India as a nation. And begin to find fault with values that reflect the Indian-ness that we, as Indians, whether Hindus, Muslims and others rather need to cherish- remembering the sacrifices that were made by martyrs of freedom struggle in later centuries and peaceful assimilation of all migrants from India to other countries as also of invader migrants into India in earlier centuries.
The trend of these changes gives rise a fear in the minds of other Indians – and that term includes even the Muslims in India (call then Indian Muslims but not the Muslim Indians) besides the Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Christians and others as the trend poses a challenge to Indian secularity. The trend simply gets reflected in choice or fixation of names even- a students’ union chose to christen itself as Students Islamic Movement of India- rather than Indian Muslim Students Union. The trend has been giving occasion to possibilities of increasing incidences of conflict and brings to fore the necessity on the part of the other Indians including many Muslims, to acquire and carry an excess baggage: the necessity to be armed with requisite anti-conflict skills like conflict-prevention, conflict-avoidance and conflict-resolution- to say the least.
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The writer once came across a superfine example of an anti-conflict pill, embedded into the age-old Indian-ness. Invited for family dinner by at his residence by a Police official, who happened to have a Rajput ancestor-age, I asked for his pardon stating transparently that following an orthodox Brahmin culture, not only I have been a vegetarian but do not consume even onion and garlic. The reply from proposer-host was disarming: coming from an erstwhile ruler family, his inner family kitchen was kept by his wife as pure to keep the continuity of being in a position to invite Brahmins- and that their non-veg food was still getting cooked only in an outer kitchen and thus we were unhesitatingly welcome to have a family dinner with them. However such examples are becoming rare now- I for one really felt that just for civility, I could have had cited some non-transparent and yet graceful reason for non-acceptance of such an invite to begin with. However that was a greatly pleasant surprise.
The trend, referred to earlier, towards narrowing themselves to Islam among Muslim youth, seemingly contributes to anomalies and disturbances in terms of- fragmentation of the larger Indian society (call it insistence on distinctive dress and appearance codes even for non-clergy), ill-effects on education and emancipation (call in gender separation in education, commerce and other public domains), local abatement to external terrorism (call it Indian Mujahidin or SIMI) and even the organised underground criminality.If you wear a distictive dress or name, and therby specifically isolate yourself-is it not a self-designed prelude to blame the system, should you not get selected for some other reason? May be and may be not.
It must be stressed that Muslims also (like non-Muslims as well), in India are a group of many diversities. The diversity arises and depends a lot on locale factors of our vast country like varying environment, customs, languages spoken and written, major occupational aggregates besides the intra-Islamic sects.These diversites may be and are also material and contribute to Indian-ness. There is also another pointer of diversity :of existence of four sub-groups among the Muslims themselves based on their outlook towards life and opportunities:
On the one hand are the normal peace loving Muslims, who but for occasional difficulties (and those also- not of their own volition) that get created- as it may happen in any family or malarial environment- who have liberal outlook. They want to assimilate and cohabitate in the liberal, democratic society- as their fore fathers- have done for ages. This group may also include, now-becoming-rare, situation where two sons from the same parentage, may have allegiance to two separate religions (some few years ago India-Today located some such brothers living in remote interiors in Havana – not at great distance from Delhi). They are generally content and happy with what they get by way of assistance in the form of affirmative action that the politics provides them. Not that, this is because all of them remember that they are just the descendants from ancestors – who opted to convert, or got a conversion to Islam for other reasons.
On the other hand, there are some who tend to turn Islamists per se, who want an Islamic society and probably look for a larger piece of pie in the process. They are in pursuit of power .They get aided and abetted to a considerable extent by external forces as also by internal vote-bank politics. Not that all of them see as descendants from the former rulers or ruling class yet they have greater arrogance and a kind of superiority complex.
Yet other group of Muslims who understand and admire Indian-ness, are aware of strengths and weaknesses of democracy and cognizance thereof, acquire a forbearing nature and forgiving tolerance – and who are self-confident enough and therefore dream to fully integrate in the public pace with the mainstream, and contribute to the secularity and the modernity of Indian society- while keeping at heart the goodness of Islam with them as their personal faith. An example set by Mr Azim Premji (part of the name sounds non-Muslim) is revealed in a statement made by him and quoted here: Only when I am away from India and more so when I visit USA, that I am made to realize that I am a Muslim. Further the same Premji had a very simple and short ceremony with a very small and restricted family gathering for marriage of his son –who chose to select a life partner only in a childhood friend.
In between these three, there always exists a substantially large middle group who accept Islam’s ogmas, but only practice them to a lesser degree. Practice is restricted to personal observances as far as practicable. This group’s care is critical. Unfortunately, however a an increasing number of this group get enchanted with and have been currently moving more into the hardliner Islamic variety.
Islam like all other religions is a good one and lays emphasis on tenets like sacrifice for poor and down-trodden, purity in thought and behaviour etc. However it is not just a religion like all others. Islam has set, almost written down rules and even laws and regulations restricted not only to person faith but has its horizon extended to social behaviour: as to how the society and inter personal relationships should behave, should be, how the people need to organize themselves and besides, how these (Islamic) rules can only be implemented in practice. Power- political as also as social force is an Islamic pre-requisite. Fatwa is a case in point. There has to some authority behind a Fatwa. The insistence on its practical implementation becomes feasible only if the Islam has its power in the society.
Therefore Muslims need to acquire strength. Strong Muslims forces try to influence the form of society and this aspect needs to be carefully watched, understood, moderated and eradicated as necessary. Muslims should have freedom to practice their faith, but it need not mean allowing acquisition of power through methods that are not only not permissible, but are inimical to a democracy. .
Islam’s power shows itself up in many diverse ways. It can be religious Islamists who want to implement their principles. But at the opposite end, it can also be Muslim gangs, who take control of say a neighbour hood, like that in Europe or in an underworld like those in Mumbai or other cities of India- within connections to hinterlands like say in Ajamgarh of Uttar Pradesh. Even if they don’t comply with basic good principles of Islam, it is clear that many of them identify themselves strongly with Islam. It is a matter of analysis that rise of Shiv Sena of Mahrashtra (now spreading its influence to other parts of the State as also gradually to other states), as a saviour had in part something to with the ‘protection’ demand that originated from petty shopkeeper sections out of local Marathis, against the ‘Hafta’ that was collected by underworld of Mumbai- Hafta for Shiv Sainiks is equally bad
Sportsmanship spirit apart, it hurts the national pride, when sweets are distributed in isolated Muslim mohallas in cities like Kanpur, on occasions of Pakistan defeating India in a cricket match and the news about the same spreads as rumours around the city.
While India means and stands for all types of diversities, however non-positive aspects in important life-situations do hurt. Diversity that can be deeply damaging leading to fragmentation and disintegration of society needs to be curbed. Getting a society where there are deep rifts between the population groups undermines one of the most important qualities of a society, namely the trust between people. The distrust and disconnect within the nation does prompt external agencies (sometimes in guise of non-state actors) to use methods that inflict very heavy costs not only on economic development of involved nations (on both sides) but also in terms of human toll and misery. Plural Indian-ness an evolution, India settled for after a long course and history of sacrifices and it will be a tragic decline if we squander away the feel.
Indians insist on the tradition of information and freedom, which applies the same rules, the same demands and the same rights to all (call it Uniform Civil code) and a polite yet firm denial to special Islamic requirements in public space that instigate discrimination. Like Burqa for Indian women folk (in France that voted it out this year despite the vote-bank constraints). Modern India is not a Hindu India and therefore need not be too tolerant for the deeply intolerant features of Islam. It need not allow Indian to torn between the nation and religion for a short term- the Nation has to be a long term player. No gender separation, no male domination over women, no Islamic heads carves in our justice system, educational system, commercial and government institutions and health system any restrictions on freedom of speech.
Tailpiece: When veteran actor Dilip Kumar met Prime Minister, in wake of Shiv Sena’s demand that he return the award in view of Pakistan’s aggression against India. Atal Behari Vajpayee told him to retain the Nishan-e-Imtiaz conferred on him by Pakistan. The actor told reporters immediately after the meeting with Vajpayee “The PM told me, it is your award, your honor. It is up to you to decide what to do with it. If you want, you can keep it, but nobody can point a finger at your patriotism”. Dilip Kumar, who did not immediately indicate what he intends to do about the award, finally decided not to return the same. Here are the two Indians who set an example to emulate in conflict-resolution.
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