[Reader-list] Between Yogi and Jogi

[Yousuf]

The recent spate of mails on topics ranging from the
Madrasas and Vidyabhawans to the burqas and Kashmiri
pundits seems to be going nowhere since most messages
sound reactionary rather than leading to any fruitful
dialogue. Many of us are saying short spiteful things
and running away fast, and in some cases with cryptic
identities (such as MRSG). I won’t comment on most of
such emails, but I am tempted to give a few
suggestions, mostly to Yogindar Sikand, who happens to
be a good friend, but I would use this forum for my
personal comments so that others could benefit too. My
comments apply mostly to Yogi’s postings for the Sarai
fellowship. And as a past Sarai fellow, I am trying to
follow a tradition, of commenting on the fellows’
postings.

I have been following Yogindar’s prolific write-ups on
Indian Islam, Muslims and related themes for many
years – and sometimes get jealous with the enormous
quantum of literature he can produce in such a short
time. Many of Yogi’s Sarai’s postings are lengthy
interviews with the publishers of Urdu/Islamic
literature or with the representatives of Indian
Madrasas, which is what he has been focusing on as a
researcher for many years. These interviews or
observations are largely unbiased and un-opinionated
transcriptions of what he finds (with an exception to
the last paragraph of his Brouhaha over Veil
message!). And this style of banal reportage is where
I find a problem. It’s very nice that the Goodword
publishers specialize in a new form of Islamic
children's literature in English. Very nice that
Markazi Maktaba Islami is one of largest Muslim
publishers. Very nice that Kashmir’s largest Madrasa
is devoid of any traces of terrorism. But, so what?
What are we trying to say beyond the obvious? There is
very little contextualization about where do these
institutions stand in the larger picture, what is the
impact of these books on the community. Are they doing
only the nice things? What social trends can be
observed from this industry, and so on. (Ok, Arif
Iqbal’s interview about “Urdu Book Review” was more
comprehensive).

I would take up a small example here, about the
Goodword publishers which Yogi featured. Goodword’s
books are really sophisticated learning tools for what
I call the New Muslim growing up in the west or in
Indian metros. To get a sample of where these books
are largely marketed, I would invite you to see
www.themuslimbabyshop.com where they sell “Halal baby
food” and “Islamic toys” to the new Muslim, whose
faith I presume maybe devoid of any cultural
pluralism. well, I don’t want to get into that debate
right now, but we certainly cannot ignore such trends
while studying a publishing industry.

At one level Yogi’s postings are playing an important
role – of representing the views of a community that
is largely unheard in the mainstream media – informing
all of us that the Islamic publishers are doing a good
service to the society. But then, do transcriptions
after transcriptions of interviews provide us a full
picture? Every time the researcher gets up from the
scene of an interview, the publisher hands him a
packet of pamphlets and books. It becomes very easy
for a Sarai reader (including Vedavati) to wonder if
these postings are not a PR exercise for the
publishers and Madrasas. One is further bugged by a
complete absence of rebuttal or clarification from
Sikand himself when people comment on his articles. He
simply replies by posting more such stories from his
pitara. Eventually it becomes very difficult to
differentiate the Sarai fellows’ postings from the
general postings. (Maybe Sarai should advice its
fellows to provide a larger context – in the beginning
or at the end - to weave together all the postings). I
would recommend Yogi to draw an outline of what
conclusion or finding his postings are leading to. It
would then be easier to defend the work (from Vedavati
and others) as a serious fellowship rather than a
competition with the Vidyabhawans.

Yousuf






       
____________________________________________________________________________________
Got a little couch potato? 
Check out fun summer activities for kids.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=summer+activities+for+kids&cs=bz