[Reader-list] Fifth Posting: Delhi Muslim Publishing Houses

[Yogi Sikand]

Dar ul-Qalam: A Barelvi Publishing House With a Difference



Naseem ur-Rahman & Yoginder Sikand



A significant number of South Asian Muslims are associated with what
can be loosely defined as the Barelvi tradition, named after the late
nineteenth century defender of the cults of the Sufi shrines Ahmad
Raza Khan Barelvi. In contrast to various South Asian reformist
Islamic groups and movements, the Barelvi tradition is loosely
organized, lacking the strong network of institutions of other Muslim
groupings. Barelvi ulema have, by and large, been loath to work with
ulema of other Muslim groups, seeing many of these as 'Wahhabi' and
'anti-Islam'. Much Barelvi scholarship is devoted to rebutting the
claims of other Muslim groups, dismissing them as 'deviant' and
'un-Islamic'. Cinsequently, many other Muslims see the Barelvis as
'backward', 'sectarian', 'superstitious' and 'quarrelsome'.  For their
part, few scholars writing on the Indian Muslims have cared to
seriously explore the Barelvi tradition, seeing it as a rapidly
declining trend in the face of the apparent decline of the Sufi cults.



Fifty-five year old Maulana Yasin Akhtar Misbahi is a leading Indian
Barelvi scholar. Born in 1953 in a village in Azamgarh district in
eastern Uttar Pradesh, he received a traditional religious education
at the apex Barelvi madrasa in India, the Jamiat ul-Ashrafiya in
Azamgarh, graduating in 1970. From then on, his career has been quite
atypical of most Barelvi ulema. He is one of the very few Barelvis to
have taken admission in the Nadwat ul-Ulama madrasa in Lucknow, which
traditional Barelvis see as representing a 'Wahhabi' form of Islam
that it shares with the major rivals of the Barelvis, the Deobandis.
After completing a course in Arabic literature at the Nadwa, Misbahi
returned to the Jamiat ul-Ashrafia, where he taught Arabic for a
little less than a decade. In 1984, he shifted to Delhi, where he
launched a monthly magazine, Kanzul Iman, and wrote several books and
articles for various Indian and Pakistani Urdu papers. In 1991, he
established the Dar ul-Qalam in New Delhi, a research centre that aims
at producing a genre of literature in marked contrast to the standard
Barelvi polemical writings.

'Dar ul-Qalam aims at engaging in new forms of research and producing
socially relevant literature that departs from the petty squabbling
and nit-picking so characteristic of much of the existing literature',
Misbahi explains.



Till date, Dar ul-Qalam has produced 15 books, all written by Maulana
Misbahi himself. Indicating the shift to a more socially engaged and
relevant form of literature that the Dar ul-Qalam sees itself as
promoting, some of these books aim to promote better relations between
Muslims and Hindus. 'One book of mine, published in both Hindi and
Urdu, deals with certain verses of the Quran which Hindutva ideologues
misinterpret to argue that Islam calls for war against all
non-Muslims. Another book deals with the history and ideology of
Hindutva, there being an extreme paucity of writings in Urdu on the
subject. A third deals with the history of the Babri Masjid,
countering Hindutva arguments about the case'.



'Many non-Muslims and even many Muslims', Misbahi goes on, 'do not
know anything about the role of the Muslims in India's freedom
struggle. To highlight this I've published a book recounting the
numerous ulema who participated in the uprising of 1857 against the
British, and another one on a charismatic alim, Maulana Fazl Haq
Khairabadi, who was deported to the Andaman islands by the British for
his role in the 1857 revolt'.



'Our Hindu countrymen need to be reminded of this important role of
Muslims in the freedom of the country. The Hindutva propaganda against
Muslims needs to be effectively countered by Muslim writers', the
Maulana explains. 'Today, there is so much propaganda against Islam
and Muslims in the media. In this regard, Muslim writers have a major
role to play in reaching out to non-Muslims to explain their
position'.

Yet, the Maulana laments that few middle-class Muslims take any
interest in doing so, leaving this task largely to the ulema. 'There
is an increasing number of ulema today who are writing on such social
issues, but the problem is that few of them can write in any language
other than Urdu. Consequently, their reach remains limited to an
almost entirely Muslim audience. Muslims who know Hindi and English
must take upon themselves the task of rendering these works into
Hindi, English and other languages and also producing similar
literature themselves. Sadly, this is lacking', the Maulana laments.



As a way out, the Maulana recommends that the ulema themselves learn
English, Hindi and other languages so as to directly communicate with
people of other faiths through their writings. There are indications
that this may soon begin to happen, with increasing numbers of madrasa
graduates now enrolling in universities, where they can learn new
languages and, for the first time in their lives, closely interact
with people of other faiths. But the purpose of dialogue is not just
to communicate to others. Rather, the Maulana says, the ulema should
also be willing to learn about what others feel and believe. As of
now, he says, there is little interaction between the ulema and people
of other faiths. 'This has to change. The responsibility for this is
on both sides.'



The Dar ul-Qalam departs from most other Barelvi publishing houses in
yet another way: by steering clear of polemical issues that set the
different Muslim sects against each other. 'It is natural that there
will be differences between followers of different religions or even
among followers of the same religion. Such differences can never be
done away with', Maulana Misbahi says. 'Writers need to recognize this
and seek to focus on the issues that the different Muslim sects or
Muslims and Hindus have in common, rather than keep harping on their
differences. If you denounce others or demand that they become
identical to you, far from producing this result it will only lead to
more strife', he explains. He laments the fact that numerous Muslim,
including Barelvi, publishing houses actively promote sectarianism by
publishing polemical material directed at other Muslim sects,
denouncing them as 'un-Islamic'.



'It's basically all about profit', the Maulana avers. 'If publishers
find that they will get more money publishing the books of their
ideological rivals, they might well do so!', he adds. 'Let the
different sects publish books that present their own views, but
without denouncing the adherents of other sects or other religions'.