[Reader-list] Ruchira Paul: When Hindus Mourned Muslim Martyr

[Lalit Ambardar]

> Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:16:58 +0600> From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com> To: reader-list at sarai.net> Subject: [Reader-list] Ruchira Paul: When Hindus Mourned Muslim Martyr> > December 08, 2008> > When Hindus mourned a Muslim martyr> > Ruchira Paul> > http://accidentalblogger.typepad.com/accidental_blogger/2008/12/when-hindus-mourned-a-muslim-martyr.html> > > Today or tomorrow, depending on the sighting of the moon, is Eid> al-Adha, a day of celebration for Muslims worldwide. This year,> December is also the month of Muharram, a religious event of lament> and mourning observed by the Shia Muslim sect.> > I recently finished reading The Girl From Foreign by American> documentary film maker Sadia Shepard which I had previewed here a few> months ago. Shepard's journey in search of her Indian born Jewish/> Muslim grandmother's roots crisscrosses through western India and the> Pakistani city of Karachi. It is a fascinating story which I plan to> describe at a later date. Today however, I wish to bring up a little> known fragment of Indian history that had laid buried in my memory for> decades and which an anecdote in Shepard's book helped shake loose.> > The student population of my school in New Delhi was composed of girls> from practically every part of India belonging to several different> linguistic groups and religions. Nearly fifty percent of the Punjabi> and Bengali students came from families who had lost their ancestral> homes in the partition of India in 1947, my own being among them. In> middle school, a class mate whose folks had moved to India from the> Pakistani city of Lahore, once casually commented that her father's> family used to observe Muharram in their hometown before the> partition. At the time I didn't think much of what my friend had said.> We were young and many of us had heard interesting pre-partition tales> from our parents. It is only now, on thinking back, that her story> acquires a special meaning and given the subsequent deterioration in> Hindu-Muslim relations in general and between India and Pakistan in> particular, also a certain amount of poignancy. You see, the> remarkable thing about my friend's Muharram story was that she was not> a Muslim, but a Hindu Brahmin.> > My class mate belonged to the Punjabi community of Dutts, in more> communally harmonious times also known as the Hussaini Brahmins. They,> along with their Shia Muslim friends and neighbors, used to> commemorate and grieve the deaths of Imam Hussain and his disciples in> the bloody battle of Karbala during the 7th century power struggle> among early Muslims. Of the Dutts was said the following:> > > > Wah Dutt Sultan,> > Hindu ka Dharam> > Musalman ka Iman,> > > > Wah Dutt Sultan> > Adha Hindu Adha Musalman> > > > [Oh, Dutt the king,> > follows the religion of the Hindu> > And the faith of the Muslim.> > > > Oh, Dutt the king,> > He is half Hindu, half Muslim.]> > > > I do not bring up my friend's story in any specially sentimental way.> Looking back on her simply told tale with the political events of> today as the backdrop, evokes more wonder than sorrow. I was born a> few years after the bloody partition of India. The political and> psychological wounds of that cataclysmic event were raw on both sides> of the divide during my childhood. Yet amazingly enough, there> probably was more mutual understanding between the two battling> communities then than there is today. After decades of mistrust and> alienation, the line in the sand that was drawn across Hindu and> Muslim identities around 1947, has now hardened and appears set in> concrete. As one of the linked articles explains in its somewhat> flowery text:> > > > The Hussaini Brahmins, along with other Hindu devotees of the Muslim> Imam, are today a rapidly vanishing community. Younger generation> Hussaini Brahmins are said to be abandoning their ancestral heritage,> some seeing it as embarrassingly deviant. No longer, it seems, can an> ambiguous, yet comfortable, liminality be sustained, fuzzy communal> identities giving way under the relentless pressure to conform to the> logic of neatly demarcated 'Hindu' and 'Muslim' communities. And so,> these and scores of other religious communities that once straddled> the frontier between Hinduism and Islam seem destined for perdition,> or else to folkloric curiosities that tell of a bygone age, when it> was truly possible to be both Hindu as well as Muslim at the same> time.> > > > I am not a starry eyed optimist. I harbor no illusions that the> complicated politics of the Indian subcontinent are going to be solved> simply by harping on the feel-good history of shared culture - of> food, music, language, ethnicities and sometimes even religious> celebrations. Nonetheless, those who have turned the region into a> powder keg of hostilities and have fueled communal fires with lies and> revisionist history, need to be reminded perhaps, that if the present> mayhem is always the consequence of past injustices, there are also> many examples of peaceful co-existence that could serve as the model> for reconciliation between south Asian Muslims and Hindus.> > > > Eid Mubarak to our Muslim readers and to any one else who may wish to> rejoice with their Muslim friends on this day.> _________________________________________> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.> Critiques & Collaborations> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header.> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
_________________________________________________________________
Searching for the best deals on travel? Visit MSN Travel.
http://in.msn.com/coxandkings