[Reader-list] Indian elections: how to woo Muslims to vote for you

[Kshmendra Kaul]

Dear Yousuf
 
The refrain you quoted "Hamari qaum mein unity nahi hai" is, as you said, used by every community. It is a convienient way of shirking individual introspection, accountability and participation. It is also the acknowledgement of the 'polarization' and at the same time dismissing it. To be used in either way as required.
 
Another similar whine is "We do not have a Leadership".
 
Is our Democracy largely built on polarization and herding? Yes it is. Does that make it very meaningful as you rightly wonder ? No it does not. 
 
That is why I describe our present "Democratic" first-past-the-post-is-the-winner system as being a convoluted interpretation of and in fact a mockery of "Democracy". This system feeds on and feeds off the "polarization and herding". 
 
My mention of "Muslims set themselves apart as a group" was as a continuation of the "Muslims" being wooed Posters. In any case, as I wrote earlier "  This is not unique to Muslims, the same is done to and done by other 'groups' based on religion, caste etc."
 
Muslims do find themselves specially focussed upon at election time. The simple reason for that is the numbers. Political parties try to endow all of them with a singular "Muslim Identity" using Babri and Gujarat as homogenising catalysts for that identity. The enemy could be, sorry, the enemy is BJP and if required Mayawati speaking from a lectern draped with the BJP's Lotus flag. At another time or at another place it could be the Congress.
 
So I agree with you when you ask "why can't it be the other way around". It is the other way around too. And, it is not unique to "Muslims as a group".  
 
Kshmendra
 


--- On Tue, 5/26/09, Yousuf <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com> wrote:


From: Yousuf <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Indian elections: how to woo Muslims to vote for you
To: "Kshmendra Kaul" <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
Cc: "Sarai reader list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Date: Tuesday, May 26, 2009, 9:52 PM



Dear Kshmendra
Its good that you put my phrase about "lack of political leadership" within quotes - I should have done that in the original mail, since I am not the one complaining about the "lack" - I am only comparing it with the religious leadership (which btw is no different from the political one).
I'm not sure if its so easy to say that "Muslims themselves" set them apart as a community, and thus get wooed during the elections (why can't it be the other way around?). I'm not even sure if one can woo the Muslims of Saharanpur in the same manner as those of Meerut. But somehow the political parties (since probably 1947) have been imagining Muslims to be a monolithic vote ATM, and help in the process of "ghettoization", often incorporating the religious leaders and so on.

Talking of "ghettoization" (I hate that word), I've often heard another vague but very popular term: UNITY. "Hamari qaum mein unity nahin hai" (our community is not united). And the people of each community believe that the "other" community is stronger because "they are united while we are not." And this is not a Muslim phenomena - I have heard this exact sentence in roadside conversations among members of many communities. Obviously, the unity here doesn't mean "harmony"; it simply means polarization according to ideology. I am yet to come across in India a sustained example of harmony between differing ideologies, rather than a polarization. And that makes us wonder how meaningful is our democracy any way if it is built largely on polarization and herding.

Yousuf

--- On Tue, 5/26/09, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Indian elections: how to woo Muslims to vote for you
> To: "Yousuf" <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com>
> Cc: "Sarai reader list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Tuesday, May 26, 2009, 7:15 PM
> Dear Yousuf
>  
> It should not be surprising that political parties
> aggresively woo and try to appease Muslims at the time of
> elections.
>  
> For various reasons, the "Collective Muslim
> Identity" is one which is furthered by Muslims
> themselves. If Muslims set themselves apart as a group then
> they will be wooed as a group in a manner that the suitors
> think will best engage their attention and favour (example
> Babri and Gujarat). 
>  
> It is quite likely that given the contours of 1947-
> partition, special attention needed to be paid to Muslims so
> as to reassure them of their rightful and equal space in a
> Secular India. This might have led to the creation
> of  the first Political Ghettos of Muslims. These
> getting solidified has both social and political
> reasons and perhaps even compulsions.
>  
> When you or anyone else talks about "lack of
> effective political leader in the community", you
> automatically are subscribing to and feeding the political
> ghettoisation of Muslims. 
>  
> This is not unique to Muslims, the same is done to and
> done by other 'groups' based on religion, caste
> etc.
>  
> The caste based politics amongst Hindus is notorious
> enough but even the Sikhs have succumbed to it.
>  
> Posters are unlikely to reflect it but, on the
> ground, even amongst the Muslims sub-groups are
> identified and wooed depending (for example) if the Shias
> are voters in greater numbers or Sunnis.
>  
> In the case of Muslims however, perhaps due to the
> most prominent 'other' political contender being the
> BJP, appealing to 'All Muslims' is the easy path to
> take for presenting a political party as a 'saviour of
> Muslims'. 
>  
> Kshmendra
>    
> 
> --- On Tue, 5/26/09, Yousuf
> <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> From: Yousuf <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Indian elections: how to woo
> Muslims to vote for you
> To: "Tasveer Ghar" <tasveerghar at gmail.com>,
> "Taha Mehmood"
> <2tahamehmood at googlemail.com>
> Cc: "Sarai reader list"
> <reader-list at sarai.net>, "Tasveer Ghar
> group" <tasveerghar at googlegroups.com>
> Date: Tuesday, May 26, 2009, 1:06 PM
> 
> 
> 
> Dear Taha, Kshmendra and others
> Thanks for your comments and questions. This image gallery
> is really a work-in-progress, and its a tip of the iceberg
> from what one notices in Urdu press. I have been surveying
> Urdu newspaper off-and-on and I was surprised to see the
> quantity and diversity of the election posters. Here are
> some random comments on your questions:
> 
> First of all, this survey is limited to only a handful of
> Urdu newspapers published from Delhi and UP which cater to
> some districts of western UP (the region that had the
> fiercest competition between Mulayam, Mayawati, Congress,
> BJP). The reach and impact of those papers is yet to be
> studied, since many of them are temporary publications. I
> also haven't looked in detail at the Hindi newspapers or
> the local TV shows (or local graffiti, wall posters) to make
> a comparison. But the use of Urdu newspapers in this manner
> does reveal a lot about how they become a via
>  media to cater to a community. Maybe all Muslims in
> Delhi/UP don't read Urdu, but the news certainly
> trickles down through these papers. The tone of the ads by
> all 4 parties sounds like a fish market where each candidate
> is showing how he/she is better for the Muslims and how the
> other party has always ditched the community.
> 
> Yes the use of religious leaders/clergy (for canvassing) is
> still an effective tool - mainly because the imams and pir
> sahebs (from Sufi shrines) do hold an authority over large
> sections of local population, probably due to a lack of
> effective political leader in the community. But it is no
> longer a situation where only one big leader (like the imam
> Bukhari could hold his sway nationwide). And this may not be
> a new phenomena - there is a long history of the political
> impact of religious clergy on the community. But what is
> worth studying (and also disturbing) is how these ads for
> Muslims seldom talk about nation-building or
>  nationhood (which you see in the mainstream BJP ads), but
> only restrict Muslims to their immediate concerns of Babri
> and Gujarat etc.
> 
> Babri mosque and Gujarat pogrom are used ferociously by all
> parties (except BJP) to woo Muslims in these ads, but I am
> not sure if the readers/voters are so stupid that they
> can't see the ludicrousness of how two or more ads on
> the same newspaper page are using the same agenda to hit at
> the other party/candidate. Its funny how the newspaper could
> even sell the adjacent ad space to 3 different parties who
> are attacking each other.
> 
> I haven't come across any example so far of
> "appeasing" of other communities this way by all
> parties - although the BJP did use it in a reverse way to
> attack the Congress in the earlier Delhi elections, by
> listing out its various evils including the
> "mushrooming of Batla Houses" in Delhi, if you
> remember that ad.
> 
> More later probably.
> 
> Yousuf
> 
> 
> --- On Mon,
>  5/25/09, Taha Mehmood <2tahamehmood at googlemail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > From: Taha Mehmood <2tahamehmood at googlemail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Indian elections: how to
> woo Muslims to vote for you
> > To: "Tasveer Ghar" <tasveerghar at gmail.com>
> > Cc: "Sarai reader list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> > Date: Monday, May 25, 2009, 4:52 PM
> > If we assume that the elections
> > posters were intended to appeal
>  to
> > Muslims of North India, then a survey of posters
> throws up
> > some
> > questions-
> > 
> > 1. Do all Muslims of North India know how to read
> Urdu? If
> > no, then-
> > 2. Why do political parties equate Muslims=Urdu
> speaking?
> > 3. Do all Muslims of North India always think of
> Gujarat as
> > an assault
> > on their collective religious identity all the time,
> > especially when
> > they are about to vote?
> > 4. Just like in earlier times, Imam Bukhari's
> fatwa to vote
> > for
> > erstwhile Janta dal was assumed to be the ultimate
> clarion
> > call to
> > North Indian Muslims, this time too, it appears, as
> if, the
> > stereotype
> > of Indian voters who happen to follow Islam, robs them
> from
> > any agency
> > to think and act on their own. I wonder why is an
> appeal
> > from
> > authority is such a big deal in political
> communication?
> > 5. I wonder
>  if posters issued by political parties to
> > appeal to
> > followers of other religions like Sikhism, Jainism,
> > Buddhism or those
> > Indian voters who constitute a strategic vote bank
> follow a
> > similar
> > trend?
> > 
> > Regards
> > 
> > Taha
> > _________________________________________
> > 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: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> 
> 
>       
> _________________________________________
> 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: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> 
> 
>