[Reader-list] Geographic dichotomy of Indian Muslims

[Rajkamal Goswami]

Dear Fellow readers on the reader's list,

An excellent article by Mr. Siraj in Tehelka over the geographic
dichotomy of Indian Muslims over identity politics.

thanks
Rajkamal

link: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp?filename=Op131110South_Indian.asp


Read.......

'South Indian Muslims are not keen on issues related to identity’

THE AYODHYA tangle that kept the communal pot on the boil is not going
to unravel anytime soon. But the conspicuous absence of triumphalism
on the part of the majority community and restraint on the part of
Muslims signifies the changed mood of the nation. The verdict may have
gift-wrapped the major slice of the booty to the litigants responsible
for the historic mayhem, but it has also emphasised that solutions
could still be worked out if pragmatism is not discarded from the
lexicon of the disputants.


Notwithstanding the dismay over the verdict, the dominant view among
the Muslims in south India is that it serves no purpose to mortgage
their existence to identity-related issues. Much unlike their northern
counterparts, the 20 million Muslims in the south see their future
tethered to how the majority thinks, aspires, acts and behaves. It
stems from the view that a minority has to work with and within the
majority society and traditional religious institutions such as
mosques and madrassas are unlikely to work in a modern world in which
success and social mobility are tied to the mastery of scientific and
technical skills.

Much of India’s Muslim leadership comes from states where Muslims are
more numerous but not necessarily more enlightened. So in any national
Muslim conclave, the pragmatic voices, especially from the south, get
suppressed under the rhetoric-laced Urdu poetry from conservative
leaders who do nothing other than sing paeans of past glory. Pleas to
modernise madrassa curriculum, divert charities to more productive
uses like schools, hospitals, for building centres for small artisans
and convention halls and scholarship for students, are pooh-poohed.
Blame for deficiency in terms of development is conveniently laid at
the doors of the government. Emotive issues such as the Shah Bano
controversy over alimony, Satanic Verses, Taslima Nasreen, three
talaqs, Arab marriages and Babri Masjid, therefore, come handy to keep
the millat’s emotional pot boiling. This orthodox leadership from the
north feels something seriously amiss if some such issue is not there
at hand.

True, the migration of the middle class and professionals in the wake
of Partition emptied the north of leadership material. Also true that
identity became an obsession in the wake of India opting for a secular
dispensation. But is it not worth considering that secularism was the
most civilised response from Nehruvian India to the subcontinent’s
traumatic partition on communal lines? Was India not being charitable
to its residual Muslim minority by opting out of Hindu Rashtra?
Institutional biases against Muslims were natural in the wake of
Partition. But the Muslim leadership walked into the trap laid by
Hindutva forces at every turn. Not able to identify its priorities in
an India of 20th century, it has hopped from crisis to crisis, all
based on issues that relate to it religious identity.


Looking forward The Muslim leadership in the north believes that
madrassas are good enough for the boys

PHOTO: TRILOCHAN S KALRA

This obsession with keeping religion in the forefront has resulted in
reinforcing conservatism in the community, spawning resistance against
reform and change. But the situation of Muslims, more so where they
are in a minority (nearly 30 percent of the 1.65 billion Muslims
around the world), is vociferously urging change. An individual Muslim
feels the heat of change at every step. But those who have assumed the
mantle of leadership stand resolutely against it, dubbing all changes
to stem from enemies of Islam. There is this plea for avoiding so much
of controversy over sighting of the moon for Eid-ul-Fitr every year by
taking the help of astronomers who can fix the lunar calendar for the
next 3,000 years. But the clergy has nothing but contempt for such
‘extraneous’ help. Consequently, Muslims in India celebrate Eid on two
or three days. In British India, they celebrated it on a single day
from Karachi to Rangoon.

TWO MUSLIM-MANAGED colleges, one each in Chennai and Bengaluru, closed
down their hotel management and catering institutes five years ago.
Reason: Deoband-trained clerics opined that Muslim institutions should
not teach how to serve wine and handle pork, even though these were
included among hundreds of other skills such institutions impart.
Muslim culinary traditions and skills make others drool over fares
served by Muslim hotels all over the country, yet the Muslim students
cannot be taught how to blend culinary and hospitality skills in
institutions managed by the community. Would it stop them from
learning it elsewhere? Perhaps not. It would have been instructive if
they would have looked into how Jews and Jains run their hotel
management institutes. These communities follow much stricter kosher
and vegetarian diets.

Hell broke loose in the town of Vaniyambadi in Tamil Nadu where a
mosque opened its portals for women and reserved the upper chamber for
them. The mosque committee was forced to withdraw the facility by the
Deobandi clique. They had not committed any sin. All mosques in the
Middle East allow women to pray inside. Even the mosques affiliated to
Ahle-e-Hadith and Shafii sects all over south India have this
facility.

Pragmatic voices from the south get suppressed under the
rhetoric-laced conservative talk

As a social worker, I have guided nearly 10,000 students since 1987
through career counselling, providing scholarships, orientation on
life skills and textbooks. I see a distinct dislike among Muslim boys
for veterinary courses and among girls opting for nursing. There is a
fear that veterinary course would have piggery and nursing would
entail attending to male patients. Islamic traditions point out that
the Holy Prophet’s foster mother Umme Ayman and one of the holy
companions, Khaula bint Zarar, used to serve as nurses in the
battlefield.

But in 20th century India, to err on the conservative side is
considered a merit in matters of interpreting Islam among the clergy.
What a pity! These clerics outstoop each other to produce a more
conservative interpretation, no matter how out of sync it sounds with
the time and society they are living in. When cameras came,
photography was declared illegitimate by the clergy. Over the century,
this interpretation was extended to television, cinema, videography,
X-ray, animation and cartoons.

This regression among Muslims is directly related to the repulsion
bred against the innovative spirit in the Muslim psyche through an
outmoded theological education. Reformists within Muslims live in fear
of being declared heretics. It happened with 19th century reformer Sir
Syed Ahmed Khan, the founder of the Muslim Anglo Oriental College,
Aligarh. Poet Sir Mohammed Iqbal missed this embarrassment by a hair’s
breadth. Dividends are petering off and the immiserisation of the
community is leading to its complete downfall.

Muslims must understand that building an identity and politics around
emotive issues simply will not work. Trumpeting victimhood in no way
takes the community forward. But those who feel the pulse of the
changing world and attune themselves to it, survive, thrive and even
rise from the ashes of wars.
-- 
Rajkamal