Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Razor's Edge

By Avinash Dutt - posted Tuesday, 26 September 2006


The Indian Muslim feels both hemmed in and pulled apart. Will anger and despair find refuge in extremism?

Articulating despair: Shahi Imam Mufti M. Mukarram Ahmed of Fatehpuri Mosque, Delhi, said: “A decade back, Muslims hoped for better days ahead. Not any more.”

Indian Muslims feel besieged. They are disillusioned by the country’s (ie, India's) political leadership - both Muslim and non-Muslim; and disappointed by the moderate leaders of their community. Under the circumstances, the danger of their drifting towards, and embracing, fundamentalism looms large. Moderate Muslim leaders fear their voice will increasingly become irrelevant within the community.

Advertisement

There is much talk, both among the people and in government circles, of taking the “Israeli approach” to dealing with terrorism. Muslims feel uneasy about the way “terrorists” and “jihadists” are used interchangeably in mainstream media. Every social indicator for the community - be it health or education - is dropping.

No wonder Muslims, especially the youth, are confused. They see a mismatch between the promise offered by a secular and democratic set-up and the reality of their existence. This gap between aspiration and reality is felt by most Muslims, including those who consider themselves progressive and moderate.

Maulana Arshad Madni, president of Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind, is a worried man. Wearing a crumpled white khadi kurta-payjama, he is sitting inside a large hall in a mosque that doubles as the Jamiat’s office. Madni is among the country’s most influential Muslim leaders, with a huge following all across the Islamic world. Known as Shaikh-ul-Hind, his father, Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madni, was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and a strong opponent of Jinnah and his two-nation theory.

“Wherever I go, people, especially the youth, come to me ask what shall we do in face of discrimination and growing intolerance for Muslims. Men whose sisters were raped in front of them and the perpetrators are roaming scot free feel maddened by rage. And I can say nothing,” Madni says.

The Jamait has historically supported the Congress, but after it was snubbed publicly in Assam by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, it supported the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the state assembly elections in April. It was at Arshad Madni’s and former president’s, the late Asad Madni, insistence that the UDF gave 25 out of 70 tickets to non-Muslims. Two out of the ten UDF MLAs in Assam are non-Muslims. When some UDF candidates gave a communal undertone to their campaigns, Madni publicly expressed his dissent. The UDF experiment in Assam is an exception of sorts for Madni. The Jamait is not ready to either float an exclusively Muslim political initiative or back one.

When India was partitioned, most of the Muslim middle-class and upper-class migrated to Pakistan. For those who stayed behind, it has been a steady slide down the social ladder. “In the last few years, things have accentuated,” says Madni who is also a prominent figure at Darul Uloom Deoband. “Not just in Gujarat; the police have been picking up Muslims everywhere. Organisations like Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the Tableeghi Jamaat are thoughtlessly demonised. There might be a few wrong elements, but everybody associated with the organisation is tarred with the same brush.”

Advertisement

Sitting in one corner of the 17th century Fatehpuri mosque in old Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, Shahi Imam Mufti M. Mukarram Ahmed could not agree more. He has followers all over north India and Pakistan. The Shahi Imam refuses to be drawn into politics. In 1989, he refused the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s offer of an important position in government.

Mukarram Ahmed meets people from all over India everyday - ranging from those who want amulets for their newly-born to those who come because of his access to people such as the prime minister and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. These days Mukarram Ahmed is perturbed by the desperation of those who come to see him.

Until a decade back, he says, they came with hopes of seeing better days ahead. “Now people ask me why being a Muslim has become a sin in the eyes of the state.” He assures the supplicants that he would “convey their problems to the highest level”. When many, especially young, educated, middle-class boys, come back to him saying that his intercession was of no help, he asks them to have faith in God and “strive harder”.

“During the NDA rule, I would tell them that things would improve when some other government would come to power at the centre, but the UPA government proved no better. In fact, it looks like as if it is also taking instructions from RSS,” says a rueful Mukarram Ahmed.

Zeeshan Chowdhary, a 22-year-old software engineer, lives in Mumbai’s up-market Fort area. A typical techie, he works for Pagulguy.com, India’s most popular forum for MBA aspirants. Chowdhary believes in looking ahead and not dwelling on the past. However, he admits that the present does not look good.

“Things are really getting difficult and nobody knows what to do,” he says. “Muslims have lost faith in police everywhere. Remember Mohammed Afroz, the Muslim boy who was touted as an al-Qaida man? His life was ruined.”

Chowdhary was referring to Mohammed Afroz, who was taken into custody in Mumbai shortly after 9-11 for conspiring to crash an aircraft into Westminster Abbey, London. Charges against him were dropped later.

Chowdhary also has his own take on who was behind the train blasts in Mumbai. “Many may find this far-fetched, but all moderate Muslims here think that [the] Mumbai blasts were triggered by Israel to embarrass Muslims. How come there are no arrests and no knowledge of the whole conspiracy,” he asks. It may come as a surprise to most to hear this coming from an educated, middle-class man. Clearly, there is a need for the government to engage with Muslims and understand their concerns.

Seventy-eight-year-old Mohammed Yameen, who lives in a dingy alley in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, echoes Zeeshan’s sentiments. Post-Independence, it has usually made the headlines for ghastly communal riots.

Yameen has been doggedly pursuing the infamous Hashimpura case. Thirty-five Muslim men from the locality were shot dead by UP’s Provincial Armed Constabulary in May 1987. At the time the Congress ruled the state. Since then, UP has seen three BJP and two self-proclaimed secular chief ministers. It has taken the judiciary 19 years to just begin the trial over the massacre.

“No Muslim leader ever tried to ensure justice; UP has many Azam Khans, Kokab Hammeds and Yaqub Qureshis,” says an infuriated Yameen. Azam Khan, who is the state’s urban development minister, was in the news recently for his demand for a separate “Muslim Pradesh”. And UP’s Minister for Haj, Yaqub Qureshi, came into the limelight when he announced a reward of Rs 51 for the head of the Danish cartoonist accused of blasphemy. While Zeeshan cannot think of a way out, Yameen’s solution - a typically UP-solution some would say - is a Muslim political party. Community leaders are divided on the issue.

The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind also feels that a Muslim political party is the answer. “Maulana Arshad Madni fears that a Muslim political party would communalise the national polity and stack it further against Muslims. We don’t think so,” says SQR Ilyas of the Jamaat.

He points out that OBCs and Harijans were heard only after they backed parties representing their caste interests. Ilyas, who is also a central executive committee member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), feels that a party that doesn’t just harp on Muslim personal law and other community specific issues could flourish and find political acceptance.

Muslim community leaders are also deeply divided on how to tackle the growing perception that Muslims support terrorists and those who advocate a pan-Islamic brotherhood. Such differences were the reason why some leading Muslim clerics did not attend the two-day Conference on Terrorism called by the Ulema which was addressed by the prime minister.

Maulana Rabey Hasan Nadwi, chairman of AIMPLB, and Maulana Nizamuddin, its general secretary, did not show up. Maulana Nizamuddin heads the Imarat-e-Sharia in Phulwari Shareef, Patna. A seat of Islamic jurisprudence, its word is final among community members in Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and parts of West Bengal.

“The theme of the seminar says exactly what it shouldn’t,” says Maulana Nizamuddin. “First of all, Muslims are persecuted all over the country and then they have to go clarifying, instead of seeking reprieve. Can those who say that Indian Muslims’ belief in a pan-Islamic brotherhood is contrary to India’s ethos tell me of a single Muslim from Uttar Pradesh or Tamil Nadu who went to fight against the nation in Kashmir or Gujarat?”

Clearly, cutting across region and class, Muslims often feel that they are slowly but surely being relegated to the status of second class citizens and held accountable for things beyond their control.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All

Article edited by Jack Scrine.
If you'd like to be a volunteer editor too, click here.

First published in Tehelka on September 16, 2006.



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

9 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Avinash Dutt is Principle Correspondent at Tehelka in India.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 9 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy