Cash for Fatwa�Star TV Conspiracy�‘Benaqaab’

By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi

Sensationalization of press

The impact of media especially electronic news channels in making public opinions is mass acceptance. Muftis of reputed institutions or say any humans are neither err proof nor innocent angels, and thus cannot be testified innocent or guilty without thorough reinvestigation. At the same time all media men are not supermen�a mixture of good and bad human is natural in every field. Half trained or immature people in media are proven many a times to be ‘part of the story’ rather than honest narrator of an incidence.

TV reporters may create stories to sensationalize their viewers. A comedy show, ‘Office-Office’ on channel ‘Star One’ portrayed a few days ago how a TV reporter becomes hungry for ‘exclusive breaking news’ and to what extent he may go to cover a ‘live’ view. In the show one reporter entices young man in Bihar for a shoot of a suicide scene� apparently setting himself on fire, lighting a matchstick on ‘petrolled’ body in front of a minister’s house due to his demands being rejected. And the reporter assures the reluctant youth for a protection against fire in addition to provide a sum of rupees twenty five thousand along with medical care after the action is done. The poor ‘hero’ agrees for the ‘action’ with a sight in his mind�bollywood heroes die only on screen. In the show the victim was shown cheated by the reporter�he cries for help, runs for safety while news channel gives an exclusive live coverage with a red tag ‘Exclusive ON … TV’ and the poor ‘hero’ ends his life making headline news in the next day papers�‘another youth burns himself against injustice in Bihar’.

We do not say this was a real story but we also do not assure you that this doesn’t happen in the world of competition�someone or the other claims to be the No. 1 channel every other day. We live in a world where exaggeration to the extent of lying is considered ‘business professionalism’ thus it is extremely difficult to believe everything�if the Muftis in the tape were real culprits or they were framed in disguise of ‘investigative journalism’.

Story Follow up
Following the startling ‘revelation’ of the Australian born, New York based Rupert Murdoch-owned Star group that claims to ‘broadcast 60 television services in nine languages to more than 300 million viewers across 53 Asian countries’, a clear monopoly over the Asian sky, other news services�print and electronic, and the Internet were buzzing with ‘exclusive’ headlines and analysis on the sensational "findings�. The story was dubbed by the Time Magazine website in partnership with CNN as the "Cash-for-Fatwas" scandal, an epithet perhaps coined from the "Cash-for-Questions" scandal that tarnished the image of the British Conservative Party over a decade ago. Indian press ‘in a run to report first’ made the story spicier which apparently was not different from that of former BJP president Bangaro Laxman’s story, unveiled by tehelka.com or the sex scandal reports of some Hindu priests and bollywood actors, broadcasted by India TV in the past.

The Channel aired for 90 minutes how bribes, in rupees one thousand to five thousands were offered by undercover reporters wearing hidden cameras over a period of six weeks. In return for the Hadya (gift), the Muftis were framed receiving cash to hand out fatwas written in Urdu on issues asked by the reporters. Interestingly some of the accused Muftis never watched TV during 76 years of their lifetime and even they opposed others for doing so on religious grounds, but this accusation ultimately forced them to watch their story on television.

With an unsuccessful aim of highlighting "corruption" in reputed Islamic learning centres the ‘Star team’ had instead ‘benaqaab’ (unmasked) its own conspiracy against ‘madrasas’ in India. Hired media launched a visibly successful anti-madrasa campaign as a part of ‘enduring freedom’ after the 9/11 in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Now, we believe, it is time for Indian madrasas to face the course because perhaps the mother of all Indian sub continental madrasas�Darul Uloom Deoband still stands tall here. “Present media is under western or Zionist dictate� a frequent voice among some Muslim circle seems no more negligible. The investigative team was led by Jamshed Khan, a little known journalist who might have been used as tool for his Muslim name.

Other version of the story

The Star group made the ridiculous discovery that the Muftis who provide Muslims with religious rulings on all day-to-day issues are corrupt. It tried to ‘faint’ viewers with question, doubt and infuse anger against Ulama and madrasas. Arab News, the middle east's leading English language daily while reporting the story observes “investigative journalism at its worst� and casts substantial doubts on the authenticity of the operation while detailing parts of other side of the story in its publication on September 30th.

In the second day onwards after the claimed ‘sting operation’ of Star news was telecasted, Muslim intellectuals and Urdu press of India started publishing the original story and faked entire episode. All major Urdu dailies�Inquilab, Rashtriya Sahara, Munsif and Siyasat extensively reported experts’ views on the issue and questioned authenticity of the Star TV discoveries. It was so strange to notice that English press dubbed the story without a slightest doubt� seemingly treated the Star’s findings as ‘revelation from the heaven’, and never tolerated to space press statements from Darul Uloom Deoband, Islamic Fiqh Academy of Delhi and other Muslim organizations or institutions that were directly part of the story in its later publications.

What the accused say?
This writer contacted Shamshad Ahmad (Nadir) Qasmi; an accused on the tape from Delhi based Islamic Fiqh Academy on 18 September and asked him to detail the incidence. He replied, “Yes I did receive rupees five thousand from one Faisal who insisted me to get hadya (gift) on behalf of his leather merchant employer based in kanpur after the questions he asked were replied�. Nadir said that he denied the offer at first saying, “I am an employee and I get salary for this service�. This person along with his two colleagues laughed at him and urged, “Maulana sahib, this is hadya and you know even Prophet Muhammad (saws) never rejected hadya, please take it, and moreover this is nothing but a show of reverence to Ulama. “After repeated appeal from all three men who had visited me three times till 14 May, I agreed to receive the hadya,� said Nadir. When they asked him how much they should pay, Nadeer said, “I was bemused by their apparent innocence about the fact that hadya is not asked or demanded. I informed them about it and then suggested to offer whatever they wished�.

Nadir apparently broke down while saying that there was a few hours long meeting with them putting all three meetings together, which was reduced to less then 4 minutes only where only his laughter, counting money and his words like “I will take… money… Rupees five thousand… yes give whatever you want� were shamelessly broadcasted. He highly objected when I named the Star TV reporters as ‘journalists’ and observed, “they were spies working under sophisticated global network�, he said.

What Mufti Habibur Rahman has to say?
When I asked Mufti Habibur Rahman, the prime accused of the so-called ‘Star operation’, to explain the episode, the 76 years old reputed professor of Darul Uloom Deoband and an experienced expert on Islamic law, replied in seemingly tired rhetoric, “Allah knows why this people are so deceitful?� He unequivocally explained that he never accepted any paisa (penny) from people who visited him asking Fatwas throughout his 23 years long carrier in Darul Ifta (Faculty of Jurisprudence) of Darul Uloom Deoband. On reconfirmation he angrily rebuked “No, not even hadya (gift) except from my students or people whom I personally know�. When asked about the money he was shown putting in his bag on TV footage he replied, “it was mine, I got in lieu of my books from the bookseller at the time when these people were sitting before me. The amount was handed over to me by an employee from ‘Hussainia Kutubkhana,’ I counted the money before them and put it in my bag�.

Mufti Habibur Rahman further explained that the middleman shown in the tape�Maulana Muhammad Imran, asked him in the beginning “if Darul Uloom receives any charge for Fatwa?� which he replied in negative. While they were waiting for their reply sheet to be inscribed on Darul Uloom’s record book and handed over to them, Maulana Imran introduced his companions to Mufti Rahman as “rich people from Delhi� and requested “hazrat inki taraf se kuch to hadya qabool kar lijey� (sir accept from them some money as a gift, please) which he said ‘he rejected’.
Mufti Habibur Rahman who never watched television in his lifetime, was extremely upset to notice that ‘this also happens in the name of sahafat’ (journalism) on TV Channels. He said that he was certain that those so-called journalists ‘were anti Muslim propagators’ who distorted even original text of the fatwa he delivered to them ‘for their vested interest’.

The rational arguments
The program made three allegations�firstly, it claimed that it had made a "startling discovery that fatwas... cannot only be easily bought but made-to-order," secondly that “Muftis accept bribes for delivering fatwas as per questioners’ choice� and thirdly, the channel claims that the Muftis “produced wrong Fatwas�.

We will try to focus on Mufti Habibur Rahman’s part of the story as the Channel punches Darul Uloom Deoband’s name as it allegedly tried to make a hole into the reputation and mass respect to the great institution while repeatedly clipping Deoband’s towering buildings, grand mosques and students in funny pauses.

1. First and most importantly notable aspect of the issue is that the fatwa under discussion was not only misinterpreted, showed out of context, but also it was literally changed�‘allowed’ to ‘not allowed’�by the channel to give desired twist to the verdict. The original fatwa was, as the archives record in Darul Ifta shows and also ‘Eastern Crescent’ has collected the copy, "fi nafsihi credit card ka istemal jaaiz hai magar....." (In itself the use of credit card is allowed but if one defrauds with the card or carelessly avails usury then it would be not allowed…). The so-called sting operation of the Star group walked over all ethics of journalism and changed the very important phrase�“jaiz hai� (allowed) to "na jaiz hai" (not allowed) in the first sentence.

2. The question asked by one Amir bin Javed Haq of Kalkaji, New Delhi on 7 May 2006, whom Star TV claimed one of its undercover operatives, is recorded with reference No. 507 and was replied under reference No. 558 according to the archives book of Darul Ifta clearly invites an unconditional verdict against the use of credit cards. For, the question itself reasons the decision when it states, “What do the learned people say about this issue that in our country various banks provide credit cards facility, while in the beginning people are lured to avail the cards and later they have to pay a huge amount as usury. Is transaction of usury and use of credit card allowed in Islam according to Sharia?� Any person with common understanding of Islamic teachings would certainly reply�No, it isn’t allowed in Islam. But while replying this very question the Muftis of Darul Uloom Deoband happened to be smarter, they were not betrayed by the question and replied accurately saving fair users of the credit cards.

3. Maulana Imran was reading out the alleged original fatwa from Urdu text on the TV footage and he also made deliberate changes in the text. He reads "fi nafsihi credit card ka istemal jaaiz nahi hai…� with criminal addition of a ward “nahi� (not) in the original text, which severely affected the verdict and resulted ‘allowed’ to ‘not allowed’. Through out the Programme the TV channel repeatedly put on screen Hindi version of the distorted text.

4. The channel claimed to offer Mufti Habibur Rahman rupees five thousand as bribe for the fatwa in five hundred rupee notes�that means there were only ten notes and not a bundle of notes but interestingly Mufti Rahman was seen on the camera putting a thicker bundle of notes in his bag which will be at least equal to rupees fifty thousand if the notes were of five hundred rupees or ten thousand if they were one hundred rupee notes. After investigation Darul Uloom Deoband confirmed that Mufti Saheb actually bagged rupees six thousand and five hundred with notes of five hundred, one hundred and even ten rupees, handed over by the bookseller at the same day and time and as an evidence it was checked with the bookseller’s daily debit voucher of 7 May 2006.

5. The channel ‘circled’ Mufti Habibur Rahman putting a folded bundle of money in his bag and it was one of the repeated focus points of the story. It failed, on the contrary, to show the actual transaction from both sides as it did with other accused in the tape while it was not a difficult ‘shot’ because the accused Mufti and all three people from Star team were sitting grounded on carpet; and there was no divider among them except a very small desk (tipayee).

6. The Star channel claimed to buy the ‘wrong’ Fatwa as they wished it to be as they claimed to have pre-settled with Mufti Habibur Rahman through middleman. After rechecking the text with various Sharia experts in India and abroad the fact remains that the Fatwa was cent percent in accordance with Islamic teachings and it was an exercise of highest degree of scholarship with wisdom.

7. The natural sunshining background in the tape indicates that when Star TV men visited Darul Uloom, collected fatwa and allegedly handed out money to Mufti Rahman, it was morning hours�pre-noon time�and they also stated in the tape that the timing of fatwa deliverance and money transaction was the same as per the their preset game plan. Moreover, Mufti Rahman himself and other staff members in the office also confirmed that these people collected fatwa before 10:30 AM (10:30 AM to 02:00 PM is complete official break time). Notably Azaan (call for prayer) at daytime begins at 1 PM�after noon�in all mosques at Deoband and Faculty of Ifta (Darul Ifta), stationed at ‘Qadeem Masjid’s first floor’, does not get sunshine inside it when sun changes direction in the after noon hours. Though Azaan is heard in the tape, in morning hours, while those people were inside Darul Ifta. According to Maulana Marghubur Rahman, the rector, as it seems valid, the original sound in the tape must have been tempered with, and the sound of Azaan was added in place of Mufti Rahman’s rejection.

8. The anchor on Star’s ‘benaqaab’ roars ‘fatwa about credit card was delivered by Mufti Habibur Rahman of Deoband’ and he also lauds Mufti Zafiruddin’s name as symbol of ‘honesty’ but the unmasked fact is that the fatwa about credit card was delivered by all three main Muftis and it carries simultaneously signatures of Mufti Habibur Rahman, Mufti Zafiruddin and Mufti Mahmoodul Hasan.

9. Mufti Mahmoodul Hasan sits hardly five feet away from Mufti Habibur Rahman in the office who witnessed the visitors were offering Mufti Rahman cash as hadya and on their repeated request he was a bit angry and rejected the offer.

10. And at the end, the main ‘hero’ of the ‘benaqaab’ team Mualana Muhamamd Imran of Meerut whom the Star TV claimed to have borrowed, stated to the Darul Uloom Deoband’s investigative team and other prominent personalities that Mufti Habibur Rahman never accepted any money, whatsoever, and rejected the offer of hadya as well.

Reactions.
Following the report Darul Uloom Deoband immediately suspended Mufti Habibur Rahman from delivering further fatwas and not dismissed as the Star TV reported. Subsequently an investigation was opened, Maulana Marghubur Rahman, Muhtamim (the rector) of Darul Uloom Deoband, issued a statement later in which he reinstated the Mufti and described the allegations as part of an "organized conspiracy." He also said that the "fatwa issued by the Mufti was in accordance with Shariah," adding that original text of the fatwa "as presented by Star News had been tampered with."

Alumni of Darul Uloom Deoband in Mumbai and other concerned Muslims came out strongly condemning Star Channel for twisting fatwas and misleading viewers by distorting footage to make it appear that decrees had been issued in exchange of money. In a meeting on 22 September they termed entire story of the so-called benaqaab “a real ‘benaqaab’ of a big conspiracy against Ulama and reputed Muslim institutions of India�.

Discussing the issue, Ghulam Muhammad, well known freelancer from Mumbai based think-tank Idraak, on 17 September, said, "Rewarding the Mufti with a gift of cash as a gesture of appreciation and capturing the whole sequence on secret web-camera and presenting it to millions of viewers as a bribe to the Mufti...is the grossest misrepresentation of fact."

A statement issued by the Islamic Fiqh Academy in New Delhi denied the allegations of "Muftis receiving bribes to issue fatwas." It further contends that the journalists who had asked for the fatwas "had insisted that the Muftis take the money as a gift or as a donation for their madarsas after the fatwas were delivered."

Similarly, scholars from the Jamia Arabia Khadimul Islam said that the report of Muftis from that institute accepting money was "false." The rebuttal added "the Muftis delivered their opinions... in writing. After this...the two men tried to offer them money as a gift. The Muftis declined to accept this money as a payment for the fatwas. … However, after repeatedly insisting the two Muftis took the money and deposited it with the institute and issued receipts�.
Likewise, Riyaz Nadvi, secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Dini Talimi Council and leader of the Milli Council, issued a similar statement in newspapers. Nadvi argues, “Generally, Muftis do not accept money for delivering fatwas because they consider it their religious duty to answer queries related to Islam and Islamic jurisprudence. Yet...if a Mufti does accept some payment for a fatwa that he gives there is nothing wrong with that, provided his opinion is based on the Qur'an, Hadith and the rules of Islamic jurisprudence." Unanimous view of Muslim scholars also does not negate Nadvi’s opinion.

Why media is after fatwas?
The Arab News daily reports that ‘dealing with the issue of whether the fatwas were "made-to-order" and contrary to classic Islamic scholarship, a leading Shariah-expert from the UK explained how all of the rulings listed in the report could easily "be positioned somewhere on the wide spectrum of differing opinion among scholars on peripheral issues," and hence casting doubt on the claim that rulings were made-to-order and influenced by unscrupulous motives’. In fact many Muslims are wondering why the journalists bothered spending so much money. "The thing that baffles me is the fact that these rulings have been mentioned by so many other Muftis before, they aren't new. They can easily be found in fatwa compilations published years ago and are available on the Internet," said Muhammad Akram from Great Britain’.
Maulana Marghubur Rahman relates in his latest press statement on the issue released on 25 September that an ongoing court case filed against the concept of Ifta (the issuance of fatwa) at India's Supreme Court. "Darul Uloom Deoband has been made the defendant and a demand has been made to close the Fatwa Department and the teaching of Ifta (Jurisprudence). The case is soon to be heard, the above mentioned plan (referring to the sting-operation) is merely an attempt to influence the case," he said.

What Maulana Marghubur Rahman said could possibly be true. British Muslims have had their fair share of exclusives as Murdoch newspapers in the UK ― notably the Sun, the News of the World and the Times ― write about sting operations showing Muslims in a negative light.
For countless years, in spite of protests from level-minded Muslims, the Murdoch propaganda machine has actively vilified British Muslims by presenting the views of obscure and previously little-known "so-called" imams such as Abu Hamza Al-Masri and Omar Bakri Muhammad, the head of the now defunct Al-Muhajiroun group.

It may be the case that the pro-Israeli Murdoch-owned Star TV is attempting to influence politics in India ― a growing economic world superpower. The unethical investigative journalism practiced by Jamshed Khan echoes that of the British News of the World's investigative reporter Mazhar Mahmood.

Rupert Murdoch once said, "My ventures in media are not as important to me as spreading my personal political beliefs," a quote that truly epitomizes his personal beliefs. It is only in the best interests of Muslims in the world and Islam to understand the challenges of the media.

_____________________________________________________________________________________
[A Darul Uloom Deoband graduate and Editor ‘Eastern Crescent’, English monthly, M. Burhanuddin Qasmi, a poet is also Director of Mumbai based institute ‘Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Centre’. He can be reached at manager@markazulmaarif.org]

Education of Muslims in India : Problems & Prospects

Education of Muslims in India: Problems & Prospects
Presented by
M. Burhanuddin Qasmi

Conference on
Children, Youth, and their Education in a Globalizing India
sitemaker.umich.edu/varanasidecember2005
December 22-24, 2005
Organized by: Centre for Postcolonial Education
N 1/70 Nagwa, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

Importance of Education in Islam

In recent times the question of Muslims educational backwardness has been an important element of political and social rhetoric in India. Although Muslims are not alone in reflecting educational backwardness yet recent static shows they are one of the most backward communities in the field of education and literacy in the country. This fact is, no doubt, astonishing for those who know that the very first declaration of the Qur’an- ‘IQRA’ (to read) is about ‘education’. And the Prophet of Islam, Mohammad (SAWS) termed education as basic obligation for every individual- male and female, the very first time in the history of mankind, in 610 (AD). However, this write-up endeavours to locate the educational problems of the post colonial Muslims in India and invites sincere review by the present academia to help practical enforcement of all educational plans to get Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) mission a success story by 2010.

Government of India’s attitude towards Education
It has been more than half century since India achieved freedom. Observing the big amount of illiteracy, the constitution of India under article 45 made it obligatory on the Govt. to achieve 100% literacy within ten years from the enforcement of the constitution in 1950. The Article 45 also states that ‘the State shall endeavour to provide free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years’. Cent percent literacy, with free and compulsory education, in India should have become a reality by 1960.

On the contrary, a tragedy for all Indians is that the target set by the constitution to be achieved by 10 years in 1950 never became a reality even after 55 years! Consequently, our country which has started from 20% national literacy rate in 1950 is still struggling at half a way fifty years later- in 2001, with 65.38 national literacy. The 10th ‘Five-year Plan’ visualizes that India will achieve the ‘Universal Elementary Education’ by 2007. However, the ‘Union Human Resource Development’ (HRD) Ministry announced in 2001 that India would achieve that target only by 2010. Although the target is five years from now but the outcome is known to all today! It will be another extension of 10 to 5 years. And who knows– the same may continue for years and years� it is very gloomy scenario all around, very poor performance by all for promotion of education.

Education is a fundamental right of all children
Realizing the Government's sluggish attitude and delaying tactics in implementing the Constitutional commitment, the Supreme Court of India, in the Unnikrishnan Judgement way back in 1993, said: "It is noteworthy that among the several articles in part IV only Article 45 speaks of time limit, no other article does. Has it not significance? Is it a mere pious wish, even after 44 years of the Constitution?�

The 93rd Constitution Amendment 2001 enacting ‘free and compulsory education for all children is a fundamental right’ still remains a ray of hope to millions of children in the age group of 6-14 years. The fundamental right to free education was received with paramount importance by all. But again it is already 4 years after the amendment and there is no visible development in the field of education and literacy. Even most of the backward class parents from schedule cast, schedule tribe and other minority communities do not know that the 93rd constitutional amendment of India in 2001 had made education of children a fundamental right which cannot be overlooked by them. Irony of the fact is that the then BJP lead NDA government gained all credits of the 93rd amendment and did little practically to enforce the same for betterment of the children or nation.

Muslims’ Contributions towards Indian Education
Education in India, before the advent of Islam, was considered to be the monopoly of Brahmins. They excluded the lower class people to acquire knowledge because they thought themselves to be superior. There were mass revolts against this notion resulting in the shape of Buddhism and Jainism, but soon these religions grew weaker and the previous conditions returned. Although none can deny the glory of Nalanda and Taxila universities of India, the fact cannot be over looked that the common people were always deprived of education in early Hindu periods. When Islam came to India it had to fight this mindset that prevailed in the masses. Ultimately, due to the efforts of Muslim rulers every citizen of the country, whether Muslim or Hindu, man or woman, rich or poor, was enshrined with the right to acquire knowledge.4

Shah Waliullah the great Educational Reformer
Shah Waliullah (1702-1763) was considered to be the one who succeeded in building a bridge between the medieval and modern Muslim India. Since he was well aware of the religio-political and socio-economic disintegration of Muslims in India, he launched his two-fold reform movement. His Jihad (arms) movement was carried on through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and his educational and religious reforms led to the emergence of many great centres of Muslim learning like Darul Uloom of Deoband in Uttar Pradesh province of India.

Shah Waliullah had seen the decline of Mughal rule in India and observed similar degeneration in other countries of Asia and Africa. The last pious and powerful ruler of Mughals king ‘Aurang Zeb’ (ra) had already passed away in 1707 and East India Company had got power to rule a part of Eastern India defeating ‘Sirajud Dawla’ at Palasi in 1757. Ultimately ‘Shah Waliullah’ came to the conclusion that ‘monarchist and imperialist tendencies were the main responsible of the worsening State affairs and de-formulated basic principles for regeneration and reconstruction of life and human values’. In his book ‘Hujjatullahil Baligha’ he laid down "labour is the real source of wealth" and "only those people deserve to possess wealth who put in labour the physical or mental strength for the sake of the country and society". All people, he believed, are equal and the position of the ruler of a State is no more than that of a common citizen in the matter of justice and freedom. Right to freedom, security and property etc. are equal for all irrespective of religion, race or colour.5

Notably he propagated these ideas long before the ‘French, American and Soviet’ revolutions took place which still lie buried under the dust of misinformation raised by the Colonial historians. At the cost of hypocrisy of modern history this Himalayan personality had been deprived of the deserved place in our modern syllabi history books.

Problems of Post Colonial Indian Muslim
The current situation of Indian Muslims has alarmingly deteriorated despite the fact that they make up nearly 15 percent of the national population and have a glorious history of several centuries of enlightened rule that put India firmly on the world map, and are the second largest Muslim community in the world today. Although, they are improving day by day for the last two decades and are learning to stand on their own feet but they have been deliberately placed in hard social, educational and political conditions ever since the historic defeat of Indians in 1857 revolt against the British till this day. For instance, the number and percentage of Muslims in all government sectors of India has steadily declined from 31 percent in early 1947 to only 2.3 percent in 2001. The ruling class puts the blame on the doors of the Muslims, while the facts are different in view of the gradual isolating trend imposed on the community. A graphic picture of Muslim deprivation also emerges from the studies done in recent years by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). The findings have been summed up in two sentences: "Muslims in India have a poor human development status. Widespread illiteracy, low income, irregular employment - implying thereby a high incidence of poverty is all pervasive among the Muslims."6 To me, the study of the NCAER fails to penetrate deep into the depth of these problems; it misrepresents facts and falsifies perceptions- which are again new hindrance towards accurate diagnosis of real problems.

Four Principal Problems of Indian Muslims
Indian Muslims have, as per my findings, four principal problems. And these problems are the real obstacles in all educational, economic and socio-political perspirations of the Muslim community.

The first problem is the absence of true Muslim leadership in the post-Partition period and until this day. The present Muslim leadership is either puppets of the leading parties or they have no sense of the problems Muslims community is actually facing in India. It is encouraging to see that some practising Muslims are gearing up to participate directly in the Western form of democratic politics in India corresponding to the pressing social demands and continued injustice in the post colonial India. It is a good sign for Assamese Muslims, at least, who stand 30 percent of the state’s total populations that a pure social worker and a religious scholar- ‘Maulana Badruddin Ajmal Al-Qasmi’ is ultimately becoming one of the key factors in Assam’s politics. He formed a new political party – ‘United Democratic Front’ (UDF) with support from 20 Muslim and non-Muslim organizations in September this year. The reasons to form a new party with minority support in Assam are well understood- the continued mistreatment of Congress with its strong vote bank- Muslims and other minorities in the State for the last 58 years and the failure of so-called Muslim politicians who just after elections become EXTRA secular and even fear to name themselves as Muslims’ representatives. It has been an irony in the post 1947 India that majority of the Muslim politicians have been proven ineffective in regards to the community which has voted them to the power.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s famous address to the Muslims of Delhi on October 23, 1947 set a new political trend for Indian Muslims. The occasion demanded leadership of a bruised and bewildered community; the Maulana chose to lace his advice with taunt and reproach, a very different approach from the one he had taken in his presidential address to the Ramgarh session of the Indian National Congress in 1940. His bitterness over the turn of events as he penned down in his book ‘India wins freedom’ is understandable. The painful fact remains that he chose not to lead when leadership was most needed for the Muslim community. Therefore, I personally welcome the recent step taken by Maulana Badruddin Ajmal Al-Qasmi to jump into direct politics and wish to see him a strong partner in the next Assam Govt.

The second problem of Indian Muslims is lack of security. Riots, communal violence have become a sad reality of India’s life and the majority of the victims of riots in India are Muslims. According to Mr. Ram Puniyani, ‘the data from1961 to 1992 shows that during these four decades 80 percent of victims of communal violence have been Muslims’.7 During the 1984 Delhi riots nearly 4000 Sikhs were done to death. In a similar vein another minority- Christians saw the ghastly burning of Pastor Graham Stains along with his two minor sons.
The bloody massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in late February 2002 that led to the death of over 2000 Muslims is a ghastly reminder of an organized violence with tacit support by the ruling authorities. Mumbai based writer late ‘Mr. Rafiq Zakaria’ has written with anguish about communal riots in India. According to him, they reached genocidal proportions in Gujarat in 2002.8

The political milieu just after the partition was such that made Muslims feel so demoralized that they could not dare ask the question as to why the doors of defence forces were barred to Muslims under policy directions from Nehru’s government after independence. The Muslim civil servants similarly were not to be appointed on sensitive posts and extra caution had to be used for issuing passports to them.9 The strength of Muslims in the police and state paramilitary forces was deliberately reduced to the extent that in some States including U.P. and Delhi their representation is very low. This made the Amnesty International call the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) of U.P. a mainly Hindu paramilitary police force, having only about 2% Muslims, in its Report on Allegation of Extrajudicial Killings By the Provincial Armed Constabulary in and Around Meerut on 22-23 May, 1987.10 In 1974 the commission of Inquiry into Sadar Bazar, Delhi Disturbances noted with concern the negligible presence of Muslims i.e. 1.3 percent in the Delhi police force.11 It is as simple as anything that when a community’s physical security is repeatedly endangered it will hardly make any progress in the field of education and economy.

The third principal problem of Muslim community is its low income. Although the economic and social situation of Muslims is not the same throughout India, one cannot deny the fact that poverty and lack of genuine financial recourses are hampering socio- educational development of the community at every step. In 1999, a team of researchers at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), led by Abu Saleh Shariff, published the results of a nationwide survey of 33,000 households. This study collated information according to socio-economic status, caste - and religion. Which clearly shows that a larger proportion of Muslims than other religious minorities suffer from low levels of consumption. The best economic measure is how much a person spends on food, clothing and other items of consumption. Average consumption expenditure by each member of a family was less than Rs. 300/- a month in 29 percent of rural Muslims.12 But what is more remarkable is that the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), an autonomous Government agency, has compiled and published the socio-economic data according to religion that it collected during the course of its national surveys of consumption expenditure during the 50th and 55th rounds in 1993-94 and 1999-2000. The socio-economic profile that the NSSO estimates paint of the Muslim Indian is a depressing one. In all major socio-economic indicators, the members of India's biggest religious minority are, on the average, worse off than members of the majority community. First, they spend less on items of daily consumption because they apparently earn less. Second working Muslims are more in casual labour and seasonal occupations. Third, among those with access to land a Muslim household is mostly cultivating smaller plots. Fourth, unemployment rates are higher among educated Muslims than others. This overall profile is true of both men and women, in rural and urban India and in all States.13 The NSSO does not provide information on shelter, health, nutrition and other socio-economic indicators. If such information was available the larger picture would have been in more black and white terms.

Official data is, at least, enough to figure out that in the post independent India Muslim community remained downwards economically in comparison to all other majority or minority communities. And with such findings in hand as we have now through NSSO about the profile of second religious majority group of India, official policy can - if the Government wants to - easily identify the groups most in need of state intervention, support and reservation. It is typical of India’s political and social ethos that this fact of gross under representation of a significant religious minority is not allowed to become an issue. Any such discussion would be rather viewed as ‘communal’ which is taken to be anti-secular.

The fourth and most painful problem of Muslim Indians is the discriminatory attitudes of the majority community towards them in all walks of life. In this paper it is not possible, nor is it necessary, to give an exhaustive account of how Muslims have fared under law in Independent India and how intolerant and discriminatory attitudes towards them have adversely affected their rights as equal citizens in the common domain and their collective right to distinct religious, cultural and linguistic identity. What is being attempted here is to present a sampling of state of things to illustrate how institutional discrimination and extreme intolerance against Muslims have made them periodically feel insecure, marginalized and educationally deprived. I would prefer to cut short this prolong debate and present an abstract from the report prepared by Professor Iqbal A. Ansari on ‘Intolerance and discrimination against Muslims as a religious minority In India’ which was submitted by the Indian Muslim Federation (UK) at a Workshop at United Nations’ World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination (on 27 August-7 September 2001) in Durban, South Africa to ascertain the cause of Muslims’ deprivation of quality education and social developments.

‘Fulfilling the promises made to minorities by the ‘Indian National Congress’ during the freedom movement the following safeguards were provided for them in the Draft Constitution. (1947-49)

a) Number of seats in the national Parliament and State Assemblies to be reserved for minorities on the basis of their population, though elections to be held under joint electorate.
b) Share of minorities in the Cabinet to be ensured through provision of a Schedule.
c) Special Officers for Minorities in the Union and States for monitoring implementation of safeguards.
d) The claims of minorities in public services to be given due consideration.
e) Minority right to preserve their distinct language, script and culture and establishing educational institutions of their choice guaranteed.

India’s Constituent Assembly adopted the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights and Minorities in August 1947,14 which were written into the Draft Constitution Articles, 292, 294, 296 & 299.15 But under the shadow of partition safeguards for political and economic rights were altogether dropped and so was the provision of special officers for monitoring of implementation of safeguards in May16 & October17 1949. Though assurances were given that the majority would ensure that minorities got a fair deal in public participation and representation even without Constitutional safeguards.18 These promises have however remained unfulfilled.19 Though Muslims have been persistently underrepresented in Parliament and State Assemblies, it has never figured an issue to be addressed by Committees constituted for electoral reforms including that constituted by the ‘National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution’.

The Constitution of India does provide right to equality and non-discrimination for all citizens irrespective of social origin or religious affiliation but there has been no Constitutional or statutory mechanism to study and monitor the nature, extent and modalities of discrimination against any individual or group of citizens including minorities and for taking remedial measures.

The benefits of affirmative action of the State under Articles 15(4) and 16(4) are not available to Muslims as a backward minority which is not adequately represented in public services though certain backward classes of Muslims are included in the common list of Other Backward Classes of Hindus and Muslims. Moreover there is misunderstanding about the applicability of Article 16(4) to religious minorities, although its drafting history shows that the provision was meant to provide protection to minorities,20 of which the Supreme Court has taken note in its judgment on the issue of reservation.21 On the contrary, the recent wide spread debate on Andhra Pradesh Government’s five percent Muslim Reservation Bill which the Legislative Assembly had passed on October 5, 2005 during the monsoon session was sacked by the High Court on the basis of a petition by some non-Muslim organizations which contended that with the Muslim quota, the total reservations in the state had exceeded 50 per cent. However, the state government cited that in neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu, the reservation percentage had exceeded 50 percent and the same was held valid by the Supreme Court!22

The fact, however, remains that on one hand there is no machinery to look into widespread discrimination against minorities, especially Muslims, on the other hand they are excluded as minority from all benefits of reservations, in spite of their gross backwardness and under representation in all sectors of public employment.

The ‘National Commission for Minorities’ (NCM) whose functions include study of discrimination23 is a powerless body, whose reports and recommendations are not laid on the table of the Parliament with action taken report for years together. The examples of few recent cases dealt with by the NCM should be enough to illustrate how impotent and irrelevant a body it is, and how cynically it is treated by the Union & State Governments.

In March 2001 during communal disturbances in Kanpur the PAC personnel allegedly killed eleven Muslims and burnt and looted their shops during curfew hours to teach the Muslims a lesson. When a delegation of minority organizations met the Commission24 demanding effective role of the NCM along with the National Commission for Human Rights (NHRC) in bringing to justice the culprits and reforming the law enforcement machinery, the Chairman pleaded helplessness. He told the delegation that letters and fax messages Commission sent to the Govt. of U.P. for report of incidents had remained unacknowledged and unresponded. On the other hand, during and after the Gujarat carnage in 2002 records of all previous religious discrimination in India was shamelessly broken by both Central and State Governments and credit must go to mainstream media and NGO personals who kept this truth wide open for all generations to come.

The ‘National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) own social composition demonstrates its callous disregard for the principle that even without fixing any quota diversity of the society should get reflected in the composition of all public institutions. It is symptomatic that in the NHRC, which is supposed to protect rights of citizens, the Muslim presence is almost ZERO. Out of five members there is no Muslim member of the Commission. There are no Muslim officers out of 28 in Group-A; again no Muslims among 76 officers in Group-B. There are just 2 Muslims, one upper division clerk and the other lower division clerk out of 72 Group-C officers; out of 71 employees at the lowest rung of Group-D there are no Muslims. Thus the total Muslim representation works out to less than 1% at the lower level.25 Similar is the state of most other national institutions in the field of education, media, judiciary, finance, industry and commerce.26

It is instructive to note that the apex court in India makes it obligatory to admit at least 50% students from communities other than their own in institutions established by minorities under Constitutional protection of Article 30, for reasons of national integration, as educational institutions are supposed to be melting pots for a nation in the making.27 What about all other educational institution? There is no obligation for them to admit even 1% of minority students for reasons of national integration.

Amazing enough to note that on one hand Government of India seems very keen on granting aids to Muslim run educational institutions, especially Madrasas and Maktabs, in the name of quality and modern education. While on the other hand, very recently Allahabad High Court struck down the minority status given to the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) by the HRD ministry and declared the decision of 50% reservation of seats to Muslims in AMU's post-graduate medical courses as illegal. The court verdict has observed that AMU has been established by Government and not by Muslims – therefore on the basis of same article 30 minority status can’t be claimed.

Whereas, historically it is well documented for all that Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in 1875 started this school which later became Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College (MAO). British parliament converted MAO into a university by passing a law in 1920. Indian Government amended the act in 1951, 1965 and 1981. Only in 1981, the AMU got the minority status. And recently, AMU had started 50% reservation to Muslims trying to base its move on Article 30 of Indian constitution.

These are just few principal problems to name, I put forwarded with facts and statistics which are constantly disturbing educational and economic development of Muslims Community ever since 1857. I invite more critical analysis on them and open hearted debates in the intellectual arena to make the wheels of educational development for all in India smoothly going.

Prospects
Muslims, in the words of one analyst, "suffer double discrimination, by virtue of being Muslim and poor". In the light of this experience of half a century, it has revived interest in the Constituent Assembly debates on the subject.28 It is a positive gesture that the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the present United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has specifically taken up the question of minority welfare in various fields. Their empowerment is essential for their fuller participation in all fields of national activity. Muslims and other minorities constitute about 20 per cent of the population and no society can afford to allow such a large segment of the citizen body to lag behind.

While summarizing the central thesis of my presentation, I would prefer to ask the following questions. Do the Muslims of India bear responsibility for their present condition? Has it come about because they have gone wrong somewhere, somehow? Can it be attributed solely or even principally to the Muslim inability or incapacity? Where precisely would this line of argument take us? Can complex socio-cultural situations in a plural society like India, which has consciously provided space for linguistic and religious minorities, be explained in terms of assigning blame for perceived acts of omission and commission? My observation though in BOLD words is that Muslims cannot detach themselves from being responsible for this pathetic state of affairs of the community and low rate of literacy and poverty. As it is said that ‘to be oppressed is a sin’ therefore, they are equally responsible for the national loss due to their inadequate responses to the problems which are otherwise of great concerned for our national interest. Yet their inadequacy or negligence does not account the only principal reason of their backwardness in education and economy.

There is a need to opt for a wider perspective. The argument needs to rest firmly on the principles of the Constitution, on its assertion of equality and on its guarantee of diversity. Some may consider minorities a bothersome nuisance; they are out of step with both national and international norms. Modern India regards minorities as additional dimensions of a rich and diverse entity.

The Muslims of India, in their self-perception, prioritize their problems: physical security, employment, education and social justice. Each of these is within the ambit of affirmative action, within the framework developed in the CMP, and calls for rigorous implementation. On the other hand, large segments of Muslims are myopic in varying degrees about another set of problems of considerable urgency: education of girls and social reform. This requires a different approach, at civil society levels, and must not exclude segments of traditional community leaders and religious scholars (Ulama) whose impact on public perceptions is undeniable. The idiom of communication here would need to be different and differentiated, persuasive rather than prescriptive.

Success in addressing the first set of problems, as aforesaid under ‘four principal problems of Muslim in India’ would improve receptivity for the change of perception required for the second. Of course the community should work on it on a war footing. There are many Muslim voluntary groups in south India engaged in the educational, economic, and social welfare of the community. The North should take a lesson from the South and replicate the model in this part of the country.

Evidence indicates that Muslims in states like Kerala, Tamil Nado and Assam are trying to increase the educational preparedness of an average Muslim of middle class and lower class and enlarge the size of the educated among Muslims. It is high time that all the think tanks must work together to facilitate quality education to children who are in schools and ponder seriously over those 28 % children who are still out of schools due to poverty or lack of facility to achieve the dream of cent percent literacy till 2010. It is, anyway, unwise to persist on criticizing any educational system of Muslim, whatsoever, for quality or modern education before we can do something practical to enroll those out of schools 28 percent Muslims children under any system of education.

It's another new year... what's to celebrate?

By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi

The calendar says- this is going to be a festive season: Eiduz Zuha, Christmas, New Year and many other festivals in many lands will be celebrated in late December, followed by the dawn of 2007. Will it be a new beginning; respite from mayhem and relief from deprivation for our fellow beings- a real peace for all? It is too much to hope for, but hope we must, to keep striving for the universal peace.

"Happy New Year!" That greeting will be said and heard for at least the first couple of weeks, as a new year gets under way. Gifts receiving or offering or extravagant parties will ramp the atmosphere for few days. Some will have feast and real festive but some, without knowing what exactly they are doing will just dace in tune.

The celebration of the New Year is the oldest of all holidays, some in the West say. They say, “It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago�. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible crescent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring).

The beginning of spring is a logical time to start a new year. After all, it is the season of rebirth, of planting new crops, and of blossoming. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary, another argument in the West.

Although in the first centuries after Christ the Romans continued celebrating the New Year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. But as Christianity became more widespread and mainstream churches began losing hold over masses, some of the churches compromised having their own religious observances concurrently with many of the pagan celebrations, and New Year celebration is one of them.

New Year is still observed as the Feast of Christ's Circumcision by some Christian denominations, preceded by Christmas or birthday celebration of Jesus Christ on 25th December. December 25 as a birth date for Jesus is merely traditional, and is not thought to be his actual date of birth, as in 'The Oxford Dictionary of Christian Church', page 280.

Well, New Year, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve and Thanks Giving Day in America are modern day Christian religious celebration like two Eids to Muslims and Diwali, Dashera etc. to Hindus.

Followers according to their religions festive the occasions as religious duties in search of virtues. It is though looks good but contrary to common wisdom to participate in any religious festivity of others by a follower other than from that particular religion. In Islam, at least, it is considered a sin to enjoy any religious festival save those recommended by Islam alone.

The month of Muharram marks the beginning of the Islamic liturgical year. The Islamic year begins on the first day of Muharram, and is counted from the year of the Hijra (anno Hegirae) the year in which Prophet Muhammad (saws) emigrated from Makkah to Madinah (July 16, 622 AC). The Islamic New Year1428 AH. will mark the 21st day of January 2007 this year. It is celebrated relatively quietly, with prayers and readings and reflection upon the life and Hijra of Prophet Muhammad (saws) and there is no religious calibration in it.

Eid al-Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice, commemorates the prophet Ibrahim's (Abraham) willingness to obey Allah by sacrificing his son Ismail (Ishmael). According to the Qur'an, just before Ibrahim sacrificed his son, Allah replaced Ismail with a lamb, thus sparing his life.

One of the two most important Islamic festivals, Eid al-Adha begins on the 10 day of Dhu'l-Hijja, the last month of the Islamic calendar. Lasting for three days, it occurs at the conclusion of the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage to Makkah.

The festival is celebrated by sacrificing loved animal and distributing the meat to relatives, friends, and the poor. The sacrifice symbolizes obedience to Allah and its meat distribution to others is an expression of generosity and care for fellow human being.

May we wish, all of us remain generous to others today and the whole New Year…!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A Darul Uloom Deoband graduate and Editor ‘Eastern Crescent’, English monthly, M. Burhanuddin Qasmi, a poet is also Director of Mumbai based institute Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Centre. He can be reached at manager@markazulmaarif.org]

Terrorism is no body's monopoly

By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi

‘‘All Muslims may not be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims,’’ a frequent comment aired by some round the clock TV channels with tags�“Badle bharat ki taswir�, “Sabse Tez� or “News at every cost� after the 7/11 Mumbai blasts on panel discussion with “expert�, as they term. The onslaught with assumptions and deliberate repetitions of the same ‘works’ rather penetrates into common hearts and it ultimately implies that terrorism is a Muslim specialty, if not a monopoly.

The Western media is the forerunner to Indians in this case. The media helped successfully create a visible Islamophobia in the West. It is as if a bearded man is a ‘bomb’ itself now� like the abusive Danish cartoonist tried to portray for his followers. People scare Muslim names�Muhammad, Ahmad or Shafiq and they drop ‘on board passengers’ mid-way to ‘humiliating destinations’. The facts about terrorism might be very different, but who cares about these facts!

Well, it was in the air for some times after the deadly plague in Surat, Gujarat in nineties that Pakistan might have dropped or transported affected rates to our ‘disease free’ country! Who knows? And there weren’t facts to negate the idea but common conscience.

Terrorism is not new, even not a 20th century creation. In 1881, anarchists killed the Russian Tsar Alexander II and 21 bystanders. In 1901, anarchists killed US President McKinley as well as King Humbert I of Italy. World War I started in 1914 when anarchists killed Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. These terrorist attackers were not Muslims, anyway.

Terrorism used to be defined ‘earlier’ as the killing of civilians for political reasons. Going by this definition, the British Raj referred to Kudiram Basu, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Maulana Ahmad Shaheed, Maulana Mahmoodul Hasan, Netaji and many other Indian freedom fighters as terrorists. They were�Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims.

In Palestine, after World War II, Jewish groups (the Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang) fought for the creation of a Jewish state, bombing hotels and installations and killing civilians. The British, who then governed Palestine, rightly called these Jewish groups terrorists. Many of these terrorists later became leaders of independent Israel � Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon.

In Germany in 1968-92, the Baader-Meinhoff Gang killed dozens, including the head of Treuhand, the German privatization agency. In Italy, the Red Brigades kidnapped and killed Aldo Moro, former Prime Minister.

The Japanese Red Army was an Asian version of this. Japan was also the home of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist cult that tried to kill thousands in the Tokyo metro system using nerve gas in 1995.

In Europe, the Irish Republican Army has been a Catholic terrorist organisation for almost a century. Spain and France face a terrorist challenge from ETA, the Basque terrorist organisation.

Africa is ravaged by so much civil war and internal strife that few people even bother to check which groups can be labeled terrorist. They stretch across the continent.

In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers have long constituted one of the most vicious and formidable terrorist groups in the world. They were the first to train children as terrorists. They happen to be Hindus. Suicide bombing is widely associated with Muslim Palestinians and Iraqis, but the Tamil Tigers were the first to use this tactic on a large scale. One such suicide bomber assassinated Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Not to forget the murderer of ‘the father of nation’�Gandhiji, was a Hindu.

In India, the militants in Kashmir are Muslims. But they are one of several militant groups operating in the country. The Punjab militants were Sikhs. The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) is a Hindu terrorist group. Tripura has a history of rise and fall of several terrorist groups, and so have Bodo terrorists groups, mostly Christians which killed hundreds of Muslims in 1993 for autonomy, some of them are now in Assam’s Tarun Gogai’s cabinet as ministers. Christian Mizos mounted an insurrection for decades, and Christian Nagas and Manipuries are still heading militant groups. They have bombed trains, assassinated hundreds of innocent men, women and children. Even this year they called a boycott in at least five states out of seven northeastern states of India to disrupt 15th August (Independence Day) celebration of India.

But most important of all are the Maoist terrorist groups that now exist in no less than 150 out of India’s 600 districts, according to a report in a national English daily. They have attacked police stations, and killed and razed entire villages that oppose them, there are nothing Muslim about these groups.

In September 2, 2006 another national English daily published from Mumbai reports elaborately about few dozen ‘Hindu Mujahideen’ working with Hizbul Mujahideen of Kashmir for years in Jammu and Kashmir. The newspaper publishes statistical information with real Hindu names, age and year of attachment with HM along with their native locations in Jammu region. Similarly in some other non-Muslim looking groups like ULFA in Assam Muslim members are no bars. Terrorists have a common goal in India�attack and create fear�whichever way easily leads to it they just follow it. Their religion is terrorism and nothing else. .

Terrorism is certainly not any body’s monopoly�may I say precisely! There are or have been terrorist groups among Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and even Buddhists. Secular terrorists (anarchists, Maoists) have been the biggest killers.

If the earlier definition of terrorism, as stated above, is not changed we have no doubt, some more, rather ‘Super’ terrorists are there in our time. They are killing innocent people for nothing but politics in disguise of ‘Freedom’.

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[A Darul Uloom Deoband graduate and Editor ‘Eastern Crescent’, English monthly, M. Burhanuddin Qasmi, an English poet is also Director of a Mumbai based institute ‘Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Centre’. He can be reached at manager@markazulmaarif.org]

Why Assam to be Asom?

By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi

In the early nineties BJP politically aired a new slogan�‘Indianization of big cities’ since old names, to them were, symbolic to either Mughals or British slavery. The idea later became cheaper for all political parties with much vote bank credits.

And in the process Indian politicians spread a new virus in the world�every one has to redo or delete old data. The commercial capital of India Bombay became Mumbai, Madras changed into Chennai, the first British capital of India Calcutta became Kolkata and the hi-tech capital of India Bangalore followed to be Bengaluru.

Assam becoming Asom

The northeastern state of Assam is becoming the second state, after Karnataka (Mysore) to change its name following a state cabinet decision on 27 February 2006, one month before the general election in the state on April. It was resolved by the Congress led Assam cabinet to cash in votes through tribal emotions. Chief Minister Trun Gogoi ultimately earned some cheap benefit in the general election and came in to power for a consecutive second term.

The Times of India quotes the then cabinet spokesman Mr. Himanta Biswa Sharma and minister of state for finance who triumphantly said, "It is now Asom�.

President of Assam Sahitya Sabha, Kanaksen Deka said, "Madras has changed to Chennai, Bombay has become Mumbai, Calcutta became Kolkata and Gauhati has already changed to Guwahati. This is a good move by the state government to change Assam to Asom."

The newspaper also quotes Mr. Priyam Goswami, head of Guwahati University's History department who argued, "The word Assam was coined during the colonial period. Historically, it was Asom, but during British rule Assam Tea became so famous as a brand that colonial rulers did not attempt to correct the state's name."

Who knows which history Mr. Goswami and Mr. Deka were speaking about?

However, the state cabinet could not implement a change of name after the cabinet decision in February 2006 because the move had to be approved at various levels at the Centre as well as in the legislative assembly. The state government was supposed to first pass a name change bill in the Legislature, issue a gazette notification and then approach the Centre for a name change.

Following the cabinet decision on 15 December 2006 the state assembly has passed a name change bill�Asom from Assam without allowing a debate by the apposition parties�AGP and AUDF in the assembly. AGP leader Brindaban Goswami said it was, “an undemocratic and unconstitutional exercise by the government�.

AUDF MLA and a scholar of Bangla literature Maulana Ataur Rahman Majarbhuiya expressed his disagreement on the process and said that the honourable Speaker of the house cried out “No debate at all� in response to Mr. Brindaban Goswami’s demand.

“I myself requested the Speaker to follow a scholarly approach and at least facilitate fair discussions amongst academicians out of assembly, since the important bill must pass on scholarly argument based on available literatures but in vain� said AUDF General Secretary Maulana Ataur Rahman.

Origin of Assam

Simply go through the pages of history and various encyclopedias and you will find that the fact about origin of Assam is other than what Mr. Priyam Goswami and Mr. Kanaksen Deka were trying to teach to the people of Assam. One may ignore politicians and of course, it is not their burden to study thick history books before legislating any new bill but one should not ignore statements given by a head of a history department of the stat’s biggest university, a president of the most prestigious Assam Sahitya Sabha and scholar of Assamese literature and culture.

According to online encyclopedia ‘wikipedia’ “the land of Assam was known by various names in the past�Pragjyotishpura, in ancient Hindu scriptures such as the Mahabharata; and Kamarupa in the early Middle Ages. After the decline of the Kamarupa kingdom in the 12th century, the land that included a part of the old Kamarupa kingdom and regions to the east of it was ruled by the Shan people, who called themselves Tai, but who were called Ahoms by the others�. This kingdom lasted for nearly 600 years.

Satyendra Nath Sarma the famous scholar of history and Assamese literature writes in ‘Banikanta Kakati: Assamese: Its Formation and Development’:

“While the Shan invaders called themselves Tai, they came to be referred to as Ās�m, Āsam and sometimes as Acam by the indigenous people of the country. The modern Assamese word Āhom by which the Tai people are known is derived from Ās�m or Āsam. The epithet applied to the Shan conquerors was subsequently transferred to the country over which they ruled and thus the name K�marūpa was replaced by Ās�m, which ultimately took the Sanskritized form Asama, meaning "unequalled, peerless or uneven"

Historical evidence shows that the Britishers did not introduce the word ‘Assam’ nor they changed it from ‘Asom’ and even the word ‘Assam’ is older than word ‘Ahom’. ‘Assam’ was in use long before the British signed the Treaty of Yandaboo on February 24, 1826. The Britishers also used the word ‘Assam’ in that treaty.

Early documented mentions of Assam

An encyclopedia reference book shows that one of the first unambiguous references come from Thomas Bowrey in 1663 about Mir Jumla's death: "They lost the best of Nabobs, the Kingdome of ‘Acham’��used for Assam.

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605 – 1689), a French traveller and pioneer of trade with India, in his "Travels in India", published in 1676, nearly two century before arrival of British in Assam, uses the spelling "Assen" for Assam in the French original. Moreover, the official chronicler of Mir Jumla too calls the place "Asam" in the early 16th century.

Most of the scholars of history and literature accept that the first known mention of the word Assam today is in a stanza from the Bhagavat of Sankardeva composed and translated in this region about the middle of the 16th century which described the ethnic groups of the region transcribed in iTrans

kiraTa kachhaari khaachi gaaro miri
yavana ka~Nka govaala |
asama maluka dhobaa ye turuka
kubaacha mlechchha chaNDaala ||

Even from the Ahom Buranjis (histories), it is found that the Mughals also used the name ‘Ashyam’ or ‘Asham’ for the State. The same is also evident from various historical documents of the Mughal period and the Dutch chronicles of the pre-British era.

In the Persian publications of the Mughal period, like the Akbarnama (1542-1605), Pashah-Namah (1627-1647), Alamgir-Namah (1657-1667) and Tarikh –I Mulk-I Asham, the name Asham is mentioned. On the other hand, the name Asom is not found anywhere in the pre-British period

In the map of the Kingdom Bengale (Kingdom of Bengal), drawn by a Dutch man named John van Leenen, who was in Bengal in 1661, also recorded the name ‘Assam.’ The map was published around 1662 and currently preserved in the Maritime Museum, Rotterdam.

There is also a diary of a Dutchman published in 1675, which mentions the name of Assam and described its people as ‘Assamer’. The Dutchman fought alongside the army of Mir Jumla in 1662. These are some of the written historical records of the existence of the spelling ‘Assam’ for the name of the State long before the advent of the British to it in 1826.

Later adoption

It has been found that the phonetic name ‘Assam’ has been in record with little changes for the past 700 years and has a strong connection with the coming of the Tai-Ahoms to the State.

After the fall of the Tai Ahoms and the conquest by the British in 1826, "Assam" was used to denote first the principality of the erstwhile Ahoms, and later the British province. Soon, the province was expanded to include regions that were not part of historical Tai Ahom kingdom. The boundaries of Assam have been redrawn many times after that, but the name Assam remained. Today, the boundary of Assam contains roughly the historical Ahom, Koch Hajo, Kachari kingdoms and part of old Sylhet kingdom (now a district of Bangladesh).

Reactions

According to a report published recently in Assam Tribunes, the largest English daily from the state, 150 professionals living in different parts of the state, country and abroad have made an appeal to the Chief Minister of the state to rescind the state Assembly resolution on the change of the name of the state to Asom. The professionals have shown their disagreement to the process of name changing and advised the Chief Minister to set up an advisory commission with eminent citizens, academicians, historians, linguists, literary figures and the like and the members of the Assamese Diaspora, to have a transparent debate on the issue with public participation.

They have also written a petition to the Chief Minister, who identified themselves as ‘friends and well wishers of Assam living in and outside the State’ and forwarded the copies of the petition to the President and Prime Minister of the country.

Assam Tribune reports that the group of ‘friends of Assam’ expressed their shock at the decision of the Assembly on 15 December 2006 and registered their strong opposition to ‘this entirely unwarranted and undemocratic move on the part of the State Legislature’.

On behalf of the professionals Rajen Barua of Texas, USA signed the petition. The list of the professionals has also been enclosed with the petition, mentions the newspaper.

When Mr. Adit Phokan editor in chief of a prominent Assamese daily�‘Adin’ was contacted by this author to comment on the bill passed by Assam Legislature for a name change, he observed ‘it was unnecessary and a decision based on unauthentic evidences’.

“For, the State’s name is not something for changing in as casual a fashion as it has been done, without a thorough and informed public discussion and debate. It has never a mandate of the people,� argue most experts. “Why should we change the name of our state when it is famed globally as ‘Assam’ without any legitimate reason, what benefit the commoner or our state will have by this name change??� are some of the audible questions during gossips in tea-stalls, in front of Pan shops and in the streets of major cities of Assam.

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A Darul Uloom Deoband graduate and Editor ‘Eastern Crescent’, English monthly, M. Burhanuddin Qasmi is also a poet and Director of Mumbai based institute ‘Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Centre’.

www.markazulmaarif.org