As Indian as they come
Third Eye | Barkha Dutt
March 13, 2006
Swimming in the sea of India’s cultural complexity has taught me that I can no longer carry my agnosticism lightly. Time has convinced me that my resistance to institutionalised religion is the defining character flaw of the progressive elite; a discordant note in an otherwise full-throated symphony; a disconnect so deep that sometimes people like me are just left watching from the sidelines at the tumultuous fight for India’s future; spectators, not participants, because we speak the language of disbelief.
But there are times I am grateful that I am neither Hindu nor Muslim, but just a devout sceptic. Right now is one such. Despite the lonely corner non-believers like me inhabit, I am reasonably confident that the ordinary Indian is as mystified as I am by the hysterical debate that has consumed our media these past few weeks. The theme song � actually it was a duet � went something like this: Hindutva is simmering under the surface, waiting to leap out from the political grave into the warm embrace of a new life; and ‘moderate Muslims’ must speak, not just speak, they must shout, scream, holler, be heard, so that there is no ‘backlash’.
Apparently, the horrific twin blasts at Varanasi have given all this the force of an emergency. If I were either Hindu or Muslim, I would be deeply insulted at the generalised and simplistic assumptions made about me, my intelligence and, most importantly, my faith.
When Renuka Narayanan from this paper went on NDTV, on the evening of the blasts, and said “Varanasi is to Hinduism what Mecca is to Islam, this is the seat of Hinduism that has been attacked,� a slight shudder went down my spine. The stakes seemed so high. Gujarat 2002, New Delhi 1984... have made us forever fearful. The fear isn’t entirely misplaced. Every terror attack, especially those targeted at the nerve-centres of faith, pushes us that much closer to the edge, to the precipice of polarisation.
But the argument lapsed into absurdity when the politicians began talking. If the Varanasi blasts were a consequence of the UPA’s ‘minority appeasement’, then how does one explain the shadow of terror that tailed India during the NDA regime � from Kandahar to the Parliament attack? If the blasts were a result of this government being ‘soft on terror’, then how does one explain that there is no empirical difference in the level of violence today as compared to last year? And has a shrill BJP forgotten that Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s lasting legacy is the creation of a peace process with Pakistan and a peace initiative with Kashmiri separatists?
Bihar was proof that the NDA is a combative, shrewd political force that the UPA cannot afford to be complacent about. But surely, there was a lesson in it for the BJP as well � another state won not on the strength of religious mobilisation but on the promise of change.
Even the complex caste arithmetic could not save a Lalu Prasad Yadav. Clearly identity politics could only travel this far, if governance and development were not equal companions on the journey.
So no matter what the public opinion pundits write (and I suspect even the BJP’s master strategists may just have lifted the idea off the edit pages), I would argue that in the absence of an extraordinary event, religious identity is now more the ex-factor than a decisive, intangible X-factor. Hindutva, I think, has served its time and outlived its political utility.
All generalisations are a gamble, but I would take the risk and say that Middle India (as distinct from both the fundamentalists and the liberals) wants to travel down the Middle Path. The age of shrill rhetoric is over. Indians are increasingly impatient with extremism of any kind, in any faith � Hindu or Muslim.
I’m pretty sure that the ordinary Hindu, angry as she may be about the assault in Varanasi, and before that in Ayodhya, will also find L.K. Advani’ rath yatra disingenuous and unnecessary, and he, a poor caricature of himself.
I’m equally sure that if I were a Muslim in India today, I’d feel under siege claustrophobically caught between those who claim to speak on my behalf, and those who are demanding that I must speak up as a ‘moderate’. Lost in the cacophony of argument is clarity of exactly what we are asking them to speak up against.
If it’s about politicians like Haji Yaqoob Qureshi, the minister in Uttar Pradesh who dared to declare a reward of Rs 51 crore for the Danish cartoonist’s head, each and every Muslim I have interviewed has condemned him and asked that he be removed from the state government. It’s a non-Muslim Chief Minister who continues to keep him in public office. It’s India’s party in power, the Congress, that continues to maintain a shameful silence on his utterances. The same Congress that uses textbook rules to secure a vindictive expulsion of Jaya Bachchan from Parliament is conveniently inert when it comes to Qureshi. And it’s the Marxists whose need to march with Mulayam has made them silently look the other way. So aren’t newspaper columnists framing the question incorrectly? Sure, there is a conspiracy of silence. But look who is not talking.
Or is it the anti-Bush protests that we are alarmed by and object to? Apparently, the worry is that Indian Muslims are joining hands with the global Islamic community if they march against Bush and this heralds the ominous arrival of political Islam at our doorstep. But isn’t this a wildly insecure and hysterical reaction?
First, the protests spoke for a fragment of Muslim opinion, and it would be presumptuous to assume that the protestors represented 14 million people. Second, so what if they don’t like Bush? Why isn’t their right to protest legitimate? This weekend, on We the People, a cross-section of Muslims made the same point � to oppose George Bush’s politics in Iraq is not the same thing as opposing a nuclear deal that’s clearly good for India. To lose that distinction is to question the patriotism of the Indian Muslim. This is not just a dangerous argument, but also a deeply offensive one. Mehbooba Mufti from Kashmir summed it up when she said the cause of an independent Kashmir had been championed by Islamic militants from as far as Sudan and Afghanistan, but never by an Indian Muslim outside the Valley. Are we becoming like the United States? Fearful of minorities? Alarmed at their assertion, superior and scornful about their conventions? Unable to see them as anything but the ‘Other’?
Finally, are media clichés the biggest disservice at a time like this? What or who do we mean by a Moderate Muslim? Mohammed Ali Jinnah was barely a believer, hardly followed the Quran, but created Pakistan. So who is ‘moderate’ enough for us, and who sets the benchmark?
The day of the blasts, I got a call from a member of the Muslim Personal Law Board, scared and worried about a ‘backlash’, wanting to condemn the blasts on national television so that nobody misunderstood its response. The subtext is clear. Fifty-nine years after India was born, in a country where there are more Muslims than there are in Pakistan, we are still asking Muslims to wear their nationalism like an identity card. We are still asking for proof of loyalty.
This is not their failure. It is ours.
The writer is Managing Editor, NDTV 24x7
source:
see the attached pdf for the article.
Muslim Ethos In Indian Cinema
�Iqbal Masud
In term of quantitative output - more than 800 films a year - the Indian cinema industry is the largest in the world. A major portion of the films constitute ‘popular’ of ‘commercial’ cinema. This term is not to be understood in any derogatory sense. Cinema is the main entertainment of the Indian masses and has been so since the 1930s. It has created archetypes, myths, icons which have dominated the Indian consciousness - and the Indian unconscious for the last 50 years. It’s a major source of collective fantasy.
There is another important aspect of Indian cinema. It caters to the needs of a population dazzlingly diverse in language, religion and culture. Today what is called the ‘regional’ cinema is as important as Hindi cinema. But Hindi cinema (with which this article will be concerned) was the primary source of themes and styles at least till the late 70s. It was in the domain of popular cinema that the diverse cultures of India met and negotiated their differences. They did not merge but they worked in harmony. In fact ‘harmony’ is the key world in India cinema. It is the one Indian cultural-industrial structure which has resisted separatism. It’s because of this element that Indian cinema has become over the past 50 years - despite its many distortions and contractions - a major instrument of national consolidation - a true unity in diversity.
To this ‘unity diversity’ the Muslim ethos in India has made a notable contribution.
What is the ‘Muslim ethos’ in India? Very briefly, one can answer this question at two levels:
a) ‘Classical’ or high culture - a mix of Arabic-Perso-Turkish elements in historical work, fiction, music and painting such as in the work of poets and novelists like Ghalib, (or today Ms Qurratulain Hyder), artists like Abdur Rahman Chughtai, or the Ustads in the field of music.
b) At a popular or folk level, the work of Urdu dramatists like Aga Hashr Kashmiri used in popular theatre of the 1930s; the Nautanki Folk-theatre culture of Uttar Pradesh, compounded of mythological and folk tales rendered in song-dance and rustic revues in a mix of ornate Urdu and dialect Hindi of north India; and the rich Qawwali musical tradition, sufic in origin and retaining traces of devotional and ecstatic singing today.
As far as cinema is concerned, both these influences are important. The Muslim ethos in Indian cinema was not represented by ‘Muslim’ artists alone. A host of non-Muslims like Sohrab Modi, Guru Dutt or Shyam Benegal can well claim to be part of the ‘Muslim’ ethos of north India. There was, and is, certainly a ‘Muslim’ ethos of Bengal and South India which is equally important. But that deserves fuller treatment elsewhere.
The point is that in the popular entertainment genre par excellence - cinema - the ‘Muslim ethos’ was an important element since the 1930s - the coming of sound. It diminished after 1947 but remains an important element today. In fact the persistence of the ‘Muslim ethos’ in Indian cinema today is one of the most hopeful signs of Indian secularism. Manmohan Desai, prolific maker of film hits and part creator of the Amitabh Bachchan legend (the superstar of the 70s who signified the new angry hero culture) has said in a recorded discussion: If the Muslims don’t like a film it flops’.
One of the most important elements of the Indian film is music. A great music director, Naushad, brought both the vigour of Uttar Pradesh’s folk music and the grace of the old UP Nawab Courts to his immortal music of the 40s and 50s. The dialogue of the 30s and 40s ‘Muslim socials’ was in Persianised Urdu but even in ‘Hindi’ films today the dialogue is in Hindustani - perhaps the only place where this ‘language’ is practiced with ease and confidence.
In this matrix of music and dialogue, ‘high’ and ‘popular’ Muslim cultures come together. As late as the 60s, a film villain traps a heroine by using a disguise and quoting Ghalib: ‘Badal kar faqiron ka hum bhes ...’ Ghalib/‘Tamashai-I-abl-I-karam dekhte hain ...’ (we put on the garb of a beggar to test the generosity of the rich). The audience understood and applauded the quote.
Today this delicate irony may not be understood. But in the ’80s this last couplet of Sahir Ludhianvi sung in a film called Laxmi went to the heart of the audience: ‘Halat se ladna mushkil tha balat se rishta jod liya/ Jis raat ki koi subha nahin us raat se rishta jod liya...’. (I could not fight circumstances I compromised/I made a pact with endless night). The couplet lit up the films; it also seemed like an epitaph on Sahir.
I take these two examples to illustrate the Muslim ‘ethos’ which E.M. Forster once described as an ‘attitude towards life both exquisite and durable’. This attitude is denoted by a cultural elegance, irony, stoicism, a throw away humour, and what is called ‘grace under pressure’. Certainly such an attitude could be trivialised. But supreme artists like Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari, Nargis and Shabana Azmi brought to this attitude a meaning and individuality of their own.
It would be appropriate at this stage to look at the Muslim ethos in a chronological fashion modified by the need to pursue specific trends back and forth across decades.
Devdas - Entry of the Laila - Majnu Myth
The first dominant note of the Muslim ethos was struck not in any specific Muslim film or by a Muslim director but in the film Devdas directed by PC Barua (1935) based on a novel by Sarat Chandra Chatterji (1917). This tale of two small town lovers torn apart by caste and class has haunted Indian cinema down the decades up to date. There are two elements in Indian cinema well analysed in another context by psychiatrists Sudhir Kakar and John M Ross in Tales of Love, Sex and Danger (OUP 1986) as the Radha-Krishna and Laila-Majnu traditions. Radha and Krishna are the divine lovers in human form in Hindu mythology, and Laila and Majnu are passionate but doomed lovers in Arabic and Persian folklore and literature.
The Radha-Krishna tradition, say the authors, is an evocation and elaboration of here-and-now passion, an attempt to catch the exciting fleeting moment of the senses, not tragic but tender and ultimately cheerful. In the Laila-Majnu tradition, love is the ‘essential desire of God; earthly love is but a preparation for the heavenly acme; the challenge to rights of older and powerful men to dispose of and control female sexuality; the utter devotion of the women lovers to the man unto death; loving in secrecy and concealment, yet without shame or guilt’.
Both the elements are fused in Devdas. The Radha-Krishna element dominates the first half; the Laila-Majnu element the second. There are two features common to both traditions. The love is not ‘spiritual’ love but sexual love raised to a spiritual plane. Secondly, to quote the 13th Century Persian mystic poet, Rumi: ‘The house of love has doors and roofs made of music, melody and poetry’. This is the distinctive contribution of the Muslim ethos to Indian cinema - the mix of Rumi’s three elements. You can go from Devdas to Barsaat in the ’40s or Pyaasa in the ’50s; Chaudvin Ka Chand in the ’60s; Pakeezah in the ’70s; Sagar (with Kamal Hasan, Dimple Kapadia, and Rishi Kapoor) in the ’80s. There is the same hunting mix of the two great religious-cultural traditions of our land.
Pukar - The Rise of the Shahenshah film
Pukar (1939) directed by Sohrab Modi with dialogues by Kamal Amrohi was the first notable ‘Muslim social film’. It was cast, no doubt in the Shahenshah (King of Kings) framework. Mughal emperor Jehangir, whose queen Noor Jehan has accidentally killed a washerman with an arrow, is faced with a demand for retributive justice by the widow. The emperor himself should be killed so that the queen be widowed.
Today Pukar looks dated and rhetorical. Yet it is important to isolate some elements which continue to surface in one form or another in the coming decades, from the 40s to the present. One was the idealisation of ‘Muslim’ rulership as one based on equal partnership with non-Muslims (even of the lesser castes) and a rough-and-ready Rule of Law. The roots of the archetype of task a ‘rough diamond’ were created - though in the film the Muslims and their ‘partners’ the Rajputs were anything but rough. The basic ideal was one of directness of approach of life.
A second element was the elegance of speech and surroundings which became a marked feature of Muslim social’ - meaning films dealing with Muslim families and social problems which will be dealt with later.
A third element was the stress laid on Hindu-Muslim ‘harmony’. Jehangir’s Prime Minister is a Rajput who fiercely guards his independence.
Another Shahenshah film was K Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam (The Grand Mughal). In a sense it’s an extension of the Pukar syndrome. The legendary love of court dancer Anarkali for Prince Jehangir, the great Emperor Akbar’s son, has elements of mystical passion in it. Akbar, played with rhetorical flourish by Prithviraj Kapoor, represents the ‘needs of the State’ which triumphs over love. The film is not a ‘classical’ work but a massive cultural artefact made unforgettable by the splendiferous sets and the majestic singing of the classical maestro Bade Gulam Ali Khan.
Mehboob - The Rise of Radicalism
Filmmaker Mehboob Khan sprang from the soil of Gujarat and his early work possessed both the rawness and the strength of Mother Earth. The evocation of the cycle of seasons, the beauty of the long bullock cart caravans, the sensuality of the women and the depiction of the brutal strength both of nature and human oppression came spontaneously to him.
Mehboob made a large number of films on diverse subjects - social, romance etc. But, in my opinion, his major contribution to films rests on three films - Aurat (1940) later remade as Mother India (1957) and Roti (1942).
Aurat/Mother India, is, of course, the seminal film of India cinema. It is reckoned that Mother India runs every day in some theatre in some part of India. What accounts for its success?
There are elements in the films which go deep into the Indian psyche and touch a chord which no one has ever touched before or since. It would be simplistic to call it ‘patriotism’. It is the summoning up of an entire ambience - the ambience of the ‘lost’ India for millions of urbanites, a call to Indians from their past - not a noble past but a credible and genuine past.
Mehboob gave the archetypal ‘Mother’ myth to India cinema. She is not an a sexual but a full blooded woman and equal partner in her husband’s labours (a point acutely noted by J Geetha, research scholar, Calicut University, in a paper read at a recent Women’s Films Seminar at Bangalore). The Mother upholds the dharma which the good son follows. When the ‘bad’ son transgresses it, he is killed.
But the bad son Birju (brilliantly played by Yacub in Aurat) has another and equally important side. He does not suffer patiently the landlord’s extortionism - as the Mother and the ‘good’ son do at least to some extent Birju is not merely a ‘rebel’. He is an ‘outsider’, no respecter of rules. There is a great scene in Aurat. Birju now grown into an illiterate dacoit, raids the moneylender’s house and destroys his account books saying, ‘This is the knowledge that has destroyed us’. That insight anticipates the French philosopher, Foucault by nearly two decades. Foucault remarked how ‘power’ is built around ‘knowledge’and how those outside the charmed circle will always be oppressed. That scene in Aurat has been duplicated in hundreds of films since then. Birju speaks for those who cannot speak - the deprived millions. He is the immortal ‘black’ hero.
Mehboob’s insight in Mother India profoundly affected the style and content of popular cinema. Ganga Jamuna in the 60s, Deewar (with Amitabh Bachchan in the 70s) and Ram Lakhan in the 80s (all hit films) are but inferior variations on Aurat’s theme. To quote Geetha, the Mother’s role is ‘mutated’ in the last two films and she becomes a domestic creature. All the same the basic patterns of Mother India persist today and will do so for a long time.
Roti hammers in Mehboob’s radicalism with even greater force. It analyses the ravages of urban capitalism and contrasts it with a rather idealised tribal life. But the point regarding the dehumanisation of industrialisation with consequent loss of sensuality - even humanity - is well brought out.
Mehboob’s contribution to cinema is so vast that one cannot even begin to do justice to it. He was an untutored genius. Therefore, he saw India with a clear - even ruthless - vision. In that respect he was like the great Urdu fiction writer, Saadat Hasan Manto.
Writers, Poets, Directors
From the 40s onwards a gradual and fruitful collaboration between film writers, poets, and directors emerged in Hindi cinema. The collaboration between Sohrab Modi and Kamal Amrohi was very successful. Modi had a rhetorical, regal approach to history and Amrohi complemented this by his flowery, ornate Urdu dialogue.
A digression is necessary here about the use of language in Hindi cinema. As mentioned earlier, till 1947 even ornate and ornamental Urdu was understood by a section of the masses. Their number gradually declined. In the 1980’s the Persianised dialogue of Amrohi’s Razia Sultan was understood by very few.
All the same the language of the popular ‘Hindi’ cinema has remained robustly Hindustani. From Mother India to Pyaasa to Deewar to the recent hit Maine Pyar Kiya, the dialogue writers have drawn expertly both from Urdu and Hindi. Saleem and Javed, high power film writers, working as a pair, started in the 70s a whole new trend in dialogue in Amitabh Bachchan hits like Sholay. It was macho, it was tough, but it was the pathos of the streets, and at a basic level (stripping away the bravado) also the language of the middle class.
The contribution of cinematic ‘Hindustani’ to national integration has yet to be recognised. The problem is, popular cinema is generally condemned as ‘trash’ without serious analysis.
After Amrohi, came a band of writers, a large number of whom were Muslims and also leftist progressives. They included very different kinds of personalities like KA Abbas, Zia Sarhadi, Abrar Alvi, poets Kaifi Azmi, Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Jan Nisar Akhtar and many others. There were two characteristics of this group. Firstly they all came from middle class north Indian Muslim families and were steeped in both Hindi and Urdu cultures and secondly from the early 40s on they were committed leftists - some of them Party members, others active sympathisers.
The achievements of this group which disintegrated by the 70s have not been adequately assessed. As a group the writers brought genuine secularism - a feeling of active togetherness to popular cinema which in those years before TV and video held near complete sway over the collective unconscious. Let’s take a few of them. It was Zia Sarhadi’s spirited dialogue that lent the edge to Mehboob’s radicalism. KA Abbas brought the mix of revlt and romanticism which marks all of Raj Kapoor’s films from Awaara to Bobby. Abrar Alvi created the screen plays which allowed Guru Dutt to shift gradually from the high spirits of Aar Paar to the poetry of defeat of Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool. Alvi also directed Saheb Bibi Aur Ghulam.
Sahir - the incomparable Sahir, who can ever forget him? His name will live as long as Hindi cinema lives. A complete master of the technique of the classical ghazal and of the film lyric of Hindi greets and bhajans he captured the whole gamut of what Mathew Arnold called ‘the pain of living and the drug of dreams’. He was a visionary and also a caustic observer. See the ‘spread’ of his art in just three songs picked up at random:
‘Yeh takhton ye tajon yeh mehlon ki duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai ...’ (This world of thrones, crowns and palaces What avails its gain?)
‘Aaj sajan mohe ang laga lo janam saphal ho jaye ...’ (Embrace me, my love make life triumph)
‘Jab amar jhoom ke nachega jab dharti naghme gayegi who subah kabhi to ayegi ...’ (The sky will swing and dance, the earth swing Some day that day will come).
There is one name that is as glorious as Sahir’s in Indian cinema - the name of Guru Dutt. It was he who brought one side of the ‘eth’ - its grace, its stoicism, its lyricism, also its self-indulgence - to fine flower in Indian cinema though only one of his films Chaudvin Ka Chand dealt ostensibly with a Muslim family. It was his art, that brought fame and recognition to Alvi and Sahir. In a sense Guru Dutt was the true sangam (confluence) of Hindu and Muslim cultures in cinema.
Actors and performers
Indian cinema is a performance-based cinema. The ‘New Cinema’ in the 60s began a shift towards film as cinematic image/language, but it has not reached out to the masses or even to substantial numbers of the urban middle class. So the actors/performers continue to rule the roast. Here the Muslim contribution has been substantial: Sardar Akhtar (Mother in Aurat), Nargis (Mother in Mother India), Dilip Kumar, Suraiya, Madhubala, Waheeda Rehman, Meena Kumari, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan.
Of these, Nargis is unquestionably the greatest actress of our cinema. Her range from the sensuous girl of Aag to the mature role in Mother India is astonishing. The contribution of India’s two greatest director - Raj Kapoor and Mehboob to the shaping of her classic performances should not be forgotten. At the same time, Raj Kapoor’s work is unthinkable without Nargis as is Mother India. In sheer versatility, Dilip Kumar ranks with Nargis. Tragic hero (Andaaz, Devdas) swashbuckler (Azaad) clown (Ram Aur Shyam), none else except Raj Kapoor equals him. Even today in a character role in Kanoon Apna Apna, he brings a thorough professionalism to his performance. Waheeda Rehman broke new ground for women’s roles in Hindi cinema in Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool.
Under Guru Dutt’s sensitive guidance, she travelled from street woman to comforter to ‘A Star is Born’ role. To see her and Meena Kumari perform in Saheb Bibi Aur Ghulam, to become aware of two great but different styles. Meena Kumari was the epitome of the grace of a dying culture which she lit up in a moment of final glory in Pakeezah.
Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi are the icons of New Cinema - of a new age, which demands understatement, self parody, ironic posture. Aamir and Salman Khan are icons of a still newer age - the age of post-modernism, all dazzle and glossy surface.
At a different level, comedians Johnny Walker and Mehmood are part of the legend of cinema. A clown has been a ‘must’ in Indian performance arts reaching back to Sanskritic antiquity. Walker and Mehmood brought the Modern Age to an ancient art: Walker in films like Pyaasa not only mimed a semi-inebriate but was the master of throwaway verbal humour. Mehmood had greater variety. He was a ‘body’ comedian who played - sometimes self indulgently - a variety of roles from a lumpen to a South Indian musician.
The Rise and Fall of the Muslim Social
The genre of the ‘Muslim Social’ is an important contribution to Indian cinema. The stylisation started with Pukar. Later it became less legal in films like Dard (of the 40s), Palkhi and numerous other films down to the 70s. Such films dealt with the Muslim North Indian middle class and its social problems spiced with ghazals and qawwalis. The most meaningful of them was Mehboob’s Elan (1947). This became a critique of the ghetto-like quality of certain segments of the Muslim middle class and emphasised the need for education of Muslim youth. The film had another striking feature. It gave a sympathetic portrait of a ‘Western’ wife introduced into a Muslim household. Elan was refreshingly novel here because even today a westernised woman is generally treated as a vamp in Indian cinema.
After Elan the Muslim Social declined into a sentimental, mushy affair. But it remained a popular genre. Guru Dutt made Chaudhvin Ka Chand (about the travails of lovers caught in the trap of ‘mistaken identity’ due to purdah) almost disdainfully to ‘make-up’, as he said, for the losses of Kaagaz ke Phool. But the typical Dutt obsession with frustrated passion raised the film to a notable level. vIn fact the Muslim Social charted the decline of the Muslim ashraf (the gentry) - a feature which comes through movingly despite the hackneyed trappings. In this sense Pakeezah (1971) was the ‘farewell’ film of the Muslim Social. Kamal Amrohi made this story of the tragedy of a courtesan with loving care. He got the period details right (the ashraf or landed gentry culture of Uttar Pradesh in the first half of the century) and the music and lyrics had both the nostalgia for a lost Eden and a lyricism all their own. But what really raised Pakeezah above the normal rut was Meena Kumari’s portrayal of a once gracious culture slowly disintegrating. The performance as well as the film were marvelous swan songs.
After the 70s, the Muslim Social gradually petered out because it no longer met the urgent need of harsher times.
The one film which drove home this message was MS Sathyu’s Garm Hawa released in the early 70s. Though it dealt ostensibly with the travails of a Muslim family in UP at the time of partition, it was really a reflection on the tragedy inflicted on Indian Muslims by the partition. The reflection was a product of bitter post-partition introspection. But it was touched by compassion and humanity.
From Shahenshah to Coolie
In the 70s, a new stereotype began to emerge. This was the common or garden Muslim. He would be a model of loyalty and discipline and when he died it would be with the Kalma (or Proclamation of Faith) on his lips. He no longer talked the flowery Urdu of the Shahenshah and the Nawabs but the patois of the street.
As mentioned earlier, Salim and Javed contributed to the toughening of the language. But Kader Khan as writer and Amjad Khan as the archetypal villain carried it further.
Kader Khan in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar and later on in Coolie introduced a note of religious mysticism. In Muqaddar ..., Amitabh Bachchan does not play a ‘Muslim’ role but he evokes the nuances to build up the portrait of a Dervish fulfilling an exalted mission. In Coolie, he portrays a Muslim coolie who becomes a revolutionary. The old Mehboob syndrome of Muslim radicalism is reproduced in Coolie. Amitabh carries a hawk named Allah Rakha on his wrist. This is a direct reference to poet Iqbal’s hawk (Shaheen) a central symbol in his poetry. Shaheen for Iqbal represented the aspiring, soaring spirit of man as in the line. ‘Tu Shaheen hai parwaz hai kaam tera...’ (you are a hawk, your destiny is flight).
Amitabh similarly soared in that film despite its formula trappings. The emotionally charged scene of departing Hajis, the pilgrims sailing to Mecca for the major Muslim festival of Id-ul-Baqr, at Bombay docks is played with a genuine empathy which enfolds the viewer. Coolie represents the rise and integration of the Common Muslim in the working masses of the country rebelling for change.
Facing the harsh 90s
Saeed Akhtar Mirza was part of the New Movement in cinema which rose to prominence from the late 60s onwards. His work has always been marked by an ‘adversary element’, meaning a critique of the status from a radical point of view. Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastan was a look at the frustrations of an idealistic youth caught in the trap of a feudal money culture, Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai was a look both at the problem of class and ethnic identifications. Then followed tele-serials, the most notable being Nukkad (street corner). Here Mirza looked at the rising industrial urban culture from the worm’s point of view - the lower middle class of various communities buffeted by changes in the world above clinging to lost vestiges of dignity and meaning in life. It was one of the two or three outstanding tele-serials of the last decade. In fact, it was a cultural phenomenon.
In his Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro he examines the problems of Muslim lumpens in central Bombay. The film won the best Hindi film National Award for 1990.
What is impressive about the film is the multi-layered approach to the subject. It rises beyond its specific city and class and becomes a probing into the condition of Indian Muslims. The gradual economic and educational decline of urban Muslims is portrayed. Also the shift of the young to crime, a flight from a society which they feel rejects them. The problems of communalism, ghetto mentality, and search for an ethnic identity which does not clash with a national identity are also explored.
Salim reminds one of the French director Maurice Pialat’s film Police which deals with the problems of Algerians in Paris. Salim is a complex and reflective work which in itself is a search for identity. Indian Muslims have find a place in the increasingly metropolitan culture of India.
Salim is an extremely sensitive and intelligent attempt to depict this cultural process. It says there are no easy answers but it also opens up ways of resolving the crisis.
Muslim Contribution to Cinema - An Attempt at Harmony
To sum up: It’s a long journey from Pukar, to Salim Langde .... But it’s a splendid, coruscating one providing spectacle, beauty, wit, tragedy, high spirits - and a clear sighted introspection. It’s a rich mosaic of meaning, song and dance without which Indian cinema - in fact Indian culture - would be incomplete.
In one word the Muslim contribution to cinema is: Harmony.
In arrangement with Seminar on ‘Pluralism and Democracy in Bollywood’ organised by Teesta Setalvad
URL: http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=9980
The gender of Islam
Could progressive readings of Islam enhance women's rights? In India, Margot Badran talks to Muslims who see religion as a way to emancipation
In India recently, I talked to lawyers, activists, and religious studies scholars who are part of the lively and growing scene of progressive Islam and Islamic feminism within the world's largest Muslim minority. Numbering around 120,000, this minority community is second only to world's largest Muslim majority, in Indonesia.
India is at once a secular state and a nation of multiple religions. The lives of its citizens are enriched and challenged by a thick pluralism. Virtually everywhere in recent decades, right-wing movements of politicised religion have threatened liberal and progressive forces within and across religious communities. The extreme right-wing Hindutva movement has threatened and in some instances wrecked havoc among Muslims, who have also answered back. In response to the right-wing menace Muslims in India have either further entrenched themselves within their own community, especially around issues concerning women, or opened up in an effort to fortify the whole community (females and males alike), which remains impoverished with tools of self-empowerment, especially education and work. September 11 has also left its mark on Indian Muslims identifying with a larger Muslim umma, or nation, that is both under attack and on the move.
A discernible tension points to a divide in India today between new forces of progressive Islam with their transformative rethinking of the religion on the one hand, and long- entrenched clerical interests re-enforcing the counter-weight of popular conservative attitudes and practices on the other. Yet there are also growing signs of a sense of urgency on the part of the Muslim community at large to move forward.
Alleviation of poverty, elimination of illiteracy, instituting Muslim personal law and the creation of a standard Muslim marriage contract, interpretation of religious sources, especially the Quran, and inter-communal relations all vie for the attention of progressive Muslims. And cutting through them are questions of gender.
At the heart of much of contemporary dissension among Muslims in India is the question of authority -- which is institutionalised, preserved, reproduced though clerical lineages and organised in schools of thought called maslaks. Authority is also heavily internalised through habits of mind, routine behaviours and acts of deference associated with moral imperatives and social propriety. But who defines Islam, how, and for whom?
How do the Islamic principles of social justice and gender equality square with entrenched patterns of hegemonic authority? With the accelerated spread of education, including religious learning, among new segments of the population and especially women, people are asking new questions and expressing new expectations. This is especially evident among the rising generations of women.
Progressives are well aware that the first step towards empowerment is education, and especially for those who have been most deprived: women and the poorest members of the community. Madrasa s, which in India as in other parts of South Asia are religious schools, have traditionally served only males. Recently however, madrasas for girls have been opened, though they remain minuscule in number. (It is worth noting in passing that madrasas are not the "hotbeds of terrorism" they are made out to be in the global press.)
On madrasa education in India and related subjects I spoke with Waris Mazhari, a young Deobandi progressive -- something many would consider a contradiction in terms as Deobandis are generally seen as conservative. (Deobandis are those associated with the Deobandi order founded in the 19th century and who have been educated in their institutions). Mazhari took his fazilat, or high school baccalaureate, at a madrasa in western Andhra Pradesh and went on to study at the Nadwat Al-Uloom in Lucknow, both Deobandi-run institutions. He continued his education at the Islamic Aligarh University, where he earned an MA in Arabic. He is at present the editor of Tarjuman Darul Uloom, the official organ of the Deoband Madrasa Old Boys' Association in Delhi.
While a student at Deobandi institutions, Mazhari became dissatisfied with the curriculum that focussed heavily on mediaeval fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), which he found irrelevant to contemporary needs, and missed the lack of modern subjects. At Aligarh University he discovered the work of Mohamed Abduh, whose focus on tajdid, or renewal excited him, though this new thinking with its emphasis on ijtihad (independent investigation of religious sources) was not endorsed by his teachers, who favoured taqlid (imitation) and the strict preservation of tradition.
Frustrated because he had wanted to study modern secular subjects alongside traditional religious sciences, Mazhari recalled an earlier Deobandi scholar and progressive, Munazir Ihsan Ghilani, who, in the middle of the 20th century, decried the growing duality between modern secular education and Islamic education. He warned that the gap between the education offered by the maulana s (religious leaders) and that offered by secular teachers, if it was not eliminated in good time, would widen -- to the detriment of Islam and Muslims alike, including the ulemah (religious scholars) who would bear responsibility for perpetuating this dichotomy instigated by the British.
When I asked Mazhari about recent moves to provide more madrasa education for girls he told me that progressive Deobandis who took the initiative on this, not surprisingly, have elicited the criticism of conservatives. The curriculum in the girls' madrasas is innovative as it includes subjects from the standard government syllabus -- maths, sciences, English, etc -- alongside the study of the Quran, fiqh, Arabic grammar and other subjects that form part of the standard religious curriculum. Mazhari insists that the madrasas for boys should follow a similar practice of incorporating both religious and secular subjects in the curriculum. When I asked why there is such a difference between the girls' and the boys' madrasas, he explained that since the duration of girls' education is shorter as they tend to marry early, it is considered advisable to expose girls to modern subjects they will not have an opportunity to encounter later. It is also held that males need to be taught religious subjects in greater detail because it is they who will take up positions as muftis (those who issue religious readings or fatwas ) and religious leadership roles. Madrasa education for girls is intended mainly to modernise women's roles as wives and mothers. Some graduates, however, go on to teach in the girls' madrasas and a few become active in their local communities.
Claiming increasing attention at the moment in India, as in other parts of the Muslim world, is the campaign to gain acceptance for a new model marriage contract, or nikanama as it is called in India, protecting the interests of both parties and especially women whose rights are frequently violated. It is important that written contracts should be signed (as is evident in the recent, much publicised debate about a young woman in Egypt filing a paternity case) and that the contracts should protect the rights of children.
Easy divorce at the hands of the husband is a big scourge in India. Triple talaq, whereby a man divorces his wife by uttering a pronouncement of repudiation three times at one go, and thus making the divorce irrevocable, remains the most common way Muslim marriages are ended in India. Muslim activists feel the urgency to protect women's interests in marriage and divorce through stipulations in a marriage contract, as, unlike other religious communities in India, Muslims do not have recourse to their own comprehensive personal law governing marriage, divorce, and inheritance. Debates over instituting Muslim personal law in India are complicated and intense and likely to continue dragging on for some time. Meanwhile, a marriage contract can protect women and children. The marriage contract campaign brings together different kinds of activist women.
Uzma Naheed has been working for a standard marriage contract for ten years. When she insists, "I am a reformist but I am working strictly within the framework of the Shariaa (Islamic law)," she speaks for the vast majority of woman activists I met. However, they may not all agree on what constitutes Shariaa and they differ in their reformist strategies.
Naheed is the grand daughter of the founder of the Deoband order and one of the handful of women on the Muslim Personal Law Board charged with taking legal-reform action. She wants to keep the ulemah on her side and is adamant that this is the only way to go. Like Mazhari, Naheed also earned a fazilat but unlike him she did not attend a madrasa (as there were no madrasas for girls at the time), rather she studied with her father (the current chancellor of Dar Al-Uloom Deoband), finishing her degree through a correspondence course. Rather than challenging the authority of the ulemah, she wishes to harness it in the battle to protect the Islamic rights of women in marriage and in the event of divorce. Naheed says that the ulemah are the authorities, "we [women] are not the authorities". While others see it differently and are beginning to challenge conventional notions of authority, she proceeds on her own track.
Naheed showed me the draft (translated into English from the original Urdu) of the nikanama she is promoting. The first section, called Explanations, speaks of "Islamic teaching about nikah (marriage)". Other woman activists find moral exhortation inappropriate to a legal contract. The major breakthrough in this draft version of the nikanama is the stipulation saying that a husband will not declare a triple talaq nor enact talaq in absentia. However, noticeable for its absence is place in the proposed standard form for a wife to stipulate that she will not accept a polygamous marriage and that the marriage would be dissolved in the event of the husband taking another wife.
Nilofer Akhtar, who calls herself a lawyer-activist, has also been engaged in the marriage contract campaign. Akhtar specialises in family law, and she is witness to problems relating to divorce and maintenance in the Mumbai courtroom where she practises. She sees close at hand the problems Muslim women routinely face because of the absence of an overall codification of Muslim personal law.
Akhtar, like other women activists, finds instituting a standard approved nikanama an important short-term solution. Having a contract with concrete stipulations concerning rights and expectations, she stresses, would give the lawyers an instrument to use in defending the rights of women in divorce. To be officially married in India it is necessary to have a marriage contract. "The common nikanama," Akhtar remarks, "is by default patriarchal. The key is to have a better understanding of Islam, a better understanding of social justice and equality. Then you will have a nikanama that protects a woman's rights. A wife would not simply be thrown out into the road..."
Akhtar, who is also a member of the Muslim Personal Law Board in India, drafted and circulated a model nikanama to replace the "patriarchal nikanama" now used. In her model contract, arbitration, with an arbitrator officially appointed by both sides, is called for prior to a resort to divorce. This draft contract also includes a provision stating that the husband should delegate to his wife the right to divorce, in Islamic law called talaq al- tafwid, delegated divorce, in the event of cruelty on his part, failure to pay maintenance for six months, desertion for more that six months, or marriage to another wife. There is no mention of a refusal of triple talaq in her draft contract, for in Mumbai, where Akhtar practises, triple talaq was banned in May 2002.
A third nikanama activist I met is Zeenat Shawkat Ali, a professor of Islamic Studies at Xavier University in Mumbai and author of Marriage and Divorce in Islam: An Appraisal (first edition 1987, second edition 1997). Reviving ijtihad, or creative inquiry into religious sources, in order to open up thinking about gender justice is central to the task she set herself in investigating marriage and divorce in Islam, and specific historical practice in India. She engaged in an extensive study of fiqh and examined the use of the nikanama over time to see what women did in the past to protect their interests.
Shawkat Ali is also concerned about the prevalence of triple talaq and the need for better legal protection. She is not impressed with the "bit by bit" or go-slow approach, impatient as she is for a more progressive reading of Islam. Although non- Islamic patriarchal thinking and practice crept into Islam long ago, Shawkat Ali points out that since the 1970s a deeper conservatism or fundamentalist thinking has been on the rise: "We are becoming narrower and narrower in our understanding of Islam." For her, a gradualist approach to combating injustices perpetrated in the name of Islam is not the answer.
Uzma Naheed, Nilofer Akhtar, and Zeenat Shawkat Ali are all well aware that the Quran gives women rights of which they are currently deprived. They also understand that gender equality is embedded in holy scripture. All three women agree on the need to spread an enlightened understanding of Islam. The question is how to achieve this.
Among Islamic feminists and other progressive Muslims the Quran is the central text and point of reference for rights, freedoms, justice and harmony within the Muslim community and for Muslims living in the world at large. In India today, as a result, there is a growing movement promoting Quranic literacy. More and more, people want to be able to read for themselves the Quran in Arabic. They do not want to be held in the thrall of an interpreting class. In India, as the Arabic language of the sacred text has been inaccessible to the majority of Muslims, including most of the Urdu-speaking literate population, the ulemah have claimed the role of mediators between believers and the sacred scripture. With increased secular education the move among Muslims to learn the Arabic of the Quran and to gain enhanced religious understanding is now gaining momentum.
Shenaz Shaikh, who trained as a medical doctor, has spearheaded the project of a word-to-word translation of the Quran from Arabic into English in order to help people read the holy book for themselves. Underway for the past few years, the project, which includes printing side by side, the Arabic original, an English translation, and a word-for-word breakdown, is in its final phase. A draft version is now completed and awaits final review. Parts, however, have already been posted on the web at emuslim.com and understandquran.com. Printed editions of the word-to-word translation will be made available to students in madrasas, including the more recent girls' madrasas, as well as in non-religious schools, and for the general population. During a recent visit to the United States, Shaikh saw how eager Indian Muslims abroad are for such a tool.
Shaikh, who founded and runs an Islamic school for girls in Mumbai, is well aware of the project's important gender implications; it stands to help the process of giving females access to Quranic literacy, giving them the tools and confidence to read the holy text for themselves. The word-for-word translation is a step along the way to greater independent understanding of religion.
Among the many paths to a deeper understanding of religion, Qutub Jihan Kidwai's is one of the more unusual. I met her at the Centre for the Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) in Mumbai, founded and run by the world-renowned scholar- activist and women's rights pioneer Asghar Ali Engineer, who sees this young woman as playing an important role in carrying on his work.
Kidwai, who came to work at CSSS as a research scholar, helps conduct seminars and workshops on Islam and women's rights as well as editing the centre's monthly publication, Islam in the Modern Age. She has also become director of programmes in charge of peace education training. Meanwhile, she is carrying on her own intensive study of religious subjects with Asghar Ali, including Quranic Arabic and tafsir.
Her present endeavours mark an important new direction for Kidwai who earned her BA in 1996 and went on to complete an MA in sociology. While an undergraduate she also began flight training after seeing an advertisement in the paper, encouraged by one of her professors and her mother. Out of some 300 applications for flight training Kidwai was among the 60 short-listed and the still shorter number chosen. After juggling flight training with university work and gaining her credentials, Kidwai became a pilot with Oman Airlines in 2001 and settled in Muscat. She was the only woman pilot in the company and worked as a co-pilot on chartered flights: "Most of the pilots were from Asian countries. They were very professional. There was no discrimination because I was a woman." In telling her story, it was evident that Kidwai was very happy with her job.
But her new career suddenly ended a year later after 11 September 2001 and the subsequent interrogations of pilots. "We had to go into the inquiry boards several times. They wanted to know where we had studied, why etc. They were scrutinising our work and informing our embassies. It was humiliating." Kidwai finally gave up her job. Her parents, who had fully supported her career as a pilot, now became apprehensive and urged her to quit. "Meanwhile," she said, "in India Muslims were targeted for no reason, especially the educated and particularly pilots, engineers, police. There was the stereotype of associating Muslims with terrorism." Bereft of her job Kidwai was distressed: "After all my studies and sacrifices I had nowhere to go. For six to seven months I was in a state of depression."
Then once again she responded to an announcement in the paper, this time for a research position at Asghar Ali Engineer's Centre for the Study of Society and Secularism; she landed the job. "I am doing something for society," she told me. "I had to contribute one way or another. I came to know about this rampant discrimination all over the world. Why are Muslims being targeted? Why are particular communities made to pay the price for all the problems?"
Kidwai is involved in both gender issues within Islam and peace work across religious communities, and she is enthusiastic about outreach. "I was invited by an organisation to give a talk as an example of how Muslim girls can excel in education and stand out in society. I was shocked to discover that parents say that the education of girls is un-Islamic and sinful. I told them that Islam does not distinguish between males and females concerning education. I said the first word of the Quran is iqra ' (read)... Though I am working I am not detached from the religion and culture that my parents taught me," she reassured mothers and fathers. "In the world today women can go anywhere and safeguard their rights." Facing such ignorance about Islam gave Kidwai a renewed impetus. "Use your own mind; use your own reason," she urges. "The Quran is clear. The Quran gives women equal rights."
These conversations made it patent that Muslim women are rushing towards religion, not away from it, but rushing towards a better understanding of their faith. They are the ones most adamant and determined to rid Islam of patriarchal attitudes and practices -- ones who have the most to gain and the least to loose. There are also some men, as we see, who are trying to push the cause of gender justice forward. Muslim feminists and progressives in India, I could see, are clearly on the move.
source :
al-ahram
Census and Muslim Growth
Nita Shirali
Published in Pulse, September 2004
Monthly e-magazine for Vikas Adhyayan Kendra
The Government seems to have messed up on the census figures, which show the growth rate of Muslims in our country.
For the first time, census data on the basis of religion was released and this shows the growth rate of Muslims as the highest, which is 36% during 1991-2001. In the earlier decade the growth rate had been 32.9 %. The growth rate of the Hindu population declined to 20.3% during this period from 25.1% during 1981-91.
Predictably, the BJP and the RSS have expressed alarm saying that this data supported their claim that the Hindus in India were “under threat� from a rising Muslim population, and attributed the growth rate to infiltration and the role of Muslim leaders. The BJP President even went on record saying this was “cause for grave concern for those who think of India’s unity and integrity.� The 2001 Census was, it may be noted, carried out entirely during the BJP regime.
A subsequent newspaper report published the very next day, however, showed that the 1991 census figures did not include Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim majority state, while in the 2001 figures the state was included. This has altogether altered the picture. If one excludes the Muslims of Kashmir from the 2001 figures, the growth rate of the Muslim population is 29.3%, which is much lower than the growth figure of the earlier decade. Two days later the Census has come out with new figures which show the Muslim growth rate falling and not rising as shown earlier. These figures do not include Jammu and Kashmir (which was not included in the 1991 census) and Assam (which was not included in the 1981 census). The new figures say the Muslim growth rate is 29.3%, which is 3.6% lower than the earlier growth rate of 32.9% in 1991.
In this context it may be remembered that at a BJP seminar on Indic religions held a couple of years back, their leaders had stressed on the same point, which was the increase of the Muslim population in the border districts. This raises certain questions in our mind. Was this a genuine mistake on the part of the Government? Was the census data leaked to the BJP leaders? Or was it fudged to suit the BJP interest?
What is actually disturbing and certainly cause for concern in the census report is the lower sex ratio in the 0-6 age group, especially in the northern states among the Sikhs (786) and Jains (870), which shows a strong bias against the girl child. Incidentally, the sex ratio in the 0-6 age group among the Muslims is not so low at 950. Some other data worth mentioning is that about one third of Muslims in India are engaged in economic activity as against 40% of Hindus. The work participation rate or percentage of workers to the total population for all religions is 39.1. About 40.5% of Buddhists are part of the work force. Christians also have a higher than national average of 39.7%.
It is unfortunate that census reports are politicised for the wrong reasons and in the process the issues that actually matter for a poor country like India are never taken up.
Muslim politics in India is at a crossroads. The clerics (ulema), whose writ was supposed to be confined within the social structure, are becoming increasingly more assertive in the political arena.
In Assam, a Mumbai-based perfume trader with no political background but who had the backing of the clergy, plunged into politics and managed to corner 10 seats. His successful foray into politics denied the Congress a simple majority in the state. Thus, Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, better known for the style in which he wears his turban, has suddenly become a key character in Assam politics.
In Kerala, even the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front was blatant in playing to the Muslim community’s sentiments. It didn’t hesitate to espouse the cause of Abdul Nasser Madani � languishing in jail for his involvement in the Coimbatore blasts that left more than 50 persons dead. The Congress too did not lag behind in appealing to minority sentiments. The most literate state saw poll posters in Arabic.
Uttar Pradesh will witness the mother of all electoral battles early next year. Here, a section of powerful clerics has floated its own political outfit � the the People’s Democratic Front (PDF). “If the 7 per cent of Yadavs can rule UP, why can’t 23 per cent Muslims?� asks Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad who heads the PDF, essentially an umbrella organisation of a number of Islamic outfits. This is a genuine question and is being asked in a state where backward caste leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, often described as Maulana Mulayam by Hindu fundamentalists, is ruling the state. Yadav sustains his political clout by way of the formidable electoral combination of Muslims and Yadavs in UP. His concession to fundamentalists is evident in the fact that he has a minister in his Cabinet, Yaqoob Qureishi, who made it to the headlines with his blatant offer of Rs 51 crore for the ‘head of the man’ who drew the Prophet’s cartoon.
Maulana Kalbe Jawad’s confidence in floating the PDF stems from the perception that there is a underlying deep resentment in the minority community. Considering the huge response that the anti-Bush rally had in Delhi and the anger expressed by the community over the cartoon issue, Kalbe Jawad feels that his PDF would be able to translate these sentiments into votes and be in a position to determine future electoral politics in the Hindi heartland.
What we are witnessing is the fragmentation of political movements across the country on the lines of caste, region and religion. People are losing faith in the ability, or willingness, of the major political parties to provide a platform where people with diverse aspirations can resolve their grievances. After the growth of a string of regional parties and the political assertiveness of a section of the Hindu community through the BJP, it is now the turn of the Muslim community to throw up some leaders who will strike out on a separate political course.
For a long time after Independence , the Muslim community remained content to allow the Congress to represent and in fact, appropriate, its political voice. Given the fact that there was a virtual single-party dominance on the political scene, there was hardly any scope or space for a splintering of the Muslim (or virtually any other) political identity. Organisations like the Muslim League remained largely marginal players in the political arena. The Congress too was adept in embracing the moderate Muslim persona into its character, even while taking care not to offend the more hardline clerics who held tight sway among the larger Muslim populace.
But, in the last decade or so, the world has changed. The rise of the BJP and the growing clout of the Sangh parivar and its loony fringe has raised the apprehensions of the Muslim community. The Islamophobia that besieged the global scene post-9/11 has had a definite effect in bringing the Muslim ummah, worldwide, into a tighter bind. Indian Muslims have traditionally never been part of the overt global pan-Islamic expression. But at a time when the war of ideologies is being fought on the basis of religious symbols to an extent, Indian Muslims can’t be expected to remain emotionally untouched by what is obviously perceived as the near-persecution of their co-religionists elsewhere in the world.
It is at this juncture that Indian Muslims feel the need for a voice that will articulate their concerns and needs. The issue is not only about the under-development of large sections of Muslims in India or their under-representation in jobs or anything as tangible or obvious as that. The issue is simply about an assertion of identity, about having a bearing and being significant. A group of clerics calling on the Prime Minister, seeking job reservation for backward Muslims, shows not only the attempt to adopt what is seen as the advantages of asserting a group identity. It also shows that they’ll use traditional bargaining tactics to claim advantage.
Now, for a variety of reasons, the Congress is no longer seen as a party that can effectively do this. Just as the regional parties were born � and prospered thereafter � as a result of the Congress’ failure to adequately capture and represent the disparate needs of different groups, the yet-nascent Muslim political formations too are growing and are likely to flower in what is a political vacuum as far as the interests of the Muslim community is concerned.
It is certainly not at all a healthy sign to witness clerics entering politics. At the same time, we did see mahants and sadhus entering Parliament and assemblies to espouse the Hindutva cause? If caste is a reality, as we have been led to accept by successive political establishments, religion is a bigger and far more basic reality.
It remains to be seen what electoral impact the PDF will have in UP. But it will certainly be good news for the BJP. Hindu communalism and Muslim communalism are two sides of the same coin. The developments in UP will certainly give a boost to the BJP which is groping in the dark for issues. And the more assertive the clerics get, the more the BJP stands to benefit. After all, there’s no denying the fact that the emergence of one Badruddin in Assam could help the party retain its tally in Assam!
Whether the national parties have at all woken up to the implications of the emergence of a distinct Muslim political voice is unclear. Clearly, the old strategy of assimilation is not going to work this time. Badruddin’s remarkable debut in Assam is but a wake-up call.
Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1708628,00120002.htm
LIMITS TO RIGHT TO PROTEST
by SALIL KADER
Two incidents involving the Muslim community in India made it to the headlines of national news recently. The first one was related to the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten publishing cartoons caricaturing Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist. The second was the desecration of the Holy Qur'an in Ladakh region in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Both incidents led to protests by the Muslim community against the disrespect shown to their Prophet and the Holy Qur’an. Nothing wrong with it. In fact the protests were justified. However, what raises doubts is the manner in which these protests were conducted. Lets look at both these incidents separately and see where the demonstrations went off the track.
To begin with, it has to be acknowledged that the cartoons published by Jyllands-Posten were in bad taste and bound to provoke even the least devout Muslim. The argument that the publication of these cartoons falls within the ambit of ‘freedom of expression’ or ‘right to freedom of press’ does not hold water. Caricaturing Muslims as terrorists and illiterate, camel-riding morons in films and cartoons is not new. This has been done in the past too, especially in the post-9/11 period. Such depictions never became a cause for demonstrations and street violence of the kind witnessed this time. So what got their goat? This time the cartoonist chose to use the image of Prophet Mohammed instead of the thawb wearing Arab. This depiction went against two very basic beliefs of Muslims across the world. First, Islam forbids any pictorial or facial depiction of the Prophet. Therefore, the cartoon showing the Prophet in human form was nothing but blasphemy for Muslims. Second, according to Islamic beliefs Prophet Mohammed is the ‘insaan-i-kaamil’ or the ‘Perfect Man’. Honesty, justness, gentlemanly conduct, and an impeccable moral make-up characterised the Prophet. He was a spiritual guide who led his followers by example. Today the faithful are exhorted to follow the Prophet’s ‘path’, the sunnah, and lead a life as shown by him. It is this revered figure that the cartoons in Jyllands-Posten depicted in a deprecating manner.
As news about the cartoons spread, Muslims throughout the world, especially in Islamic countries, voiced their protest against this affront to their belief and their Prophet. The expression of these protests took various forms. Several Arab and Islamic nations demanded an apology from the Danish government and some even closed down their embassies in Denmark. The situation turned ugly when the Danish and Norwegian missions in Syria and Beirut were burnt down and death threats issued to the creators of the cartoons. Protests in Nigeria escalated into bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians claiming more than hundred lives. Pakistan and India witnessed their share of protestations, some of which sadly turned violent.
In the meanwhile we had a Muslim cleric in India issuing a fatwa ordering the killing of those who drew the cartoons and a minister in the government of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India instituting an ‘reward’ of Indian Rupees 51 crores to anyone who beheaded the cartoonist! Violent street protests continue to this day in various parts of the world. However, the question that arises is whether the path taken by some of these demonstrators was acceptable or not? In my humble opinion, they were not. More on it a little later.
Ladakh, like most peripheral regions of India, isn’t ‘banner headline’ material. That’s why the news reports about communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhists would have come as a surprise to most of us. However, the fact remains that tension between Muslim and Buddhist communities of Ladakh has been a sad reality of the region for sometime now. Matters reached a flashpoint in 1989 when the Buddhist community under the leadership of the Ladakh Buddhist Association declared a social boycott of Muslims. Even the Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama failed to break the impasse. This boycott went on till 1992. Communal tensions have simmered ever since and minor incidents only aggravate the problem. The incident involving the “tearing of pages of the Holy Qur’an by unidentified people� was provocation enough to bring the Muslim protestors on the streets again. Quite clearly the act was a deliberate one intended to incite the Muslims and create unrest in the region by exploiting the underlying tensions between the two communities. Regrettably, the Muslims of Ladakh couldn’t see through it and fell right into the trap. The violence that followed is hard to defend. On what grounds did the Muslim groups attack Buddhist owned establishments and houses? Mere suspicion? Or if they had the proof that certain members of the Buddhist community were involved in the act of desecration of the Holy Qur’an, why didn’t they report the matter to the police and let the law takes it course?
In a civilised democracy, just as the right to freedom of expression is not absolute and unbridled, so is the right to protest. The moment a peaceful demonstration turns into a violent mob, the word protest loses meaning. Pray, what did the Muslims indulging in violence achieve by setting shops ablaze, damaging public and private property and inconveniencing fellow citizens in their respective countries? Did it in anyway assuage their indignation? Obviously not.
In a world where Islam and its followers have been demonised as terrorists, the pictures of Muslim youth rampaging through streets, indulging in arson and violence only go on to strengthen such stereotypes. As a matter of fact, the violence perpetrated by these protestors has only given credence to the message that the Jyllands-Posten cartoons sought to convey – that of a violent Muslim community.
It is high time that the moderate voices from amongst the community make themselves heard and send out a clear message that violence in any form is unacceptable. Saner and more tolerant minds are the need of the hour. Postscript: The Editor of Jyllands-Posten has apologised for publishing the offensive cartoons. That should effectively put this whole controversy to end.
(The author is doctoral researcher and writes on issues concerning Islam and Indian Muslims)
Muslims infected by caste virus
SALIL KADER
The history of Islam in India is well over a thousand years old. It has beautifully blended into the background of its adopted land. But this Islam and its practitioners are not a homogeneous entity, as is widely believed. There is a great deal of diversity in the manner in which Islam is practised and perceived throughout India.
However, one of these practices, which goes against the basic grain of Islam, is the caste-based discrimination practised by certain sections of Muslims in India.
Chapter 49, verse 13 of the Holy Qur'an makes it clear that Islam does not recognise the caste-based social stratification practised by some sections of Muslims in India.
However, it should be acknow-ledged that this discriminatory practice among Muslims, observed more in north India than south India, is not as pronounced, oppressive and widespread as amongst the Hindus. But that is hardly comforting.
The fact that discrimination based on caste lines exists within the Muslim community of India is bad enough. Most Indian Muslims are descendants of untouchable and low caste converts, with only a small minority tracing their origin to Arab, Iranian and Central Asian settlers.
Muslims who claim foreign descent assert a superior status for themselves as ashraf or noble. Descendants of indigenous converts are, on the other hand, commonly referred to contemptuously as ajlaf or base or lowly.
Going by this classification, an overwhelming 75 per cent of the Muslim population of India would fall into the category. It is ironical that conversion to the egalitarian faith of Islam has not helped their cause. The ajlaf, especially in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, continue to be discriminated against by the Muslim upper caste.
The ill treatment meted out to lower and backward caste Muslims has led to a movement for recognition of the lower caste Muslims as scheduled castes or dalit Muslims, on a par with the dalits in the Hindu society.
The leaders of this movement have demanded reservations for dalit Muslims based on the concept of positive discrimination enshrined in Article 341 of the Constitution. The V P Singh government implemented the proposals of the Mandal commission, which recommended reservations in government jobs and educational institutions based on caste.
This was followed by large-scale pro- and anti-Mandal demonstrations all over the country, mainly involving the student community. While the reservations provided succour to many belonging to the scheduled castes and tribes, it also sharpened the already existing divide between the caste Hindus and dalits.
The animosity � fuelled by centuries of discrimination against dalits and the recent reservation policy where the caste Hindus felt shortchanged � is quite visible even to the undiscerning eye. There can be no denying the existence of caste-based discrimination among Indian Muslims.
However, demanding a separate identity and other benefits based on caste is no panacea for this inequity. It will only end up providing another dimension to the already existing divisions within the community.
Aren't schisms based on Shia, Sunni, Deobandi, Barelwi, Ahl-i-Hadith, Jamaati etc enough that Muslims now seek to create categories like dalit Muslim and forward caste Muslim? Let us look at a hypothetical situation where caste-based reservation is replicated in the Muslim community.
To begin with, it would require the identification of dalit Muslim castes. This process, in my opinion, would present a scenario where a set of Muslims, especially those coming from south India would either say that they are not dalit Muslims or would express their inability to identify the caste they belong to for the simple reason that they don't have a caste.
It would be nothing short of a shock for this casteless Muslim to find that de-spite sharing his reverence for Allah, his Friday namaz, and belief in Islamic tenets with the dalit Muslim, he is different from the dalit Muslim, simply because he doesn't have a caste � something that has no religious sanction.
The Muslim community should squarely face up to caste stratification in its midst. The only way to fight this inhuman practice is direct action � a movement against anyone practising, promoting or legitimising caste-based stratification. The writer researches on issues concerning Indian Muslims.
Source:
By Shadab Hussain
MMG (Muslim Media Group)
Indian Muslims have a rich legacy of contribution and development towards the nation. Having been a Ruler class for 700 years, it adds more to the glory and pride of being Indian. This article presents various facets of Indian Muslims' contribution to the nation, society and mankind.
Indian Muslims, carry a rich legacy of contribution towards the nation, society and mankind as whole. Their contribution is multi-dimensional and of enormous magnitude and certainly is an object of pride. The domains in which a civilization or community can be judged for their contribution are Language, Literature, Cuisine, Architecture, Arts, Religion, Administration, Education, Science etc. Indian Muslims have squarely contributed to all the fields mentioned. Let us look at some of the fields and brief mention of Indian Muslims contribution towards it.
In language & Literature, Muslims have contributed to the language evolvement and refinement as well as preserving and adopting foreign languages. Muslims preserved the foreign languages like Persian, Turkic, Pashto and Arabic for a long time till today. Persian was official & elite language of administration in many ruling dynasties of India. Later a phenomenal language Urdu evolved in India by adopting refined grammar of Khadi Boli and vocabulary heavily borrowed from Arabic and Persian as well as indigenous words . Urdu was also adopted for studies in religion and became lingua franca for all the communities in later centuries. Massive literature work was carried out in Urdu after poets like Mir Taqi Mir and Mirza Ghalib adopted Urdu in later works. The great poets and literature personality of India in Urdu are Mirza Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir, Dagh Dehlawi, Allama Iqbal, Zauq, Sauda, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Majaz, Sardar Jafri, Jan Nisar Akhtar, etc. Saadat Hasan Manto was great story teller in Urdu. It's the only language which was open heartedly accepted by Indians of all races and castes. Great Hindu poets & authors in Urdu are Firaq Gorakhpuri, Munshi Prem Chand, Krishan Chandra, Chakbast, Dayashankar Nasim, Bedi, Khushwant Singh etc. In India, many Urdu Ghazal singers are non-Muslims like Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udhas, Roop Kumar Rathod, Anup Jalota etc. It is common to come across many non-Muslims who have been inspired and even obsessed with Urdu and its beauty. Many of the old non-Muslims generation in India still work in Urdu. It all proves that the mainstream language of the nation in pre-partition times was Urdu. Many international media like BBC recognize the colloquial language of India as Hindustani, a blend of Urdu and Hindi, rather than plain Hindi. It's true that colloquial language of India is rich mix of Urdu, Hindi and English. In words of Ghulzar, the language of Bollywood movies is 80% Urdu than Hindi. If not for political reasons, language of north & Central India still would have been identified as Urdu than Hindi. Muslims have also contributed and enriched various national languages like Malyali, Bengali, and Kashmiri etc. After freedom attempts are being made to eradicate lively language like Urdu while struggling to resurrect dead languages.
In cookeries & cuisine, Muslims stand again at top with wide variety of cuisine many of which are unique to Indian Muslims. Some of the most popular eatables in India are Rice items (Biriyani, Pilaf, Zarda), Kebab (Shamee Kebab, Boti Kebab, Seekh Kebab), Breads (Tandoori, Naan, Maande), Deserts (Sewaiyan, Sheer-Khurma), Drinks (variety of non-alcoholic Sharbat) etc. It was the Muslims who introduced Tandoor (Clay oven) to India. Various local cuisines like Kashmiri, Hyderabadi, Mughlai, Malabari etc are contributions of Muslims. Nationally as well as overseas, most of the Indian restaurants serve Non-Vegetarian items as top sellers but who taught India, a land of vegetarian diets, the non-vegetarian cuisine?
In Attire & Clothing, Muslims introduced some of the finest & dignified clothing in a land where before Islam, men and even in some places women, used to wander bare chest. Muslims introduced the dignified clothing like Kurta Pyjama, Pathani, jacket, Shervani, Topi (Skull Cap) for Men and Shalwar Kameez, Dupatta, Sharara, Hijab, Purdah etc for Women. Kurta Pyjama, Shervani for Men and Shalwar Kameez for Women are distinct features of Indian Muslims. Shervani has been the dress code for most presidents of India until recently. Pundit Jawahar Lal Nehru and many others was ardent admirer of Shervani. Shalwar Kameez, is contemporarily, only dignified and most commonly popular dress code for Women especially Girls in India. In some Universities like Anna University, Shalwar Kameez is the only approved formal dress code for women.
In religious studies, Darul-Uloom, Deoband), Nadwatul Ulama (Lucknow) and Mazahirul-Uloom, (Saharanpur) are the three top notch Madarsah in South Asia. People across Asia enroll in the above mentioned Madaris for the religious studies. Darul-uloom, Deoband is often regarded as Al-Azhar of Hind and a very important place of learning among Hanafi adherents. Wide spread reformist movement like Tabligh, initiated by Moulana Iliyas originated in India, is currently one of the biggest movement world over and is currently operational in almost all countries of world. Tabligh Jamat holds its annual 'Biswa-Ijtema' in Bangladesh with 3 million participants second only to Hajj in number. The most popular and internationally reputed scholars from India are Sheikh Ahmed sirhindi, Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, Shah Abdul Azeez Dehlawi, Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi, Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (Ali miyan), Moulana Iliyas, Moulana Zakariyya Kandhelwi, Manzoor Nomani, Imam Abdul Hayy Lacknawi, Mufti Shafi Usmani, Mufti Shabbir Ahmed Usmani, Moulana Mehmudul Hasan (sheikhul Hind), Hussain Ahmed Madani (Sheikhul Islam), Moulana Mehmud-ul-Hasan Gangohi (Mufti-e-hind), Moulana Rashid Ahmed Gangohi, Moulana Qasim Nanotawi, Allama Anwar Shah al-Kashmiri, Ibrahim Desai, Ahmed Radha Khan, Abu 'Ala Maududi etc. Zakir Hussain Nayak and Ahmed Deedat are the best experts on comparative religion. Internationally renowned books written by religious scholars from India are 'Fazail-e-'Aamaal', 'Ma'riful-Quran', Ma'riful-Hadith', 'Tafsir Usmani', 'Ila-al-Sunan', 'Fatawa-al-Hindiya', 'Fatawa 'Alamgiri', 'Bahishti Zewar', 'Fatawa Mahmudiya', 'Fatawa Ridhwiya', 'Talimul Islam' etc. Some of the most popular & authentic translation of Quran in English has been written by Indians Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Abdul Majid Daryabadi while some of the most popular Biography of Prophet have been written by Safiur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, Abdul Majid Daryabadi. The great exponents of religious harmony have been Tipu Sultan, Akbar, Kabeer, Raheem, Amir Khusru etc apart from various Sufis who delivered the message of harmony. The most famous Sufis in India were Moinuddin Chishti, Nizamuddin Awliya, Farid Shakkarganj, Shah Jalal etc. The India thus holds a special place among Muslims world over.
In Modern Education, Muslims were the pioneer with prominent leader like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Ali brothers, Hakeem Abdul Hameed, Badruddin Tyabji etc. Over the last 700 years of Muslims rule, the only education infrastructure was of Madarsah. Other communities did not have any organized and structured schooling system. Not just Muslims but other communities too relied on Madaris for literacy in languages as well as Medicine. Madarsas are not just religious study centers but are centers for languages, logic, medicine, history etc. When British started opening English based Universities in India, Muslims once again were the pioneer in adopting modern education. AMU was established in 1880s long before BHU or any other community based initiative even took off. Badruddin Tyabji and his brother Camruddin established a chain of institutes under the banner of 'Anjuman-i-Islam' in Maharashtra & Bombay region in 1870s[1]. Osmania University and Jamia Milia Islamia were founded within three years of BHU establishment. In 1931-1932 while Muslims' population in eight provinces was 25.1 percent, 27.6 percent of school children were Muslims. In United province, while Muslims' population was 14.8%, the 18.6% of school children were Muslims[2]. It all proves Muslims being leader among all the communities in modern education apart from maintaining existing school system in form of Madarsas. Madarsas, opposed to contrary beliefs are schools where not only religious education but also Medicine, Logic, Skills, Administration, History and Languages were taught thus they are nothing but formal school system with various formal degrees like Aalim, Mufti, Faazil, Hafidh, Muhaddith etc. In India, no other community had such infrastructure thus they relied on the same Madarsas for the education of their children till the advent of modern educational schools.
In Sports, Muslims have contributed in all the dimensions. Muslims have held captaincy in Cricket, Hockey, Basketball and Tennis etc. While Mansur Khan Pataudi was youngest captain, Ghouse Mohammed was the first Indian to enter quarter finals in Wimbledon, Sania Mirza is the top ranker among Women from India in Tennis, Yasmin Merchant has been bringing top honors in Snooker, etc. Some of the earliest presidents of Indian cricket board were Muslims. Shakeel Ahmed, M Shahid and Zafar Iqbal have captained Indian Hockey teams while Mansur Khan Pataudi, Ghulam Ahmad, Nawab of Pataudi Sr, Syed Kirmani and Azharuddin have been famed Cricket captains. Riyazuddin Qureshi is captain of Basketball team in year 2006. Mohammedan sporting has been a top ranking football club in India since a long time. In 2006, out of the top 20 national cricket players in team who plays in Test Matches and ODIs, 5 are Muslims namely Muhammad Kaif, Irfan Khan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, & Waseem Jaffer.
In Architecture, Taj Mahal, which is synonymous with India in world, alone is sufficient to prove supremacy of Muslims contribution to Architecture. However, there are significant monuments like Lal Qila (Red Fort, Delhi), Agra Fort, Qutub Minar, Char Minar, Fatehpur Sikri, Buland Darwaza, Jama Masjid (Delhi) etc. Several tombs and Mausoleum like Humayun's tomb, Sher Shah's Mausoleum, Gol Gumbad, etc are famous for the architecture. Sher Shah Suri constructed Grand Trunk Road while other Muslims developed famous Gardens like Shalimar & Nishat gardens in Kashmir and Lal Bagh in Bangalore. Salar jung Museum (third largest in India), Khuda Baksh Library etc are just some other useful contribution by Muslims. A variety of monuments and buildings by Muslims indicate writing on the wall that Muslims were the serious and real developer of India.
In Academics and Technology, Tipu Sultan was pioneer of Rocket technology and APJ Abdul Kalam is father of missile program in India. Gurfran Baig (Meterology), Israr Ahmed (Theoritical Nuclear Physics), Muhammed Raziuddin (Physics and Nobel Prize nominee), Javed Agrewala (Microbial Technology), M Ahmed (Founder of 'Cardinal Geometry'), S Z Qasim (Fisheries) are some other exponents in their respective fields. Muslims were the first and true historian of medieval India. Irfan Habib, Mushirul Hasan and M Athar Ali are famous contemporary historians, while Fareed Zakariya, Alyque Padamsee, Saeed Naqvi, MJ Akbar, Rafique Zakariya, Asghar Ali Engineer, and Khalid Ansari have contributed to journalism and media in great manner. Who can forget the sweet voice of legendary broadcaster Amin Sayani? Before freedom, most dailies and publications were in Urdu and published by Muslims. CM Habibullah (Gastroenterologist), Khalid Hameed, Mohammed Rela (Liver Specialist) and S N A Rizvi (Nephrology) are eminent physicians of international repute. Pharmacy industry is almost dominated by Muslims with Habil Khorakhiwala (Wockhardt), Yusuf Hamied (Cipla), Meraj Manal (Himalaya Healthcare), Hakeem Abdul Hameed (Hamdard Laboratories) etc. Shahnaz Hussain is synonymous with herbal beauty care products all over India. The whole system of Unani medicine was introduced and preserved by Muslims through out the last 800 years. Dr Salim Ali remains the best known Ornithologist after Emperor Jahangir who was reputed for his interest in ornithology. Syed Hasan (Peace), Muhammad Raziuddin (Physics), and Kamla Surayya (Literature) have been nominated for Nobel Prize in past. Some of the leading brands in their own categories like Rooh Afza (Drinks), Red Tape (Leather Shoes), Postman (Refined Ground nut oil), Geep (Dry cell batteries earlier owned by Shervani family) are Muslim owned. India's richest person is Azim Premji while before independence India's richest person was Hyderabad Nizam, both of whom were also one of world's richest persons for a period of time.
In Politics and Administration, Zakir Hussain, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, and APJ Abdul Kalam have been the president of India while AM Ahmedi, M Hidayatullah, Mirza Hameedullah Baig are the former Chief justice of Supreme Court. IH Latif (Former Air chief Marshal), Salman Haider (Chief Foreign Secretary), Abdul Hameed (Paramveer Chakra winner), Moulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Najma Heptullah, PM Saeed (Prominent parliamentarians) have been achievers in their own fields. Long before the voice of feminism rose anywhere in world and Women from other communities could become rulers, Muslim women like Razia Sultana were ruling over India in as early as 1200s while later Begum Hazrat Mahal, Qudusiya Begum, Sikander Jahan Begum etc were ruling the smaller nawabi principalities in 1800s and later. Shabana Azmi, JS Bandukwala, Safder Hashmi, Nafisa Ali etc and now Amir Khan are the prominent social activists. Indian sub-continent was long divided into principalities and isolated kingdoms and it's the Muslim rulers like Akbar who integrated whole subcontinent into one Empire and laid the foundation of Greater India. Sher Shah Suri administered India with provincial structure that is still followed as well as he introduced the currency �Rupayya� which is still being followed. However, British, the arch-rival of Muslims, arrived and divided the India eventually leading to partitions.
For comparison sake, let's look into Arts, Cinema, Music and Painting as well. In Painting, MF Husain, Tyeb Mehta, and Yusuf Arakkal are the leading painters from India. In crafts, Muslims have always provided the skills to industries like Muradabadi handicrafts, Benaras Silk industries, Ferozabad's glass industry etc. In Cinema, the Hindi movies industry should rather be appropriately called Urdu movies industry because of Urdu and Muslims contribution to it. Remember great Movie Directors like K Asif, Mehboob, Kamal amrohi, Muzaffar Ali, Mansur Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Abbas Mastan, Ismail Merchant etc. Actors like Yusuf Khan (Dileep Kumar), Amjad Khan, Firoze Khan, Amir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Mamootty, Saif Ali Khan have always dominated the movie industries. Actresses like Madhubala, Nurghis, Shabana Azmi, Waheeda Rahman, Saira Banu etc have been popular. Music directors like Naushad Ali, AR Rahman, Omar Khayyam, Nadeem Saifi, Ismail Durbar etc have been best sellers. Lyricists like Shakeel Badayuni, Javed Akhtar, Majrooh Sultanipuri, Kaifi Azmi, Sahir Ludhiyanwi etc have dominated over years through their immortal poetry. Best of script writers have been pair of Salim-Javed in yesteryears. Best of comedians like Johnny Walker, Jagdeep, Mahmood, Kader Khan etc were all Muslims. Javed Jafri, Saroj Khan, Farha Khan etc have been successful choreographer & dancers. Singers like Suraiya, NoorJehan, Begum Akhter, Shamshad Begum, Parveen Sultana, Mohammed Rafi, Talat Mahmood, Talat Aziz etc sung in their melodious voice. In classical Music, Tansen the greatest exponent of Music was a convert to Islam. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustadh Amir Khan, Fahimuddin Dagar (Vocal), Zakir Hussain, Allarakha, Ahmed Jan Thirakwa, Keramatullah Khan (Tabla), Ustadh Bismillah Khan (Shehnai), Ustadh Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, Asad Ali Khan (Veena), Imdad Khan, Enayet Khan, Vilayat Khan, Rais Khan, Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan, Imrat Khan, Shahid Parvez (Sitar), Allauddin Khan, Hafiz Ali Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Amjad Ali Khan, Aashish Khan (Sarod), Bundu Khan (Sarangi) etc are the highest exponents of classical vocals and music. Prominent forms of Hindustani Classical Music like Tarana, Khayal, Thumri, Ghazal Gayaki and Qawwali are all founded by Muslims. Most of major Gharanas like Gwalior Gharana were established by Muslims. Habib Tanveer, Zohra Sehgal, Ebrahim Alkazi, Naseeruddin Shah, Farookh Shaikh are the eminent theatre personalities in India.
Muslims were the pioneer of freedom fight against colonial British who were initially resisted by armies of Nawab Sirajuddaula of Bengal at the battle of Plassey in 1757. Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan were then resisting British in Southern India between year 1760 and 1800. Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlawi issued a fatwa of India becoming Dar-al-Harb (Land of war) and thus declaring freedom fight as Jihad which mobilized Muslim masses including religious scholars like Syed Ahmed Shaheed who eventually declared independence in erstwhile North West Frontier region. Finally different armies and individuals participated in rebellion of 1857 under leadership of Bahadur Shah Zafar along with Azimullah Khan, Rae Ahmad Nawaz Khan Kharal etc. Prominent freedom fighters were Moulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Moulana Mehmudul Hasan, Syed Hussain Ahmed Madani, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Liaquat Ali Khan, Moulana Muhammad Ali, Moulana Shaukat Ali, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, Abbas Tyabji, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Allama Iqbal, Allama Inaitullah Al-Mashriqi, Imdadullah al-Makki, Sheikh Abdullah, Sir Sikander Hayat Khan, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Ashfaqullah, Moulana Hasrat Mohani etc. Various Muslim owned parties & organizations like All India Muslim League, Khudai Khidmatgar, Khaksaar Tehreek, Unionist Muslim League, Darul-Uloom Deoband, Jamiatul Ulama etc were party to freedom struggle. The various movements started by Muslims towards freedom fight were 'Reshmi Rumal ki Tehrik' ('Movement of Silken Kerchief' by Moulana Mehmudul Hasan), Khilafat Movement ('Non-cooperation movement' by Ali brothers), Moplah Rebellion etc. Moulana Qasim Nanotawi, Badruddin Tyabji etc urged Muslims to join & strengthen Indian National Congress after which Congress became mainstream party in freedom struggle. [3]
At least 4 Muslims with Bharat Ratna, 3 with Padma Vibhushana, 16 with Padma Bhushan, 32 with Padma Shri, 29 with Arjuna, 3 with Dronacharya and 66 with Sahitya Akademi awards have been conferred. [4]
Some may object to this paper while some may point out the infamous actions of Muslims being overlooked however it must be noted that each and every community in India has its own set of infamous actions. The Babri mosque demolition, 1984 Sikh riots, Indira Gandhi assassination, Dang Church attacks, Kashmir Killings, Suicide bombing of Rajiv Gandhi, Bodo separatist movement, Gujarat pogrom, Naxalite movement, Bombay Blast, Financial scams, LTTE activities in India, Burning of Graham Stains, Language riots, Numerous Communal riots against Muslims, Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Rice Conversion, Re-conversion etc all just cry out the bad actions on part of most of the communities.
Reading above mentioned glory of Indian Muslims, it becomes clear that Muslims have contributed highly towards freedom, culture, society, heritage, language, cuisine, attire, education, medicine, administration, etc resulting in full development of nation.
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Shadab Hussain is an IT professional with interests in contemporary Muslim issues and History. He is a regular columnist with MMG. He can be reached at Shadab@indianmuslims.org.
Muslim Media Group's website : http://www.indianmuslims.org/jsp/articles/articles.jsp
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[1] 'Badruddin Tyabji', Congress Sandesh, http://www.congresssandesh.com/AICC/history/presidents/badruddin_tyabji.htm
[2] 'Every Eighth Indian', Indian Express, http://indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=31472
[3] 'They too fought for freedom', By Asghar Ali Engineer, http://www.just-international.org/article.cfm?newsid=20001162
Surjit S Bhalla: Education quotas-unfair
IT DOESN`T MATTER
Surjit S Bhalla / New Delhi April 15, 2006
The one social group that needs affirmative action (not quotas) is the Muslims; but strangely, it is politically incorrect to talk about it.
What are the goals of affirmative action policies in India, particularly in education? The question should ideally be “what should be …� but “should� is not part of the vocabulary of the Indian politician, who has always deemed the Constitution as putty, to be converted into clay at a “political� moment’s notice. First and foremost, the stated goal of affirmative action is for the state to provide equal opportunities to all citizens. And since education is the major asset of most individuals, state support is needed to provide the opportunity for education. Provision of education opportunities starts at the primary school level. But poverty deprives individuals from attaining education to the best of their ability; hence, the need for income support (only one form of which is a scholarship) for the poor. Poverty afflicts all castes and religions; hence, the need to address the concerns of all “socially and economically backward� citizens�a group which incidentally (this might be news to the election-conscious Congress) includes Muslims and non-OBC and non-SC/ST Hindus.
Affirmative action at the college level is not as straightforward for the simple reason that admission requires passing high school. Reservations for colleges, to be successful and/or have any meaning, mean that the school system has to have provided equal opportunities earlier.
How should one provide equal opportunity at the college level? What we know about capitalism is that it makes people go to extraordinary lengths to make money. So the walls of discrimination can easily be broken down, not through quotas, but more effectively through the greed of owners of colleges: education vouchers for the needy. In the quota system, public universities like the IITs can set up discriminatory rules in the form of ability or minimum standards. In the present quota system, all quota individuals cannot get into most good colleges. But in a voucher system, where effectively the state guarantees equal opportunity, the non-able SC/ST will be able to enter some private sector colleges. Because she has the ability to pay the capitation and other fees (via government-provided education vouchers) to any university that admits her�and some college will be willing, no matter how unmeritorious the candidate. Note that this means a level playing field for the lesser students from both rich and poor families.
There is another reason why the Congress party legislation for quotas for OBCs is not warranted. It is that the system, whatever it is, is already working reasonably well. The purpose of quotas, affirmative action, is to provide equal opportunity for all. No one, not even the CPM coffee shop revolutionary leaders, is arguing for quotas or justice in the form that at every university there should be the same representation, as the general population.
The table above documents the state of education in India. The proportion of SC/STs and OBCs graduating from high school is close to 43 per cent. The SC/STs share of high school graduates (16.7 per cent) is 68 per cent of their share in the population (24.4 per cent), the OBCs are only 1.5 percentage points below their proposed representation (26 per cent of high school graduates vs 27.5 per cent quota in colleges).
These simple statistics should make us sit up and take notice. The one group that needs government support the most is Muslims. Only 7.4 per cent of children graduating from high school are Muslims, whereas their share in the population (Census 2001) is 13.4 per cent, i.e. their shortfall is 45 per cent (ratio of 7.4 and 13.4 is 55 per cent). In contrast, the shortfall for SC/STs is 32 per cent. For the OBCs, the shortfall is a minuscule 4 per cent. Very few people, and no one from the politically conscious and politically correct Congress party, are pushing through policies to help those who need it the most�the Muslims.
The high school statistics also put in perspective how much the state can achieve by affirmative action at the college level. The shortfall for both Muslims and SC/STs at the high school level cannot, and should not, be addressed at the college level. It is equivalent to asking colleges to admit students who have failed high school, something not desirable in democratic societies, no matter what the perceived social injustices visited upon these castes (and religions) by events that happened more than five generations ago.
Students passing out of schools choose one of three alternatives, roughly in order of ability: the least able do not go to college or enter diploma courses; the somewhat able enter diploma courses since they do not get admission into colleges, and the most able obtain college admission. The “ability� ratios (the proportion of high school graduates entering college) across castes and religions are approximately the same. Again, the major deviation from “equality� is observed for Muslims�they comprise 5.8 per cent of the college-going population, and 7.4 per cent of high school graduates.
The final two columns of the table compute the probability of entering college for each high school graduate who chooses (or has the minimum ability) to go to college. Today, the SC/STs have a 117 per cent chance of entering college, the rest of the population only 74 per cent. Since some states already have some reservation policy for OBCs, the chance for an OBC to today enter college is somewhat higher than the probability for Muslims and upper-caste Hindus, and Sikhs, and Christians, etc. With the implementation of the Congress party law on reservations, the chance for an OBC would increase substantially to 93 per cent, and that for non-OBC and non-SC/ST Hindus and Muslims would decrease to 65 per cent, i.e. an able SC/ST will have double the chance of entering college, and an able OBC 50 per cent more chance of entering college, than an able upper caste Hindu or Muslim.
Given this reality, it is quite unfair of Mr Advani or the BJP to accuse Congress of “appeasing� the Muslims. If anything, they have consistently acted, and are now acting, against the interests of the minorities, especially the Muslims.
source:
business-standard.com
By Tanweer Fazal
The lead up to the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh saw a spate of communal violence aided by a desperate Mulayam government to salvage its fast losing turf, and the launch of one of the most vicious anti-Muslim campaign by the BJP with the support of state machinery and a toothless Election Commission. Fueling the frenzy further was the single bench judgment of the Allahabad High Court declaring Muslims to be a numerical majority in the state. Defying all logic and conventional yardsticks to determine a minority, the judgment claimed that considering that the Muslims in Uttar Pradesh comprised 18.5% of the state’s population, they “do not merit to be included as minorities any longer and therefore, should not be entitled to benefits accruing on that account�. The immediate context was a petition moved by Ghazipur-based Madrasa Noor-ul-Islam, seeking the Court's intervention for getting it self included in the list of minority institutions entitled to periodical government grants. While the plea was rejected outright, in his zeal, Justice S.N Srivastava overstepped his jurisdiction to serve a writ of mandamus to the Union of India to modify an October 23, 1993 notification specifying Muslims among the minority communities of the country.
While the Court order was suo muto stayed by another bench of the High Court; it is the underlying ideology that is malicious. The judgment itself cannot be seen as an aberration, but a grim reminder of how judicial interventions have, over the years, been deployed to legitimate Hindutva mobilizations and anti-Minority campaigns. In 1995, a Supreme Court ruling equated ‘Hindutva with Indianisation or the development of a uniform culture by eradicating the difference between all cultures coexisting in the country’. The verdict was a virtual judicial sanction for Hindu majoritarianism and a negation of the Constitutional obligation to preserve and protect minority cultures. In a similar vein, in 2005, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court cited Hindu Shastras to accord legal status and rights to Hindu deities to own land and properties in the same manner as that of a natural person. Recently, the Allahabad High Court created a furore by quashing the minority character of Aligarh Muslim University. Invalidating a 1981 Parliamentary Amendment, the High Court upheld a 1968 Supreme Court judgment (Azeez Pasha Vs. the Union of India) in which the Court had denied minority status to AMU on two grounds. One, AMU was not established by its founder Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, but a British Act of Parliament and later a Central legislation. Two, Muslims were not a minority as they were a homogenous community whereas the various castes and sects of Hinduism could be considered minority groups. Muslims, thus in the judges’ view, were in fact a majority in this country and the Hindus a minority—a sentiment echoed by Justice Srivastava’s conclusion. Again in 2005, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court (Bal Patil vs Union of India) while denying minority status to the Jains held that in a caste-ridden Hindu society ‘all are minorities among Hindus’.
The term minority finds mention only in Article 30 of the Constitution wherein religious and linguistic minorities are entitled to establish their educational institutions, ostensibly to protect minority cultures from assimilative tendencies of the state and the majority community. Even this provision—the only concession that the Constitution makes to the minorities of the country—has remained contentious. However, few would know that Article 30 itself could be construed as a ‘great betrayal’ towards the minorities. In the draft Constitution, minority was a category that subsumed within its broad definition the Scheduled Castes, Tribes, Anglo-Indians, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsees and Christians. All of these were guaranteed reservation in legislature and adequate share in government jobs. However, post-Partition, the gang-up of Congress rightists led by Sardar Patel forced a re-opening of the debate. Religious minorities were excluded from the ambit of reservation, with only the SCs and STs now marked out as the beneficiaries of reservations. In an unprecedented subterfuge—though Patel’s initial resolution and speech focused only on reservation in legislature, at the last moment, with no discussion in the House—the minorities’ claim in public service was also nullified. And the paragon of Indian secularism, Jawaharlal Nehru, declared that any demands of safeguards by minorities betrayed lack of trust in the majority.
True, Article 30 doesn’t spell out the parameters of defining minority groups, yet successive Supreme Court interventions have laid down clear guidelines—a fact that Justice Srivastava of the Allahabad High Court chose to ignore. As early as in 1957, the Supreme Court (Refer to the Kerala Education Bill) granted minority status to groups whose numbers were below 50 per cent in a given area. In 2002 (T.M.A Pai Foundation vs the State of Karnataka), an eleven-judge bench of the Supreme Court specified that the geographical unit has to be the ‘state in relation to which the majority or minority status will have to be determined’. Regardless of the fact that Uttar Pradesh has the highest concentration of Muslims in the country, the community will continue to be a minority on account of it being only 18.5% of the state’s population. Whether they comprise more than 50 per cent in a couple of districts remains inconsequential.
It is not the numerical criterion alone that need be invoked to legitimate minority status to the Muslims of U.P. Considering the experience of apartheid South Africa, minority status is also a definition of marginality. The case of Muslims is substantiated by the findings of the Sachar Committee. The Muslims of U.P, as in most states, comprise the bulk of those below poverty line. Their share in government jobs is a miniscule 5 per cent; the literacy level is a good 10 points lower than the state’s average. Most Muslim concentrated areas remain devoid of basic developmental amenities such as pucca roads, electrification and a primary school. This in turn has abetted high drop-out rates among Muslim children. The absence of school often tends to be compensated by the ubiquitous presence of a police chowki.
Given the scenario, what does the loss of a minority status imply? In concrete terms, to most Muslims it has remained an empty slogan. Article 30 has mostly only served to provide the State an alibi to hide behind. The National Policy on Education, 1986 identified Muslims as the educationally backward minority and called for immediate attention. The Planning Commission, however, left this task to ‘Minority Educational Institutions’, majority of whom are entirely self-financed, usually catering to the elite. The Madarsa modernization programme is the government’s flagship scheme to attend to the educational needs of Muslim children—a typical state response to the need for schools in minority concentrated areas. But even here, the allocation has remained paltry. The fund allocation for Maulana Azad Educational Foundation, launched with great fanfare, hardly reflects the long list of tasks appended to it: including construction of hostels, schools, laboratories, sadhbhavna kendras, vocational training centres, scholarship to girl students etc.
The National Minorities Commission is a statutory body yet its reports are never tabled in the Parliament. A sinister minoritisation in state policy is what the Muslims of India are faced with. It is this minoritisation that strips them off all entitlements while constructing them as exclusive political category that is to be won over by occasional sops and concessions. In this project minoritisation, questions like partnership in progress and adequate share in national wealth are often glossed over. Ironical as it may be, the Allahabad High Court judgement is of one piece with this project.
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Tanweer Fazal works with the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He can be contacted on fazaltanweer@yahoo.co.in