Why are Muslim achievements and liberal traditions not celebrated? (Comment)
By Saeed Naqvi
It does not surprise me that the continuing debate on the Op-Ed page of the Indian Express on the Muslim predicament skirts fundamental issues. The debate has been triggered by Ramachandra Guha disagreeing with Harsh Mander on the Muslim question.
Mander's column, headlined "Sonia, Sadly", expresses his hurt at Sonia Gandhi's public expression of fear that the Congress was being perceived as a "Muslim Party".
In the very first paragraph of his column, Guha plucks out a quote from Mander. "A Dalit leader tells Muslims who come to political meetings: By all means come in large number to our rallies. But don't come with your skull caps and burkas."
"Mander is dismayed at this gratuitous attempt to get Muslims to voluntarily withdraw from politics." But Guha disagrees with Mander's interpretation of what the Dalit leader said. Guha is emphatic: "While the words may be harsh and direct, the spirit of the advice was forward-looking", i.e. don't come in skull caps and burkas.
This, I suspect, is the crux of the matter. Guha is endorsing the new line enunciated by the Congress Party: Keep Muslims at arm's length just in case the BJP spin doctors pick up this visual to polarise. Rahul Gandhi's frenetic temple-hopping, janeu et al, is in pursuit of this soft saffron.
Apoorvanand, Harbans Mukhia, Mukul Keshavan, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Suhas Palshikar, Irena Akbar, Khalid Ansari, Jawed Naqvi, why, even Mander himself, have all written sensitively, even knowledgeably on the subject. But Guha is a class apart: Muslims must give up skull caps and, to balance matters, Hindus their trishuls. His desire to equalise permeates the article.
Praveen Togadia and Yogi Adityanath are bad, but Guha will be happy only if Asaduddin Owaisi and Ali Shah Geelani are mentioned in the same breath. Togadia wants Muslims to leave the country. "Occupy their homes," he once famously said in Gujarat. Without batting an eyelid, Yogi heard his cohorts ask for buried Muslim women to be dug out from their graves and raped. Show me a comparable quote from Owaisi or Geelani.
"Yeh ajeeb majra hai ki baroz e Eide qurbaan
Wohi zubah bhi kare hai wohi le sawab ulta"
(Look at the illogical system of the ceremony of sacrifice.
He who slaughters claims the reward for paradise.)
The tragedy is that Guha belongs to the category of people who, because of their celebrity status, imagine that eminence in one field qualifies them to claim proficiency in all the others. His inadequacy on the theme he has rushed into unprepared, derives from a common malaise: He is a creature of uninstitutionalised apartheid which means separate development.
It would be interesting to know if Guha has ever visited Muslim homes or the other way around when he was a child. Did he know Muslims in school or college whose friendship he still values? Even if he is able to blurt out a name or two, the undeniable truth will be that he has grown up only with his ilk. He has no experience of Muslims. He is not alone in this category.
A sharp contrast attends my circumstance. I, along with my three brothers, grew up only among Hindus. Apartheid therefore didn't touch us. Since our informal education was continuous since birth, we knew fairly early that Al-Biruni wrote Tarikh al Hind after his extended stay beginning 1017. Moinuddin Chishti, Shahbaz Qalandar and a host of Sufis and saint-poets like Kabir from the 12th to 14th centuries were spreading "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam", paving the way for Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana who ended up writing the only Sanskrit verses in praise of Lord Rama. In his brilliant Persian poetry in the 17th century, Chandrabhan Brahman felt secure enough to taunt and tease the Muslim clergy.
Yagana Changezi, a 20th century poet, questions a basic tenet: Why must namaz be said in a foreign language? If all of this sounds like nostalgia, let me invite you to Lucknow for an evening of spiritual poetry on Ahl al-Bayt or the Prophet's family. The poet, Sanjaya Mishra, was a favourite with my mother who died three years ago. She had special vegetarian meals prepared for him.
I have shed light on the tiniest strand in the vast expanse of Muslim liberal traditions. Since the 16th century these have been bound up inextricably with the waxing and waning of Urdu in which Hindus and Muslims equally participated. The first great writer of Urdu prose was Pandit Ratan Nath Sarshar.
How many liberals know that there is not a single couplet in Urdu which praises the mullah or endorses orthodoxy of any kind?
Did you know that most of the poetry on Krishna, Ram in the last century has been written by Muslims? I will only confuse the issue if I bring in Kazi Nazrul Islam, Salbeg, Bekal Utsahi or Nida Fazli.
It puzzles me why liberal intellectuals sometimes fall prey to a tendency that the politician has cultivated as a calculated habit: Consider the Muslim only as a religious category. Why must Muslim achievements in poetry, music, architecture, systems of governance not be celebrated? Such an exercise would surely cast them in a liberal mould. Guha might then heave a sigh of relief.
A false quest for a liberal Muslim leader almost flows from the above approach. A liberal Muslim leader, I never tire of repeating, is a contradiction in terms. That is an illiberal quest. Are we never going to find a Hindu whom Muslims can trust and the other way around?
That must be the only possible way ahead.
(A senior commentator on political and diplomatic affairs, Saeed Naqvi can be reached on saeednaqvi@hotmail.com. The views expressed are personal.)
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Expelled BJP MLA Yatnal indicates possibility of launching 'Hindu party' in Karnataka
Vijayapura (PTI): Basangouda Patil Yatnal, a rebel MLA recently expelled from BJP, indicated on Sunday the possibility of launching a new "Hindu party" in Karnataka if the saffron party decides to continue B Y Vijayendra as state President and supports his father B S Yediyurappa's "dynasty politics".
Asserting that he was not against BJP -- which he still regards as "mother"-- nor against PM Narendra Modi, the former union minister said, he and his associates will start gathering public opinion on the need for a new party, and indicated the possibility of it coming into existence on Vijayadashami.
He repeatedly said that he has been getting messages from Hindu workers across the state, asking to form a "Hindu party" in Karnataka, as Hindus here are not safe under the present state BJP, which he accused of having "adjustment" with CM Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM D K Shivakumar and other Congress leaders.
The BJP on Wednesday expelled Yatnal from the primary membership of the party for six years, for repeated violation of the party discipline.
"People who strongly advocate Hindutva are being suppressed in the party because of the selfishness of Yediyurappa's son, today even I'm suppressed because of the persistence of Vijayendra and Yediyurappa for the sake of their dynastic politics," Yatnal said.
Speaking to reporters here, he said that he still requests the party high command which is against the dynasty politics and corruption, that if they don't remove those indulging in adjustment politics, people of the state will lose faith in the BJP.
"If the high command decides to continue Vijayendra for the next term (as president) and the chief ministerial candidate for the next assembly polls, a time will come for the people of the state to take a strong decision for a new future for the development of the state, with people who are honest, not corrupt and those who protect Sanatana dharma," he added.
Noting that PM Modi repeatedly states in his speeches that there is no place for dynasty and adjustment politics and corruption in the BJP, Yatnal asked, "then why is Vijayendra still there? Vijayendra is corrupt and it is because of him Yediyurappa went to jail; There are allegations of forgery against him; his name is behind PSI and 40 per cent commission scam."
"If the party wants to continue with a family that is involved in several scams, the Hindus and Hindu karyakartas of this state will have to take a decision. We will start an awareness in this regard from today itself," he said.
People are suggesting building a new "Hindu party", as BJP couldn't protect Hindus now he said and cited instances of alleged attack on Hindu Karyakartas when Yediyurappa was the Chief Minister.
"Congress is a Muslim party, there is no need to speak about them, if BJP doesn't become Hindu party, the people of this state will make a historic decision. If you (BJP high command) give responsibility (of BJP) to Yediyurppa family BJP will face a humiliating defeat," he said, as he also accused Yediyurappa of betraying north Karnataka.
Making it clear that his fight was not against the BJP or PM Narendra Modi, Yatnal said, that if the country is secure today it is because of Modi he urged the party to give the state leadership to someone who is honest like Modi.
He asked the party leadership to come out of the feeling that there is no one else other than Yediyurappa and his family and that the dominant Veerashaiva-Lingayat community will go away from the party if the party decides against them.
Stating that he and his associates will get a survey done and gather public opinion regarding the need for a party that will protect the Sanatana Hindu dharma that is pro development -- especially north Karnataka-- Yatnal said the people have already come forward to give donations for the new party.
"Will abide by the decision of the people. We are not finding a future here (in BJP). Yediyurappa family is conspiring to sideline Hindu leaders. If the people opine in favour of formation of a new party in Karnataka, on Vijayadashami, we will hundred per cent launch a new political setup in the state," he said.
Asserting that he had not indulged in any act of indiscipline while asking for proof of his indiscipline, the grounds on which he was expelled, Yatnal said, he never criticized BJP or Modi or party's ideology and never voted against the party's official candidate, nor had attended any Congress or JD(S) meetings.
"I'm not anti-BJP, I'm anti-Yediyurappa as Yediyurappa has betrayed the people of north Karnataka, he suppressed many including me for the sake of his son. I still regard BJP like my mother," he added.
Yatnal also claimed that Vijayendra and his supporters are worried about the latter being removed from the president post, following his expulsion. "They fear what if the high command decides for a tie, by taking action against Vijayendra too, after my expulsion."
