Sachar committee, in its damning report submitted to the
government of India in 2006 put the status of Indian-Muslim “below the
conditions of Scheduled Castes and Tribesâ€. In education, employment, income
level, representation in the government, and a range of other social and
economic indicators, Muslims lag behind all other social groups in the country.
Despite seven decades since independence, and six decades of
Congress party in power – a party that wants to be seen not just as a secular
entity, but also as a friend and supporter of the minorities – Muslim status in
the country has continued to decline.
How does one explain this? And who should be responsible for
such declining fortunes of a community that has, not in too distant past, ruled
the country for over 200 years?
The new generation Muslim, educated and angry, blames the
Congress. He also blames Sangh Parivar, but not as much, because that body is
well known to be anti-Muslim since inception, and Muslims had little
expectations of receiving any positive help from them.
Young Muslim anger is now reaching a point where Gandhiji
and Pandit Nehru are also not spared from the blame, and accused of
back-stabbing Muslims.
The objective of this essay, however, is not to play the
political blame game. That has been played far too long and did not change
anything – either for improving the stocks of Indian-Muslims, or keeping the
fortunes of political parties garnering Muslim support during elections.
The objective is to do a little introspection – something
that is not very popular among a majority of my fellow Muslims – and see what
other factors under our own control may be contributing to the pathetic state
of this community.
Having grown up in a traditional Muslim family, and having
learnt the elements of faith, traditions, and culture first hand, the
obscurantism plaguing our belief system readily comes to mind.
It is said that the purpose of education is not to fill up a
pail, but to light a fire. In the light of that fire, when I see my faith, and
scrutinize beliefs, I find that on a range of issues we have failed to bring
our religious discourses to reality. Dependence on medieval values and archaic
conventions continue to dominate our intellectual bandwidth on a range of
topics governing customs, traditions, and personal laws. There is a widespread
belief in the community that the period of the Prophet was the perfect period
in Islamic history, and we need to go back to that period.
Take for example the issues of Uniform Civil Code and triple talaq,
which are currently the hot topics, once again, under BJP rule. It is a
no-brainer that the laws that cover matters of marriage, divorce, property
inheritance, and guardianship of children must be a modern goal of a
nation-state, and should therefore be uniform for all citizens. Developed
nations around the world have civil laws that are religion-blind and
gender-just. Even among Muslim countries that follow Shari’a laws, twenty one
of them, including Pakistan, have banned triple talaq.
But Muslims of India generally oppose both (UCC and a ban on
triple talaq) based on their interpretation of Qur’an and/or belief in
Shari’a, which, in the words of Ziauddin Sardar “is a set of ninth century
customs and rules, which may or may not have served that society very wellâ€,
and is irrelevant in present times.
Not to ignore, there is some justifiable fear among Indian
Muslims that through UCC, the Hindu Right is trying to take away Muslim rights.
Such fears increase when BJP fans the flames of communal hatred, goes about
erasing Muslim history of India, and acts to reduce the status of the Muslims
to second class citizens in their own country.
But it is also undeniable that a major factor behind Muslim
opposition to UCC is our clergy’s inability to replace a medieval mindset with
modernity, or to strike a balance between the past and the present. Critical
thinking is very much needed among Muslims – not just in defending Qur’anic
edicts with modern science, but to accept the fact that some of the edicts had
applicability for the Bedouins of Saudi Arabia and have no relevance to the
contemporary societies.
In their resistance to modernity, Muslim hardliners enjoy
significant support from numerous well-meaning liberal and highly qualified
non-Muslim friends and NGOs, advancing the cause of secularism in India. That
is astounding – not to mention frustrating.
Whether such support is to underscore their secular
credentials, or to record opposition to BJP/RSS ideology, or foster their
business interests, a ‘no strings attached’ backing from ‘friends’, given to
wrong causes results in deepening the widespread impression that Muslims are a
regressive community steeped in feudal values. This further increases
community’s isolation, sharpens communal hostilities, and adds to its social
woes.
It is said that a true friend never gets in your way unless
you happen to be going down. With its refusal to accept the modern social
values, which progressive communities around the world have accepted, the
Indian-Muslim community is rapidly descending the slope of progress. We need
the help of our friends, more than ever, to stop that slide. Showing favors out
of fear, or self-interest is not help.
So “friendsâ€, begin by ending your support to our medieval
laws. Your valuable, sincere and honest guidance – without pandering, or
provoking – is all that we seek. That alone will help us join the rest of our
non-communal and deeply secular fellow citizens who are already on board the
progress train.
(Najid Hussain is a Marine Scientist, working at the
University of Delaware. He is also the son-in- law of former Member of
Parliament Ahsan Jafri, who was murdered by a mob in Naroda Patiya in Gujarat
during the riots in 2002)
