Jinnah, Shahabuddin & Owaisi: Tackling Muslim’s Problems in India
By Syed Ali Mujtaba,
New Age Islam
13 July
2024
When the
winds of democracy started blowing in 20th-century India, it became certain
that power is going to be shifted to the people of the country. Since then a
flurry of activity has been witnessed among numerous groups how to grab
political power and become the new masters and rulers of India.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
------
With the
game of numbers and the ballot box being the arbitrator of political power,
many groups and specificities kindled hope that in the changed equations they
can lord over India and guide the destiny of the teeming millions but at the
same time some groups got ruffled by the change and the new game of electoral
politics may drown their identity and they will be reduced to non-entity in
such power play.
Muslims
were the first to fathom the depth of such development. Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman (1889–1973) the leader
of the Muslim League from UP who went to London in 1930 to coax Jinnah to
return to India and take up the cause of the Indian Muslims was candid when he
told Jinnah ‘You care two hoots of the brass button of your black coat….. Are
you going to throw the Muslims of India to the wolves’…?
How
prophetic were Kaliquzaman’s words, just look around and see aren’t Muslims
thrown to the wolves in contemporary India?
Here the effort is to underline the problems of Muslim identity in
independent India. And these problems of Muslims were raised by in the run-up
to the independence from 1920 to 1947.
To stay on
course, Jinnah saw the fate of Muslims in independent India as early as the
1920s when mass-based politics was taking shape in the country. He pleaded to
the Congress leadership to safeguard and protect the Muslims from the
freebooters among the Hindu majority community.
Syed Shahabuddin
-----
As a
gesture of reconciliation, Jinnah proposed 14 points to safeguard Muslims'
interests at the Allahabad Congress session in 1928. This was not only shot
down but he was hooted by the rouge element of the Congress party. Disgusted,
by the way majoritarian politics was panning out in India, Jinnah retired from
Indian politics and went to practice law in London. It was there that Kalique –
u- -u-Zaman went to beg him to return and protect the Muslims from the
onslaught of the majority community’s offensives.
Jinnah
participated in round table conferences that were held in London and again
tried to influence the Congress leadership to protect the Muslim interests in
India. Congress remained non-committal
and took refuge in saying independence first and that the rest of the issues
could wait. Congress did not give any assurances to allay the fears of Muslims
in India nor it discussed the issues of their safeguards.
The 1936
elections sealed the fate of Jinnah’s politics and Nehru thundered; “there are
only two political forces in India the Congress and the British, rest has to
pack up.” Jinnah retorted to this and said “Hang on, don’t forget there is
another force and that is Indian Muslims.
Since then
Jinnah shunned the politics of cooperation with the Congress and embarked on
the separatist path and tried to do competitive politics with the
Congress. He seemed convinced that Congress
would head to parity and that he had to gain by hook or crook to bargain to
safeguard the Muslim interests in India. The 1946 election turned the table in
favour of the Muslim League. The new electoral muscle that the Muslim league
gained gave the Congress only two options; either to agree to the safeguards of
the Muslims in India or to willingly approve the Partition proposal of Jinnah.
In this
moral dilemma, the core Hindu leadership in the Congress like Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee decided in favour of Partition to
shed the Muslim load over India. They consented to divide the country rather
than give any safeguards to the Indian Muslims. The narrative that was built
was; “It’s better to cut the head than have constant headache.” The blame game started and Jinnah was held
responsible for the vivisection of India.
Notwithstanding
the fact, the fact remains that the same set of problems that Jinnah raised in
pre-independent India haunts the Indian Muslims even now. The situation of the
Muslims has enormously worsened in the independent India. In contemporary
India, Muslims have become a rudderless community being abused, humiliated, and
bulldozed as if they are outcasts in their motherland.
Good
riddance the competitive religious politics ended with Partition of India. After independence, Nehru took up the cause
of Indian Muslims assured them of protection, and committed to their prosperity
in India. However, after Nehru the vote bank politics primed for electoral
supremacy and Muslims were subsequently used as the vote bank for the electoral
victory of a political party.
The book
titled “Jinnah, Shahabuddin & Owaisi
“Tackling Muslim’s Problem in India” tries to look at the issues
confronting Muslims in India. It also looks at the different styles of politics
pursued by the Muslim leadership at different times and spaces in India. Under
the leadership of Jinnah competitive and separatist politics were being
pursued. Such kind of politics
accentuated the problems of Muslims in India in the post-partition India.
It was
around the 1980’s when the Muslim community was subjected to all kinds of
embracement that Syed Shahabuddin, an Indian foreign diplomat took upon the
mantel of the Muslim leadership. Being a lawyer, he drew his political strength
from the constitution and the independence of the judiciary in India. He took
up issues such as Muslim personal law, Babri masjid, Salman Rushdie, etc. He
started a politics of confrontation with the majority community of Muslims as an
alibi. His faith in the probity of courts and justice to safeguard Muslim
interests vitiated the communal atmosphere in India. He little understood the
brute majority forces can have their sway not necessarily on the right side the
justice.
Syed Shahabuddin’s
belief in the judiciary and primacy of the constitution was thrown into the
wind when his campaign for the protection of Babri masjid ended up pulling down
the contested structure by the Hindu fundamentalist. Posterity judges Syed Shahabuddin’s politics
as one instead of mitigating the problems of the Muslims accentuating them and
spoiling the social relationship in the country.
Subsequently
began the resurgence of Hindu nationalism. In this backdrop, Asaduddin Owaisi
has emerged to take up the cause of Muslims in India. His style of politics is
of ‘Protest’ against numerous injustices going on against the Muslim community
in India. His brand of politics is also towards Muslim political empowerment.
Such politics has yet to see any tangible results.
The
dominant narrative that prevails in India is the Muslim leadership has done
nothing to ameliorate the ills of the community rather they are hand in glove
to castigate the Muslims into oblivion blaming democracy to be ill for their
problems.
The purpose
of the book is to look at the real problems of the Muslims in contemporary
India and find the ways and means to mitigate them within the democratic and
constitutional framework.
The
executive summary of this book is Muslims have lived after the 1857 revolt when
they lost their political power to foreign invaders. They have also lived
through the agony of the Partition of India. Currently, Muslims are living
under the shadow of resurgent Hindu nationalism. They are being confronted by
hostile forces that are bent upon dismembering their religious identity in
India. In such a situation rather than feeling despondent Muslim should
recalibrate their politics to the needs of contemporary India.
There is
little doubt that Indian Muslim are living in toroid times. They have to wake up to the reality that the
ground below their feet is slipping and their hostile forces are working
overtime to do this crime. They have to build a decisive response to the harsh
reality surrounding them.
This
response should be through capacity building first through political
empowerment at gram panchayats, municipal ward councils, state assemblies and
Lok Sabha level. Muslims have sufficient electoral muscle to be present in
these bodies and this strategy can alno regain their self-esteem in India.
The other
strategy is that through educational merit they can they can have visible
presence in the administration in the country. Their presence in the police
being in charge of police stations and upward can make a difference. The
presence in administrative posts such as at block level circle officers,
sub-division officers and the district magistrate post can stop of the social
injustices against their community. Needless to say such change has to be brought
within the democratic framework and within the constitutional parameters.
This book –
“Jinnah, Shahabuddin & Owaisi -
Tackling Muslim’s Problem in India” can be submission to the nation that
sees Muslim as an obstacle to the national growth but hardly gives any support
to the nature and direction to the change.
The volume
is going to be self-authored as the author carries the academic baggage of PhD
on the theme “The Demand of Partition of India.” The fascinating story of Jinnah is on his
lips; as an eyewitness the author is witness to Syed Shahabuddin’s brand of
politics. As a working journalist starting his career in Hyderabad, he is previewing
the rise of Asaduddin Owaisi in Indian politics. Nationalist to the core the
author holds the view that independent India promises an exciting future for
the Muslim community. They only have to help themselves for their betterment.
------
Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He is author of five
books including “The Demand for Partition of India” (Mittal, 2002). Publishers
can contact him at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/books-documents/jinnah-shahabuddin-owaisi-muslim-problems-india/d/132692
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism