RSS, Civilizational War and Islamic Supremacism
By Arshad Alam, New Age Islam
24 January 2023
Mohan Bhagwat’s Statement On Islamic Supremacism
Needs To Be Debated By Muslim Society
Main Points:
1.
Mohan
Bhagwat said that Muslims should give up the notion of Islamic supremacy.
2.
He
also said that Hindus are engaged in a civilizational war since a thousand
years.
3.
The
Urdu press completely dissed the statements and did not even try to engage with
the ideas present in that interview.
4.
The
RSS represents the Hindu worldview of the country and for that reason alone,
Muslims should have engaged seriously with the interview.
5.
There
is no need to agree with whatever Mr. Bhagwat said, but simply rejecting it
does not take the debate forward.
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RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat
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The much talked about interview of RSS
chief Mohan Bhagwat received a polarized reception. Commentaries written on the
interview were either wholly negative or eulogizing of whatever he had to say.
In the interview, Mohan Bhagwat said that Muslims should give up their
nostalgic claims that they were once the rulers of this country. Asking Muslims
to forgo their supremacy complex, he underlined that they were free to live
according to their faith; that they had nothing to fear from the Hindu
majority. However, in the same breath, he also said that there are times when
Hindus overreact and this can be explained by the fact, they have been engaged
in a thousand-year war with outsiders. It was expected from the Muslim
community that they would objectively analyze this interview with the express
purpose of what it holds for the community. But even a faint reading of the
Urdu press tells us that this became another opportunity for Muslim
intellectuals to play the victim and rubbish whatever the RSS supremo had to
say.
As Muslims, there is a need to deeply
interrogate this interview as it tells us how the majority thinks about the
Muslim question in India. It is foolhardy to keep repeating the falsity that
RSS does not represent all the Hindus. It certainly does represent the
viewpoints of a large majority of the Hindu population, which can be seen
through its increasing popularity and acceptance. What the RSS speaks about
Muslims need not always be the kernel truth but it gives us an opportunity to
see how and why the Hindu mind thinks about the Muslim question in a particular
way.
It is pointless to even argue with the
assertion that Hindus have been engaged in a thousand-year war with Muslims.
Whether there was a united Hindu consciousness all these years remains a
disputed fact. Moreover, Hindus themselves fought with each other and in the
process allied with Muslims who came here looking for land and power. But there
is no denying the fact that Hindus today think and act in a much more united
fashion. And over the years, they have internalized the feeling of being a
victim. The Hindu right is now engaged in what is being called de-colonizing
history which is privileging a Hindu perspective. Bhagwat may be positing a
modern construct onto medieval history but the important thing to realize is
that he is not alone in doing so; large sections of Hindus now see their history
through this prism of a relentless civilizational war between Hindus and
Muslims. It is one thing to say that this perspective is wrong; the important
question for the Muslims is to ask how to engage with the Hindu mind over this
question.
Should the increasing Hindu intolerance be
explained as a consequence of this "thousand-year-old war," as Mohan Bhagwat
seems to be doing? Is Mr. Bhagwat justifying targeting of Muslim lives and
property, which we now hear as a matter of routine? Even if we accept the
statement of Bhagwat as true, then should the Muslims today be paying the price
of what Muslim kings may have done hundreds of years ago? The Muslims today live in a
country which promises to treat all citizens fairly. And yet we see that when
it comes to justice for Muslims, they have to run from pillar to post to get
even their voices heard. Just think of Bilkis Bano who was targeted by Hindu
mobs only because she was a Muslim. Her assaulters are now free because the
ruling government decided so, in open defiance of all morality. The real
problem with Mr. Bhagwat’s statement is this: that it might be used to justify
anti-Muslim attacks. Is this the edifice on which the RSS wants to build the
civilizational state of Hindu India?
Mohan Bhagwat also said that Muslims should
give up their supremacist attitude. Now there is some truth in this statement.
There is no gainsaying that Islam came to this part of the world through
multiple routes; Muslim traders in Kerala arrived much earlier than Muslim
invaders in North India. However, it is a fact that Muslim conquest in North
India became the definitive history of this country, accompanied as it was with
the destruction of some important Hindu temples and a somewhat contemptuous treatment of the
majority population. No one, including Muslims, remembers the fact that the
first mosque in India was built in Kerala, perhaps one of the earliest in the
Islamic world. No one remembers how these Muslims peacefully amalgamated with
the local population, intermarried and lived together for centuries. No Muslim
visits the Cheruman mosque and feels nostalgic about the advent of Islam, but some do have this feeling when they visit the Quwwat ul Islam mosque in Delhi,
which was constructed after demolishing and effacing Jain temples.
What became the dominant narrative was the
Muslim conquest of North India and it has defined the psyche of Hindus and
Muslims alike. With the empire, came the theology which told Muslims about
their exalted status in the eyes of God, how they had the divine right to rule over
the world as the chosen caliphs of Allah. It is from this theology that Islamic
supremacism springs. Someone like Sheikh Sirhindi would advise rulers to make
sure that the Islamic sharia gets followed to the letter. And that meant
imposition of the jizya on the Hindus; that Hindus should not build or repair
their places of worship; that their houses should not be higher than those of
the Muslims; that they should not ride a horse in presence of Muslims, etc. At
times, the contingencies of running the empire meant that better sense
prevailed and Muslim rulers ignored such demands from the Ulama.
However, that sense of superiority pervades
much of Islamic writings. As late as the 1970s, Ali Mian Nadwi, the famous
rector of Lucknow Madrasa, was reminding his audience how Islam brought
civilization to India. In his various treatises, Nadwi tells the Hindus that it
was Islam that brought the message of universal brotherhood and equality,
otherwise they were just a collection of castes and sects. He also argues that
it was Muslims who gave Hindus a sense of history, otherwise they were just
dabbling in useless folklore and fantastic mythologies. He reminds Hindus that
they should feel grateful that Islam came to India, otherwise they would never
have become a nation. All through his writings, there is not even a hint of
appreciation of the Hindu way of life, their culture or knowledge tradition.
And it is from writings such as these that Islamic supremacism flows.
The likes of Shah Waliullah, Sirhindi and Nadwi are long
gone but it would be wrong to argue that the ideas they propounded have been
discarded by Muslims today. Rather such ideas continue to be taught in many
religious seminaries and are read widely within the Muslim society. The
majority of the Indian Muslims today are converts from artisanal castes and,
technically speaking, should not be imbued with such supremacist ideas. But we
know that’s not the case. When our whole religious literature speaks from a
position of power, then it is not logical to expect that only some elite
Muslims will be affected by it. The Pasmandas of today are as wedded to this
supremacist theology as are the Ashrafs. And it is in this context that Mohan
Bhagwat’s statement needs to be understood and debated. One is not saying that
we should agree with whatever he has to say but at the same time to reject
something in toto just because it is coming from the RSS is equally
problematic. If some Muslims keep insisting that they are the chosen ones, then this
attitude can only breed alienation and separatism. The least that they can do
is to revisit their own received wisdoms.
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A regular contributor to
NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad Alam is a writer and researcher on Islam and Muslims in
South Asia.
URL:
https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/rss-civilizational-war-islamic-supremacism-/d/128957
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