Being A Muslim in India Is Not Easy
By
Karan Thapar
March
1, 2021
I
am not easily impressed. I have eclectic tastes, which frequently change,
leaving me unsure of what I like. So it’s not often I find a book compelling.
Ghazala Wahab’s Born a Muslim: Some Truths about Islam in India
is definitely one such. At times autobiographical, often anecdotal, frequently
analytical, and full of convincing research and illuminating history, it tells
you what it’s like to be an Indian Muslim.
“When
I started to write,” Wahab explains, “I wanted to address fellow Muslims and
tell them they needed to look beyond the mullahs and embrace modernity.” But as
she became aware “of just how vulnerable Muslims in India are” and how
“extremely fearful”, her focus altered. “How does one tell people just
struggling to stay alive they need to change their thinking, their manner of
living, their approach to religion?” That, you could say, is the predicament
facing our Muslim brothers.
Wahab’s
journey began when she realised people “perceive two distinct identities” in
her — Muslim and Indian. It led her to ask: “What does it mean to be a Muslim
in India?” But also a more inward-looking question: “Is it not possible to be
Muslim and forward-looking?” This book is an honest but also distressing answer
to both.
Over
the past year, the federal structure has come under strain. A BJP win in Bengal
and presence in government in Tamil Nadu will strengthen the Centre’s hand —
while a TMC win in Bengal and a DMK win in Tamil Nadu will strengthen the voice
of states.
Disha Ravi has now been granted bail. However,
in his judgment granting bail, Judge Dhamender Rana said, “The offence of
sedition cannot be involved to minister to the wounded vanity of governments.”
The government must heed this warning.
Censorship
and State monopoly on parliamentary telecast violate the democratic ideals of
accountability, transparency, and keeping the electorate informed.
The
emotional turmoil of unrequited love is real, but we can put it behind us
fairly quickly if we try. Take cues from the 2009 film 500 Days of Summer.
Wahab
believes there are external and internal forces that hold “Muslims in a pincer
grip”. The external is “the socio-political discrimination they face at the
hands of both lawmaking and law-enforcing authorities”. It often amounts to
physical and mental violence. It denies them equal opportunity, even justice.
“This forces Muslims to seek security in their own numbers, and they withdraw
into ghettoes on the periphery of the mainstream, thereby limiting their
choices in terms of accommodation, education and profession”. The internal
force is “the vicious cycle perpetuated by illiteracy, poverty and the
disproportionate influence of mullahs”. This keeps “a large number
undereducated and, therefore, unemployable”. It’s also “prevented the emergence
of a progressive, secular Muslim leadership”.
How
many of us, who view Muslims from the outside, understand this? Very few. Of
our rulers, even less. This is why Muslims “carry a double burden of being
labelled as ‘anti-national’ and as being ‘appeased’ at the same time”.
The
world Wahab reveals, the other side of a door we never walk through, is a
nightmare. Ponder on what Wahab writes of young Muslims, every one of them born
Indian with exactly the same rights as you and I. “Young Muslim men are
frequently picked up and held without charges indefinitely under some
anti-terrorist law or another.” Research shows “Muslim boys now have
considerably worse upward mobility than both scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes”. So is it surprising many mothers want their sons to go abroad? “A
Muslim boy in India will either be a wastrel or viewed as a rioter and be
killed by the police”.
Some
too poor to escape — yes, that’s the right word — pretend to be Hindu. They
change their names to give themselves another identity. “If I have a Hindu
name, no one will bother that I work with cattle skin,” Wahab was told. They’re
even prepared to convert. “Magar dil mein kya hai yeh kisi ko kya pata
(but how can anyone tell what is in our hearts)?” I don’t know if this is true
of a few or many, but does that matter? Even if it’s one, it’s a tragedy that
shames us. Yet till I read Wahab’s book, I wasn’t aware of this.
There’s
also another dimension — you could call it the flipside — and Wahab is equally
forthright in writing of it. Moderate Muslims are not just caught between two
worlds but torn apart. “On the one hand, conservative or devout Muslims
disparage them; on the other hand, Hindus suspect them”. So what choice do they
have but to “keep their heads down and hope they won’t be called upon to take a
stand?” Yet these are the people many criticise for their silence. The truth is
it’s not easy to be a Muslim in India. Both the world outside and your own
community torment you. If you want to understand and, perhaps, see Muslims
through their own eyes, this is a book you should read.
Original
headline: It’s not easy being a Muslim in India
Source:
Hindustantimes
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/being-muslim-india-easy/d/124424
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