Not everything is Right with the Bohra Community
By
Arshad Alam, New Age Islam
11 February
2023
The Prime
Minister Has Chosen To Ignore Internal Criticisms Aimed At the Syedna
Main
Points:
1. Time and
again, the prime minister has graced the religious functions of the Dawoodi
Bohras, showering praises on the leadership.
2. They are
perhaps considered good Muslims, who engage in trade and commerce but are
consciously invisible, politically.
3. Reformist
Bohras have argued that behind this veneer of goodness lies a mafia-like
structure, controlled at the top by the Syedna.
4. They point
out that the heinous practice of female circumcision, which has no Quranic
basis, has the sanction of the Syedna.
5. In ignoring
such reformist voices, especially coming from women, the prime minister is
legitimizing such regressive practices within the community.
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PM
Modi during Ashara Mubaraka at Indore in 2018. | Twitter
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The prime
minister’s inauguration of the Dawoodi Bohra community’s Arabic institution,
the Saifee Academy, has once again put the spotlight on the tiny but
influential community. During his speech at the inauguration, the prime
minister recalled the close ties which he had with this community since
decades. This is not the first time that the prime minister has spoken from the
platform of the Bohras. Even when he was the CM of Gujarat, he had attended
their program, and showered praises on the community for their enthusiastic
support of governmental projects like conservation of water and bringing down
malnutrition in the state. A few years ago, he had attended a Bohra religious
congregation in Indore.
How should
we understand this closeness of the prime minister with the Dawoodi Bohra
community? The prime minister is accused of maintaining distance with Muslims,
so why should he advertise his closeness with this small community of Muslims?
It might appear contradictory but the prime minister’s approach towards Muslims
seems to be clear: that the party will align only with Muslims that it
considers as good. The prime minister is overtly political, hence every message
that he sends out should be understood within that context. Those who think
that it is the start of something like the Muslim outreach misread the
symbolism involved. This is certainly not the start of the engagement with
Muslims but simply a reiteration of the stated position that only certain
Muslim groups will be entertained at the podium. The motivating factor behind this
symbolism does not seem to be electoral as the Bohras are an insignificant
minority in terms of numbers. While the financial clout of the community may
have something to do with it, the more plausible reason is to highlight the
difference between ‘good Muslims’ and ‘bad Muslims’.
Perhaps,
for this government, the foremost quality of a good Muslim is that they should
have no political aspirations. In one of his speeches when he was the chief
minister of Gujarat, the prime minister said that Bohras are natural leaders in
terms of trade and trust, while underlining that he was not talking about
contesting elections. The good Muslim is, therefore, not supposed to have any
political aspirations, but should be content with trade and commerce. The good
Muslim is also defined by the contribution that they make towards national
life: creating jobs, making money and working for the public good. More
importantly, the good Muslim is defined through self-obliteration of any
political aspiration that they might have. For the ruling party, the Bohras fit
this expectation; ‘mainstream Muslims’ like those in North India do not. That’s
why the latter should be shunned and any talk of their political participation
should be stigmatized as irrelevant to national concerns.
But not
everything is good about this good Muslim community. Estimates vary but the
Dawoodi Bohra community totals about 1.2 million, located mostly in Mumbai and
a few cities in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Members of the community are extremely
prosperous; their women are highly educated and have an influential diaspora
spread throughout the world. The community, though, is in a vice-like grip of
its religious-cum-temporal leader called the Syedna. The prime minister in his
speech called the Syedna as the spiritual head of the community, but this
characterization hides the true picture. The Syedna has a say in each and
everything that a community member does or wants to do. The consent of the
Syedna is required even to go for Hajj, the obligatory Muslim pilgrimage, or to
travel abroad. Through his representatives, he is present in marriages, births
and deaths of community members. But this presence is not just for showering
his blessings, it is also because he gets a fee for ‘allowing’ the members of
the community to do these activities. In the process, the Syedna has created a
financial empire which some estimate to be at Rs 4,000 Crore.
His
representatives called the Amil keep track of every member of the community,
thereby creating what can only be called a surveillance state. Much before
Aadhaar became popular, the Syedna had introduced biometric cards for its
members. Any member wanting to use the mosque, Jamat Khana or other
services were obliged to use the card, making the activities of each
quantifiable as well as trackable. Amils would visit the homes of those who did
not swipe their cards daily at the mosque.
It is not
as if this mafia-like structure has not been known to the outside world. The
progressives within the Bohra community have been calling out the Syedna and
his Amils for decades now, at great risk to their lives and careers. Those who
do not follow the dictats of the Dear Leader are simply ostracized from the
community. They cannot use any of the services associated with the community.
They have even been denied burial spaces in graveyards. It is public knowledge
that the henchmen of the previous Syedna brutally assaulted a group of
reformist Bohras in Udaipur when the latter requested an audience with him.
These reformists have been calling for accountability from the Syedna and the
council that acts on his behalf. Of late, they have been calling for an end to
the heinous practice of female circumcision within the Bohra community. They
have petitioned the government and the courts to intervene so that this
practice, which has no Quranic sanction, is stopped. But so far, there has been
no resolution of the issue.
One can be
relatively sure that the government is in the know of what is happening inside
the Bohra community but then it is not something which apparently bothers the
prime minister. By gracing such religious meetings, the prime minister has
conferred further legitimacy on the Syedna; the reformists within the community
be damned. One of the favourite slogans of the present government is Beti
Padhao, Beti Bachao, but the prime minister seems to have no regard for the
plight of the daughters of the Bohra community who have to undergo genital
mutilation under the dictates of the Syedna. This government has also come down
heavily on what it calls dynastic politics. But it does not have a problem is
legitimizing the Bohra leadership which is nothing but a family fiefdom.
Does this
government have a heart to listen to the grievances of the dissenters within
the Bohra community? Or is that the Syedna’s closeness to the ruling
dispensation would keep erasing his nearly lethal effects forever?
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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/islam-politics/bohra-community-syedna-modi-saifee/d/129077
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