Victimhood Narrative, Paternalistic Sympathy and The Indian Muslim Predicament
By Arshad Alam, New Age Islam
01 September 2020
Couple of weeks ago, a serving IPS officer, Najmul
Hoda wrote an article
which appeared to blame Muslims for the mess in which they find themselves
today. Tracing a historical genealogy of Muslim victimhood narrative, Hoda
pondered why Muslims are complaining today when all objective indicators are
telling us that they are much better off as compared to say a century ago. Hoda
argues that the current Muslim ‘lament’ is because of the withering away of
exclusive religious privileges which the community once exercised, which was
partly the result of its theology of Islamic supremacism. Thus, Muslims must
come out of their ‘victimhood narrative’, and must critically engage with their
past in order to set right their present.
In promoting individual
freedoms, India’s liberals must take on both Hindu and Muslim communalists
(File)
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The article was negatively received, by Muslims and
others, who were quick to point out that the author was doing this to get close
to the political establishment. Muslims journalists, some celebrated ones,
similarly ran down the piece, without bordering to write a rejoinder or even
engaging with it on other platforms. There was a feeling of unease amongst
Muslims; they were at a loss to understand how one of their fellow Muslim could
write such a piece. The only viable rejoinder
came from N C Asthana, a retired IPS officer, who boldly stated that ‘it was
unfair to blame Muslims for their own tribulations’. And yet, it must be said
that despite his best intentions, Asthana did not understand the full import of
the Hoda’s article.
Before dissecting Asthana’s piece, it is important to
underline the function of Hoda’s article, even without going into its merits.
This is probably the first time that an article has generated so much noise
within the Muslim community. And the very fact it was written by a Muslim need
to be appreciated. Mostly, Muslims have reacted to debates generated outside
the community. The last time Muslims reacted in such a fashion was when
Ramchandra Guha wrote this
piece in a national daily. Guha’s article also generated a
lot of heat amongst Muslims, but then it was not a debate which was engendered
from within the community. It is good therefore that Muslims have started to
figure in their own debates, rather than being written about by others which
had become normal for the last many decades. It will be much better if, rather
than complaining, Muslims write rejoinders to Hoda’s article so that some
debate is generated in the community.
Representative
Image. Photo: Meena Kadri/Twitter CC-BY-ND 2.0
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Asthana’s trope that colonialism was responsible for
whatever wrong happened with Muslims is an oversimplification. First,
colonialism was disastrous for the country as a whole, not just for Muslims.
But it is also true that different communities engaged with their British
masters, some more successfully than others. It is a fact that initially,
Muslims boycotted English education and as a result suffered in terms of
representation in public life. Another effect of this ill thought strategy was
that it never produced a reformist middle class which would have spurred this
community towards modernization. Experiments like Aligarh Muslim University
came very late in the day and even then, it remained too much mired in the
religious glory of the past.
Asthana reluctantly accepts that Muslim might have
‘erred’ in this project, but then refuses to draw the right conclusion by
de-linking modern education with a transformative agenda. Instead, he points to
the Sachar Committee Report to highlight that lack of education is not the only
reason why Muslims are discriminated against. The problem is that nowhere in
the document, Sachar Committee Report expressly acknowledges the prevalence of
overt discrimination. It certainly tells us the lack of Muslim representation
in comparison to other religious communities, but does not go into the reason
as to why this is so. Lack of Muslim representation in the Indian
Administrative Services, for example, may be due to acute sociological reasons,
rather than solely due to discrimination.
Representative
Image
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When it comes to caste divisions within Muslim
society, Asthana again misses the point that Hoda is trying to make. By
invoking the Ashraf-Ajlaf dichotomy, Hoda is saying that Muslim politics in
India has always been done by the Ashrafs, without paying any regard to the
developmental needs of Ajlafs who are the majority of Muslims in this country.
Hoda links this Ashraf hegemony with their preoccupation with foreign origin
and their innate belief, not just in their own superiority, but also in the
superiority of Islam over all other religions. The religious supremacism of
historians like Barani (which Hoda quotes) flows from such an understanding.
Asthana will not understand but this politics of exclusivity has done immense harm
to the ordinary Muslims of this country.
Asthana wilfully misreads what Hoda is trying to say
over Muslim preoccupation with the identity question. No one is arguing that
identities are not important or that Muslims should not be comfortable with
their religious identity. The point that Hoda is trying to make, and rightly
so, is that so far, Muslim politics has been singularly obsessed with its
religious identity to the detriment of all other issues which a community
should wrestle with. Muslims have been passionately defending Urdu, madrasas
and their personal law because they consider them as an extension of their
religious identity. It is not surprising therefore that we have not seen a
single movement of Muslims in post-Independence India demanding better quality
education. Those who argue that it is the state’s responsibility to provide
education for all conveniently forget that other communities have successfully
lobbied the state for educational provisions. Shouldn’t Muslims, aided by their
numerous waqf properties, have done the same?
This is not to suggest that one is in complete
agreement with whatever Hoda is arguing. For one, he certainly discounts the
fear that has gripped Muslims with almost routine lynching, destruction of
their property, arbitrary arrests of Muslim student leaders and negative
stereotyping by government and the media. All these have an effect not just on
the livelihood of ordinary Muslims, but inhibits their full participation as
citizens. It is one thing to critique the past mistakes of Muslims, but quite
another to be oblivious of the mental and physical violence which has engulfed
them.
Asthana, as anyone else, has all the right to respond
to Hoda. But a better critique can only emerge with an empathetic engagement
with the Muslim community rather than this paternalistic rush to defend them.
Muslims do not need such paternalism, they do not need to be ‘saved’, what they
certainly need is an objective evaluation of their situation and the best
placed to do so are members of the community themselves. It is rather rich that
Asthana, evokes Martin Luther King and asks Hoda to understand the ‘inner fears
and outer resentments’ of Muslims. Hoda, a Muslim, does not need either an
Asthana or a King to understand the predicament of the Muslim situation today.
His very being teaches him what others would fathom to understand in their
lifetimes.
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Arshad Alam is a NewAgeIslam.com columnist.
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