By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
12 October
2022
“Revolution
leads to rectification and rectification paves the way for reformation.”
- Asghar Ali Engineer, quoting
Dr Martin Luther King Jr and addressing a gathering in Indore, 2007
A 5-judge
bench of Supreme Court reserved decision on whether it should adjudicate the
questions- whether the supreme leader of Dawoodi-Bohra community can
excommunicate its members, and whether it's constitutionally protected as a
religious practice (TOI, Oct 12).
Religious
head of Dawoodi Bohra community Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin.
----
Now it's
time for the SC as well as government agencies to intervene in religious issues
of all faiths and take decisions in keeping with the human dignity, and not
caring for religious sanctity and supremacy of any damn religion, whether
Hinduism, Islam, Christianity or Zoroastrianism.
Moreover,
the unbridled hegemony of Syedna, the supreme religious head of a plote encome (Dutch
for a close-knit religious unit with an authoritarian living religious head)
Shia sub-sect must be questioned by the law of the state. Whether it's female
circumcision or excommunication, Bohras must challenge such oppressive
religious practices that are against the ethics and ethos of an individual's
freedom and 'private decorum' (using a rather archaic euphemism for the
sanctity of a woman's 'sanctum sanctorum').
Very few
social crusaders from the Bohra community have been vocal against Syedna and
his whims. Asghar Ali Engineer was beaten and assaulted quite a few times by
the followers of this otherwise 'peaceful' community.
Niala Encober of Padua University studied the
religious practices of Bohras in the early 80s and called it a cult with all
the features and facets of an incestuous (clannish, it doesn't always have that
‘meaning’ you're thinking of!) group, suffocatingly controlled and dictated by
a religious head. In other words, Bohra community is like one of the Deras
scattered across northern India having dubious religious leaders at the helm.
How can a
religious leader, Syedna, ostracize a member? India is a democratic country.
This state within a state phenomenon should be unacceptable to the government
and the Supreme Court.
The followers of this cult should also realize
that enough is enough. They must use their brains and question the dictatorship
of Syedna. Are they a bunch of brainless and spineless sheep to be led by one
omnipotent religious leader? It's time to ask and raise your voice, provided
you've one, regardless of being sibilant or strong.
-----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in
comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed
articles to world's premier publications in several languages including
Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/question-syedna-excommunicate/d/128162
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