Muslim India

By Zohra Javed

zohrajavedblogspot.com

I have a feeling: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Samajwadi Party are feeding each other. They are the true friends in need of each other in Maharashtra. After splitting from Uncle Bal Thackeray, Raj is still struggling to find a foothold all across the state.

Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party also would like to register presence in Maharashtra in a bid to spread wings and increase their cadre from regional to national levels. So when Raj unleashed his terror on the North Indians, and Behenji was preoccupied with her legal problems, the opportunity fell directly in the eagerly stretched out Samajwadi hands. The party grabbed it hawk-like!

And now the common man is witnessing another political tamasha that threatens to become bloody considering the "national-patriot" Abu Azmi and the "regional-patriot" Raj Thackeray's zeal for their respective ambitions.

For the time being Shiv Sena's legendary roar seems nothing more than a slightly loud murmur, to which the Marathi Manoos and the Bhaiyya from the North can dare to be indifferent at least for the present.

WATCH:

SP MLA Abu Asim Azmi hit by MNS MLA's for taking Oath in Hindi

Abu Azmi's adamant arrogance matches perfectly with the Thackerays' wildly violent love for Marathi Manoos. In insisting on taking oath in Hindi and playing the National language v/s Regional language card, Azmi went a bit too far. It is rather unbelievable that he is staying in Maharashtra since 1973, has been in public life for a long time, hopes to sit in the Maharashtra Assembly, and yet never tried to learn Marathi.

One would have accepted that since he is not very well-versed in Marathi, his request that he be given the documents and important papers in Hindi, although he could have opted for English as well, be granted. But I cannot buy the argument that he could not speak even a sentence or two in Marathi for the oath-taking ceremony even as a token of his regard for the people of Maharashtra.

But is this kind of divisiveness not evident elsewhere too? Unfortunately it is far too evident across the globe. The politicians really don't have to work hard on this. Religion is one big issue and region, language, caste, etc. follow closely as being the infallible potent remedy for instant fame and unlimited power. Asians v/s Non-Asians, Muslims v/s Non-Muslims, North v/s South, Northern Hemisphere v/s Southern Hemisphere...the list goes on! The potential for dividing people is immense.

However can emotions vary in their intensity when expressed in different languages? Pain, love, compassion, hatred and all the human feelings for that matter are felt with much the same force and degree by all human beings. How do you feel a sorrow in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, French, German...and similarly joys need not have a language to spill out.

Thus the feelings, as expressed for instance in "Mee lek laadki ya ghar chi..." and "Babul ki duaaein leti jaa..." express with equal sensitivity the "bidaai" of a girl after her marriage.

And the lessons that one learns from the life of a fisherman's travails at sea will not be different in Hindi or Marathi.

"Waadal vaaraa sutla ga..." and "O! Maajhi re, apna kinaraa nadiya ki dhaara hai..." are so much alike when it comes to emotions expressed.

I pity the Abu Azmis, the Thackerays and their likes for what they are missing in their lives. And which all their money cannot buy, but which their compassion could make so easy for them to have. The common man for once can be much better off than these fighting netas if one chooses not to get carried away by their rhetoric. We, the people must realize our responsibility which is very well expressed by Sahir Ludhyanvi in the following lines:

"Nafraton ke jahan mein hum ko,

Pyar ki bastiyan basaani hain;

Door rehna koi kamaal nahi,

Paas aao to koi baat baney..."

Post by Zohra Javed

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Related Blog Post:

By Sandeep Dougal/ Blogs OutlookIndia.com

Goonda Raj And 'Hindi Hegemony'

The ugly scenes in Maharashtra Assembly -- where legislators of Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) slapped and [roughed up a Samajwadi Party legislator for taking the inaugral oath not in Marathi but in "national language" Hindi provide a lot of food for thought and are bound to keep the commentariat busy. Three perspectives:

First, Samar Halarnkar in the Hindustan Times:

The chattering classes of Mumbai’s high-rises hate and fear the Senas, ascribing to them a lunacy beyond understanding. But scratch many seemingly sensible Maharashtrians, and they will gradually talk of culture, tradition, language and the fear of being swamped by Mumbai’s great and growing diversity. Of course, they will insist, the way Raj is going about this is wrong, there must be no violence, but you know, what he says isn’t really wrong...

Next, Rajeev Dhavan in the Indian Express, like a good lawyer that he is, doesn't lose sight of the crux of the matter and has useful practical suggestions:

The correct course of action is for the Speaker to issue breach of privilege notices to those who directly participated in this breach, as well as those who conspired to make it happen. This means notices should go to Raj Thackeray to ask him of his complicity in the conspiracy. If he says he was not part of the conspiracy to disrupt the assembly, he would knock himself down a peg or two on this issue. If he admits his involvement, he must be punished along with the others, albeit by token suspension for the legislators and censure for the non-assembly conspirators. At this stage, to punish by imprisonment would make martyrs of such persons. But, issuing process of breach of privilege is a must.

Meanwhile, in the DNA, R Jagannathan, while not questioning Abu Azmi's constitutional right to take oath in Hindi, joins issue with the Hindi hegemonism that his supporters have adopted:

Speaking about Hindi as a national language is no different from speaking about Hinduism as India's official cultural expression. Hindi is a great language, but it is not any more national than Marathi or Kannada, or Bengali or Telugu. Ironically, it was left to the MNS to point out the obvious: that Hindi is just another regional language of India.

Constitutionally though, while there may not be a "national" language,  Hindi indeed has been privileged, and as Dhavan points out:

There was always a Hindi version of the Constitution. But if there is any doubt, the 58th amendment mandates the president to publish an authoritative text of the Constitution and every constitutional amendment of it in Hindi (Article 394A). If someone wants to take their oath in Hindi, they are doing no more than following authoritative text of the Constitution itself!

Dhavan also comes to the heart of the matter in his usual no-nonsense style:

What is even more ironical is that even in the Maharashtra assembly, two BJP members took their oath in Sanskrit (Girish Bapat, Girish Mahajan). Congress members took their oath in Hindi (Amin Patel, Ramesh Singh Thakur) and English (Baba Siddique). It is said the Samajwadi Party MLA, Abu Asim Azmi, drew attention to himself and his choice of language. Suppose he did, so what?