Why is it exceptional if some Muslims ... regarded themselves as an indivisible component of a religious collectivity? Other communities have had similar self-images. Else how shall we explain the Hindu Mahasabha, the Rashtriya Swayansevak Sangh (RSS) and numerous Hindu caste associations? ...

... A Muslim, like his counterpart in any other community, has many acts to perform, diverse roles to play. He is not genetically or culturally cast in the role of religious crusader or a relentless defender of the faith.

Besides being a follower of Islam by birth and training, a Muslim, or for that matter a Hindu or a Sikh, is a peasant or a landlord, an agricultural worker or a landless labourer, a worker or an industrialist, a student or a teacher, a litigant or a lawyer, a Shia or a Sunni.

Should we then harp on his Muslim and Islamic identity to the exclusion of ... the secular terms in which he relates to more immediate and pressing socioeconomic need, and ... his wide-ranging interactions with his class and not just with his brethren?

The depth and nature of this interaction remain a matter of dispute, but they do not justify an absolute Muslim/Islamic consciousness... How could a specific Muslim self-consciousness merge out of such multiple and diverse experiences? ...

Contemporary politics in India is characterised by a preoccupation with communitarian identities, with chauvinistic ideologies and with movements that divide religious communities and exacerbate differences. Much more attention needs to be given to ideologies and movements that have in the past tried or are trying at present to unite Hindus and Muslims and thereby further the post-colonial agenda of social transformation.

Furthermore, social scientists need to locate the social norms, cultural patterns and political responses of Muslim groups in relation to what Aziz Ahmad has described as an Indian environment, which means not in a specifically religious or Islamic framework.

They need to situate prominent political and religious figures within a perspective that would ... prevent their appropriation by denominational groups.

This is surely how the role of people like Ajmal Khan, Ansari and Azad can be evaluated. This is surely how a nation, desperately in search of unifying symbols to withstand a Hindutva wage and a Muslim fundamentalist upsurge, can pay tribute to men and women who nursed the vision of a secular and democratic society. In the mid-1990s India has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, 110 million, smaller only than that of Indonesia. The landscape from Kashmir to Kanyakumari is dotted with mosques, Sufi shrines, makatib and madaris. The call for prayer goes out (even) in remote towns and villages.

Muslim rituals, symbols and institutions ... remain intact despite India's partition and the inter community rift that followed it. Muharram ... and the countless variations in celebrating the local saints lend a truly Indian colour to the Muslim practice in the subcontinent.

No doubt some of Islam's manifestations kindle memories of temple destruction and forcible conversions, nurture ill-will, and ignite the flames of violence. Yet the spread and variety of Muslim religious sites and their coexistence with Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Christian religious places of worship provide living testimony to the fusion of ideas and beliefs and 'the transmission of cultural ... impulses'. (Despite) stray and orchestrated instances of religious frenzy (which cause friction, deepen prejudices and lead to the representation of Muslims as the 'alien'. Still, the 'clash of civilisations' theory or the supposed historic enmity ... is refuted by the weight of historical and contemporary evidence.

Islam in India, past and present, unfolds a bewildering diversity of Muslim communities ... in multiple streams of thought and interactions. Their histories, along with location in multiple, cultural traits and occupational patterns, vary from class to class, from place to place, and from region to region. They speak numerous dialects and languages and observe wide-ranging regional customs and local rites... Caste exists as a basis of social relations... In several domains Muslims make up an integral part of the larger socio-cultural complex dominated by values and ideologies of the Hindu tradition.

Research on Muslims is still mired within traditional frameworks, still dominated by widely accepted stereotypes. Colonial categories of knowledge, as applied to them, have been questioned but not changed. Consequently, ideas and movements associated with Muslims are categorised as revivalist rather than reformist, communal rather than secular, separatist rather than nationalist, and finally reactionary rather than progressive.

There is still talk of a 'Muslim mind', Muslim outlook', and ... a Muslim identity' ... A sense of otherness continues to be conveyed in such images and polarities. Notice ... the expression - 'nationalist Muslims' - widely used to describe the activities of those Muslims who were wedded to a broadly secular polity and to the ideal of composite nationality... The majoritarian view of nationalism ... assumes that patriotism/nationalism comes 'naturally' to the vast majority of non-Muslims and not to others... There are other misguided yet widely held beliefs and assumptions... for instance... that orthodoxy represents true' Islam whereas liberal and modernist currents are secondary or peripheral to the more dominant 'separatist', 'communal' and 'neo-fundamentalist' paradigms.

The focus has been on traditional revival, on religious revivalism and on fundamentalists stirrings. When it comes to Muslims, the dominant 'orthodox' paradigms are suddenly underlined...

Time and again we are led to the believe that the major preoccupation of a Muslim is... observing religious rituals. Time and again we are told that Muslims... are more prone to the hegemony and exhortations of Islamic rhetoric... The solidarity of the Umma was indeed invoked to cultivate pan-Islamism, religio-revivalism and Muslim nationalism...

These are important facets, but their significance should not be overstated in order to construct a unified Muslim structure of consciousness or singular Muslim community acting in unison to achieve common goals.

(Source: The Hindustan Times, 27 July,1997)