FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK

Muslim India, 1995

The year 1995 was a period of re-awakening, of stock-taking and of re-evaluation by Muslim Indians of their situation and of identification of friends and foes, of those who are sympathetic to their legitimate interests and aspirations and those hostile thereto.

 The political system also began a serious assessment of the mood of Muslim Indians in the context of the general elections due in the first half of 1996, of the various intellectual and political initiatives taken since late 1994 within the community which have served to create an environment of hope, dissipating the dark clouds of despair which had gathered on their mental horizon in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid and which had in turn given rise to feelings of self-pity, mutual recrimination and passive inaction, as if the sky had fallen.

 The revival of the community within three years into self-confidence and its healthy distrust of traditional suitors indicate a level of maturity, not attained since Partition, in facing the many ups and downs in its fortunes and the many turns and twists on its path. Today the arena of action by opportunist brokers appears to have been limited; the chance of the community being hijacked by political adventurers is much less. Its euphoria for the secular forces and its dislike for the communal forces have been tempered with realism and appreciation of the ground reality that it constitutes a permanent minority and that while the permanent majority cannot wish it away, neither can the secular parties, not even the left parties, come to its rescue and support it or protect its interests at the cost of losing the Hindu votes. So it has dawned on it that its survival in its homeland in dignity and equality calls for better skills, superior public relations, wider political contacts, increasing intellectual input and less emotionalism and even less sentimentalism than has hitherto been exhibited.

Political Field: The Sangh Parivar

Not surprisingly, the year 1995 was marked by show of concern for the Muslim community by the Sangh Parivar itself while its various constituents continued to play its old game of Muslim-baiting and to propagate its ideology of Hindutva, which by definition excludes Muslims and other religious minorities from full participation on terms of equality in the affairs of state and the management of society. Perhaps old habits and ingrained attitudes die hard. Perhaps the show of concern was an exercise in opportunism and hypocrisy. In any case the Sangh Parivar, particularly its political arm, the HIP, did not succeed in convincing any sizable section of the community of its Bonafide and the genuineness of its new-found love, when on all fronts it continued to inject venom in the body-politic and press into service            Sants, Mahants and Shankaracharyas, Sadhus and Sadhvis to promote the message of Hindu Rashtravad, not so much to consolidate the Hindus or to reform Hindu society, but to prepare them psychologically and physically for the inevitable and eventual 'final solution'.

These tactics came into the open after the BJP-Shiv Sena came to power in Maharashtra. This 'Hindu' Government took one step after another to translate its long-held ideas into reality: it abolished the Minorities Commission; it reduced the grant to the Urdu Academy and Urdu institutions; it adopted a 'uniform civil code', albeit for the State of Maharashtra; it re-named many. public places including Aurangabad, a city founded by Emperor Aurangzeb; it sabotaged and finally abolished the Shri Krishna

Commission of Inquiry charged with investigation into the Bombay disturbances of December 1992--March 1993, which was not less than an organized war by the Shiv Sena against the Muslim community with the support of the local police. No doubt it also made some gestures like permitting the Muslims to spread out of their mosques on Fridays, to build up a friendly. relationship between the police and the community or to allow the use of loudspeakers for azaan. But it did not fulfil its promise of permitting the construction of multistorey mosques nor did it open the doors of the police force to the community.

 The BJP continued to put forward à double face, projecting Advani and Vajpayee alternately with the old tunes of 'cultural nationalism' and 'minority appeasement' playing in the background. The problem with the BJP lies in the fact that its support base has reached a plateau and for its final assault on the peak of power it needs that extra bounce. So it must try to attract all possible votes, including the Muslim, disenchanted with the Congress and the secular parties. Perhaps it wishes to take advantage of the opportunism and naivete which still persist in a section of the Muslim community.

Congress: Religious Web

 The Congress has also been trying hard through assorted brokers including a Hindu astrologer, some Imams, some Qazis and some Maulanas to regain Muslim support. But it has not resolved the old dilemma. Can it afford to lose Hindu votes in order to gain Muslim votes? The dilemma in fact freezes it into public inaction while continuing with private subversion on the false premise that the Muslim clergy, such as it is, can be bought and depended upon to deliver the goods. It seems that despite age and experience the Congress is still infantile in its approach, obsessed with the modalities it experimented with unsuccessfully, as history shows, during 1937-47. During 1995 it tried not only to come to terms with the Bukharis, but also courted the Deobandi ulema and, what is most important, bestowed special affection on the Barelvi ulema and the Sajjada Nashins of the dargahs. At the end of the year the campaign hardly bore any fruit. P.M. Narasimha Rao's visit to Bareilly was a fiasco; the introduction of direct train service from Bareilly to Ajmer and even the issue of a special stamp on Ahmad Raza Khan, the founder of the sect, did not make any hit.

The Home Minister was forced to abandon his visit to Kanpur. Their forays into the fortress of the Deobandis, failed to melt the ice, demolish the walls of resistance or establish communication with the Muslim masses.

Third Force

Muslim Indians desire the unity of the forces of Secularism and Social justice but they are divided. There is growing disenchantment in the relations the Muslim Indians tried to forge with the Shudras(OBC's) and the Dalits (SC's) and the Adivasis (ST's) as in the case of post-independence unequivocal support to the higher castes. But Indian society is in a state of transition, getting more and more polarized as it moves towards Social Justice. These may be occasional pitfalls, reversals and deviations but the future of the community lies with the newly-emergent forces, with the Dalits, the Adivasis and the Shudras. What is needed now is not emotional bhai-bhai-ism but an alliance based on mutual respect and understanding and the principles of social justice.

Half-hearted Measures

The fact is that Muslim Indians have grown up and are not likely to be deceived even by the show of support of reservation for Muslims in public employment orchestrated by Sitaram Kesri with Tariq Anwar and Gulam Nabi Azad as drummer boys. Muslim aversion to Congress, and more so to the person of Narasimha Rao remains an undeniable political fact, primarily because the wounds caused by the destruction of the Babri Masjid continue to fester and cause pain.

Even positive gestures like a massive jump in the Haj quota from 31,000 to 50,000, the expiry of TADA and the release of many detainees, the introduction of the Bill for the establishment of Abul Kalam Azad Urdu University and the passage of the new Wakf Act failed to make an impact because they did not carry conviction. The Haj quota has been increased but under the current foreign travel regulation any citizen can travel abroad with a liberal release of foreign exchange. The Wakf Act has been passed and promulgated but no action has been taken to implement it and to vacate the unlawful occupation of Wakf properties, even those occupied by the Central and State Governments, or to increase their income. The Urdu University Bill was introduced but not taken up. The Prime Minister's 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of the Minorities was reviewed but not re- framed to give it a quantitative thrust. Census data relating to district-wise population or language, far less the economic and educational cross-tabulations, remained locked up five years after the census. Coaching facilities have been budgeted but the funds have remained unutilized. Access to Government service, whether it was the cadre of the IAS and the IPS or the post of constable or peon, remained barred. A National Council for Development of Urdu and a National Committee to Monitor Education of the Minorities have been formed but exist on paper while Urdu-speaking students have been denied the facility of receiving their primary education through the medium of their mother-tongue or even of learning their mother-tongue upto high-school level, even in the school systems which function directly under the Centre. TADA has expired but TADA cases remain. What the Muslim community, therefore, sees is motion but no movement, hollow promises and empty gestures but no concrete results.

Communal Violence

The respite in communal violence noted in 1994 thankfully continued during 1995 but nothing was done to relieve the underlying tension or to establish a dialogue. The community remains in a state of siege: insecure, fearful and apprehensive of a sudden explosion. These tensions in the body-politic can be eased only by a well- structured dialogue leading to mutual acceptance, by strict application of the Rule of Law on the basis of a National Code for Minorities, and through the practice of the principles of secularism in all state activities. On the other hand, the Government has allowed Indo-Pakistan relations to cast their shadow over inter-community relations within by permitting the publication of exaggerated reports about the ISI network penetrating and operating through the madarsas, masjids, and mohallas. Such propaganda serves only to feed hostility and hatred and to sharpen the image of Muslim Indians as Pakistani agents, despite the fact that the muhajirs who are of Indian origin continue to face not just rough weather but fire and blood in the streets of Karachi.

Personal Law

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board failed to regain its stature in the community; its biennial meeting in Ahmedabad during 1995 was a routine event and did not achieve any significant results; it only reiterated the old, largely unimplemented, programmes. It failed particularly to take due notice of the rising consensus in the Muslim community on the questions of triple talaq and unbridled polygamy. While it reacted strongly to any move towards the uniform civil code, it failed to take notice of the healthy development which made women's organisations review their strategy and give priority to the reform of the Muslim Personal Law, and other personal laws, over introduction of a uniform civil code. The Board did not lend support to the formulation of a standard nikahnama which would secure the rights of Muslim women in the Indian context. However,  Government for its own reasons, but perhaps also due to fear of further alienation of the Muslimcommunity, stood up to the pressures of the Supreme Court for expeditious introduction of a uniform civil code. These two developments may provide the time needed for the crystallization of an internal consensus within the community into much needed legislation.

Educational Progress

The tempo of educational endeavour further picked up. though the Supreme Court failed to make any pronouncement on the issues pending before it relating to the scope and application of Article 30. Muslim educational institutions, therefore, continued to be forced into setting aside 50% of their capacity for 'other' students. They were also obliged to apply for and obtain prior approval of the Government as well as the affiliating/examining bodies before establishing institutions of their choice as a matter of constitutional right, which thus stands substantially eroded.

The Aligarh Muslim University despite assumption of office by the new Vice Chancellor faced a difficult situation during the year and it had to be closed down following a spell of disorder orchestrated by the campus mafia which having lost the Patronage was trying to overawe the new Vice--Chancellor into 'cooperation'. The fact however remains that the AMU has lost touch with the community and the campus is divided into hostile camps. The Court and the Executive Council did not meet and the University functioned under the emergency powers of the Vice-Chancellor, which is extended to the ludicrous limit of his own approval of his own Annual Reports and Annual Accounts before submission to the Government! Economic Status

There was no marked improvement in the economic status of the community. The credit floor, even at the rural level, remained constricted. Official institutions under the Ministry of Welfare, namely, the Minorities Commission, the Central Wakf Council, the Maulana Azad Educational Foundation and the Minorities Finance and Development Corporation continued to plod their weary way with half-hearted steps and did not make any significant contribution to the development and progress of the community at the national level.

It is a significant fact that ever since the establishment of the Minorities Commission in 1977-78 and the announcement of the 15-Point Programme in 1983, the Parliament has not found the time to discuss the status of the minorities or the Annual Reports of the Commission, largely due to the very low priority accorded by successive governments and perhaps because of their apprehension of embarrassment if their inaction over half a century after Independence became widely known.          

Muslim Organizations

 At long last, the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, which had become almost totally defunct was revived with the election of new office bearers in October 1995 by a partially reconstituted Central Majlis But since then the Mushawarat has relapsed into stupor and even its Central Working Committee has not been constituted or held its first meeting.

Babri Masjid Movement

 The Babri Masjid movement, including the Babri Masjid Committee formed by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, showed some signs of life from time to time even as the issue continues to throb in Muslim hearts. The BMMCC, the AIBMAC and the AIMPLB. BMC jointly organised a massive public rally in Hyderabad to mark the anniversary of the introduction of idols in December 1949. This was the high point of the year. It revived the hope of unity, so that both on the political as well as the legal front the issue could be kept alive and that the judicial proceedings before the Supreme Court and the Special Bench of the Allahabad High Court, the criminal case before the Special Coun and the inquiry before the Commission could be well handled.

 Towards the 1996 Test

 As the General Election approaches one notices a upsurge in the community: there is assertion and articulation but there is little organization and less guidance. There is a mushroom growth of Parties Committees, Councils and Tanzims, each financed by someone behind the scene, each loyal to its political mentor. The so-called Muslim leadership is thus in a state of fragmentation, and the community in a state of bewilderment. Perhaps the masses, with their survival instinct, may act unitedly, even if the so-called leadership is engaged in mutual recrimination. Thus a new leadership may emerge from the village/mohalla, block town, district/constituency levels.

 The Muslim Indian has learnt by experience. As 1996 opens, he recognizes his genuine friends and he is not likely to be taken in by his foes, nor prepared to be exploited, as peaceful co-existence and social harmony must be based on just and acceptable ground rules. In 1996, the Muslim Indian who is beginning to come out of his state of siege will face the real test of his foresight, of his intelligence, of his goodwill towards his neighbors ly of his unquestionable loyalty to his 'Watan' and of the depth of his commitment to Democracy, Secularism and Social Justice. The Muslim Indian is looking for the Secular Alternative beyond the Saffron and the Pale Saffron.

New Delhi

1 March, 1996                              

(SYED SHAHABUDDIN)