[nukkad] What Muslims should do

["DD Pappoos" <>]

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Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time. 
-Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)
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Arvind Lavakare may be a RSS mouthpiece, but this time he is just 
quoting Mr. Rafiq Zakaria. Mr. Zakaria's appeal to Muslims is 
worth reading.

DDPappoos
++++++++++++++++++
Arvind Lavakare

A Muslim scholar's bombshell

Irrespective of whether Godhra impacted the result of last week's 
Gujarat assembly poll, post Godhra happenings have moved a 
well-known Muslim scholar of India to facilitate an earthquake in 
his community.
In his latest book Communal Rage in Secular India (Popular 
Prakashan, Mumbai), Dr Rafiq Zakaria first uses Amartya Sen's 
foreword and English language media reports to 'show' the Muslim 
sufferings of early March this year but later, instead of 
appealing to the Hindu's 'tolerance' (as might have been expected 
of a veteran Congressman) or whining about secularism (of its 
pseudo practitioners), Zakaria drops an anti-climatic bombshell in 
the last chapter titled 'What should Muslims do?' which, in 
essence, amounts to 'What Muslims should do.' Below is the Muslim 
scholar's post-Godhra prescription for Indian Muslims.

'Muslims must try and become an integral part of the mainstream... 
they must whole-heartedly co-operate in enriching composite 
nationalism which continues to be our pride... they must get out 
of their ghetto mentality, break the barriers of alienation and 
generate a harmonious environment.'
'They should do some introspection and ask whether they have 
genuinely tried to contribute to the strengthening of Hindu-Muslim 
relations since Partition. The answer will be no.'
'Indian Muslims must open their eyes to the ground reality that an 
increasing number of Hindus have begun to hate them... This is not 
confined to a small section; it has infected the rich as much as 
the poor; men as much as women; the young as much as the old; even 
children are no longer free from it.'
'This is the ugly reality that Muslims have to face in today's 
India. They have to do their best to bring about a change in the 
hostile attitude of the communal Hindus towards them. This is as 
much in their interest as that of the nation. Muslims continue to 
live in a make-believe world of their own. Their leaders waste 
their energies in playing games, whipping up emotions, and 
bringing more trouble to the ordinary Muslims.'
'Their self-serving leaders, with utter disregard to the aftermath 
of Partition, remained oblivious to their miserable decline and 
continued to behave with incredible arrogance, exhibiting a sense 
of false bravado by their loud utterances; they take out protest 
marches at the slightest pretext, hold demonstrations, shout 
slogans, demand justice and fair play but all this never gives any 
relief to the community... They fail to understand that by voicing 
meaningless grievances, asking for unrealistic rights, wailing, 
fretting and fuming, the leaders may gain some publicity but the 
community loses a great deal. They quote the Constitution and 
demand the implementation of this provision or that, guaranteed to 
the minorities but none of it gives Muslims the required 
protection; even democracy is ranged heavily against them because 
under it numbers count.'
'Have these leaders and their hold on different sections of 
Muslims ever been tested? Have their credentials been verified? 
Their uncompromising and rigid attitude on every occasion has only 
weakened Hindu-Muslim relations further.'
'Instead of coming out openly against Pakistan and taking a strong 
stand against the jihadis, these so-called guardians of Indian 
Muslims spend most of their time in running their own political 
shops to buttress their communal leadership.'
'None of these leaders visit villages so they are unaware of the 
fallout of their actions on the poor and hapless who live in the 
remote parts of the country.'
'Indian Muslims must now see the light of day and move in a 
different direction which will take them forward and not backward. 
They must discard their worn-out prejudices and outmoded habits 
and adjust themselves to the requirements of the changing times. 
They must give up asking for doles which will only cripple them. 
In order to survive, they must learn to stand on their own feet. 
For the fact is that they have no true friends; many of those who 
show them sympathy or consideration are not sincere. They do so 
only to obtain some electoral gain. This has been proved time and 
time again.'
'Muslims rely on India's commitment to secularism, but it has not 
proved to be of much help. Nor have Muslims of other countries 
ever come to their rescue.'
'To succeed, Indian Muslims must boldly come forward to undergo an 
all-round transformation in their style of functioning. If they 
neglect or fail to do so…they will be ruined.'
'They will succeed if parents shed their old habits, give up their 
outdated notions, and encourage and help their sons and daughters 
to get the best of education. Merit alone will give them reward; 
they must never seek patronage.'
'Indian Muslims must disown the bigotism which has made Muslims 
pariahs everywhere. They must... give to the non-Muslims the 
assurance that their religion stands for 'live and let live.' The 
orthodox clerics who shut themselves from the world must not be 
allowed to lock the Muslims.'
'They must, without compromising the Quranic injunctions, agree to 
the introduction of certain much-needed, essential changes in 
their Personal Law, particularly the enactment of monogamy. There 
is, in fact, enough scope under the Shariah to amend the laws 
relating to marriage, divorce, dower and even maintenance... 
.Ijtihad, (independent thinking) which was freely used by the 
classical jurists in the past, needs to be exercised by the 
present generation much more today.'
'The issue of Babri Masjid must be amicably resolved;   instead of 
talking it over with responsible elements among the Hindus, 
confrontation was adopted to press the point. This gave rise to 
more hatred against the Muslims. ... What have the Muslim leaders 
really gained by mounting agitation after agitation?'
'The controversy on the singing of Vande mataram by Muslims is 
also meaningless. It was sung by all Muslim leaders, belonging to 
the Congress, during the freedom struggle... Those Muslims who do 
not want to sing it, may not but they must stand up when it is 
sung as a mark of respect to an anthem which has a hoary past and 
is declared as a national song in the Constitution. Why add hurt 
to an already worsening inter-communal relationship?'
'Hindus are piqued by the fact that Muslims are multiplying fast, 
much more than Hindus. The Census figures, decade after decade, 
confirm it... communal Hindus are, by and large, convinced that 
polygamy results in an increased rate of growth of people. It is, 
therefore, not in the interest of Indian Muslims to persist with 
it... Then there is the question of family planning, on which much 
of our progress depends; it cannot be denied that Muslims have not 
taken to it as seriously as the Hindus; this has to be 
corrected... .There is no truth in the allegation that Islam 
prohibits family planning.'
'There must be a real awareness among Indian Muslims that they 
have to gird up their loins and prepare for reconciliation with 
Hindus on the basis that each respects the religious and cultural 
conventions, traditions and sentiments of the other.'
Elsewhere in his book, with regard to reform in Personal Laws as a 
prelude to a uniform civil code, Dr Zakaria comes with another 
home truth viz 'Muslims should not oppose something without 
knowing what it will be.'

All in all, Dr Zakaria's comprehensive diagnosis-cum-prescription 
is breath taking and path breaking. It is as though it were 
written out by the RSS chief himself. Indeed the essence of Dr 
Zakaria's prescription lies in what he says Sardar Patel told him 
in a personal meeting on May 19, 1950: 'The goodwill of the 
majority was the best safeguard for a minority.' Now wasn't that 
precisely what the RSS resolution said earlier this year? Wasn't 
that which got so much flak from the leftists and Patel's Congress 
descendants?

Dr Zakaria's courageous, almost historic, message would have been 
even more meaningful if he had told the Muslims about the Parsis, 
a minority that's probably the most liked community in India. 
Without raising a whimper about their unique religion and their 
rights, the Parsis have produced national luminaries in the field 
of law, industry, business, medicine, journalism and banking. The 
Parsis are the ones which the Muslims must emulate.

On the whole though, the Indian nation must stand up and say 
'Million thanks' to Dr Zakaria. And the least that the secular 
media must do is to give the widest possible exposure to the 
Islamic scholar's advice on what the Muslims should do 
...beginning now.

End.


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