Burden of their song

The editorial in the latest issue of RSS mouthpiece Organiser, titled “Vande Mataram. Why the clergy crib?” says: “The fatwa brigade is out again. This round in the company of the redoubtable Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who has displayed an exceptional expertise in blowing hot and cold in the face of mounting pressure on national security. That the Deoband intellectuals could not find anything more significant and meaningful for the community it claims to represent, than the bogey of Vande Mataram to raise before the home minister underlines the crisis facing the Muslim clergy. It is in a time warp. It has no sense of timing or priority. If a Muslim should or should not sing Vande Mataram can be debated endlessly. There are people like A.R. Rahman and Arif Mohammad Khan, in modern times who find it elevating to sing the soul-stirring song. Post-independent India has seen social reformers and intellectuals like M.C. Chagla, Hamid Delvi, etc, pleading tirelessly to their community to join the national mainstream. The liberal leadership of Indian Muslims has often found it difficult to carry the Muslim masses with it, as the more orthodox held sway over their political decision-making. This helped cynical political bargaining by the self-appointed champions of minority rights like Congress and Communist parties, which keep Muslims in perpetual bondage of vote-bank politics even as this game damaged and undermined the community — economically, educationally and even socially”.

The editorial adds: “The real problem with the mullah is his medieval attitude towards women. He cannot digest the idea of honouring womanhood, her dignity, in the form of a goddess, mother or motherland. It seems more a pathological deformity than religious rigidity. It has more to do with treating woman as an object, a chattel than a source of inspiration, grace and creativity. This is his anathema with the concept of motherland also. It is surprising that he is not able to salute the land that gave him birth, that continues to give him succour and sustenance. This is in other words called gratitude or patriotism. It is a non-negotiable paradigm, Vande Mataram is only a literal translation of an Indian’s feelings, attitude and attachment to this land on whose abode he finds his fulfilment and meaning in life. To deny this is to deny ones own identity, ones claim to be its citizen and an equal partner to its growth and prosperity”. It concludes: “By issuing a fatwa barring its followers singing Vande Mataram, the mullah is chopping off his community away from its own ancestral right. Thankfully, the members of the community have better sense. These mullahs no more represent or call the shots in the community. It is time for them to realise their irrelevance or for the community to show them their place. A Muslim becomes a better Muslim when he owns and belongs to the land of his birth”.

... contd.