Did I pass or fail?

Edward said points out how, in the global panorama of cultures, not all peoples are endowed with the equal right to narration and representation. This is more true of Muslim communities the world over. Hence the appalling ignorance displayed in the media after September 11, the confusion about the meanings of Islamic symbolism, and the tendency to conjure the image of militant Islamic forces seizing control of the ‘civilised’ world.

At another level, an utterly futile counter-exercise goes on ceaselessly — to prove that terrorism has no sanction in Islam, that Islam is a peace-loving religion, and that the clash of civilisation theory is unfounded. Added to this cacophony of noises is the clamour that every Indian Muslim must pass the loyalty test prescribed by self-proclaimed patriots. Otherwise, one is told, their silence will be construed as acquiescence in terrorism.

Like Gabriel who brought Allah’s message to his Prophet with the prefatory remark ‘‘say’’, India’s Muslims are told to condemn Pakistan’s invasion in Kargil, and terrorism in Kashmir and the US. And when they reiterate what they believe in, somebody comes up with the startling revelation that liberal Muslims hardly represent the community — only the Jama Masjid’s Imam does. So the task assigned to Javed Akhtar & Co. is to dispel this impression. Believe me, it’s hell of a difficult task, time-consuming, and demanding, for establishing one’s nationalist credentials.

Life goes on with the accusing finger pointed at the Muslims, regardless of whether one is an atheist or a believer, secularist or Islamist, Marxist or Congressman. But, then, why should anybody trust us? Our ancestors destroyed and desecrated temples: hence our public figures remind us of our collective guilt by visiting the Somnath mandir. Muslim leaders partitioned the country; hence we must live in Bharatvarsha on the sangh parivar’s terms. Our co-religionists instigate caste/class violence in different states. They foment terrorism in Punjab, Kashmir and the Northeast, and not the Sikhs, Christians or Afghan mercenaries. And our educational institutions — not the Gurukuls and the RSS schools — disseminate ‘mischief’, and produce unpatriotic men and women like Badruddin Tyabji, Azad, Ajmal Khan, Ansari, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, Zakir Husain, Amjad Ali Khan, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Begum Akhtar, Azim Premji, Abdul Kalam, Shabana Azmi, and the nawab of Pataudi.

We are a threat to India’s unity. Why? Because we constitute a monolithic entity, marry four or more times, cheer the Pakistani cricket team, go to Saudi Arabia for Haj, read and recite Urdu poetry, and valorise terrorists like Osama bin Laden. This is how over 12 million people speaking different languages, following different customs, and owing allegiance to different parties, are located, categorised and described. To cap it all, Osama reminds everybody of the strength of the pan-Islamic sentiment. Besides the ‘Islamic bomb’ stored somewhere, Islamic terror is knocking at our doorsteps. No wonder, BJP politicians gird up their loin to perform their patriotic deed! SIMI is banned; POTO is in place. Freedom is in peril: Three cheers for its defence by the sangh parivar.

A balanced appraisal is required in these unsettling times. Let us not regard the Muslims as a homogeneous entity, but as disparate and differentiated. Let us concede that the interpretation of Islam has changed over time, and that powerful pluralist visions shape Muslim communities. Let us spell out the Islamist and modernist movements without prior assumptions, discuss the contested terrain of who represent Muslims in state and society, the nature of the political and religious leadership and its ability to connect with the varied experiences of Muslim societies.

Let us also recognise the emergence of a trans-national community, an importantly new phenomenon. Its social and economic profile is different from the previous unwieldy coalition of Islamist formations. It is upwardly mobile, self-confident, and in tune with the changes ushered in by globalisation. Although this constituency carries some of the baggage from the past, its members mostly draw upon the range of contemporary experiences not from one but different locations. Why, they ask, are their co-religionists victimised in Bosnia, Somalia, Chechnya, Palestine, and Iraq? These sites confirm them in the belief that something is fundamentally wrong with the world they live in. It is this contemporary reality, rather than any Islamic doctrine, which contributes to the collective reaction.

My intention here is not to present an image of always enlightened, largely innocent Muslim communities, ‘sinned against’ but hardly ever ‘sinning’; nor to suggest that their fortunes or misfortunes can be explained solely in terms of unremitting power and prejudice of the West. I believe sections of the Muslim intelligentsia have made their own history at least as much as hers have made it for them and the reality is that they have not made it very well. The interface between certain kinds of Western writings and certain kinds of Islamic ones, and their re-surfacing in various forms of subsequent articulations, is something that neither Edward Said’s diktat nor the idea of ‘colonial discourse’ can ever accommodate.

The Muslim intelligentsia — from the days of Shah Waliullah in the eighteenth century to Iqbal in the 1920s and 30s — dialogued with itself and not with others. This has limited its political and religious engagements. The intervention of Muslim scholars seldom went beyond the communitarian frame, and, instead of re-writing their script in the light of ever-changing context and situations, they allowed ill-conceived theories and ill-founded assumptions to dominate the intellectual landscape.

Today, it is easy to notice the scholarly inertia in Muslim institutions, and the absence of protest, dissent and political activism. Lamentation rather than self-introspection is the dominant refrain. Not much has been done to interpret Islam and analyse Muslim societies. The few Muslim intellectuals who have done so are, invariably, tied to flawed frameworks, use Islam lazily to validate or refute different theories, and draw comfort from the limited intellectual resources provided by unoriginal thinkers.

Let me conclude on a different note — pointing to Muslim societies not being attuned to creating icons. Political heroes are scarcely remembered. On the other hand, the martyrs, fighting on behalf of the oppressed souls, form part of a nation’s memory. While the West has to guard itself against them, it must not ignore those Muslims who wish to fashion their lives differently from their ancestors and who, as co-citizens of an international community, seek havens of peace and justice.

Meanwhile, my countrymen please let me know, once and for all, if I have passed your loyalty test.

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