Communication

THE comment by Kuldeep Kumar (March 2006, Seminar) once again underlines the fact that we love to rake up imaginary problems sitting in our ivory towers. Before debating the efficacy of secularism and pseudo-secularism, we need to examine the history and culture of our country, which is variously credited with both ancient glory and a holy past. If the sentimental paint is scratched away, the peeping reality may reveal traditions and actions that have always been somewhat imperfect. Take The Rising, the first war of independence, the gadr or the mutiny of 1857. It is rarely admitted that the Indian rulers, the sepoys in the British army and the patriotic leaders were tired, confused and without much resources. Still they set the ball rolling, initiating the long struggle for Indian independence.

When Gandhiji came on the scene, he advocated ahimsa or non-violence as the tool to achieve freedom. We all know that the fabric of ahimsa had been mercilessly slashed with violent clashes hundreds of times during even Gandhiji’s lifetime, resulting in the blood bath of Partition in 1947. Does that entail we should forsake ahimsa, whether during the lifetime of Gandhiji and even now?

For years we tilted at the windmills and pinned badges of bravery on our impoverished chests by throwing out the likes of Coca-Cola. This did not add even an inch of stature to our existence. The one thing, which pushed us on to the centre-stage of liberalized and globalized economy is the knowledge of imperfect English, variously described as hinglish, which we extensively employed in our daily lives. This knowledge constituted the basis for the IT industry’s business process outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing and so on. Even with an uneven excellence, our elephantine nation could plod on.

Our secularism is a patchwork quilt sewn together with political expediency. But it worked and despite colossal loss of lives and economy during the interminable riots we could stand up in the comity of nations with pride. This world is full of faltering democracies and ruthless butchers. We too have our share of the Bal Thakeray’s openly threatening to push the Muslims into the ocean and South Indians to their hinterland. But our workable, albeit pseudo, secularism has also thrown up innumerable voices such as Nikhil Wagle who have dared to defy the bloodhounds.

It has become tiring, repetitive and barren to place the blame for all actions smelling of pseudo-secularism on Indian Muslims. Intellectuals who hasten to cover up their rightist intentions in muffled voices, sounding alarm at the lack of secularism in educated Muslims, should learn that every act of indecency cannot be commonly attributed to the entire community. The Jama Masjid Imam has but a following of thousands of people in the walled city of Delhi. Many more live elsewhere in the country who have never been influenced with his rabid speech. Just because our prime minister decides to write a letter to the Imam the right leaning thinkers do not get a license to paint the entire community with a sectarian black brush. Muslims always get painted in the news with man bites dog stories, whereas the daily lives are filled with incidents when dogs routinely chase men.

The contentions against the Muslims are sometimes malicious and sometimes laughable, like the accusation that Hindu girls marrying Muslims have to invariably convert to Islam. Even a superficial look at our society would reveal that it is male chauvinism which is followed across religions. All Muslims girls marrying Hindus do the same. This debate on the definition of pseudo secularism and the constricted liberalism in Muslim community can go on endlessly. I just hope that we do not overlook the fact that for every Iqbal there was a Ghalib and innumerable 19th century Urdu poets – Mir, Hali, Dard and the tradition continued with progressive writers like Sardar Jaffri, Kaifi and Sahir. We are doing well with our imperfect intuitions, flawed insights and rag-tag morals. Let us continue in the same vein. A slanted debate in rightist tones is unlikely to help.

Nahid Mehmood

Udaipur, Rajasthan