Mail Today, 1 February 2011
Not by doctrine alone
by Dipankar Gupta
THE RECENT schisms in Deoband make for good reading but hardly impact popular Muslim opinion, least of all in Gujarat. How the Narendra Modi- leaning Maulana Ghulam Ahmad Vastanvi plans to out- maneouvre Congress inclined Arshad Madani for the top position in Dar ul Uloom is of little interest to ordinary Muslims.
This is because Muslims are like ordinary people of other faiths. What matters most is their everyday experience and not factional squabbles in seminaries. In fact, most Muslims in Ahmedabad might tell you that while Islamic clerics are well versed on what happens “ above the ground, or under the ground, they are clueless about things on the ground”. On the ground, the Muslim victims of the 2002 carnage have a thing or two to say to the Muslim clerics in their vicinity.
While it is true that the Jamaat- i- Islami and Jamiat- ul- Ulema- i- Hind did most of the relief work and made shelters for those who were too scared and scarred to return to their homes, yet their efforts have not met with total endorsement. Why? Because what the Maulanas do “on the ground” often affects ordinary Muslims negatively. In such circumstances it is not a matter of doctrine at all. That is how ordinary normal Muslims are.
Experience
Take the rehabilitation colony in Ramola, Ahmedabad, built by the Jamiat Ulema. The Muslim residents here should have been eternally grateful to this Muslim Faith Based Organisation ( FBO) for doing them such a good turn; finding them a roof over their heads when their skies had turned black, but no! Instead, they accuse the Maulana in charge of this establishment with corruption, high handedness and even shades of moral turpitude. On occasions, rather excitedly, they liken him to “ a Hitler”. Hardly the kind of response you would expect from someone who has done you a good turn.
According to the habitants of this settlement, the Maulana has locked up a number of units as he is waiting for the highest bidder to come along. This has kept many of their relations and friends, who were in dire need of shelter, from finding a place in Ramola. On top of that he also over- charges them for water and electricity. That the mosque adjacent to their simple, very basic, homes, is so lavishly constructed: replete with arched gates and a solid stone façade, does not help.
That is not all. From the point of view of those in Ramola, the Maulana scavenges on their open sores by exposing them to visitors from abroad in order to collect
donations for his organisation— the Jamiat Ulema. No trace of doctrinal differences here, just everyday experience.
Further, they argue, as the establishment that built this colony wants to please Narendra Modi, they receive no encouragement in their demand for justice.
Clearly, the resentment against the Maulana is so strong that the Jamiat Ulema, by association, gets bad press too.
It is not for abstract reasons either that justice is important for these aggrieved Muslims. Many of them fear to send their children to good schools which are in Hindu neighbourhoods. This complaint bounds stereophonically from Muslim ghetto to ghetto in Ahmedabad. Further, whenever there is ethnic tension in the country, let alone the state or the city, they cower in fear wondering whether they would be targeted again. Some of them even said that when a tyre bursts nearby, they begin to panic: was that a gunshot? Though more than eight years have passed, Muslims in Gujarat liken the killings of 2002 to a “ toofan”. If they want justice it is not to humiliate Narendra Modi, but rather to relieve themselves of their constant fear. No doubt, they want education, they want jobs, but linked to these demands is their yearning for justice.
Justice
This, however, is not the way the Jamiat Ulema and its linked FBOs ( such as the Gujarat Sarvajanik Relief Committee) see the situation. Perhaps, for tactical reasons, they want to be on BJP’s side, as Maulana Ghulam Ahmad Vastanvi’s statements seem to indicate. At any rate, for a long time now, this organisation would rather privilege forgetfulness and forgiveness over the need for justice.
They have been encouraged in this by several academics outside Gujarat and by some international NGOs, like CARE. The ordinary Muslims are unaware of these connections and unconcerned by them. What bothers them are not cardinal principles of forgiveness, they have enough room for that for other occasions.
But they cannot give up their quest for justice, post- toofan , for their long term survival depends on it.
Whether in Ahmedabad, or elsewhere in Gujarat, even the poorest Muslims want their children to go to recognised schools where they can get a modern education.
This ambition was fired by a widespread felt need in this community and not by commandments from Maulana Vastanvi or any other theologian. These poor Muslims are not even in favour of Urdu as a medium of instruction. Experience has taught them that to succeed in Gujarat, it is Gujarati that works. They are very selfconscious of this and are careful that in ordinary conversations their children should not let an Urdu phrase or word slip through. Consequently, many Anjuman run schools have readily adopted the Gujarati medium policy. But as some of the best government schools are far from home in Hindu areas, sending their children there is a daunting proposition.
Hence, the call for justice!
Clerics
It is not just the Jamiat Ulema that has run foul of many Muslims in Gujarat for down- to- earth practical reasons. Even the Jamaat- i- Islami comes in for a fair bit of stick for not providing water and other civic amenities in re- settlement colonies constructed by them. Yet, the level of their grievance against the Jamaat Islami is nowhere as strident as it is against some functionaries of the Jamiat Ulema. To get a grasp of this one needs to visit for starters just two sites, both in Ahmedabad. One is Ramola, already mentioned, and run by the Jamiat Ulema, and the other is Citizen Nagar, established by the Jamaat Islami.
The appreciation of clerics, even in religious matters, depends on how they respond to the real experiences of ordinary Muslims. The Tablighi Jamaat ( an offshoot of the Deoband School) opposes the worship of Sufi saints, and this has not gone down well with many Muslims in Ahmedabad. Their opposition again is based on experience. In the worst days of the “ toofan” their most secure place of refuge was in Ahmedabad’s Shah Alam dargah— a Sufi mosque. How can they now turn against the Sufis? This disagreement often slides towards outright denunciation. In the non- descript and nothing- ever- happens- here town of Modasa, many Muslims did something quite dramatic. For a long time, post 2002, they refused to pray in the Tablighi mosque for they found the Maulana there too orthodox and exacting in his scorn against Sufis. He was constantly reprimanding them for not being good Muslims, and after a while they could take it no longer. Eventually, their hostility against this religious preacher and his organisation flared out in the open. They strung up a yellow tarpaulin tent against the walls of the well- built Tablighi mosque, and prayed there instead. Since then a rapprochement has taken place— even though it is a bit unsteady.
In a replay of the situation in Ramola, Ahmedabad, the grandeur of the Tablighi mosque in Modasa once again failed to impress the everyday Muslims of that town. When it is a toss- up between doctrines and everyday experience, it is the last that comes first.
The writer is the author of the recently published Justice Before Reconciliation: Negotiating a “ New Normal” in Post- riot Mumbai and Ahmedabad
|
