Tackling Muslim’s Problems in India

By Syed Ali Mujtaba

When the winds of democracy started blowing in 20th-century India, it became certain that power is going to be shifted to the people of the country. Since then a flurry of activity has been witnessed among numerous groups how to grab political power and become the new masters and rulers of India.

With the game of numbers and the ballot box being the arbitrator of political power, many groups and specificities kindled hope that in the changed equations they can lord over India and guide the destiny of the teeming millions but at the same time some groups got ruffled by the change and the new game of electoral politics may drown their identity and they will be reduced to non-entity in such power play.

Muslims were the first to fathom the depth of such development.  Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman (1889–1973) the leader of the Muslim League from UP who went to London in 1930 to coax Jinnah to return to India and take up the cause of the Indian Muslims was candid when he told Jinnah ‘You care two hoots of the brass button of your black coat….. Are you going to throw the Muslims of India to the wolves’…?

How prophetic were Kaliquzaman’s words, just look around and see aren’t Muslims thrown to the wolves in contemporary India?  Here the effort is to underline the problems of Muslim identity in independent India. And these problems of Muslims were raised by in the run-up to the independence from 1920 to 1947.

To stay on course, Jinnah saw the fate of Muslims in independent India as early as the 1920s when mass-based politics was taking shape in the country. He pleaded to the Congress leadership to safeguard and protect the Muslims from the freebooters among the Hindu majority community.

As a gesture of reconciliation, Jinnah proposed 14 points to safeguard Muslims’ interests at the Allahabad Congress session in 1928. This was not only shot down but he was hooted by the rouge element of the Congress party. Disgusted, by the way majoritarian politics was panning out in India, Jinnah retired from Indian politics and went to practice law in London. It was there that Kalique – u- -u-Zaman went to beg him to return and protect the Muslims from the onslaught of the majority community’s offensives.

Jinnah participated in round table conferences that were held in London and again tried to influence the Congress leadership to protect the Muslim interests in India.  Congress remained non-committal and took refuge in saying independence first and that the rest of the issues could wait. Congress did not give any assurances to allay the fears of Muslims in India nor it discussed the issues of their safeguards.

The 1936 elections sealed the fate of Jinnah’s politics and Nehru thundered; “there are only two political forces in India the Congress and the British, rest has to pack up.” Jinnah retorted to this and said “Hang on, don’t forget there is another force and that is Indian Muslims.

Since then Jinnah shuned the politics of cooperation with the Congress and embarked on the separatist path and tried to do competitive politics with the Congress.  He seemed convinced that Congress would head to parity and that he had to gain by hook or crook to bargain to safeguard the Muslim interests in India. The 1946 election turned the table in favor of the Muslim League. The new electoral muscle that the Muslim league gained gave the Congress only two options; either to agree to the safeguards of the Muslims in India or to willingly approve the Partition proposal of Jinnah.

In this moral dilemma, the core Hindu leadership in the Congress like Sardar Vallabbhai Patel and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee decided in favor of Partition to shed the Muslim load over India. They consented to divide the country rather than give any safeguards to the Indian Muslims. The narrative that was built was; “It’s better to cut the head than have constant headache.”  The blame game started and Jinnah was held responsible for the vivisection of India.

Notwithstanding the fact, the fact remains that the same set of problems that Jinnah raised in pre-independent India haunts the Indian Muslims even now. The situation of the Muslims has enormously worsened in the independent India. In contemporary India, Muslims have become a rudderless community being abused, humiliated, and bulldozed as if they are outcasts in their motherland.

Good riddance the competitive religious politics ended with Partition of India.  After independence, Nehru took up the cause of Indian Muslims assured them of protection, and committed to their prosperity in India. However, after Nehru the vote bank politics primed for electoral supremacy and Muslims were subsequently used as the vote bank for the electoral victory of a political party.

The book titled “Jinnah, Sahabuddin & Owassi “ Tackling Muslim’s Problem in India” tries to look at the issues confronting Muslims in India. It also looks at the different styles of politics pursued by the Muslim leadership at different times and spaces in India. Under the leadership of Jinnah competitive and separatist politics were being pursued.   Such kind of politics accentuated the problems of Muslims in India in the post-partition India.

It was around the 1980’s when the Muslim community was subjected to all kinds of embracement that Syed Sahabuddin, an Indian foreign diplomat took upon the mantel of the Muslim leadership. Being a lawyer, he drew his political strength from the constitution and the independence of the judiciary in India. He took up issues such as Muslim personal law, Babari masjid, Salman Rushdie, etc. He started a politics of confrontation with the majority community of Muslims as an alibi. His faith in the probity of courts and justice to safeguard Muslim interests vitiated the communal atmosphere in India. He little understood the brute majority forces can have their sway not necessarily on the right side the justice.

Syed Sahabuddin’s belief in the judiciary and primacy of the constitution was thrown into the wind when his campaign for the protection of Babri masjid ended up pulling down the contested structure by the Hindu fundamentalist.  Posterity judges Syed Sahabuddin’s politics as one instead of mitigating the problems of the Muslims accentuating them and spoiling the social relationship in the country.

Subsequently began the resurgence of Hindu nationalism. In this backdrop, Assaduddin Owsaii has emerged to take up the cause of Muslims in India. His style of politics is of ‘Protest’ against numerous injustices going on against the Muslim community in India. His brand of politics is also towards Muslim political empowerment. Such politics has yet to see any tangible results.

The dominant narrative that prevails in India is the Muslim leadership has done nothing to ameliorate the ills of the community rather they are hand in glove to castigate the Muslims into oblivion blaming democracy to be ill for their problems.

The purpose of the book is to look at the real problems of the Muslims in contemporary India and find the ways and means to mitigate them within the democratic and constitutional framework.

The executive summary of this book is Muslims have lived after the 1857 revolt when they lost their political power to foreign invaders. They have also lived through the agony of the Partition of India. Currently, Muslims are living under the shadow of resurgent Hindu nationalism. They are being confronted by hostile forces that are bent upon dismembering their religious identity in India. In such a situation rather than feeling despondent Muslim should recalibrate their politics to the needs of contemporary India.

There is little doubt that Indian Muslim are living in toroid times.  They have to wake up to the reality that the ground below their feet is slipping and their hostile forces are working overtime to do this crime. They have to build a decisive response to the harsh reality surrounding them.

This response should be through capacity building first through political empowerment at gram panchayats, municipal ward councils, state assemblies and Lok Sabha level. Muslims have sufficient electoral muscle to be present in these bodies and this strategy can alno regain their self-esteem in India.

The other strategy is that through educational merit they can they can have visible presence in the administration in the country. Their presence in the police being in charge of police stations and upward can make a difference. The presence in administrative posts such as at block level circle officers, sub-division officers and the district magistrate post can stop of the social injustices against their community. Needless to say such change has to be brought within the democratic framework and within the constitutional parameters.

This book –“Jinnah, Sahabuddin & Owassi – Tackling Muslim’s Problem in India” can be submission to the nation that sees Muslim as an obstacle to the national growth but hardly gives any support to the nature and direction to the change.

The volume is going to be self-authored as the author carries the academic baggage of PhD on the theme “The Demand of Partition of India.”  The fascinating story of Jinnah  is on his lips, As an eyewitness the author is witness to Syed Shahabuddin’s brand of politics. As a working journalist starting his career in Hyderabad, he is previewing the rise of Asaduddin Owassi in Indian politics. Nationalist to the core the author holds the view that independent India promises an exciting future for the Muslim community. They only have to help themselves for their betterment.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He is author of five books including “The Demand for Partition of India” (Mittal, 2002).