DEBATE
Jamat blind to Brahminism: Toeing RSS line?
The debate over Jamate-Islami and its ideology and political practice is .a very welcome initiative indeed. (DV edit Aug. 16, 91: “When will Jam ate -Islami learn to face Hindu nazi tricks?”). It is only through a clash of conflicting views that a consensus can emerge which would enable organisations like the Jamat to reassess their policies so %as to make them relevant to the existential problems of the Muslims and other oppressed communities of India. The Jamat, as a dedicated organisation, should welcome such a frank debate.
To being with, it acknowledged that the Jamat, at least in North India, has must be concerned exclusively theological itself with almost purely Issues totally divorced from the present living social realities. For instance, the ‘Jamat’s main activity is to bring out a large number of books on Islam and related themes which, by themselves, are of a good standard. Yet, unfortunately, the Jamat makes no attempt to assess how far (if at wall) its lofty pronouncements and its prodigious literature have led to any meaningful change in Muslim society.
Lepers outside Jama Masjid: Thus, just outside the Jamat headquarters at Chiti Qabar (near Old Delhi’s Jama Masjid), hundreds of deformed beggars and leprosy patients subsist in the most intolerably miserable conditions. No number of books on ‘Islamic hygiene’ or ‘Islamic economics’ or ‘Islamic sociology’ churned out by the Jamat has helped improve the -. lives of these people at all.
I saw a tragic scene : a woman Muslim beggar died on the steps of the Jama Masjid out of starvation and disease. Her body was literally blanketed by a vast swarm of flies until some kind soul covered it with an old bedsheet.
Curing symptoms, not disease: One may genuinely question the relevance of the Jamat in that it does not appear to be concerned with such sufferings even in its own neighbourhood (leave alone the whole country).
The Jamat might rush relief and render assistance to victims of anti- Muslim riots (and for this it deserves to be appreciated). But one cannot be blind to the fact that by doing so it merely seeks to cure the symptoms rather than the disease itself. And in serving as a “quack”, it only hastens the death of the patient. If the disease is diagnosed as Brahminical hegemony (which oppresses not only Muslims but also the SC/ST/BCs and women), logic demands that the cure can only be through a grand alliance of the ‘Bahujan Samaj’ which the “Dalit Voice” has been so painstakingly doing with great success for the past over ten years. This the Jamat refuses to consider.
Serving the elite: The very strategies that the Jamat adopts in its dawah or ‘propagation’ suggest that it is attuned not towards the oppressed masses but towards the elite. As has been mentioned, its prime means of propaganda is the large number of books it has brought out on Islam. Now, these books can only be read by the elite Muslims and Hindus who have an almost complete monopoly over education and resources.
Strategies to influence the oppressed masses and to win them over (e.g. plays, songs, cultural groups, theatre, etc) are avoided the Jamal for fear of being labelled as toc “subaltern” or too “plebian”. As a result, the Jamat has little or no real influence among the oppressed masses. Its activists are essentially from the lower-middle class and the Ulema.
Islam stands for revolution: In addition, the curious misinterpretation of Islam sought to be propagated by the Jamat is so abstract and abstruse that it has no relation whatsoever with the gruelling poverty and social oppression of the Muslim masses. What the Jamat ignores is the fact that Islam is not merely a set of dogmas, creeds and rituals. Islam is, above all, a programme for radical social action, indeed, for Social Revolution.
This includes a programme for a radical reconstruction of society, the economy, the polity and popular culture.
Preserving status quo: But the Jamat pays no attention to this integral part of the Islamic Revolution and prefers to concern itself only with the single, narrow issue of the relationship between an individual and God. Thus, the Jamat reduces Islam from a programme for Social Revolution to another mere “ism” for the preservation of the status quo.
The Jamat has divorced itself completely from the social oppression of the Muslims and has chosen to enmesh itself in a web of theological puzzles. Thus, it does not see the socio-political causes of the oppression of the Muslims.
Instead, it diagnoses the cause of this malaise as a manifestation of . the divine wrath of the Muslims for having “strayed” from the ways of their ancestors. It therefore suggests that the Muslims can free themselves from oppression only by becoming more pious as individuals and not by attempting to change the social, political and economic structures which are really responsible for their oppression.
Identify the enemy: While, theologically speaking, it may be valid (for a believer) to maintain that suffering is to an extent a manifestation of divine wrath, the Jamat’s total blindness to the Brahminical menace smacks of a fatalism that is absolutely antagonistic to the spirit of Islam. Thus, for example, the Prophet Mohammed and the early Muslims did face a great deal of persecution. He did not advocate mere piety, fasting or more fervent prayers as a solution (as the Jamat does today). Instead, he strove to radically transform the oppressive social, economic, political and cultural structures that were the determining causes of the oppression of the masses when he started his mission. The Jamat, therefore, ought to learn from the example of the Prophet.
Failure on Babri Masjid: Compare the strategies of the Jamat with those employed by the BJP-VHP- RSS with regard to the Babri Masjid issue which have grave implications for the Muslims of India. The Jamat has brought out only one small booklet less than ten pages on the subject. The rest of its books are wholly theological and do not deal at all with any social, political, or economic issues concerning the contemporary. Indian Muslim society.
n the other hand, the situation in the-Hindu communal camp is quite ‘the opposite. Very little, if any, literature has been brought out by them on purely theological issues. Most of their publications now are on the so-called “Ram Janam- Bhoomi Mandir”, though all of them are of course, mere weapons of false, poisonous propaganda. Yet, this immense amount of literature on political issues brought out by the Hindu nazis is one of the major reasons for their apparent success in influencing mass opinion. But the Jamat’s total failure in influencing public opinion with regard to the truth of the Babri Masjid affair, can ‘be traced, in large measure to its total neglect of publishing books and conducting propaganda on social economic and political issues.
The Jamat in ignoring these crucial issues, refuses to understand the fact that Islam can survive in India only if Muslim society itself can survive. And since the fiercest challenge to the very existence of Muslim society is Brahminical fascism, (DV calls it Hindu Nazism) it is obvious that Islam or any other progressive ideology (including, of course, Ambedkar’s, Sikhism, Christianity, Marxism etc.) can survive only if Brahminism is defeated.
Mduduzi’s words: Advocate Igbal Ahmed Sheriff (DV Aug. 16 1991 p. 3) has quite rightly pointed out that the Jamat today is only serving as a means for vested forces in maintaining the status quo. Not only that, it appears that the Jamat is even prepared to dump the Muslims of India in its misguided obsession to project itself as the only upholder of Islam.
The following revelation by none other than the late Moulin Maudie, the founder of the Jamat, will no doubt come as a rude shock to the Muslim masses. Maudie said:
“I have no objection if the Muslims in India are treated like Sudras and Mecha’s and Manu’s laws are applied to them depriving them of all share in govt. and rights as citizens”.
(Quoted in Rafiq Zakaria, The Struggle Within Islam, Penguin . Books, Calcutta, 1988, p. 13. See also Mohd. Munir, From Jinnah to Zia, Lahore, 1980, p.65).
Golwalkar says the same: Surprising though it may appear, the late Golwalkar, the RSS philosopher, had much the same to say about the status of Muslims in a Hindu Rashtra.
“The non-Hindu peoples in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence the Hindu religion, and must entertain no ideas but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and religion., or may stay in the country, wholly subordinate to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment – not even citizens’ rights”, * (MS Golwalkar, We or Our Nationhood Defined pp. 53-56).
DV congratulated: The Jamat ought to declare its position on Moulana Maudie’s pronouncements regarding the treating of Muslims as Shudras and Mecha’s and their subjection to the abominable rules of Manu. By legitimising the Manu Smriti, Maudie appeared to be accepting – the Brahminical hegemony over the ~ Muslims and the SC/ST/BG/~ women. Does this therefore suggest that the Jamat is toeing the RSS line?
The need of the hour is for the Muslims to develop a radical’ theology of Islamic liberation true to the teaching of the Prophet that the goal of religion is not mere contemplation but the bringing about of the social, political, economic and cultural liberation of all mankind.
Dalit Voice needs to be congratulated for having taken the bold step of initiating in its columns a debate over the Jam ate-Islami. It is hoped that the well-meaning members of the Jamat would strive to make their activities more – relevant to the needs of today’s Muslims and other oppressed groups in India.
